You may recall that in its quixotic attempt to go after Wikileaks, the US government has been snooping through the private communications of a bunch of folks they're trying to connect to the organization, including Icelandic politician Birgitta Jonsdottir and Jacob Appelbaum, who gets detained and harassed every time he re-enters the country. All of this came to light only because Twitter actually stood up to the US government and refused to just hand over info that was requested using the obscure 2703(d) process. Twitter also got the court to allow it to reveal the existence of the order (something that every other company which has received one has kept secret). A court eventually ruled that Twitter had to hand over the requested info.
Following this, Jonsdottir, Appelbaum and one other person, Rop Gonggrijp, (represented by the ACLU and the EFF), chose not to challenge that ruling, but did appeal concerning the secrecy around the order -- asking the court to have the specific 2703(d) order unsealed -- arguing that they have the right to access judicial documents about themselves. However, last week, an appeals court rejected that appeal, and basically said that the feds can sniff through your digital data without your knowledge, and, well, too bad if you don't like it.
Privacy is for Government not for the People
It appears to now be the conventional wisdom in the political class and in the criminal justice system, than privacy exists solely to protect the interests of the government. From Tech Dirt:
German Court Rules Internet Is "Essential"
From Reuters:
A German court ruled on Thursday that people have the right to claim compensation from service providers if their Internet access is disrupted, because the Internet is an "essential" part of life . . .
Google Demands Warrants from Law Enforcement for User Info
From Wired:
Google demands probable-cause, court-issued warrants to divulge the contents of Gmail and other cloud-stored documents to authorities in the United States — a startling revelation Wednesday that runs counter to federal law that does not always demand warrants.
The development surfaced as Google publicly announced that more than two-thirds of the user data Google forwards to government agencies across the United States is handed over without a probable-cause warrant.
A Google spokesman told Wired that the media giant demands that government agencies — from the locals to the feds — get a probable-cause warrant for content on its e-mail, Google Drive cloud storage and other platforms — despite the Electronic Communications Privacy Act allowing the government to access such customer data without a warrant if it’s stored on Google’s servers for more than 180 days.
The War on the Fourth Amendment Cont'd
The ongoing war on the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution continues apace, led by law "enfarcement" agencies and the Republican and Democratic parties From The Hill:
Google said on Wednesday that 68 percent of the U.S. government's requests for users' information were without a warrant. The company said that just 22 percent of the requests were through a search warrant, and 10 percent relied on court orders or other processes. From July to December 2012, Google received 21,389 government requests for information about 33,634 users. The company said data requests have increased 70 percent since 2009.
Twitter: Beware the App Bug
From The Daily Dot:
Direct messages are supposed to be private, but thanks to a Twitter bug, some apps can bust open your account and start accessing them anyway. Cesar Cerrudo, a security researcher, discovered a bug that allowed third-party applications to access his DMs. Unfortunately, he didn't give the name of the app and blacked out a screenshot proving his privacy was violated. Cerrudo, chief technical officer for IOActive, wrote that he is usually reluctant to sign in to applications using his Twitter or Facebook accounts due to "security implications," but needed to in order to test the software . . .
New Mega Site Launch Hits 1 Million Users on Day One
From The Next Web:
Mega, the new file sharing service from Kim Dotcom, has passed 1 million users, according to Kim Dotcom who spoke at the launch of the service at his mansion in New Zealand today.
We’re here on the ground , where the larger than life internet mogul is set to launch his latest venture officially. Mega is now open to the public, but Dotcom doesn’t do anything without some style so we’re here to see what he’s got up his sleeves.
Facebook Graph and the Problem of Discoverability
From EFF:
Facebook's Graph Search presents the problem of discoverability. One can have a good balance of privacy and openness if information is available, but not easily discoverable. You might not mind if people specifically interested in you look at your Likes, but you may not want to have a market researcher pull the list and add it to an ad targeting profile. You might be okay if a new person you met at a conference looks you up on Facebook, but you may not want a creepy guy searching through Facebook's loose networks to find someone to stalk. All of a sudden, what people once thought was shared only to their Facebook audience—whether friends, friends of friends, or member of the public with a specific reason to look you up—is now readily available via Graph Search. This feature has rolled everyone, by default, into a dating service ("Single females in San Francisco who like Radiohead") and a marketing database ("People under 25 who like Coca-Cola").
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