Showing posts with label smart phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smart phones. Show all posts

John McAfee: I'll Decrypt San Bernardino iPhone For Free So That Apple Won't Need To Give Gov't Back Door Access

But gov't wants the keys to ALL phones.    Using an obscure law, written in 1789 — the All Writs Act — the US government has ordered Apple to place a back door into its iOS software so the FBI can decrypt information on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. It has finally come to this. After years of arguments by virtually   ... MORE

US Bill Aims To Stop State Bans Of Encrypted Phones

by Lance Whitney.      Imagine not being able to buy an iPhone in your state because the device's data is protected by encryption. A couple of Congressmen are trying to make sure that can't happen. The Encrypt Act of 2016, short for Ensuring National Constitutional Rights of Your Private Telecommunications Act, would deny states the power to block  ... MORE

Police State Update: Ex-Cop California Assemblyman Wants Encrytion Keys For All Cell Phones Available To The Police

by Cyrus Farivar.    A second state lawmaker has now introduced a bill that would prohibit the sale of smartphones with unbreakable encryption. Except this time, despite very similar language to a pending New York bill, the stated rationale is to fight human trafficking, rather than terrorism. Specifically, California Assemblymember Jim Cooper’s (D-Elk   ... MORE

The Government Wants Access To Your Smartphone

by Christie Smythe.   What you should know. “We’re not at war – we care about the same things,” FBI Director James Comey says of the struggle between the U.S. and the tech sector over how private your smartphone should be. The government wants to work with companies such as Apple Inc. and Google to stop criminals and terrorists     ... MORE

The CIA Campaign To Steal Apple’s Secrets

by Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley.   Researchers working with the Central Intelligence Agency have conducted a multi-year, sustained effort to break the security of Apple’s iPhones and iPads, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Intercept. The security researchers presented their latest tactics and achievements at a secret annual     ... MORE

Dondi Tiples: Why Edward Snowden Won’t Use iPhones

Beware of Apple secret spyware.       NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is adamant about not coming within 10 feet of an iPhone because he claims Apple has installed some nasty secret spyware on their products. Apple may be the world’s leader in smart phones, but NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is steering clear of the popular  ... MORE

How The NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide

by Ryan Gallagher.  In March 2011, two weeks before the Western intervention in Libya, a secret message was delivered to the National Security Agency. An intelligence unit within the U.S. military’s Africa Command needed help to hack into Libya’s cellphone networks and monitor text messages. For the NSA, the task was easy.      ... MORE

Massive Spying Of Americans' Cellphones From The Air

by Ronald Bailey.       The Wall Street Journal has a terrific article, "Americans' Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy Program," that details how U.S. Marshals Service aircraft deploy "dirtbox" technology to spy on millions of Americans' cellphones from above. The dirtbox technology (so named as an acronym for the company that makes the devices, ... MORE

New Police State Tools Detects Texting While Driving

by Jonathan O'Callaghan.      A new revenue-producer for local for politicians. Texting while driving can be incredibly dangerous and in most countries it is completely outlawed. That doesn’t stop some thoughtless motorists from trying to compose a message while flying along a motorway, though, increasing the chance of a fatal accident.    ... MORE

Craig Timberg: New Apple Encryption Will Lock Out Police

Serving consumers at government's expense.       Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in   ... MORE

Washington Times Editorial: Water Vigilantes In California

Nobody likes a tattletale,   but snitching comes naturally to a certain kind of busybody.  The remarkable drought in California has produced a new category of righteous snitches called “water vigilantes.” They prowl through neighborhoods with smartphones, creeping through the shrubs and bushes in the dead of night looking for working sprinklers  ... MORE

Get A Warrant!: John Roberts Gives The Cops A Benchslap

by Damon Root.     High Court decides police must obey the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects our "persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." Today, in the case of Riley v. California, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that this constitutional protection extends to     ... MORE

Smartphone: Searchable Wallets Or Pocket PCs?

by William Jackson.     The political-appointees in robes will decide. Smartphones contain a wealth of information that can translate into evidence in civil and criminal court cases, and law enforcement agencies increasingly are mining this data in their investigations. “If law enforcement or the government want to see your data, they can  ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: A Sorry State Of The Union

What if the state of the union is a mess?              What if the government spies on all of us all of the time and recognizes no limits to its spying? What if its appetite for acquiring personal knowledge about all Americans is insatiable? What if the government uses the microchips in our cellphones to follow us and listen to us as we move about?  ... MORE

This Smartphone Is Making Privacy A Priority

Lily Hay Newman on a new innovation: Blackphone.    The national conversation about privacy is in high gear, and services for things like secure messaging have been popping up everywhere to try to meet demand. But most consumers aren't really in a position to evaluate whether these services can actually deliver on their  ... MORE

Mike Elgan: Are Your Smartphone Apps Selling You Out

Of course they are.      The president of the United States says he's not "allowed" to own an iPhone, which is why he's sticking with his BlackBerry, according to The Wall Street JournalIt's a politically sensitive subject because the iPhone is the big American brand, and the president is a self-proclaimed fan of the late Apple founder and CEO Steve   ... MORE

How To Disappear When Someone's Spying On You

by Robert Krulwich.      Whenever your cellphone is on, "They" know where you are, and I mean all the Theys — the spooks, the merchants, the drone pilots, the private detectives, probably even the Chinese. If you want your privacy, says artist/designer , you can go to the back of your phone, pry out the battery and break the connection,   ... MORE

How To Keep Your Government From Spying On You

by Ronald Bailey.     “Does the [National Security Agency] collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March. Clapper replied, “No sir...not wittingly.” We now know that was  ... MORE