Monday, March 12, 2007

Justice Department Report Reveals FBI Misused Patriot Act. Justice Department Report Reveals FBI Misused Patriot Act. A Justice Department audit released Friday said that the FBI used the Patriot Act improperly and unlawfully to gain information about people in the United States. Two members of the House Judiciary Committee debate the audit's conclusions. By NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. [NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS] 10:41:50 PM

Google Aids Indian Goverment Censorship. Google Aids Indian Goverment Censorship.  An anonymous reader writes  "Google's Orkut has made a deal to provide IP addresses of posters of content deemed objectionable by Bombay police. They object, among others, to posts against certain Indian personalities, young women admiring Indian mobsters, and, amazingly, "anti-Indian words" (!)."  [Slashdot] 10:36:33 PM

Spying Too Secret for the Courts. Spying Too Secret for the Courts. AT&T and the government tell an appeals court that the case against the telecom for allegedly helping the government spy on Americans is too secret for any court, despite the Administration's admission it did spy on Americans without warrants. [Wired News: Top Stories] 10:33:23 PM

Making Sense of Census Data With Google Earth. Making Sense of Census Data With Google Earth.   mikemuch writes  "Imran Haque has developed a mashup of Google Earth with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, called gCensus. The app uses the XML format known as KML (Keyhole Markup Language), which can create shapes and colors on the maps displayed by GE. Haque had to build custom code libraries (which he's made available as open source) that could generate KML for the project. He also had to extract the relevant data from the highly counter-intuitive Census Bureau files and store them in a database that could handle geographic data. gCensus lets you do stuff like create colorful overlays on maps showing population ages, race, and family size distributions."  [Slashdot] 10:20:05 PM

No Reprieve for Jailed Blogger. No Reprieve for Jailed Blogger. An appeals court upholds an Egyptian man's four-year prison sentence for insulting Islam and the country's president. By the Associated Press. [Wired News: Top Stories] 10:16:01 PM

Government Sites Fail FOIA Rules. Government Sites Fail FOIA Rules. A study shows 79 percent of federal agencies are violating a Freedom of Information Act amendment requiring they post records online and help citizens request info over the internet. In 27B Stroke 6. Plus: States' secrecy penalties. [Wired News: Top Stories] 10:14:21 PM

'Do the Right Thing'. Editorial 'Do the Right Thing'. Editorial: There is no greater hallmark of an IT leader than the courage it takes to do what[base ']s right, says Don Tennant. [Computerworld Privacy News] 4:32:08 PM

Congress Targets Pretexting. Congress Targets Pretexting. Legislation would add protections against the practice of posing as another to gain personal data. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 4:22:56 PM

Human Error Causes Most Data Loss, Study Says. Human Error Causes Most Data Loss, Study Says. Three-quarters of incidents involving loss of sensitive data are caused by human error, according to researchers. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 4:08:30 PM

Open Government Gets Its Week in the Sunshine. Open Government Gets Its Week in the Sunshine. This week is Sunshine Week - a gentle name for celebrating the serious business of uncovering secretive government practices. Taking its cue from the famous line by Justice Brandeis that "sunlight is ... the best of disinfectants", this year's Sunshine Week reflects on a year of continuing efforts to increase government visibility, and a renewed interest by the press, activists, and netizens in investigating its secrets. Projects like our own Freedom of Information Act Lltigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) project have been working hard to use statutory tools like FOIA and the Privacy Act to uncover the misuse of technology by the state. Josh Richman's overview of FLAG's work in several of Sunday's papers highlights the work our Washington office does, from uncovering the edges of the warrantless wiretapping program, to probing the connections between the NSA and Windows Vista's development. EFF's work monitoring Washington developments in the world of technology are helped by many other dedicated sites, like OpenCRS, which distributes the fascinating, but previously restricted, Congressional Research Service reports, and OpenSecrets, which can illustrate Washington connections that are otherwise obscure (want to know why Bill Frist was so keen on the Audio Flag? Inquire within.) Researchers at EPIC, coalition groups like Open The Government and the politicians behind H.R.1309, which seeks to update the FOIA laws to react faster to inquiries, help keep the tools of exposing government sharp and relevant. Meanwhile, across the Net, hackers and activists have been working to extract, sift and re-present what information federal and state governments do provide in a way that ordinary citizens can use. There's now a wealth of sources to choose from, from the amazing work by the volunteer-run GovTrack.us, to the new OpenCongress that builds on GovTrack's database and more, to the many new APIs that can stitch all of this data together. Each of this tools, like each of our organizations, builds on the others. This week, the Sunlight Foundation is sponsoring a $2000 prize for the best Web mash-up of Congressional information, as judged by EFF friends Esther Dyson, Jimmy Wales, and Craig Newmark. We look forward to seeing how far the sunlight breaks this year. [EFF: Deep Links] 4:04:59 PM

© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick. Last update: 3/18/07; 6:40:43 PM.