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The California Legislature is looking at a voluntary program that would tax motorists for every mile they drive. KCAL9’s Bobby Kaple reports that Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, introduced a bill to test out the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax because the state’s gas tax was no longer bringing in the revenue it used to due to people driving more fuel efficient vehicles.

(CNN) -- The "kill switch," a system for remotely disabling smartphones and wiping their data, will become standard in 2015, according to a pledge backed by most of the mobile world's major players. Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft, along with the five biggest cellular carriers in the United States, are among those that have signed on to a voluntary program announced Tuesday by the industry's largest trade group. All smartphones manufactured for sale in the United States after July 2015 must have the technology, according to the program from CTIA-The Wireless Association. Advocates say the feature would deter thieves from...

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).

When thieves steal an iPhone, it's referred to as "Apple picking." Apple's latest idea to deter such thefts is a feature called "activation lock." The company says it’ll be arming new iPhones -- and all its mobile devices -- with a kind of kill switch that can render a lost or stolen phone inoperable. The announcement comes shortly before San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, along with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, is scheduled to meet with officials from several cellphone companies about how to prevent the growing number of smartphone thefts. Apple's senior vice president of software...

China’s mysterious Internet outage; speculation over a ‘kill switch’ By Hana Stewart-Smith | April 13, 2012, 5:33am PDT At approximately 11am local time yesterday, Internet users around China reported significant Internet blackouts. Not only were they unable to access some Chinese sites, but also many foreign Web sites that had not previously been blocked. The issue was not isolated to China. Web users in Hong Kong and Japan also reported issues with accessing Chinese sites. A number of explanations immediately came to light, with the most viable cause being the 8.7 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia on Wednesday, that might have...

Have you heard the term Globalrev yet? You may want to acclimate yourself with the term because, it seems like every time I look up, there’s another country in the throes of making some equality for those on the bottom. Personally, I thought it was going to start with one of the P.I.I.G.S. countries (I had my money on Greece). Instead it fired off in the middle east and, it’s spreading like a wildfire. It’s exactly like I’ve been saying for years;“You can only keep your foot on a people’s neck for so long before they feel vindicated in coming...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned governments from China to Syria on Tuesday that blocking the Internet ultimately would backfire, damaging their economies and creating pent-up demands that would boil over in demonstrations like those that have swept the Middle East and North Africa. Clinton's speech, planned weeks ago and billed as a major address on Internet freedom, came against the backdrop of the mass protests that toppled the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia. Aides said Clinton wanted to take advantage of the attention being paid to the protesters' use of Facebook and Twitter in order to highlight broader...

As a result, the Castro regime has intensified its crackdown on dissident groups in an attempt to ensure that what is happening in Cairo will not happen in Havana, according to some observers. "We do see instances of repression starting since the Egyptian upheaval. There have been brutal beatings on dissidents," said Susel Perez, of the Cuba Transition Project, at the University of Miami. " It is a direct sign from the Cuban government that this is something that will not be tolerated on the island." In a 53-minute video leaked last week, a Cuban counter-intelligence staffer warned an audience...

On his radio program this morning, Glenn Beck described that the Left (read: Obama et al) are using the Internet/cellphone blackout in Egypt as a lab of sorts, to apply the lessons learned there about controlling and inciting a society to riot, chaos and breakdown, with the goal of ultimate regime takeover. His monologue tied in closely with the lead in my weekly column about the Internet at WorldNetDaily.  This week's "Surfin' Safari" begins: The day the Internet went dark The Internet shutdown in Egypt last week is giving us a good look at the dark side of governmentInternet control....

These days, no popular movement goes without an Internet presence of some kind, whether it’s organizing on Facebook or spreading the word through Twitter. And as we’ve seen in Egypt, that means that your Internet connection can be the first to go. Whether you’re trying to check in with your family, contact your friends, or simply spread the word, here are a few ways to build some basic network connectivity when you can’t rely on your cellular or landline Internet connections.

