eff

EFF sues feds for info on social-network surveillance

The Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the CIA, the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and three other government agencies on Tuesday for allegedly refusing to release information about how they are using social networks in surveillance and investigations.

The nonprofit Internet rights watchdog group formally asked more than a dozen agencies or departments in early October to provide records about federal guidelines on the use of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr for investigative or data gathering purposes, according to the lawsuit.

The requests were prompted by published news reports about how authorities are using social networks to … Read more

BOL 1084: TI don't be a 8008

Calculator hackers have figured out how to run independent OSes on TI calculators. Unfortunately TI wants to stop them. Why? We have no idea. Also we play fast and loose with physics when discussing black holes and Higgs Bosons. We also totally redefined the word mint. In a bad way, unfortunately.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1084

Sidekick data restored? http://twitter.com/wcpreston/status/4848175078 http://twitter.com/ruv/status/4845969713

Wi-Fi is about to get a whole lot easier http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2009/tc20091013_683659.htm … Read more

Sites that help you lodge complaints

Whether you want to target politicians, your employers, or companies that have done you wrong, there are a variety of sites across the Web that will help you voice your complaints. But beware that not all of them will actually solve those problems.

Lodge your complaints

Anonymous Employee Those having trouble at the office should try out Anonymous Employee. The service allows you to create a user name and password without requiring an e-mail address. After that, you can input the name of your employer, the person you want to contact, and the issue you want to make them aware of. Anonymous Employee automatically sends the message to the recipient without identifying you.

Unfortunately, Anonymous Employee was buggy and at times, it took too long to send a message. That said, I was impressed by the number of options it offered, including complaints about age discrimination, harassment, or wrongful termination. Once it fixes those bugs, Anonymous Employee will be an even more compelling service.

Better Business Bureau The Better Business Bureau site is one of the best places to lodge complaints. Right from the home page, you can access the organization's complaint tool, which allows you to take issue with your vehicle, your cell phone carrier, a product or service outside of those two categories, or a charity. After inputting information about yourself, you can describe your issue on the site. It's then filed with the Better Business Bureau and investigated.

CongressMerge If you're unhappy with what's going on in your state, CongressMerge can help you out. The site provides you with a search field to find all of your elected representatives. Once you find the politician you want to contact, it gives you a listing of all their phone numbers, a map to their office, and even their fax number so you can be sure to get in touch with them. You can also check out your elected representatives' voting records on the site. It's a great way to find all the means of communication you need to have your voice heard in the political process.… Read more

EFF tracking policy changes at Google, Facebook and others

The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday launched a new online site that keeps track of the policy changes at popular Web sites as specified in their terms of service.

The EFF's TOSBack site lists the terms of service and offers alerts when the terms of service on tracked sites change. It features a real-time feed of changes and side-by-side before and after comparisons with highlights in different colors for text that has been removed or added.

The sites being tracked include Google's Blogger, Facebook, YouTube, eBay, Apple, WordPress, Data.Gov, and GoDaddy.

"'Terms of Service' policies on … Read more

Device identification in online banking is privacy threat, expert says

SAN FRANCISCO--A widely used technology to authenticate users when they log in for online banking may help reduce fraud, but it does so at the expense of consumer privacy, a civil liberties attorney said during a panel at the RSA security conference on Thursday.

When logging into bank Web sites, users are typically asked for their user name and password. But that's not all that is happening. Behind the scenes, the server is taking measures to identify the device being used in an attempt to verify that the person logging in is the person whose account is being accessed … Read more

Computer science student challenges tech seizure

A Boston graduate student is challenging the legality of a warrant that enabled police to search his dorm room and seize several of his computers, an iPod, a cell phone, and other devices.

Riccardo Calixte, a computer science student at Boston College, is petitioning the Newton District Court in Massachusetts for the immediate return of his property and is demanding that investigators be prohibited from any further searches or analysis of his digital data. The confiscation of Calixte's property was spurred by an investigation into who sent an e-mail to a Boston College mailing list alleging that Calixte's … Read more

Podcast: EFF on French rejection of piracy bill

By a vote of 21 to 15, the lower house of France's Parliament rejected a bill that would have required Internet service providers to suspend access to people who have received three warnings for illegally downloading copyrighted music.

While there are plenty of organizations and individuals who supported the bill, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has opposed this bill and similar efforts elsewhere.

EFF's International Outreach Coordinator Danny O'Brien explains his organization's position on the issue.

EFF: Nevada bill would outlaw some RFID research

A proposed bill in the Nevada State Legislature would make it a crime to do legitimate research on security weaknesses in radio frequency identification, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said on Friday.

The bill, S.B. 125, would make it a Class 3 felony to possess, read, or capture another person's personal identifying information through RFID, subject to up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The measure is scheduled to be discussed Monday morning in the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee in Carson City, Nev. The hearing will be Webcast.

The EFF hasn't taken a formal … Read more

Rodeo group to pay $25,000 for YouTube takedown requests

A rodeo association has agreed to pay $25,000 to an animal welfare group to settle a lawsuit over the improper removal of videos from YouTube that showed roped calves being dragged off to die and tasers being used on tame horses to get them to buck.

In December 2007, YouTube removed dozens of rodeo videos after getting takedown notices from the Colorado-based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association that claimed copyright violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The group that posted them, Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued the rodeo group last summer. … Read more