Sunday, February 5, 2006

Political opposites aligned against Bush wiretaps Larry Diamond, a Democrat and a Hoover Institution senior fellow, went to Baghdad in 2004 as a consultant for the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority, believing strongly in the Bush administration's goal of building a democracy there. While critical of many aspects of the Iraq war, he has, he says, wholeheartedly supported President Bush's aggressive approach to the war on terror. Grover Norquist is one of the most influential conservative Republicans in Washington. His weekly "Wednesday Meeting" at his L Street office is a must for conservative strategists, and he has been called the "managing director of the hard-core right" by the liberal Nation magazine. Perhaps the country's leading anti-tax enthusiast, he is, like Diamond, a hawk in the war on terror. Despite coming from opposite ends of the political spectrum, they agree on one other major issue: that the Bush administration's program of domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency without obtaining court warrants has less to do with the war on terror than with threats to the nation's civil liberties. "My view on the terrorists is that we should find all of them and kill them," said Norquist. "But we should also protect our civil liberties, which the terrorists are trying to destroy." Diamond, whose academic specialty is the building of democracies, has taken his opposition one step further, joining a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union last week to halt the president's program. "I teach about democracy and the rule of law, the quality of a democracy," he said. "I meet so many people around the world who want to look up to the American model, and a spying program like this really harms us." 4:51:00 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Lost privacy rights are not necessary Regarding "Lost privacy rights are necessary" (Letters, Thursday); The writer basically makes an argument that we can have privacy rights or we can be safer (notice I don't say safe), and she chooses to be safer. Why do people think that is an either/or choice on this issue? The rules of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are such that both are possible. 12:44:33 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Google subpoena hearing delayed. Google subpoena hearing delayed. A hearing on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' attempt to compel Google Inc. to turn over search records to the U.S. Department of Justice has been postponed until March 14. [Computerworld Privacy News] 12:30:06 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

FBI Pushing Patriot Act Powers. FBI Pushing Patriot Act Powers. As the Patriot Act comes up for renewal, lawmakers react to a Washington Post report of the FBI's use -- and possible abuse -- of the law to gain access to private phone and financial records of ordinary citizens. [Wired News: Security Blanket] 11:52:41 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

CBS News | Mo. School Considers Mandatory Drug Tests (AP) Behind the turreted brick walls of Christian Brothers College High School is a clean-cut student body of about 1,000 boys in collared shirts and dress pants. Tuition for freshmen at the private school in suburban St. Louis will be $9,500 next year, including the cost of a new laptop computer. There is also the chance all parents will be charged another $60 to help pay for mandatory drug tests for students, a rare program hailed by the White House but disparaged by civil libertarians. "I know a lot of people are worried about privacy concerns, but they're telling us it'll be kept confidential," said junior Tommy Daher, 17, of Manchester. "I think it's great that we'll be leading the way in this." The school has not decided whether to implement the program. Officials have asked parents to respond to a survey on the idea and have not set a timetable for a decision. Like Christian Brothers, schools around the nation have been trying to determine what's helpful, and what's over the line when it comes to testing children for drugs. [...] Private schools have more leeway to set their own policies, though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that schools can conduct random drug testing on middle and high school students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities. President Bush voiced support of student drug testing in his 2004 State of the Union address, helping to fuel interest, said the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "I think it's a clear tool not to play hide-and-seek with this problem," said the White House office's director, John Walters. He has heard of roughly one school district or private school a week starting some form of random drug testing since last spring. He did not know of any public schools attempting mandatory testing of all its students, as some private schools are doing. 11:43:43 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Thoughts from Kansas: Court drastically scales back Kline's fishing expedition Attorney General Kline sought 90 complete medical records from two clinics which provide abortions (and other health services). Some of the records relate to minors, others are records of adult women. The clinics argued that Kline's reading of the law was incorrect and that the subpoenas would yield information not necessary to the investigation but of an intensely private nature (including psychological evaluations, sexual histories, birth control practices, etc.). The Kansas Supreme Court struck down the subpoenas but declined to hold Kline in contempt: 11:40:47 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

