Civil Libertarians Protest Privacy Policy
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The Bush administration's new privacy guidelines fail to protect the rights of Americans, and the board created to guarantee those rights lacks the independence to do the job, civil libertarians told the White House privacy board yesterday at its first public forum.
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GLASGOW, May 24 (IPS) - New defence is being considered for defenders of  civil society rights by the nearly 1,000 participants in the  Civicus world assembly under way in Glasgow this week.
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(InfoWorld) - The ACLU has turned up the political heat on EarthLink and Google's plan for Wi-Fi in San Francisco, telling the city's Board of Supervisors that the proposed contract doesn't have enough privacy or free speech protections. The ACLU of Northern California said in a letter to the supervisors on Tuesday that both EarthLink's paid service and Google's free offering would fall short of most of the group's recommendations on collection and sharing of personal data and possible tracking of users. Among other things, there are no limits on what kind of information EarthLink can or will collect, and terms for the Google service call for requiring "minimal" information on login without defining "minimal," the letter said. In addition to privacy concerns, the group is worried that knowing information is being collected will cause users to limit what they say and do on the Internet. The city and EarthLink agreed on a contract last month, and EarthLink is confident the closely watched project will get off the ground with deployment of a proof-of-concept network starting in April, said company spokesman Jerry Grasso. But the proposal has been under fire since before the contract was completed, and some members of the board have said a municipally owned system would be better for the city. EarthLink negotiated the deal with the city and would build and operate the network, bringing Google in as a tenant providing the free, slower service. Some critics have warned that San Francisco could be giving a virtual monopoly on citywide Wi-Fi to private companies without ensuring user privacy or complete coverage. The ACLU said a municipal Wi-Fi network should let users opt in or out of any service that collects data on what they look at or search for on the Internet, or their e-mail messages. There are no provisions for that in the paid or free service terms, it said. EarthLink can only save location information for 60 days, but there's no limit to how long it can store personal protected information and no limit to how long Google can store any information, the ACLU said. Users of the EarthLink service can opt out of receiving marketing materials, but EarthLink has free reign to share personal information with partner companies that help it deliver or promote the service. Both service providers can hand over users' personal information for law enforcement or national security reasons without a warrant or notification of the user, though they would require "court-ordered documentation" before doing so. If information is sought for a civil suit, EarthLink or Google would have to tell the user first. EarthLink's Grasso declined to comment on the ACLU's letter, saying EarthLink has not seen it. Google and city representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
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It may be the late-summer doldrums, but the debate over taxes and private equity is hardly on vacation. It has just gone to the Hamptons &#8212; like much of the rest of Wall Street. A group of protesters, some with costumes and snarky stage names, gathered Wednesday on the swank Main Street of Southampton, N.Y., not [...].
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Stalks you, sir The introduction of new features on social network site Facebook has sparked a backlash from users. Design changes to the site violate user privacy and ought to be scrapped, according to disgruntled users who have launched a series of impromptu protests. One protest site is calling for users to boycott Facebook on 13 September in opposition against a feature called News Feed, which critics argue is a Godsend for stalkers.â¦
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Comment is free: Mark Lawson: Anyone stupid enough to do a computer's bidding is not losing civil liberties so much as their marbles.
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The closing of Wikileaks.org, which invites people to post confidential material, presents a First Amendment test.
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Activists are using the Internet to arrange housing for out-of-towners during the Republican National Convention in NYC, organize a mass-flash of underwear emblazoned with anti-Bush messages and tell protesters what to say if they're arrested ("I am going to remain silent. I would like to speak with a lawyer.").
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Pro-gun rights Democrats teamed with House Republicans on Thursday to block local governments and law enforcement agencies from gaining routine access to gun-purchasing data.
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Civil liberties advocates urged a White House privacy board Tuesday to aggressively review the government's warrantless surveillance program, even as they questioned whether it has the power to do so.
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The American Civil Liberties Union joined with dozens of activist groups Thursday in demanding information about federal counterterrorism surveillance efforts.
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New breed raised in intellectual cages and fed raw meat ICANN San Juan 2007 The Tuesday ICANN extravaganza continued with the ritualized slaughter of individual privacy rights in the holiest of holies for American trademark attorneys: ICANN's Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) triannual meeting, wherein they flog their misrepresentations of American trademark law on an unsuspecting, powerless and almost entirely ignorant internet community.â¦
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Fast-growing U.S. social network Web   site Facebook said on Friday it has adopted new privacy   controls following an unprecedented online backlash over a new   feature that let users track their friends online.
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New York City employee pension  funds are calling on two top Internet companies to do more to  protect free speech in repressive countries, joining a year-old  campaign by human rights groups.
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Rights campaigners protested Tuesday over a device used to disperse unruly young people by emitting a high-pitched noise which only they can hear.
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Some protesters-in-waiting seem to think that their right to free expression can&#39;t be separated from the right to trash New York City&#39;s Central Park.
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Civil liberties groups bash vote as "get-out-of-jail-free card" for AT&#38;T and others accused of illegally opening their networks to the feds.