Privacy Inc.

The Commerce Department today edged toward endorsing new federal laws regulating companies' data collection practices and requiring that customers be notified of data breaches.

In an 88-page report (PDF), the department also suggested rewriting a 1986 privacy law to address "privacy protection in cloud computing and location-based services," but didn't offer any details. That broad approach is backed by tech companies including Google, Microsoft, AT&T, and eBay, but is likely to be opposed by the Justice Department.

All of these ideas have been advanced before, of course: California's data breach notification law took effect … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

There was good news yesterday for Internet intermediaries and other cloud-computing service providers. In a highly readable decision (PDF) from Judge Danny Boggs of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the court held that key provisions of the Stored Communications Act are unconstitutional. The case is U.S. v. Warshak.

Under SCA, law enforcement agents can compel Internet service providers to disclose the contents of private communications they hold on behalf of users. Such communications include, of course, personal and business e-mail, along with other documents, photos, and … Read more

Allegations that the FBI surreptitiously placed a back door into the OpenBSD operating system have alarmed the computer security community, prompting calls for an audit of the source code and claims that the charges must be a hoax.

The report surfaced in e-mail made public yesterday from a former government contractor, who alleged that he worked with the FBI to implement "a number of back doors" in OpenBSD, which has a reputation for high security and is used in some commercial products.

Gregory Perry, the former chief technologist at the now-defunct contractor Network Security Technology, or NETSEC, said … Read more

Just when you thought it was safe to enter an airplane, along comes some professor to tell you that it may not be quite so.

For it seems that, despite the entrance of body scanners and their piercing gaze on every last element of your junk (reference embedded for those who missed it), these machines might not be foolproof.

According to Fox News, two professors at the University of California, San Francisco--Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson--have released a learned document that suggests it might be depressingly simple to fool a body scanner.

"It is very likely that a … Read more

Police must obtain search warrants before perusing Internet users' e-mail records, a federal appeals court ruled today in a landmark decision that struck down part of a 1986 law allowing warrantless access.

In case involving a penile-enhancement entrepreneur convicted of fraud and other crimes, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said that the practice of warrantless access to e-mail messages violates the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits "unreasonable" searches and seizures.

"Given the fundamental similarities between e-mail and traditional forms of communication, it would defy common sense to afford e-mails lesser Fourth Amendment protection," the court ruled … Read more

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was granted bail today by a London judge, but prosecutors said they will appeal the decision.

In a media-mobbed hearing today, a U.K. judge decided to release Assange on bail of 200,000 pounds, or about $317,000, on the condition that he surrender his passport, wear an electronic tracker, provide a U.K. address, and report to police daily.

U.K. prosecutors, acting on behalf of the Swedish government, told the court that they will file a formal appeal within 48 hours. This follows some confusion about whether an appeal will take place, with … Read more

In another sign that a U.S. indictment of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange may be imminent, his lawyer has said that a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., is currently weighing criminal charges.

"We have heard from the Swedish authorities that there has been a secretly impaneled grand jury in Alexandria," said Mark Stephens, an attorney at the London-based FSI law firm.

Stephens told Al-Jazeera over the weekend that he believes that there is "collusion" between the Swedish government, which has accused Assange of sexual assault, and the United States. "We understand [Swedish authorities] have said … Read more

Akamai managers say they could have bolstered the Web sites that buckled under attacks launched recently by Internet vigilantes.

The world's largest content delivery network says it has enough servers and the right kind of network to "mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks," Neil Cohen, Akamai's senior director of product marketing told CNET. DDoS describes the practice of overwhelming a Web site with traffic so that it can't be accessed.

Some well-known sites were the targets of DDoS attacks launched by a loosely connected group of WikiLeaks supporters who call themselves Anonymous or Anon for short. … Read more

news analysis If WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is indicted by the U.S. government for disseminating classified information, as even his own lawyer now expects, his defense is likely to face long legal odds.

The 1917 Espionage Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress during World War I, has been a mainstay of national security prosecutions ever since. And it's been upheld as constitutional by every court that has examined whether its invocation in a criminal prosecution complies with the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech.

A CNET review of Espionage Act cases shows that judges have … Read more