Censorship: Virtually the first thing an authoritative Egyptian government did to quell dissent was to shut down its Internet. So why are we debating a bill to give our government the same power? In George Orwell's classic "1984," the control of information and its flow was critical to Big Brother's maintaining his grip on the people and manipulating their passions. Authoritarian governments and dictators worldwide know that lesson well. The ability to see how others live and to exchange ideas is a catalyst to dissent and unrest. The ability to choke off that flow is a necessity for authoritarian governments....

The news of Egypt's crackdown on Web access is raising new concerns over a comprehensive cybersecurity bill that critics claim gives the president a "kill switch" for the Internet. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) recently indicated they plan to re-introduce their bipartisan legislation, which passed the Senate Homeland Security Committee last year only to get mired in a standoff with Senate Commerce Committee members over which panel should have oversight of civilian cybersecurity. Civil rights advocates such as the ACLU also raised concerns about the bill, which they claim gives the president the ability to shut down...

This past week was a perfect example of how the "Internet kill switch" is rapidly becoming one of the favorite new tools of tyrannical governments all over the globe. Once upon a time, the Internet was a bastion of liberty and freedom, but now nation after nation is cracking down on it. In fact, legislation has been introduced once again in Congress that would give the president of the United States an "Internet kill switch" that he would be able to use in the event of war or emergency. Of course there would be a whole lot of wiggle...

I'll make this short and sweet: The great shock and outrage on both sides of the political aisle, is how a country shut down the internet in a few minutes. There are some that say these would be the sure signs of a dictatorship.

Almost 500 bloggers were arrested in 2008 because of their online activity. Gamal Eid, Director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights in Cairo said, “It was the worst year since 1952”, the date on which Egypt theoretically became a democracy. To find out more, read the article. Download the article in PDF ------------------------------ The Internet has been a background cla- mour in Egyptian political life since the 2005 legislative elections. It’s a buzz that is attrac- ting more and more Egyptians. The reputa- tion of the local blogopshere is growing at the same speed as the numbers of its...

BEIJING - China has blocked the word "Egypt" from the country's wildly popular Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been tightly restricted in state media. China's ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source of social unrest. (...)

Seeing what has happened in Egypt and their ability to quickly shut down the internet got me to thinking about the possibility that at some time in the future OUR Government may try the same with us. Therefor I thought that to prepare for such an event should be planned by us (the citizens who would most likely to be effected as well as the people most likely to need alternatives to internet connections to stay in communications and keep upraised of events not being reported accurately (and intentionally). We would have to depend upon our telephones but that can...

Renewed Push to Give Obama an Internet "Kill Switch" A controversial bill handing President Obama power over privately owned computer systems during a "national cyberemergency," and prohibiting any review by the court system, will return this year. Internet companies should not be alarmed by the legislation, first introduced last summer by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), a Senate aide said last week. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "We're not trying to mandate any requirements for the entire Internet, the entire Internet backbone," said Brandon...

The U.S. Congress is considering legislation entitled Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010. There is a version in the House and Senate. The Senate’s is moving along, sponsored by Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and is cosponsored by Republican Susan Collins (R-ME). This proposed bill is intended to protect U.S. citizens from cyber attacks, but I argue that is intended to partially scare citizens and is littered with flaws. Largely, I find Jeffrey Carr’s summary of Forbes.com to be accurate. The bill creates the “White House Office for Cyberspace Policy” and a “National Center for Cyber-security and Communications.” These...

Cyberspace Security bill, dubbed Internet Kill Switch has passed the Senate. Internet kill switch gets Senate approval by President Obama. The cyberspace security bill that will give President Barack Obama the power to shut down the Internet has passed. However, the bill does give the government limited power in the communications sector. "Our responsibility for cyber defense goes well beyond the public sector because so much of cyberspace is owned and operated by the private sector," Senator Joe Lieberman said in a statement. "The Department of Homeland Security has actually shown that vulnerabilities in key private sector networks like utilities...