Since John Ashcroft became US attorney general last year, workers at the Department of Justice have become accustomed to his daily prayer meetings, but some are now drawing the line at having to sing patriotic songs penned by their idiosyncratic boss.

Mr Ashcroft, a devout Christian and a grittily determined singer, went public with one of his works last month, when he surprised an audience at a North Carolina seminary with a rendition of Let the Eagle Soar, a tribute to America's virtues, which continues: "Like she's never soared before, from rocky coast to golden shore, let the mighty eagle soar," and so on for four minutes.

The performance (which can be seen and heard at http://cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html) was accompanied only by taped music, but Mr Ashcroft's staff are complaining that printed versions of the song are being distributed at meetings so that they will be able to join in.

When asked why she opposed the workplace singalong, one of the department's lawyers said: "Have you heard the song? It really sucks."

A group of Hispanic justice department employees were recently summoned to see the attorney general, and went along hoping that their boss might be making a special effort to promote diversity in the department's higher ranks.

Instead, they were asked to provide a hasty Spanish lesson to give the secretary a few phrases to use on a foreign delegation the next day. The Hispanic staff were then handed printed copies of Let the Eagle Soar and asked for volunteers to translate it.

eSchool News - Report cites possible religious bias in school web filters .

A report released Feb. 25 by the Responsible Netizen Project of the University of Oregon's Center for Advanced Technology in Education raises questions about the link between conservative religious organizations and several internet filtering solutions, including three used widely in public schools.

The report, titled "Filtering Software: The Religious Connection," examines eight companies' relationships with conservative Christian organizations. According to the report, three companies with a significant school presence--N2H2 Inc. of Seattle, Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, Calif., and 8e6 Technologies Inc. of Orange, Calif.--also market their products to conservative religious internet service providers (ISPs), while the other five companies have expressed conservative religious philosophies.

Of these latter five, four have begun targeting the school market in response to the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires schools to install a "technology protection measure" to help shield students from online material that is harmful to minors.

Based on these connections--and on the companies' own descriptions of the categories their products are designed to block--the university's report surmises that conservative biases might exist in the way these companies categorize web sites when putting together their "block" lists. It further implies that at least one company, N2H2, has sought to downplay its connection to the religious right.

Slashdot | Examining Religious Bias In Filtering Software.

FT.com | Cyberspace copyright protection reinforced.

A landmark international treaty reinforcing the protection of copyright in cyberspace comes into force on Wednesday amid controversy in the US and Europe over whether tougher copyright rules stimulate or inhibit creativity on the internet.

The copyright treaty, negotiated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) in 1996, and a sister treaty protecting sound recordings that comes into effect in May update copyright law for the digital age.

They have added some controversial features, which have already led to a string of legal challenges in the US, one of the first countries to introduce implementing legislation.

The treaties outlaw attempts to circumvent encryption and other techniques designed to prevent unauthorised copying and ensure royalties are paid.

WIPO - Copyright Treaty - CRNR/DC/94. World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva Diplomatic Conference On Certain Copyright And Neighboring Rights Questions Geneva, December 2 to 20, 1996

Slashdot | Global Cyber Copyright Treaty In Force Today.

Computerworld - Corporate Privacy Credibility Crumbles. News of questionable practices and security gaffes puts firms on the defensive

[ ... ]

"The main thing we want to do is keep the site accessible and useful to the broadest array [of customers] possible but still provide value to people," said Fisher. By taking a minimalist approach to data collection, he hopes customers will be more comfortable using the company's Web site and sharing personal information.

What Royal is doing may not be so unusual. Corporate privacy managers and experts have said that companies must do more to bridge a consumer privacy credibility gap that is showing signs of widening.

The most recent piece of evidence of customer mistrust was offered in a poll conducted by Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive for Privacy & American Business, a nonprofit think tank in Hackensack, N.J.; Ernst & Young International in New York; and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in New York. The poll of 1,529 adults found that 75% believed that their information would be shared without their permission, and 69% felt that hackers can steal their data.

