CoOlDiGgY tech & media (late edition)

Obama Administration Wants To See Your Email

Google backs Yahoo in privacy fight with DOJ

Google and an alliance of privacy groups have come to Yahoo's aid by helping the Web portal fend off a broad request from the U.S. Department of Justice for e-mail messages, CNET has learned.

In a brief filed Tuesday afternoon, the coalition says a search warrant signed by a judge is necessary before the FBI or other police agencies can read the contents of Yahoo Mail messages--a position that puts those companies directly at odds with the Obama administration.

Yahoo has been quietly fighting prosecutors' requests in front of a federal judge in Colorado, with many documents filed under seal. Tuesday's brief from Google and the other groups aims to buttress Yahoo's position by saying users who store their e-mail in the cloud enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy that is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

"Society expects and relies on the privacy of e-mail messages just as it relies on the privacy of the telephone system," the friend-of-the-court brief says. "Indeed, the largest e-mail services are popular precisely because they offer users huge amounts of computer disk space in the Internet 'cloud' within which users can warehouse their e-mails for perpetual storage."

The coalition also includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and TRUSTe.

Read more...

*Obama: Orion spacecraft still a go

*YouTube now gone Orwellian – Now requires SMS from every new Registrant

*More Staff Leave Infinity Ward

*Are Franchises Killing Gaming? How the biggest and brightest games strangle the market with both hands

*Is American Idol trying to get Paula Abdul back?

*Now Whedon's Rewriting Another Marvel Movie Too?

earlier:

All Tweets Since 2006 to be Acquired and Archived by Govt & Google

The US Library of Congress announced a major new acquisition: it will be obtaining all public tweets dating back to March 2006.

Appropriately, the library spilled the news on Twitter via the official Library of Congress account (@LibraryCongress). The tweet read, "Library to acquire ENTIRE Twitter archive -- ALL public tweets, ever, since March 2006! Details to follow."

Read more...

RELATED: Watch What You Tweet: Google's Archiving

*Rebellion Brews as Apple CEO Steve Jobs May Face Backlash for Arrogance

*Israel to Apple: iPad Imports Not Kosher

*EPA Guidelines on Air Quality Would Force More Rural States to Clamp Down on Emissions from Industry, Cars

*More Americans Cutting the Cord on Pay TV

*Recent ads by big companies go awry, spark controversy

CoOlDiGgY tech & media

Apple, Amazon Digital Content Competition

David Garrity, principal at GVA Research LLC, talks with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker about the impact Apple Inc.'s new iPad tablet may have on e-reader makers including Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc. The iPad goes on sale in Apple stores April 3.

Read more...

*Ratings Fall on Newscasts at ABC and CBS

*UPS turns data analysis into big savings

*Florida Deputy Uses Google Earth To Make Arrest


*The "father of the personal computer" who kick-started the careers of Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen has died at the age of 68

the big story (late edition)

Google Chrome Steals Your Privacy

Microsoft has hit out at Google's Chrome browser, claiming that it doesn't respect users' privacy

Microsoft recently posted a video called "Google Chrome Steals Your Privacy" to its TechNet Website. The video explained why Microsoft didn't trust Chrome's privacy and used Internet Explorer 8 as a comparison.

The video has since disappeared but not before Ars Technica saw it and dissected the accusations made. Ars reports that the main accusation Microsoft makes is that Google's move to consolidate both the search and address bar means more of your information is being sent to Google. IE8, on the other hand, keeps these separate and sends less of your information to the search provider.

"As I start to type an address into the address bar, Fiddler [a Web debugging proxy] shows that for nearly every character I type, Chrome sends a request back to Google," Ars cites IE product manager
Pete LePage as saying. "I haven't even hit enter yet to load the website and Google is already getting information about the domain
and sites I'm visiting."

Next LePage shows us how different things look when you do the same thing using Internet Explorer 8. He begins to type the same address into the URL bar and sure enough, nothing is sent to Microsoft until he presses enter.

Read more...


earlier:

Russia Prez Promises 'Crueler' Measures

Already known for its draconian counter-terror measures. In the wake of recent terrorism attacks, Russia pledges to up the 'cruelty' on the oppressed Chechnyan population

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit Thursday to the violence-wracked southern province of Dagestan, telling police and security forces to use tougher, "more cruel" measures to fight the "scum" responsible for terrorist attacks.

Russia's security chief said some terror suspects had been detained.

In his dress — a black T-shirt under a black suit coat — and rough language, Medvedev was following the style of Russia's powerful prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

Twin suicide bombings this week in Moscow — which Islamic militants from the North Caucasus claim to have carried out — have refocused attention on the violence that for years has been confined to the predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's southern corner.

Another explosion Thursday killed two suspected militants and wounded a third in Dagestan near the border with Chechnya. Police said the men may have been transporting a makeshift bomb.

The day before, two suicide bombings in Dagestan killed 12 people, including nine policemen, a frequent target of attacks in part because they represent Russian authority.

The suicide bombings on the Moscow subway killed 39 people on Monday and have left nearly 90 hospitalized.

Medvedev said much more needed to be done to stop the attacks.

"The measures to fight terrorism should be expanded, they should be more effective, more harsh, more cruel, if you please," he told local officials in a televised meeting.

Read more...

CoOlDiGgY tech & media

Google & Yahoo Blast Australia's 'Heavy-Handed' Web Censorship

US is also 'concerned' at plans to block flow of information and experts say state-controlled check will slow browsers

Australia came under fire today from the United States for its proposed internet filtering system, which, if implemented, would be the strictest of any democracy.

A US state department official said that it had raised concerns with Australia over the plans, which are to be voted on by its parliament.

"We remain committed to advancing the free flow of information, which we view as vital to economic prosperity and preserving open societies globally," Michael Tran, a state department spokesman told the Associated Press.

"We don't discuss the details of specific diplomatic exchanges, but I can say that we have raised our concerns on this matter with Australian officials."

Internet companies Google and Yahoo have already condemned the proposal as a heavy-handed measure that could restrict access to legal information.

Read more...

*Facebook Mulls Privacy Changes, Causes More Outrage

*Tech coalition pushes rewrite of online privacy law

*CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings

CoOlDiGgY tech & media

The Palm Pre Battery Problem. Can't stay charged

(from the forums):
For those of you who have the new Palm Pre...please tell me how you keep your battery charged without it going down from 100% at the beginning of the day to 30% by 3PM!?!? How are we supposed to use the Pre if you cannot be assured the battery life will sustain throughout any given day?

Too inconvenient to have it plugged in somewhere just to get a charge!

Read more...

*In Viacom vs. Google, legal shenanigans abound

*Borders Books faces critical April 1 loan deadline

*All together now: Better living through technology

*Study: Like it or not, behavioral ad targeting works

CoOlDiGgY tech & media

Norton ranks riskiest cities for cybercrime

You may want to start keeping a closer eye on where you click if you live in Seattle.

Among 50 U.S. cities studied for their vulnerability to cybercrime, Seattle came out on top as the riskiest place, followed by Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, according to the report "Norton's Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities," released Monday.

In an effort to study and rank the nation's riskiest cities for cybercrime, Symantec partnered with research firm Sperling's BestPlaces. The two companies used their own internal research and also checked out key facts and figures on each city, including the number of malware attacks, the number of spam zombies, the number of infected computers, the levels of Internet access, and the number of Wi-Fi hotspots.



Read more...

*Internet usage overtakes television watching

*Google Shuts Down China Search, Redirects To Hong Kong

*Secret Service Paid TJX Hacker $75,000 a Year

*Can 4G wireless take on traditional broadband?

*Switzerland passes violent games ban

*Conan Barred From 'American Idol' By NBC Agreement

*Filmmaker Del Toro to give 'Hobbit' new look

CoOlDiGgY tech & media

Emergency Internet control bill gets a rewrite

Sen. Jay Rockefeller alarmed technology and telecommunications firms last year when he announced a plan for the president to seize "emergency" control of the Internet. Now the West Virginia Democrat is trying again with a new version that aides hope will be seen as less extreme.

During a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday attended by about a dozen industry representatives, CNET has learned, Rockefeller's staff pitched a revised version of his controversial cybersecurity legislation.

It says that after the president chooses to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," he can activate a "response and restoration plan" involving networks owned and operated by the private sector. In an attempt to limit criticism, instead of spelling out the plan's details, the latest draft simply says that it must be developed by the White House in advance.

There is no requirement that the emergency response plan be made public, meaning it could still include a forcible disconnection of critical Web sites from the Internet--which is what the March 2009 version of the legislation had proposed.

Read more...

*Condom requirement for porn film actors to be voted on in California


update: California's worker safety board votes for further study on porn condom use

*Google Is Taking Over Your TV Too

*Huffington Post's Ventura Censorship Backfires

*March18.org: Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last

*Facebook Users Targeted in Massive Spam Run

*Viacom-YouTube Secrets To Be Exposed In Lawsuit

*FTC Member Rips into Google's Privacy Efforts

*Fox Puts Pressure on Stations Over Conan