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Federal Court Says the Government Can Impersonate You on Social Media — and There’s Not Much You Can Do About It Imagine finding out you have a Facebook page that you didn’t actually create. It has your name, your private photos and all of your personal information — none of which you posted. That’s the discovery New York resident Sondra Prince made. Prince, formerly Sondra Arquiett, alleges that after she was arrested on drug charges in 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration used the photos on her confiscated cellphone to create Facebook profile in her name and without her consent....

Facebook said Thursday that future research on its 1.3 billion users would be subjected to greater internal scrutiny from top managers, especially if they focused on “deeply personal topics” or specific groups of people. But no outside body will review Facebook’s research projects, and the company declined to disclose what guidelines it would use to decide whether research was appropriate. Nor did it indicate whether it will get consent from users for projects like its emotion manipulation study, which set off a global furor when it was disclosed this summer. In essence, Facebook’s message is the same as it has...

The information leaked by Edward Snowden last year raised the public consciousness quite a bit about user privacy and security in using certain services (not to mention the hope that companies won’t be that willing to acquiesce to government requests for user information). In recent weeks, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been emphasizing a new focus on user security and encryption. Both Apple and Google have implemented stronger data encryption so it’s harder to compromise user data. The problem is, however, that it would be harder for law enforcement to access that data too. And FBI Director James Comey isn’t...

According to a recent article in Zdnet, Microsoft will monitor users in the new Windows 9 Operating System in order to determine how the new OS is used, thus decide what tweaks and changes are need to be made. During Windows 8 testing, Microsoft said that they had data showing Start Menu usage had dropped, but it seems that the tools they were using at the time weren’t as evolved as the new ‘Asimov’ monitor. The new system is codenamed ‘Asimov’ and will provide a near real-time view of what is happening on users’ machines. Rest assured, the data is...

John Hopkins Medicine researchers will track the physical activities and daily diet of 50 overweight freshman from Lakewood High School as part of a pilot project using Fitbit – an electronic wristband that records activity and sleep patterns. The effort, funded by a $100,000 grant from insurer Florida Blue, is focused more on teaching healthy habits than weight loss, and is expected to be one of the first studies involving adolescence and wearable heath-related technology, Reuters reports. Researchers told the news service the pilot project eliminates the need to bring students in to the doctor’s office, and they’re hoping to...

The FBI director on Thursday criticized the decision by Apple and Google to encrypt smartphones data so it can be inaccessible to law enforcement, even with a court order. James Comey told reporters at FBI headquarters that U.S. officials are in talks with the two companies, which he accused of marketing products that would let people put themselves beyond the law's reach. Comey cited child-kidnapping and terrorism cases as two examples of situations where quick access by authorities to information on cellphones can save lives. Comey did not cite specific past cases that would have been more difficult for the...

Michael Corkery and Jessica Silver-Greenberg September 24, 2014 The thermometer showed a 103.5-degree fever, and her 10-year-old’s asthma was flaring up. Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start. The cause was not a mechanical problem — it was her lender. Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car’s dashboard that prevented her car from starting. Before she could get back on the road, she had to...

The Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance Monday that could mean $1 fines for people who toss too many table scraps into the trash. Under current Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) rules, people living in single-family homes are encouraged but not required to dispose of food waste and compostable paper products in compost bins. Apartment buildings must have compost bins available, but residents of apartment buildings aren’t required to use them. And businesses aren’t subject to any composting requirements. Under the new rules, collectors can take a cursory look each time they dump trash into a garbage truck. If they...

The Commerce Department has been handing out grants to fund a way for Americans to use a single password anytime they shop, bank, pay bills or engage in any other online activity that requires logging in and verifying identity.In effect, President Obama’s administration is trying to bring an end to Americans having different passwords for each online account. Almost $3 million in grants were given out for the project this week through the department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, as part of its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace project."The grants announced will help spur development of new...

The CIA’s ongoing defiance of congressional authority continued during a closed-door meeting last week after Director John Brennan refused to tell lawmakers who authorized the illegal surveillance of Senate Intelligence Committee computers, which were used to compile a report on the agency’s interrogation practices.

WASHINGTON — Yahoo said Thursday the government threatened to fine the company $250,000 a day if it did not comply with demands to go along with an expansion of U.S. surveillance by surrendering online information, a step the company regarded as unconstitutional. The outlines of Yahoo’s secret and ultimately unsuccessful court fight against government surveillance emerged when a federal judge ordered the unsealing of some material about Yahoo’s court challenge. ...

Seventeen fake cellphone towers were discovered across the U.S. last week, according to a report in Popular Science. Rather than offering you cellphone service, the [fake] towers appear to be connecting to nearby phones, bypassing their encryption, and either tapping calls or reading texts. [snip] Although it is unclear who owns the towers, ESD found that several of them were located near U.S. military bases.

It was just about dark, I was at the kitchen table when the dog barked, headlights were coming up my driveway. I went outside to see who it was...he was a stranger. He announced that he was from the Census Bureau and wondered if this was a good time for a 40 minute interview. He proceeded to tell me all about the Census, how it established demographical statistics and how I was required by law to answer the questions. I told him two people live here and we are American Citizens, and that I would tell him nothing more. He...

Eye and head tracking sensors will make it harder to text while driving General Motors is reportedly installing sensors in its next generation of cars that will detect drivers’ eye and head motions and alert drivers to prolonged moments of distraction...

Patrick Mclaw, 23, an eighth grade language arts teacher at Maryland's Mace Lane Middle School, has been placed on leave after authoring "The Insurrectionist," a fictional book that chronicles "the largest school massacre in history."

The Tacoma Police Department apparently has bought — and quietly used for six years — controversial surveillance equipment that can sweep up records of every cellphone call, text message and data transfer up to a half a mile away. You don’t have to be a criminal to be caught in this law enforcement snare. You just have to be near one and use a cellphone. Police Chief Don Ramsdell, through a spokeswoman, declined an interview request to talk about the police department’s apparent purchase of a Stingray device and associated technology. The department cited a nondisclosure agreement it has with...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, published last week an "advanced notice of proposed rulemaking" on "vehicle-to-vehicle communications." What NHTSA is proposing could begin a transformation in the American transportation system that makes our lives better and freer — or gives government more power over where we go and when.

MEGAN THOMPSON: Great news for the divorced 58-year-old father and professional driver who needed the extra money to help pay child support. Jones filled out the paperwork, submitted a drug test and waited to hear when he could start. Instead, he got a different kind of call. KEVIN JONES: And Human Resources said, “There’s a problem with your background check.” And I said, “What problem?” “Yeah, there’s some criminal stuff going on. You need to talk to them.” MEGAN THOMPSON: It turned out the background check – conducted by a company now called Sterling BackCheck – showed convictions for drunk...

Apparently, the feebs have been using malware and the TOR network to snoop on quite a bit more information than one might have suspected. Use the following link here for more info: http://www.wired.com/2014/08/operation_torpedo/

President Obama has presided over a massive increase in the size and scope of the country's "no-fly" list, which bars individuals suspected of having terrorist ties from flying on airlines. Forty-seven thousand people were on the no-fly list in 2013, marking an all-time high that dwarfs the amount ever included during George W. Bush's presidency, according to an analysis of newly released classified documents published Tuesday by The Intercept. In addition, a "selectee list" used to pull out travelers for heightened scrutiny at airports and border crossings has grown larger than 16,000 people, including 1,200 Americans. The classified documents also...