"I believe the trust gap that [the pollster] found is real," said Mel Petersen, chief privacy officer at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co.

[ ... ]

Just last week, The New York Times Co.'s intranet was breached by a security consultant, exposing subscriber names, addresses, phone numbers and even Social Security numbers.

Computerworld - The Roots of Mistrust Go Deep.

When asked what companies can do to fix the problem, respondents to the Harris Interactive poll picked independent verification as their top choice. That pick "is a warning" to managers that what they are doing "is not persuasive to the American public," said Alan Westin, founder of Privacy & American Business.

Computerworld - Florida man faces charges of identity theft.

Secret Service agents and Jacksonville County Sheriff's officers arrested a 30-year-old Florida man who authorities allege was trying to sell 60,000 names and personal information of The Prudential Insurance Company of America employees.

Newsbytes - EFF Blasts Barney The Dinosaur's Copyright Claims.

Barney loves you. Barney loves me. But Barney just can't stand parody. Or at least that's the way the Electronic Frontier Foundation sees it.

The online rights group sent a sharply worded letter to the company that owns copyrights to the purple dinosaur Barney, a PBS-TV character aimed at small children. The letter threatens to bring "affirmative claims" against the company, Dallas-based Lyons Partnership, after Lyons sent a cease-and-desist letter to a small Web site operator who uses the Internet to lampoon Barney.

Political News from Wired News - China Sweet, Sour on Spam.

Delegates at the annual meeting of China's National People's Congress roundly criticized Western systems administrators that are blocking all e-mail from China as a means to stop spam, but they also called for new laws to make sending spam illegal in China.

The National People's Congress is considered the primary political power in China. Its 2,989 delegates meet every March to debate legislation, policy and politics. This year spam had a central place on the agenda, according to reports from China's official news service Xinhua.

CNET NEWS.COM - U.S. computer security focus of new bill.

A new bill would extend a law that requires government agencies to regularly test their technological security.

The Federal Information Security Management Act, introduced by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., would extend the Government Information Security Reform Act of 2000, which is set to expire in November. That law required government agencies to make annual security assessments and tests of nonclassified information systems.

The law requires agencies to grade themselves; most have done poorly so far. According to Davis, 16 of the 24 agencies evaluated in 2001 received a failing grade, and only one agency got better than a C+.

Salon.com News | Paid subscription required to see entire articleHe knows what you've been checking out.

The USA Patriot Act gives the government broad new powers to seize library and bookstore records -- and prevents librarians and booksellers from complaining.

[ ... ]

But even though the government was able to get what it wanted from those libraries under existing laws, intelligence agencies argued they needed more sweeping powers. The result was the passage last October of the USA PATRIOT Act (USAPA), an acronym for the unwieldy "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act." USAPA, of course, deals with much more than libraries -- it amends more than 15 statutes, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Cable Act, and the Federal Wiretap Statute. The new law gave the government unprecedented authority to conduct secret searches, monitor e-mail and Internet usage, share information between intelligence agencies and seize personal information with only nominal judicial oversight.

And the new USAPA powers will also reach into libraries and bookstores, if investigators believe that records of what someone is reading and researching are relevant to an anti-terror investigation. Already librarians say they've received requests for records under USAPA, but they are prohibited from making such demands public; they can't reveal who made the requests and what they asked for, or keep track of such requests in any way.

ZDNet |UK| - Zero-knowledge dds privacy tool.

After closing down its anonymity network, the company returns with P3P Analyzer, a tool for checking Web site compliance with the P3P privacy standard

Slashdot | IEEE Computing Covers Freenet.

CNET NEWS.COM - Software maker offers privacy testing .

Security software maker Zero-Knowledge Systems on Tuesday introduced a Web-based tool that lets online businesses evaluate their digital privacy policies.

The Montreal-based company's P3P Analyzer, a free beta service, lets companies test whether their Web sites comply with a privacy standard known as Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) and its implementation in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.

The company plans to offer the tool free for 90 days; after that, it expects to charge a yet-to-be-determined fee for the service.