by John Gizzi. There has been mounting evidence in the last two weeks that the Internet, one of the last unregulated venues for communication, might well be headed for federal regulation. What makes the specter of Internet regulation (or "net neutrality," as its proponents prefer to call it) all the more ominous is that it might become ... MORE
The surveillance search engine. The National Security Agency is secretly providing data to nearly two dozen U.S. government agencies with a “Google-like” search engine built to share more than 850 billion records about phone calls, emails, cellphone locations, and internet chats, according to classified documents obtained by The ... MORE
Government is the problem. Over the past eight years, the share of Americans
who feel satisfied with the amount of freedom in their lives has
plummeted from 91 percent to 79 percent, according to a Gallup
survey. That may explain earlier polling that found widespread
perception that the
government itself is the largest problem facing ... MORE
To better track your children. You’re going to FP (face palm) when you see the FBI’s internal style guide for Internet slang. It’s more than 80 pages of definitions and acronyms — or “Twitter shorthand” — for obvious terms such as LOL and WTF. The document was acquired by the news site MuckRock
in its crusade for Freedom of Information ... MORE
Ignore the scare tactics. In
January, for the second time in recent years, a
federal court told the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) that its net neutrality enforcement was
illegal, sending the agency back to the drawing board. On May 15,
the FCC proposed new rules.* Dozens of major news outlets have
trying to read the tea leaves, with ... MORE
by Michelle Minton. Democrats aren't the only big government party. Despite rhetoric that we need to “restore” the Federal Wire Act in order to protect states’ rights, Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that would do the exact opposite. The bills would rewrite a U.S. federal law instituted in 1961, creating a de facto ban on Internet ... MORE
We can never tell government to butt out. Scarlett Johansson left nude photos of herself on her computer. A hacker grabbed them and sent them to gossip websites. A Pennsylvania high school issued laptop computers to students and then remotely activated the laptops' cameras to watch the students when they were away from school. ... MORE
by Tim Worstall. This piece about DuckDuckGo rather interested me, for it speaks to the
argument that is being had over the regulation of privacy in both the US
and the European Union. And while this isn’t entirely and wholly true
it is in essence: the US has, in my opinion, taken the right view of
that regulation. Leave it, largely, to the ... MORE
by Ashe Schow. Newest revelation from Edward Snowden. Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the National Security Agency data collection programs, said Monday the act of mass surveillance is “setting fire to the future of the Internet.” Snowden, speaking via satellite feed (in front of a green-screen
display of the U.S. Constitution) to a ... MORE
by Victoria Wagner Ross. Bitcoin has had many supporters and many critics as it exploded in popularity and news over the past year. CoinDesk
has featured Milton Friedman’s predictions today about a decentralized
currency and how it will be part of the future in a global economy. Consider the numbers of 25,000 merchants now ... MORE
by Frank Salvato. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This quote,
often attributed to Voltaire, is at the heart of our First Amendment
right to free speech, at least where the authority of our government is
concerned. A free society, and, in fact, a free people, must be able
to speak freely in order to ... MORE
published in Russia Today. A Drone Survival Guide with hints and tips on how to thwart the
“robotic birds” has been published on the internet. With over 30,000
drones expected to be flying over the US by 2030, the Guide urges
readers to familiarize themselves with the craft. In light of the growing number of drones, the Guide advises a ... MORE
Privacy invasion bad for business. The National Security Agency spying scandal could cost the top U.S.
tech companies billions of dollars over the next several years,
according to industry experts. In addition to consumer Internet
companies, hardware and cloud-storage giants like IBM, Hewlett-Packard,
and Oracle could suffer ... MORE