Does Senate FISA bill immunize FBI 'black-bag jobs'?
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The FBI once regularly (and surreptitiously) broke into Americans' homes, offices. Now a Senate bill seems to offer immunity to anyone who helps the government do just that.
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The FBI failed to report accurately how many people it snooped on using anti-terror measures, officials said a government audit revealed today. Demands for banks and phone companies to hand over people's private information without telling them may also have gone beyond what is allowed by the Patriot Act, officials with access to the report told CNN.
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Draft Senate Intelligence Committee legislation would create a national intelligence director with authority over spending, hiring and firing, powers the White House has not explicitly endorsed but three former spymasters said Monday would be crucial to coordinating multiple agencies.
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The Senate reopens debate on a bill that would protect from prosecution anyone who helped with President Bush's warrantless spying on Americans. Immunity would extend to telecom companies and the president himself.  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) reasserts his threat to block the measure.
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Blog: A new Senate bill is likely to vex Internet companies and advertisers, who have been warning for years that supposedly "anti-spyware" proposals could impose problematic regulations on legitimate businesses.
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Phone companies that took part in President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program would receive retroactive immunity from lawsuits under a bill passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday by the Democratic-led Senate.
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union are among groups promoting opposition to bills that would create an NSA-run electronic surveillance program.
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White House initially wanted immunity for phone companies over possible cooperation with NSA, but new bill also would shield e-mail, IM providers.
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The Senate&#039;s effort to curb illegal immigration involves the hiring of 14,000 Border Patrol agents, more detention centers to hold illegal immigrants and 370 miles of fencing. But those get-tough provisions aren&#039;t generating much support from a key GOP lawmaker in the House &amp;#151; at least not when combined with a provision that would allow millions of illegal immigrants already in the country a chance to become U.S. citizens.
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A new bill aimed at tackling organised crime will be published by the government on Wednesday morning.
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Bill grants legal immunity to telecommunications companies that aided government wiretapping.
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The U.S. Senate is likely this week  to pass a bill that outlines rules for interrogating terrorism  suspects and bringing them to trial, Senate Majority Leader  Bill Frist said on Sunday.
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A bill to protect companies from lawsuits for cooperating with the N.S.A. eavesdropping program advanced in the Senate.
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(InfoWorld) - Even though security technology is improving, spyware legislation is still needed from the U.S. Congress because many consumers don't use all the tech tools available to them, antispyware groups said Thursday. Antispyware groups including the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and StopBadware.org called on Congress to pass antispyware legislation during the last days of the 2006 session. Although some studies show a small decrease in the amount of spyware on PCs, the use of spyware that logs keystrokes seems to be going up, said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the CDT. "The issue is everyone's still making money doing this," Schwartz said during an antispyware discussion in Washington, D.C. Spyware distributors identified by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the CDT can pull in tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually, he added. Antispyware technology can work, but 81 percent of home PC users don't use all three common security tools -- antispyware software, antivirus software and firewalls -- according to a survey published in December by AOL LLC and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). "We still think consumers are not protected," said Ron Teixeira, the NCSA's executive director. "If they don't take these three core measures, it doesn't matter what we do." The House of Representatives passed two antispyware bills in May 2005, but the full Senate has yet to act on similar legislation introduced there. Paul Cancienne, a legislative assistant for Representative Mary Bono, said his boss is optimistic that the Senate can still pass legislation and the two chambers can iron out their differences before Congress adjourns in October. Bono, a California Republican, pushed forward legislation that would require many software programs collecting personal information to get permission before doing so. Bono's Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act also would outlaw the act of taking over a computer in order to send unauthorized information or code, and diverting a Web browser without the permission of the computer owner. The bill, which passed the House by a 389-vote margin, would allow fines of up to US$3 million for spyware-like activity. Security software updates are exempted from the Bono bill. In addition to legislation, antispyware groups need to continue to educate consumers about online dangers and ways to combat them, said NCSA's Teixeira. Many people don't know how to properly use security software or are confused about products out there, he said. Many of the discussion's participants said legislation that would define illegal practices and give the FTC more power to work with overseas law enforcement agencies would help fight spyware. But not everyone there saw more legislation as an improvement. A new law could bring unintended consequences for the tech industry, said John Palafoutas, senior vice president for domestic policy and congressional affairs at tech trade group AeA. Palafoutas pointed to studies that say a significant percentage of time consumers spend online is looking at pornography sites, identified by StopBadware.org as major sources of spyware. "I'm wary of a legislative fix," Palafoutas said. "Part of the problem is there's a lot of recklessness out there."
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Anti-spyware legislation that prohibits companies from installing software on a computer without user consent has been approved by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee. Dubbed the Spy Block Act, the bill now moves to the full Senate where it will likely be voted on before the end of the year. The Spy Block Act requires software to provide an uninstall option, as well as outlaws any software that transmits user information without explicit approval.
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As the Senate contemplates whether to grant immunity to companies that helped the government with its secret eavesdropping programs, Wired is asking readers to call key senators to see where they stand on spying immunity.
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A group of U.S. senators on Tuesday sought $300 million in U.S. spending to combat tuberculosis while new tests confirmed that the U.S. man at the center of an international TB alarm is not highly infectious.