WIBW | Kline Can't Have Abortion Records, Yet Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline cannot have access to abortion records of two Kansas clinics. Just hours after the Kansas Supreme Court announced its ruling both sides claimed victory. Attorney General Phill Kline is confident this opinion gives the go ahead for his criminal investigation. "I'm pleased that the judge's opinion will now be honored and the investigation can proceed," said Kline. The two abortion clinics see the ruling as a win for them. "This is an opinion that clearly protects the privacy rights of all citizens and emphasizes that so it that way it's a win for us." said Lee Thompson, Attorney for Dr. George Tiller in Wichita. 11:37:18 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Techdirt:Mobile Operators -- Now Empowering Stalkers The concept of tracking people via their cellphones is a touchy one, and always raises privacy concerns. But most efforts aren't as questionable as the new offering from a company in the UK which, after an initial approval via text message, tracks a phone without giving its owner any indication it's doing so. 10:52:18 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Ben Goldacre: How I stalked my girlfriend For the past week I've been tracking my girlfriend through her mobile phone. I can see exactly where she is, at any time of day or night, within 150 yards, as long as her phone is on. It has been very interesting to find out about her day. Now I'm going to tell you how I did it. First, though, I ought to point out, that my girlfriend is a journalist, that I had her permission ("in principle ...") and that this was all in the name of science, bagging a Pulitzer and paying the school fees. You have nothing to worry about, or at least not from me. 10:50:42 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Nick Bradbury: Feedback on IE7 Beta 2 from the Developer of FeedDemon More importantly, I haven't seen any statement about what Microsoft plans to do with the user's feed (attention) data, and I can't give customer data to Microsoft without some idea of how this data will be used. For the record, I don't mean to suggest that they have "nefarious plans" here - it's just that if an application is supposed to hand the user's data over to Microsoft, some reassurance that this data won't be misused is necessary. Also, I'm concerned about how the feed API appears to let any application access the user's feeds. I realize this is a beta and the documentation isn't complete, but I do hope that there will be a way for the user to keep certain feeds private to specific applications. Related to this, how are secure feeds handled? Can any application read the user's password-protected feeds, or is there some mechanism in place to protect against that? 9:59:55 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

IBM expands single-sign-on capability. IBM expands single-sign-on capability. IBM said Friday that it will begin shipping software in March designed to broaden its single-password sign-on capability to help reduce end-user confusion over multiple log-ins. The product, IBM Tivoli Access Manager for Enterprise Single Sign-On, relies on technology from Passlogix and adds single-password access for Lotus Notes, SAP and Microsoft Windows-based applications, among others, IBM said in a statement. [Identity mangement news] 9:26:53 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Spyware Found Exploiting Winamp Flaw. Spyware Found Exploiting Winamp Flaw. On Monday, Security Fix warned readers about a dangerous security hole found in the Winamp media-player software that could be used by the bad guys to slip dangerous programs onto your machine. Today, anti-spyware company Sunbelt Software posted details about a threat they spotted online using the Winamp flaw to download spyware.  [Security Fix] 9:23:14 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF - Final PATRIOT Showdown Deferred As NSA Hearings Loom. Final PATRIOT Showdown Deferred As NSA Hearings Loom. Late last year, the tide in Congress began to turn against the PATRIOT Act's sunsetting provisions, as legislators refused to grant a long-term extension. Despite President Bush's call for extension in Tuesday's State of Union, Congress once again put off taking any final action today, only approving a second five-week extension. While any extension is unfortunate, this delay provides an important opportunity for PATRIOT opponents. In the coming weeks, the dangers of government surveillance will come under great scrutiny. Next week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will start public hearings on the government's illegal domestic spying program. As suggested by news reports and EFF's lawsuit against AT&T for its role in the surveillance, the program is broader than the government has admitted. Keep the momentum against PATRIOT going by letting your representatives know that reform should be put off until the Administration provides all details on the program. [EFF: Deep Links] 9:21:15 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

