Nando Times - Reuters targeted in Internet privacy case This link is an indirect one via Moreover.com - Registration is required and I haven't registered so I can't provide any interesting pull quotes from the article.

CNET NEWS.COM - Promise of P3P stalls as backers regroup.

Six months after its recommendation as an Internet standard, a major privacy initiative is entering an awkward adolescence as software heavyweights adopt it and individual Web sites leave it to languish.

In ordinary economic times, a protocol like the World Wide Web Consortium's "Platform for Privacy Preferences" (P3P) might have a hard time gaining acceptance in the marketplace, as mainstream consumers generally exhibit lax security practices when it comes to their own online privacy.

But in an economic downturn, the privacy protocol also is subject to disinterest by Web developers with scarce resources.

CNET NEWS.COM - Who owns your e-mail? Nancy Carter has a message for Internet service providers: Keep your hands off my e-mail.

The Toronto-based freelance TV producer has been battling U.S.-based Inter.net Group for the past 16 months over a billing dispute she says may have cost her a lucrative job opportunity. Now she wants $110,000 in damages over a policy that led Inter.net's Canadian subsidiary to keep her ISP account open for incoming e-mail even while denying her access to the account.

Beyond the money, Carter said she wants to change the way ISPs handle suspended and canceled e-mail accounts. At stake, she asserts, is an industrywide practice that amounts to extortion, in which ISPs may hold private communications hostage until bills are settled up.

NAUPA: National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Click on any of the locations listed for contact information and links to state web sites with searchable online databases. Some of the states link to an external company with cookies, x10 popup ads and maybe more

Wired News - Why Telemarketing Is Evil.

Eventually, machines may do all the talking. Avaya Inc. says its predictive dialing system is about 80 percent accurate in detecting a greeting message, bypassing the operator, and leaving a prerecorded sales pitch on the answering machines. Only one thing: Now some states are outlawing that, too.

Also includes info on how to make you own telezapper type message. Just put the magic tone at the start of your answering machine message.

Technology News from Wired News - P2P App's Aim: Defend Free Speech.

Developers of peer-to-peer file-sharing application "Freenet" issued a long-awaited "major release" on Monday, marking the controversial project's first such advancement since August 2001.

The announcement ends an extended quiet period for its creators and underscores their hopes of reaching more users.

Like its more popular peer-to-peer cousins Kazaa and Gnutella, Freenet allows people to exchange files over the Internet through a shared network.

But unlike other networks, Freenet's creators say they designed the application with free speech, not free entertainment, in mind. The software provides a forum for anonymous publication, using data encryption and a decentralized network designed to prevent shutdown by anyone -- unfriendly governments, ISPs and even the network creators themselves.

Hampered by stability problems and a less-than-friendly user interface, earlier versions were relegated to a limited audience of tech-savvy users. But Freenet's developers say version 0.5 addresses those limitations, and includes enhanced encryption and anonymity capabilities.

Wireless News from Wired News - Wireless WarDrive: Wee Bit of Fun.

"There's something just plain wrong about a city where you can find 100 open wireless networks in a half hour and not one public bathroom," grumbled Ken Fandello, New York network consultant, occasional WarDriver, and owner of a set of weak kidneys.

Fandello is an unregistered participant in the second WorldWide WarDrive (WWWD). Several dozen registered teams and unknown numbers of independent drivers in seven countries are hitting the road this week to spot unsecured wireless networks used to connect computers to each other and the Internet.

Slashdot | Senate Bill to Subsidize Anti-Censorware Research.

Senators Wyden (D-Ore.) and Kyl (R-Ariz.) introduced the Global Internet Freedom Act earlier this month, setting aside $60 million over two years "to develop and deploy technologies to defeat Internet jamming and censorship." Of course they don't mean libraries and schools in this country -- they're talking about countries like China, as Kyl et al. explain in a National Review article a few days ago. I guess it wasn't confusing enough to (1) subsidize censorware and (2) criminalize researching it -- we also need to (3) subsidize researching it. How about forbidding American corporations from trading censorware goods or services to these "repressive governments," wouldn't that be a good start? Update: 10/30 03:37 GMT by J: Here's the Wired story from early this month on the version that was introduced in the House.

Slashdot | BSD - OpenBSD 3.2 Readies For Release, pf Matures.

An anonymous reader writes "Just over a year ago, OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt ripped ipfilter out of the OpenBSD code leaving "the world's most secure OS" temporarily without a packet filter. Here's an interesting interview with Daniel Hartmeier, author of pf, the stateful packet filter developed as a replacement. Now just over a year old, it sounds like pf has already become a serious contendor in the world of stateful packet filtering. This interview is of particular relevance with OpenBSD 3.2 to be released on Friday, 11/1."