Internet

WASHINGTON--Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, said today he is optimistic that Congress would update a 1986 law, crafted in the pre-Internet era of telephone modems and the black-and-white Macintosh Plus, to protect the privacy of Americans who use the Internet and mobile phones.

The Vermont Democrat said that in his previous career as a prosecutor he had to obtain search warrants to search someone's house. "I question whether it should be that much different if I'm going to search all your files" in electronic form, he said in a keynote speech at … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--If you have Wi-Fi turned on, the previous whereabouts of your computer or mobile device may be visible on the Web for anyone to see.

Google publishes the estimated location of millions of iPhones, laptops, and other devices with Wi-Fi connections, a practice that represents the latest twist in a series of revelations this year about wireless devices and privacy, CNET has learned.

Android phones with location services enabled regularly beam the unique hardware IDs of nearby Wi-Fi devices back to Google, a similar practice followed by Microsoft, Apple, and Skyhook Wireless as part of each company's effort … Read more

Technologists are warning that the practical effects of a controversial copyright bill backed by Hollywood will "weaken" Internet security and cause other harmful side effects.

As more Internet engineers, networking professionals, and security specialists have evaluated the so-called Protect IP Act that was introduced last month, concern is growing about how it will change the end-to-end nature of the Internet in ways that could do more harm than good. (See CNET's previous coverage.)

The Protect IP Act would give the U.S. Department of Justice the power to seek a court order against an allegedly infringing Web … Read more

In the span of only a few days, Rep. Anthony Weiner has firmly ensnared himself in what is fast becoming Capitol Hill's first Twitter sex scandal of sorts.

What began with a photo of grey underwear revealing a certain distinctive outline has mushroomed into a full-fledged obsession among bloggers who have engaged in spirited bouts of digital forensics--and among political reporters who have, so far unsuccessfully, pressed the New York Democrat for specifics.

Weiner's Twitter account was used last weekend to address that rather intimate photo to Gennette Cordova, a 21-year-old college student in Seattle who says she … Read more

The state of Alaska is planning to release 24,000 of former Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mails, which are likely to be closely scrutinized as the 2012 election nears.

State officials told the Anchorage Daily News that they're sending the e-mails to a commercial printer so they can be copied, a process that should take about four days.

The request for the former governor's e-mails comes from the media and stems from as far back as the 2008 presidential campaign, in which the former governor was a vice presidential candidate. Multiple news organizations, including the New York Times, … Read more

Microsoft, Yahoo, and InterActiveCorp have accepted advertisements for overseas pharmacies that sell drugs to U.S. customers without requiring prescriptions, a practice that made Google the target of a federal criminal probe, CNET has learned.

An offshore pharmacy called GoMedStore.com, which advertised on Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing.com Web site this week and appears to be based in Vietnam, boasts that it ships pills "from our India facility" in unmarked packages designed to clear U.S. Customs without raising suspicions. "Nobody will know what is inside the package," the Web site says.

Another, the … Read more

Apple and Google returned to Capitol Hill this morning to defend themselves against accusations from U.S. politicians who claim that the companies aren't doing enough to protect their customers' location privacy.

Today's Senate subcommittee hearing, which Facebook also joined, came only a week after a different Senate subcommittee convened nearly the identical hearing on the identical topic: mobile phones, privacy, and user consent.

"I think anyone who uses a mobile device has an expectation of privacy, and sadly that expectation is not always being met," said Sen. John Rockefeller IV (D-W.V.), chairman of the … Read more

The U.S. Congress took the first major step today toward updating a 1986 law, crafted in the pre-Internet era of telephone modems and the black-and-white Macintosh Plus, to protect the privacy of Americans who use mobile phones, Web e-mail, and services like Google Docs, Flickr, and Picasa.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Judiciary committee, introduced sweeping legislation that would, in many cases, require police to obtain a search warrant to access private communications and the locations of mobile devices.

"Updating this law to reflect the realities of our time is essential to ensuring that our … Read more

Far from being a technological recluse, Osama bin Laden was a prolific e-mail writer who reportedly relied on flash drives, couriers, and sneakernet to keep in touch with his correspondents.

Although bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan lacked phone and Internet connectivity, the al Qaeda leader used his computers to prepare messages and save them on flash drives, which would be passed to a courier, according to the Associated Press. The courier would head to a far-flung Internet cafe, send the outgoing messages, retrieve the incoming ones, and then return to Abbottabad with the responses.

That physical couriering of data, … Read more