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People who used Google search between 2006 and 2013 could be eligible for a portion of a $23 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against the Big Tech giant. Google is accused of sharing users’ search queries with third-party websites and companies without their consent from Oct. 25, 2006, to Sept. 30, 2013, according to a notice of proposed settlement of the class action suit. (pdf). While Google has not made any admissions of wrongdoing, it has agreed to enter into the settlement (pdf) to avoid burdensome and costly litigation, according to the Kroll Settlement Administration, which is involved...

The US government is apparently sharing sensitive data with Google through government websites—a fact openly admitted by “analytics.usa.gov”. The FDA, CDC, Air Force, NIH, USPS, FBI, FCC, and IRS are among the websites/government agencies that are providing data to Google in a way that raises serious concerns. From Reclaim The Net: “Most of the major US federal government websites and numerous state and local government websites are sending real-time surveillance data back to Google as users browse their websites. Even websites where users are submitting sensitive or personal information, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) tips page and...

In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections. The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches. The change means that far more officials will be searching through...

This video explains a new image technology that combines existing images from diverse sources into a single "aggregate image", making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The video is here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html

VENICE, Italy - Pieces of information gathered about airline passengers arriving in the United States can be crucial when least expected to preventing terror attacks, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Saturday as he pushed for a deal with European countries on sharing data. European government are trying to ensure the deal will not violate their strict privacy laws, a legacy of the continent's history with authoritarian regimes. "I think the value of this data perhaps is not widely understood. You can't have an informed discussion on how to handle it unless you know what it is that it provides,"...

N.Korea, Iran, Pakistan Could‘Share Missile Technology’ North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile appears to be the same model as Iran's Shahab-5 missile, a report on North Korea's ballistic missile program by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) under the Foreign Ministry says. The report states that Iran and China have a defense industry cooperation pact, hinting at a three-way relationship that also includes China’s long-term ally North Korea. "It cannot be ruled out that the very difficult turbo pump technology problem was solved with the help of China," it adds. The report also says North Korea's mid-range Rodong missile...

File-share can be a dangerous business, or so Japanese government agencies are finding out the hard way. Two weeks after the country's Maritime Self-Defense Force found out that some highly classified information had been posted on the World Wide Web for all to read as a result of a programming error in its file-sharing Winny system, a slew of other agencies are finding similar problems. Winny itself is a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that has been charged with violating copyright laws in Japan. It has, however, proved to be popular with much of the population because of its cheap cost and...

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - The U.S. Census Bureau says it is ending a practice of routinely turning over detailed information about Arabs or other minorities to anti-terrorism officials without high-level approval. The Census Bureau revealed Aug. 13 that it had been reporting demographic data about Arab Americans to a Homeland Security agency. The bureau said it only was providing population numbers and not names, addresses or other private details. Responding to requests over the past two years from the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Census Bureau said it had provided files that included a count of U.S. residents...

<p>Los Angeles officials scoured 324,000 electronic files in the process of hunting down Don Mann, an admitted business- tax violator.</p> <p>But in Mann's case, their prize looks pretty paltry. If Mann's accountant is correct, all that searching will lead the Van Nuys, Calif., resident to cough up about $100 in delinquent business Mann, a freelance movie consultant, concedes he didn't pay the tax, saying he didn't know about it. City officials acknowledge that is likely given the obscure nature of the levy.</p>