Politics

Blogger Bob--TSA's Internet mouthpiece (Q&A)

The Transportation Security Administration appears to have pulled off an Internet first: hiring the U.S. government's most controversial spokesblogger.

All federal agencies have spokesmen. Some have blogs. But it's the pseudonymous Blogger Bob who, more than anyone else, has come to represent the online voice and personality of his employer--not always with entirely successful results.

Internet fact checkers have accused Blogger Bob of eliding relevant facts about disputes involving the TSA. A Forbes.com column noted that Blogger Bob had curbed critical comments (and then subsequently permitted them). Reason Magazine has dubbed Blogger Bob someone who's … Read more

Sweeping bill would update privacy law

The U.S. Congress took the first major step today toward updating a 1986 law, crafted in the pre-Internet era of telephone modems and the black-and-white Macintosh Plus, to protect the privacy of Americans who use mobile phones, Web e-mail, and services like Google Docs, Flickr, and Picasa.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Judiciary committee, introduced sweeping legislation that would, in many cases, require police to obtain a search warrant to access private communications and the locations of mobile devices.

"Updating this law to reflect the realities of our time is essential to ensuring that our … Read more

Senate bill amounts to death penalty for Web sites

A new bill backed by movie studios and other large copyright holders takes a novel approach to curbing access to piratical Web sites: an Internet death penalty.

That's a good way to describe the approach adopted by the legislation introduced today, which specifies a step-by-step method for making Web sites suspected of infringing copyrights or trademarks vanish from the Internet. It's called the Protect IP Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice would receive the power to seek a court order against an allegedly infringing Web site, and then serve that order on search engines, certain Domain Name … Read more

White House proposes cybersecurity legislation

The White House today sent Congress a proposed cybersecurity law designed to force companies to do more to fend off cyberattacks, a threat that has been reinforced by recent reports about vulnerabilities in systems used in power and water utilities.

This proposal seems designed to prod the legislative branch to enact by the end of the year some variety of cybersecurity legislation, which has been stalled by concerns about privacy, Internet "kill switches," and overreaching regulation. One proposal from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), for instance, would have explicitly given the government the power to "order the disconnection&… Read more

House ISP-logging proposal would exempt wireless

A top House Republican is planning to propose that Internet service providers be required to store information about their customers to aid police in criminal investigations, CNET has learned.

But a recent draft has one huge exception: wireless companies aren't included.

That appears to be the result of lobbying from wireless providers, which don't want to have to comply with any new governmental mandates. But the exemption has already drawn the ire of the U.S. Justice Department, which says it doesn't go far enough and is likely to attract strong opposition from cable and DSL providers … Read more

DOJ wants wireless providers to store user info

The U.S. Department of Justice today called for new laws requiring mobile providers to collect and store information about their customers, a proposal that pits it against privacy advocates and even other federal agencies.

Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division, picked an odd place to describe the department's proposal: a U.S. Senate hearing that arose out of revelations about iPhones recording information about owners' locations, and, in some cases, transmitting those data to Apple without consent.

Nevertheless, Weinstein said, "when this information is not stored, it may be impossible for law … Read more

Senate iPhone hearing preview: Don't single out only apps

New privacy laws should not single out only mobile app developers, a trade association representing small software companies is planning to tell a Senate committee tomorrow.

Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, said in an interview with CNET this afternoon that any legislation arising out of the recent controversy over Apple iPhones and location tracking should be broad, not narrow. (See a list of related stories.)

"If you're going to put some privacy legislation in place, it shouldn't be some piecemeal regulation of some small portion of the technology industry because it's new … Read more

Mozilla fights DHS over anti-MPAA, RIAA utility

No judge has ever declared a Firefox plug-in called MafiaaFire Redirector to be illegal. But that didn't stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from trying to censor it from the Web.

The Mozilla Foundation says DHS requested the removal of MafiaaFire, which describes itself as a utility that "automatically redirects you to the correct alternate site" if the main domain has been seized by the U.S. government.

Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's general counsel, told CNET today that the request from DHS was made over the phone. Anderson replied in writing, posing a list of … Read more

Apple VP Tribble to appear at Senate location privacy hearing

Bud Tribble, Apple's vice president for software technology, will testify at next week's hearing on mobile devices and privacy, a U.S. Senate committee said today.

Tribble is a Silicon Valley veteran whose resume includes co-founding NeXT Computer and heading the original Macintosh software team in the 1980s that designed the Mac user interface. (Here's an earlier interview he did with CNET about OS X security.)

Sen. Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat who heads a subcommittee on privacy and technology, convened next Tuesday's hearing in response to reports that mobile devices either store location data or … Read more

FCC chief to Congress: Leave Net neutrality alone

The head of the Federal Communications Commission will warn Congress not to repeal the controversial Internet regulations enacted last December, CNET has learned.

Undoing the agency's Net neutrality rules will "increase uncertainty, decrease investment, and hurt job creation," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will say, according to a draft of his prepared remarks.

Genachowski will offer an unyielding, point-by-point defense of the FCC's 3-2 vote, which fell along party lines, saying that it's already increased investment and that relying on antitrust laws to police errant behavior would be "problematic" and "ill-suited to the … Read more