The Government does not Need a Warrant to Read Our Emails
Should the contents of email messages be protected from unwarranted law enforcement scrutiny to the same extent as physical letters sent through the mail? The answer seems obvious. Email is today’s postal service, and the personal contents of email messages are as private to people as the letters sent through the U.S. Postal Service. But […]
Ruling prohibits blanket ban on Internet use for parolees
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A blanket ban on Internet use unlawfully deprives parolees convicted of sex crimes of more liberty than necessary because the Internet has become a necessary part of modern life, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said the wording in a standard condition of supervised release […]
House passes extension of Internet tax ban
The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would permanently extend a ban on state and local taxes on Internet access. Lawmakers approved the legislation on a voice vote, which would also ban discriminatory taxes on e-commerce. The ban, first passed in 1998, has required a series of extensions over nearly two decades. But […]
U.S. Solidifies and Expands Leadership in Internet Usage
New data (link is external) from the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast and Methodology 2014-2019 show that U.S. and global Internet traffic continues to grow at double digit rates, that the U.S. is on a path to solidify and expand its leadership in international Internet usage, and that video over fixed networks remains the […]
Why States Taxing Internet Would be Better
The U.S. House is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would prevent state and city governments from levying taxes on Internet access. The bill is important for a number of reasons. But it also highlights an important tension between Washington and the states — one that affects how we regulate what has become […]
China’s Internet Giant Baidu Invests $11.5 Million in Free Wi-Fi Company
Chinese internet search engine giant and popular mapping service provider Baidu Inc., has invested $11.5 million in Qianhai Mobile – a local start-up that provides commuters in over 10 cities across the country with free wireless internet access. China Money Network reported that the investment deal, which will be implemented through the subscriptions of […]
U.S. officials are scrambling: Massive data breach exposes federal employees
Chinese hackers have caused a massive data breach in U.S. government computer networks, placing the entire federal workforce at risk. Data from the Office of Personnel Management, which is essentially the human resources department for the federal government, as well as the Interior Department have been accessed by foreign hackers, the Department of Homeland Security […]
A Critical Moment For The Future Of The Internet
The Internet, the greatest invention of our generation—several generations in fact—is in many ways a reflection of the American Dream. It’s vast and open, unlimited in its potential reach. It’s inclusive and welcoming. Anyone can be part of it and make a difference. The fastest growing part of the global economy is Internet-based, and the […]
Hunting for Hackers, N.S.A. Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border
WASHINGTON — Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency‘s warrant-less surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, […]
Google founder defends accident records of self-driving cars
SAN FRANCISCO – Google co-founder Sergey Brin says he sees little reason to release the accident reports involving the Internet company’s self-driving cars because he believes there’s nothing new in documents withheld to protect the privacy of other motorists. Brin, who oversees Google’s fleet of self-driving cars, outlined his rationale Wednesday during a sometimes-testy exchange […]
Pennsylvania senators to introduce Internet gambling bill
HARRISBURG, PA. -Republican state senators in Pennsylvania are preparing to introduce legislation to allow Internet gambling. The forthcoming bill was advertised Wednesday by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and three other Republicans. Their memo to fellow senators says the bill would allow existing Pennsylvania casinos to offer Internet gambling. Players must be in […]
One woman’s trash ended up being a recycling firm’s treasure.
A Silicon Valley e-waste recycling firm is trying to find a woman who dropped off her unwanted computer without knowing the bulky machine was worth thousands of dollars. CleanBayArea sold the woman’s rare Apple 1 computer at auction for $200,000. The company’s policy is to split half the proceeds with the original owner, so […]
Silk Road founder sencenced to life in prisonment
NEW YORK — A federal judge sentenced Silk Road darknet mastermind Ross Ulbricht to life in prison Friday for founding and operating a criminal version of eBay that made buying illegal drugs almost as easy as clicking a computer mouse. After considering the 31-year-old Texas native’s apology and plea for leniency, U.S. District Judge Katherine […]
Asteroid mining might compromise telecom and defense satellites
Asteroid mining might provide a lot of jobs and new sources of gold, titanium, platinum and other metals, as well as hydrogen and ammonia in the future. But it could also spell disaster for telecom satellites orbiting the Earth if it’s not managed properly. You see, some companies planning to mine the celestial objects […]
IRS blames Russia for ‘$50 million’ hack
Remember when the IRS website was hacked and around 100,000 people had their tax data stolen? Officials are now pointing accusatory fingers in the direction of Russia, at least according to CNN. The revelation was made by Illinois Representative Peter Roskam, who is believed to have gotten the information straight from IRS chief John […]
With health care as the model, Obama wrecks the Internet
Singer Taylor Swift is among the thousands of celebrities who, in a pre-emptive move to protect their reputations, reportedly have purchased URLs that follow their names with new extensions such as .sucks, .xxx and .porn. President Obama is doing for the Internet what he did for health care: making things worse. His slogan should […]
In 5 years, 80 percent of the whole Internet will be online video
Already, we know that Netflix accounts for one-third of Internet traffic at peak hours. Toss in YouTube, and that figure rises to roughly half of all bandwidth consumed. But even that’s small potatoes compared with what’s coming. In five years, 80 percent of the entire world’s Internet consumption will be dominated by video. That number […]
Wake up to the smell of money, not farts
If we were rich, we’d pay gourmet baker Richard Bertinet to rouse us every day with the scent of his freshly baked bread. Unfortunately, we’re not, which is why SensorWake’s smell-based alarm clock is such an exciting prospect. Rather than waking users up with the traffic report, SensorWake uses a cartridge of odors to get […]
Google heads list of 16 companies trying to kill passwords
People don’t put enough thought into passwords because it’s a pain, but that creates security problems for the whole internet. Google, Microsoft and others in the FIDO Alliance want to replace passwords with fingerprint scanning and other techniques, and just unveiled 31 products from 16 companies that conform to the new standard. The most […]
Google Maps fixing its N-word problem
Multiple media outlets, including the Washington Post and the Huffington Post, reported the issue Tuesday afternoon after a Twitter user first posted a screen shot of the problem. “Some inappropriate results are surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused,” a Google spokeswoman said in […]