criminal
ACTA in Korea: ’secret talks on transparency’
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- The current round of ACTA negotiations wrap up later today in Seoul, Korea. Having spent the first day focused on the now-leaked Internet provisions and the second day on the leaked criminal provisions, negotiators will spend this morning discussing whether they should make the draft treaty public. Many countries continue to face pressure on the transparency issue, with KEI posting a public letter to U.S.
Continue reading »Canada cops’ online spy power
Canada has just come closer to becoming a police state. The Harper government has, “taken another shot at lawful access legislation today, introducing a legislative package called the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act that would require mandated surveillance capabilities at Canadian ISPs, force ISPs to disclose subscriber information such as name and address, and grant the police broad new powers to obtain transmission data and force ISPs to preserve data,” blogs Michael Geist , going on »»» Although I can only go on government releases ( here , here ), the approach appears to be very similar to the Liberal lawful access bill of 2005 that died on the order paper (my comments on that bill here ). It is pretty much exactly what law enforcement has been demanding and privacy groups have been fearing .
Continue reading »Twitter tweets Norway’s Norges Bank
It’s hard to credit (sorry 
) but Norway’s NorgesBank has gone a-tweeting. It’ll, “Twitter its interest rate decision on Wednesday, breaking ground for central banks using social networks to spread the word on monetary policy,” says Reuters . “We believe we are the first in the world to use Twitter this way,” it has Norges Bank spokeswoman Siv Meisingseth saying.
FBI ‘Going Dark’ with New Advanced Surveillance Program
The proposed 2010 Justice Department budget published last week reveals the development of a new FBI advanced electronic surveillance program dubbed “Going Dark.” The program is being budgeted $233.9 million next year. According to the published budget summary (.pdf), the program “supports the FBI’s electronic surveillance (ELSUR), intelligence collection and evidence gathering capabilities, as well as those of the greater Intelligence Community.” An FBI spokesman told ABC News , which first reported the information, that the program’s name, Going Dark, “does not refer to a specific capability, but is a program name for the part of the FBI, Operational Technology Division’s (OTD) lawful interception program which is shared with other law enforcement agencies.” He added that “The term applies to the research and development of new tools, technical support and training initiatives.” The program is designed to help the agency address challenges with conducting surveillance over newish technologies, such as VoIP. The program is also doing research on automated link analysis to find connections between subjects of surveillance “and other investigative suspects.” The budget report also discusses a Biometric Technology Center that is being developed jointly by the FBI, Defense Department and Justice Department in conjunction with the University of West Virginia for research and development of biometric technologies.
Continue reading »