House panel demands information from data brokers. House panel demands information from data brokers. A U.S. House of Representatives committee today demanded that operators of Web sites that sell telephone records such as call logs detail how they obtain that information without the telephone customer's permission. [Computerworld Data Mining News] 9:18:53 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Congress Extends PATRIOT Act For Another Five Weeks. Congress Extends PATRIOT Act For Another Five Weeks. Having failed to reach a deal on PATRIOT Act reform in January, the House and Senate voted to extend the sixteen expiring provisions of the Act for another five weeks, giving civil liberties advocates an additional opportunity to push for reforms. CDT has repeatedly called on Congress to include the common sense privacy and civil liberties protections passed unanimously by the Senate in the final version of the PATRIOT Act extension. [Center for Democracy and Technology] 9:17:02 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

CNN.com - Paris Hilton wants her diaries back - Feb 3, 2006 LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Paris Hilton's diaries, along with photos of her in various stages of undress, are among a trove of the celebutante's personal effects that have found their way into the hands of a broker aiming to sell them. David Hans Schmidt, known for handling deals involving celebrity porn, is trying to auction off the Hilton belongings, which had been locked away in a Los Angeles-area storage locker until a few months ago. The pricetag? $20 million. Editor: You think she would have learned to be a bit more careful with this type of stuff by now. 9:15:09 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Law.com - Could Future Subpoenas Tie You to 'Britney Spears Nude'? As news circulated of the government's recent effort to force Google to hand over information about what its users are searching for, you could almost hear the collective gasp from Internet users. Wait, Google has been keeping records of all my searches? Including the embarrassing ones ("britney spears nude" was the second most popular "britney" search last month), the incriminating ones (your searches about marijuana cultivation were for research, of course), and the routine ones (from which your professional and recreational interests can easily be deduced)? Anyone who looked into the story quickly realized that the privacy intrusion was less dire than it first appeared -- the U.S. government is not looking for your personal search history (although Justice Department officials reserved the right to follow up on any interesting information they come across). But before you breathe a sigh of relief, remember that the feds could ask Google for your search history. And so can any private litigant with an axe to grind and a subpoena in hand. If someone does deliver a subpoena to Google for your records, there is no law that requires that you even be notified, much less be afforded an opportunity to object. The Google subpoena incident is a timely reminder to all Internet users that we are routinely entrusting third parties with an ever-increasing amount of private information about ourselves. We entrust our e-mail to services that encourage us to "never throw anything away," we upload our photos to share with family, and rely on search engines to help us track down virtually everything without a second thought. Will iron-clad privacy policies protect us? Probably not. After all, every privacy policy includes a carve-out that permits disclosure of your information in response to a valid subpoena. And as any lawyer knows, it is not hard to issue a subpoena to nonparties in connection with pending litigation. Which brings us back to the tussle between the U.S. government and Google. 9:04:42 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

EFF - Subpoenas and Your Privacy - "Could Future Subpoenas Tie You to 'Britney Spears Nude'?" Subpoenas and Your Privacy. My latest piece for Law.com, entitled "Could Future Subpoenas Tie You to 'Britney Spears Nude'?" (their title, not mine), discusses all the information about you being stored by Google, Yahoo, AOL and other Internet intermediaries. Google, for example, has confirmed that if given an IP address, it can produce a list of every Google search query ever sent from it. All that information is becoming an irresistible target for lawyers wielding subpoenas. The spat between Google and the Department of Justice that came to light a couple weeks ago is just the tip of a much bigger subpoena iceberg. As the New York Times reports today, AOL is receiving more than 1,000 subpoenas each month seeking information about AOL users. Although today the vast majority of those subpoenas are from law enforcement agencies, an increasing number are from civil litigants trying to dig up information about their adversaries. Complete text of "Could Future Subpoenas Tie You to 'Britney Spears Nude'?" after the jump. [EFF: Deep Links] 9:01:19 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []