Privacy

The Transportation Security Agency is planning to accelerate adoption of software it says will help "enhance passenger privacy" for its controversial full-body scanners.

TSA chief John Pistole said yesterday that the software, which shows only generic body outlines rather than actual images, soon will be installed on all full-body scanners that use millimeter wave technology. Testing on body scanners that use backscatter X-ray technology will begin this fall.

The announcement comes after TSA said in February that it would begin testing the software upgrades on scanners in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (See related CNET Q&A … Read more

Google is accelerating efforts to make its new social network look like a more open and attractive alternative to Facebook.

The latest: Google will allow users to export a list of Web sites that they've recommended through the "+1" button.

While only a modest change, it highlights how Google is trying to use openness--the ability to extract your data from its servers with the click of a button--to differentiate itself from its far larger and more established rival.

"When your users can leave you you're going to work as hard as you can to keep … Read more

The Transportation Security Agency violated federal law when installing controversial full-body scanners in U.S. airports without following proper procedures, a federal appeals court ruled today.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., rejected arguments from the Obama administration that the TSA was exempt from laws requiring federal agencies to first notify the public and seek comments.

"It is clear that by producing an image of the unclothed passenger, (a full-body) scanner intrudes upon his or her personal privacy in a way a magnetometer does not," wrote Judge Douglas Ginsburg for the three-judge panel. … Read more

The Pentagon today elaborated on its plans to defend privately-owned Internet servers owned by banks, transportation and utility companies, and other key firms from electronic attacks, a proposal that has raised privacy concerns in the past.

"Our assessment is that cyberattacks will be a significant component of any future conflict, whether it involves major nations, rogue states, or terrorist groups," William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, said during a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

To illustrate the sophistication of such attacks, Lynn said a foreign government was behind a cyberattack in March … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice is determined to make sure that a case in Colorado will set a legal precedent allowing it to force Americans accused of crimes to decrypt their computers' hard drives.

Phil Dubois is equally determined not to let that happen. The Colorado Springs-based attorney is representing Ramona Fricosu, accused of a mortgage scam, who is refusing to divulge the passphrase to an encrypted laptop found in her bedroom.

Dubois, who specializes in criminal defense and Internet law, says requiring Fricosu to decrypt the hard drive would be a clear violation of his client's Fifth … Read more

The scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch's News of the World is growing, with new allegations that his papers bribed police to use cell phone-tracking technology to find the exact whereabouts of news subjects, as well as to obtain information about the royal family, and also targeted former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, according to reports.

Two former News of the World journalists said the practice of using the illicit cell phone tracking was known as "pinging" in the newsroom, according to The New York Times. The technology, for which one reporter said the News of the World paid nearly $… Read more

Controversial legislation to require Internet providers to store logs about their customers for 18 months has run into an unexpected obstacle: a former supporter.

"This bill needs a lot of fixing up," Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and previous chairman of the House Judiciary committee, said at a hearing today. "It's not ready for prime time."

The bill in question is H.R. 1981, which says Internet providers must store for "at least 18 months the temporarily assigned network addresses the service assigns to each account," unless it's a wireless provider … Read more

Law enforcement representatives are planning to endorse a proposed federal law that would require Internet service providers to store logs about their customers for 18 months, CNET has learned.

The National Sheriffs' Association will say it "strongly supports" mandatory data retention during Tuesday's U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the topic.

Michael Brown, sheriff in Bedford County, Va., and a board member and executive committee member of the National Sheriffs' Association, is planning to argue that a new law is necessary because Internet providers do not store customer records long enough.

"The limited data retention … Read more

The Colorado prosecution of a woman accused of a mortgage scam will test whether the government can punish you for refusing to disclose your encryption passphrase.

The Obama administration has asked a federal judge to order the defendant, Ramona Fricosu, to decrypt an encrypted laptop that police found in her bedroom during a raid of her home.

Because Fricosu has opposed the proposal, this could turn into a precedent-setting case. No U.S. appeals court appears to have ruled on whether such an order would be legal or not under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which broadly protects … Read more