Electronic Frontier Foundation

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Saudi Activist Sues Americans Who Aided UAE Hacking

Loujain al-Hathloul, who led push for women to drive, was imprisoned and tortured

(Newser) - Three former US intelligence and military officers have admitted in a separate case that they helped the United Arab Emirates with hacking operations. Now they're being sued by a Saudi women's rights activist who says the assistance of the three men led to her iPhone being hacked by...

'Dancing Baby' May Head to Supreme Court

High court may hear mom's case against 'abusive' infringement claim by Universal

(Newser) - Of all the YouTube videos that could pose legal problems, a 30-second clip of a dancing baby seems less than likely. But almost 10 years after Stephanie Lenz posted her young son bopping to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," her video may now appear before the Supreme...

United Bans Researcher From Flight Over Tweet

He claimed he could get oxygen masks to deploy

(Newser) - United Airlines stopped a prominent security researcher from boarding a flight late Saturday, following a social media post by the researcher days earlier suggesting the airline's onboard systems could be hacked. The researcher, Chris Roberts, tried to board a flight from Colorado to San Francisco to speak at a...

Agencies Borrowing Drones More Than We Thought

Customs and Border Protection has loaned them out almost 700 times

(Newser) - Domestic law enforcement agencies have flown a lot more drone missions than they let on, according to newly uncovered data. Customs and Border Patrol lent out drones from its fleet for almost 700 surveillance missions from 2010 to 2012, the agency has revealed, in response to Freedom of Information Act...

PayPal Tells Publishers to Pull 'Obscene' E-Books

Remove controversial titles or else, booksellers told

(Newser) - PayPal is overstepping the bounds of its role as a payment processor by trying to ban e-books it deems obscene, publishers and free speech groups complain. At least three online publishers and booksellers received emails warning them that their accounts will be "limited" unless they pull titles "containing...

How to Limit Google's Use of Your Search History

Electronic Frontier Foundation shows how before March 1 deadline

(Newser) - The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn't happy with Google's plan to expand its use of the information it gleans about you, and it provides a quick four-step process on how to keep that data more private. "Until now, your Google Web History (your Google searches and sites visited)...

Feds Tracked Online Sites for Evil Plots

Before inauguration, DHS kept tabs on Facebook, others

(Newser) - The Department of Homeland Security monitored the social network postings of millions of Americans during the Obama inauguration, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has found. DHS set up a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” that kept tabs on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, DailyKos, and NPR, looking for potential conspiracies...

Snooping Google Engineer Could Face Jail Time

Engineer who spied on teen chat logs may have broken federal law

(Newser) - A Google engineer who abused his access to data to snoop on teenagers' chat logs and harass them could face up to 5 years in jail if government officials decide to prosecute him. David Barksdale's spying on Google Voice and Google Talk accounts definitely wasn't "in the normal course...

UCLA Bags $100K Prize With Record-Breaking Prime Number

Winning discovery is 13 million digits long

(Newser) - A team of UCLA mathematicians has won one of  the math world's most coveted prizes, the Los Angeles Times reports. Their discovery of a 13-million-digit prime number—only the 46th such number ever found—scores them a $100,000 reward from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The organization is also offering...

Court Limits Bosses' Access to Staff Emails

Landmark ruling extends constitutional protections to electronic communication

(Newser) - A federal court has ruled that emails and text messages on work accounts—routinely monitored by some employers—are protected by constitutional safeguards against unreasonable search and seizure. The ruling only applies to electronic communications supplied through outside servers, not internal systems. The ruling forbids service providers from handing over...

Comcast Blocking Lotus Notes
Comcast Blocking Lotus Notes

Comcast Blocking Lotus Notes

(Newser) - Cable and Internet service giant Comcast is disrupting more than just BitTorrent traffic, reports Ars Technica. Tests by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that Comcast customers using a growing list of apps may find their Net access slowed or denied. A Lotus Notes engineer, for example, discovered Notes emails sent...

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