Sunday, January 21, 2007

Slashdot | Slashback: Net Neutrality, Bugged Coins, and Pawns Bugged Canadian coins. Lars T. writes in a journal article, "A recent Slashdot story asked: Bugged Canadian Coins?. Now The Globe and Mail has an update on the story -- or rather the non-story. '[A] U.S. agency that investigated the complaint found no evidence of any secret transmitters, or of any other tampering. It's not clear why this information failed to find its way into the released U.S. Defense Security Service report.' So you can all pack in your tin-foil hats -- at least that's what they want you to believe." 1:01:50 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Bill to Treat Bloggers as Lobbyists Defeated. Bill to Treat Bloggers as Lobbyists Defeated.   Lawrence Person writes  "The attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists previously reported by Slashdot has been stripped out of the lobbying reform bill. The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:54:42 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Cattle branding comes to the 21st Century | The Register Somark Innovations, a small company working out of Saint Louis, has successfully tested an RFID tattoo, on cows, mice and rats: enabling an identifying number embedded under the skin to be read from over a meter away. [...] Somark are in the process of raising money to exploit the technology, and point out that what works for animals can, of course, also work for people; identifying Military Personnel as one of their secondary markets, after cattle and other livestock. 12:48:50 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

RFID Tattoo for Tracking Cattle and Humans. RFID Tattoo for Tracking Cattle and Humans. ack154 writes  "The Register reports that a St Louis based company, Somark Innovations, has successfully tested RFID tattoos to be used for tracking cattle and other animals. Details are limited for the actual tattoo, but it's said to contain no metals and can be read up to about four feet away. Engadget has some more details on the matter. And yes, the article does mention RFID tattoos are possible for people, specifically the military. From the article: 'The system developed by Somark uses an array of needles to quickly inject a pattern of dots into each animal, with the pattern changing for each injection. This pattern can then be read from over a meter away using a proprietary reader operating at high frequency.'"  [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:44:01 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Deleting Personal Data from Private Institutions? Deleting Personal Data from Private Institutions?  An anonymous reader asks: "This site has many readers who are familiar with the liabilities of personal data being stored on servers owned by private institutions. Bank records, phone records, credit records, flight records, basically any type of digital transaction can be (and likely are) stored indefinitely for whatever reason. Are there processes by which one can request a removal of personal data, or by signing contracts with these companies, do they own the rights to the information? If you have attempted such an erasure, have you encountered resistance?" [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:39:27 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Wired News: Computer Privacy in Distress My laptop computer was purchased by Stanford, but my whole life is stored on it. I have e-mail dating back several years, my address book with the names of everyone I know, notes and musings for various work and personal projects, financial records, passwords to my blog, my web mail, project and information management data for various organizations I belong to, photos of my niece and nephew and my pets. In short, my computer is my most private possession. I have other things that are more dear, but no one item could tell you more about me than this machine. Yet, a rash of recent court decisions says the Constitution may not be enough to protect my laptop from arbitrary, suspicionless and warrantless examination by the police. At issue is the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures by government agents. As a primary safeguard against arbitrary and capricious searches, property seizures and arrests, the founding fathers required the government to first seek a warrant from a judge or magistrate. 12:29:18 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

The Failing Right of Laptop Privacy. The Failing Right of Laptop Privacy. davidwr writes "Wired has an interesting editorial on laptop searches and seizures. It raises some interesting issues, including employee rights against police searches in the workplace, routine vs. non-routine searches at ports of entry, and police use of unrelated data found in a database search. The article ends saying: 'Of course, there's a chance that the courts will not recognize the different scope of privacy interests at stake in computer searches, or will not be adept at crafting a rule that gives enough leeway and guidance to law enforcement, while also protecting privacy. At that point, the Constitution may fail us, and we will have to turn to Congress to create rules that are better adapted for the information age.'" [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 12:21:44 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Detainee DNA may be put in database - USATODAY.com WASHINGTON -- The federal government could add DNA from tens of thousands of immigration violators, captives in the war on terrorism and others accused but not convicted of federal offenses to the FBI's crime-fighting database under a plan being finalized by the Justice Department. Erik Ablin, a Justice Department spokesman, confirmed the plan, which hasn't been publicly disclosed, and said details are expected to be completed soon. Proponents of the plan, including U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, say taking DNA from federal detainees would solve many crimes committed by illegal immigrants and make it easier to identify and track potential terrorists. Opponents, such as Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office, say such mass seizures of DNA violate privacy and do little to improve law enforcement. Fredrickson says the law that defines federal detainees is so broad that it could apply to hikers stopped by park rangers or airline passengers selected for screening. Authorization for taking the DNA was included in a bill reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act that President Bush signed last year. The DNA samples, which contain an individual's unique genetic code, would be compared against genetic profiles from 3.9 million criminals and 157,000 unsolved crimes held by the system of federal and state DNA databases that the FBI administers. The FBI says its system has aided more than 41,000 criminal investigations since 1990. DNA from federal arrestees and detainees would be held on a computer index, enabling law enforcement to track illegal immigrants who return after being expelled from the USA or who commit crimes after being released. War-on-terrorism detainees, who often use aliases, could be positively identified by DNA and linked to evidence seized at suspected terrorist sites. 12:14:06 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []