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This week Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif), a long time supporter of the intelligence community, expressed outrage upon discovering that the CIA has been spying on members of Congress. “I have backed every budget request the CIA has put forward,” Feinstein declared. “I have defended them against their detractors from both sides of the ideological spectrum. Now we find out that they have been surreptitiously breaking into the emails of members of Congress—including mine. It is one thing to spy on ordinary people. It is quite another for them to spy on a separate branch of government.” CIA Director John Brennan...

The executive director of Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers is facing up to two weeks in jail on a contempt of court charge for stuffing an anonymous tip in his mouth instead of handing it over to a judge Friday.

New research published by Stanford Univeristy Wednesday reveal phone and Internet metadata collected by the NSA can expose far more information about an individual than the agency admits, including, “medical conditions, financial and legal connections, and even whether they own a gun.” Two of the school’s computer science graduate students were able to uncover the sensitive personal details of individuals from phone data details, like the numbers of callers and recipients, the location of callers, phone serial numbers and the length of conversations — all of which are data the signals intelligence agency collects in bulk both domestically and internationally....

Gun store owner refuses to give feds customer list OCEANSIDE, Calif. – The owner of an Oceanside store that sells various gun parts to build a rifle from scratch refused to turn over his customer list to federal agents. Dimitrios Karras, owner of Ares Armor, said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were investigating their business, not for what they sell, but for the people who purchase their products. Karras said the ATF threatened to shutter their business if they didn’t hand over the names of 5,000 customers who have purchased an 80 percent lower receiver (the...

Over the past six months or so, a huge amount of attention has been paid to government snooping, and the bulk collection and storage of vast amounts of raw data in the name of national security. What most of you don't know, or are just beginning to realize, is that a much greater and more immediate threat to your privacy is coming from thousands of companies you've probably never heard of, in the name of commerce. They're called data brokers, and they are collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity...to...

Sarah Slocum loves her Google Glass. She wears the gadget on her face for more than 12 hours a day and enjoys showing others how to use it. With the wink of an eye, she can take a picture or use her voice to command it to record video. The device is, she says, “the future”. So it was with some shock that she discovered there are those who disagree. Rather forcibly, in fact. On a recent outing to a bar in San Francisco, the 34-year-old technology writer says she was attacked by people who told her “F--- Google!”, accused...

After WWI the code breaking arm of the U.S. Army was dismantled due to budgetary constraints. Prior to the Great War the United States had little capability in the area of surveillance and code-breaking, but beginning in 1918 it developed a quite prolific proficiency. When the Army ended the program the civilian side of the government stepped in with sponsorship from the State Department. Master code-breaker and otherwise bon vivant Herbert Yardley was tasked with heading the new Cipher Bureau, a position he held until Herbert Hoover’s Secretary of State Henry Stimson abruptly deep-sixed the agency uttering the famous line...

Florida police officers are accused of using a cellphone tracking and monitoring device without court permission, saying the device was on loan and they signed a confidentiality agreement with the manufacturer.

U.S. Government Reporting Requirements For Coin And Bullion Dealers There is much confusion and disinformation about the extent to which coin dealers are required to obtain customer information to keep on file and use in submitting reports to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or other government agencies. In some cases the confusion may be used to steer customers away from lower-margin bullion sales and towards the higher-margin coin sales, even though such items may be less suitable for the customer's purposes. I'll attempt to summarize some of the reporting topics herein, but for more helpful information, you can visit the...

Thermal imaging devices have been available for sale online, relatively cheaply, for at least a couple of years. But now, an iPhone attachment will let you carry a thermal imaging camera in your pocket. FLIR Systems, a specialized camera company, plans to release its thermal camera and app for iPhone for less than $350 this spring. These devices — which show you the image of what you are looking at but with colors highlighting heat levels from objects — are getting easy to own and use. And that means consumers could use them to spot a water leak in the...

PMB is safer and more private because it doesn’t use the usual technology to send emails and instant messages, or to transfer files. Traditional email systems focus on sending mails through a series of relays until each piece is put back together for the recipient. Here’s how that system works. Why PMB Keeps Your Information Private Our patented, cutting-edge technology doesn’t use relay servers to deliver your communications. We establish a private, electronic stream between you and the database and your recipient and the database. This approach not only gives the messages you send, electronically, an unprecedented level of security...

The government is considering enlarging the National Security Agency's controversial collection of Americans' phone records...

In the wake of the NSA scandal, American citizens demand Congress take a hard look at government surveillance practices. While only the federal government has the power to halt NSA activities, the states will likely be the real battleground for privacy issues. In fact, state legislators are actively moving legislation aimed at protecting citizens’ civil liberties in the digital age. Digitally connected devices are an integral part of Americans’ daily lives. More than 90 percent of Americans deem essential one device in particular: the smartphone. For many, the buzz of a smartphone alarm is the first thing heard each morning,...

The rise in the number of mobile device theft all across the United States has prompted several Senators to introduce a smartphone kill switch on the federal level. This past Thursday, a proposed law called the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act was introduced by Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski (MD), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Mazie Hirono (HI).

The surprising news that Mozilla would start placing a limited number of ads on Firefox's new tabs page, Directory Tiles, still has some users annoyed. Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation explained and defended the Foundation's new ad program, but many supporters remain unconvinced.Mitchell Baker, the chair of the Mozilla Foundation, explained and defended the new ads in the Firefox Web browserAccording to Baker, previous attempts to add advertisement content to Firefox had been rejected by the Firefox user community. Baker described these as "features, bookmarks, tabs, and other irritants added to the product to generate revenue. We’d seen...

The Obama Administration is reportedly evaluating the possibility of using data gathered by the National Security Agency (NSA) to help fund the government. NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett says that “for too long we’ve been overlooking the commercial opportunities of this vast surveillance project. We know what web sites people have been visiting. We know who they’ve been calling on their cell phones. And in many instances we’ve been reading their emails. There has got to be a lot of businesses that would pay substantial sums to have a peek at this information.” Ledgett speculated that “the obvious customers for...

If 'read receipts' on emails weren't annoying enough, a San Francisco-based firm has taken the art of tracking emails to the next level. The Streak plugin lets Gmail account holders monitor which of their sent items have been opened, who opened them, the exact time they were opened and how many times those emails have been viewed since. It also reveals details about the device used to read the email, and even the reader's approximate location. Streak is aimed at sales and marketing professionals, and the company calls it a 'Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) in your inbox.' However, the plugin...

Features Explore some of the most popular features of Google Voice by watching these videos: Overview Voicemail transcription One number Personalized greetings International calling SMS to email Share voicemails Block callers Screen callers Mobile app Conference calls Number Porting

Twitter says it is prepared to sue the Obama administration for the right to disclose more details about government surveillance requests. In a blog post on Thursday, the head of global legal policy for the micro-blogging website said a recent agreement between tech groups and the Justice Department did not go far enough to address the company's concerns. “We think the government’s restriction on our speech not only unfairly impacts our users’ privacy, but also violates our First Amendment right to free expression and open discussion of government affairs,” Jeremy Kessel wrote. “Therefore, we have pressed the U.S. Department of...

Over the last few years, we’ve seen Democrats raise the idea of adding a new revenue source to supplement the gas tax, as revenues have declined from this stream due to increased fuel efficiency thanks to mandates to that effect imposed by Congress. One bad idea that never seems to die is a mileage tax, which would force Americans to track their travel — or have government do it for them. That idea got shelved along with the Democratic House majority in 2011, but now it’s crept across the aisle (via Instapundit):