GigaLaw.com: Privacy Laws are Bad for Business.

Despite a lot of talk and a lot of encouragement from the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress has not yet passed any new Internet privacy legislation. Without a strong show of self-regulation from the Internet industry, though, new privacy laws may be likely. This commentary argues that such laws are unnecessary would be bad for online businesses.

This article was originally published on GigaLaw.com in November 2000

Daily Yomiuri On-Line (Japan) - Wiretap law nets first quarry .

The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested four people on suspicion of violating the Stimulant Drugs Control Law after it eavesdropped on cell phone calls made by the suspects, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday. It is the first time police have applied the wiretapping law to an investigation of organized crime.

The Japan Times Online - Police used wiretapping law to seize gangsters in drug case.

Police said Saturday they have arrested several gangsters on suspicion of involvement in illegal drug sales after using a wiretapping law for the first time since it went into force in 2000.

The Metropolitan Police Department eavesdropped on conversations among the gangsters in Tokyo for 10 days from late January before charging the gangsters with crimes involving the sale of drugs, MPD officials said.

The MPD found a message on a mobile-phone Web site that suggested deals involving stimulants last fall, they said.

In January, the MPD asked the Tokyo District Court to allow it to eavesdrop on cell phone conversations using a contact number on the Web site. The law allows authorities to tap phones in investigations under strict conditions.

The court issued a warrant for the eavesdropping, the officials said, adding that it allowed them to confirm the charges.

CNET NEWS.COM - Yahoo users fume over "spam" switch.

Some Yahoo members on Friday reacted angrily to changes in the Web portal's e-mail marketing practices, comparing the company's revised policy to an open invitation to spam.

"I never received any notification about this from Yahoo," one annoyed reader wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "I was merely lucky enough to have a friend warn me about it."

The ire stems from changes in Yahoo's "marketing preferences" page, which the company uses to secure permission to send service promotions. Along with other changes to the page, Yahoo said it had reset the default preferences for all members in a way that would require them to manually request that the company block the messages in the future--even if they had declined to accept such e-mail in the past.

Included in the marketing permissions are a smattering of categories for which people can receive special announcements, direct mailings and even phone calls.

The complaints underscore the sensitivity of privacy issues online, especially when it comes to mass e-mail pitches. Although the marketing preferences page offers announcements only about Yahoo properties, Web users traditionally have spurned default settings that require them to opt out of services.

CNET NEWS.COM - "Critical" holes trouble Microsoft.

Microsoft released a patch late Thursday for a pair of "critical" security holes in its Internet Explorer Web browser but was still investigating a widely publicized vulnerability in its Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems.

The browser patch corrects two flaws. The first makes it possible for a malicious hacker to place code on a Web surfer's PC by way of a cookie. Cookies are small files that Web sites place in a secure area on surfers' PCs to track return visits. The flaw allows a script embedded in a cookie to be saved outside the secure area, on the PC's hard disk. The code can then be triggered the next time the surfer visits the site.

The second flaw would allow a malicious programmer to include code on a Web site that would automatically execute programs already present on a surfer's PC once the surfer visited the site.

Microsoft rated both flaws "critical" and advised PC users running version 5 through 6 of Internet Explorer to promptly download the new patch.

Microsoft does not have a patch yet, however, for a recently publicized hole in the software-debugging component of Windows NT and Windows 2000. Malicious users could take advantage of the flaw in the debug tool to gain elevated privileges on a server running either of the operating systems. They could then access, modify and delete otherwise protected files.

Context Magazine -- Copyright or Copywrong?

The Internet, which has given birth to so much innovation in recent years, is on its way to being neutered, Lawrence Lessig warns in The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World.

Found via Tomalak's Realm.

MS-NBC - Yahoo! sneaks in yet more spam. Privacy policy change makes e-mail users opt-out, again

When Yahoo's instituted a privacy policy change this week, the firm reset all users' prefences so they would receive marketing pitches from the firm.

Tired of spam you're getting at your free Yahoo! e-mail account? Get ready for more. Tucked inside a privacy policy change the company made this week was notice that more Yahoo! e-mail marketing offers were coming -- even if users had formerly indicated they were unwanted.

Its not just for the free e-mail account. I am only signed-up for Yahoo-Groups and all my prefs were reset also.