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Declan McCullagh | 2 Aug 2005 18:04
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European activists create petition against data retention laws [priv]

Note there is a difference between data retention (logs must be stored 
on the off chance that they could be useful) and data preservation.

The U.S. uses the data preservation model, in which information is 
preserved only after an investigation is underway. A federal law permits 
prosecutors to require this of ISPs -- and, according to the FBI's 
interpretation, individuals:
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/2703_CSEA.htm
http://news.com.com/My+brief+career+as+an+ISP/2010-7355_3-5089267.html

We've covered this topic on Politech before:
http://news.com.com/Your+ISP+as+Net+watchdog/2100-1028_3-5748649.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03554.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01540.html

-Declan

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Data retention is no solution
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2005 12:13:08 +0200
From: Menso Heus <menso <at> r4k.net>
To: declan <at> well.com

Hi Declan,

Data retention is an invasive tool that interferes with the private lives
of all 450 million people in the European Union. Data retention is a policy
that expands powers of surveillance in an unprecedented manner. It
simultaneously revokes many of the safeguards in European human rights
instruments, such as the Data Protection Directives and the European
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 2 Aug 2005 18:06
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Microsoft wants to map the world, one WiFi node at a time [priv]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Microsoft turning the Internet into a spy network
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 08:08:41 -0400
From: Richard M. Smith <rms <at> computerbytesman.com>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan <at> well.com>

I outlined a system like this in 2003:

The Internet as the Ultimate Surveillance Network
http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/usenix2003/index.htm

Other folks have been working on similar WiFi location systems since 2000:

http://engadget.com/entry/3981190443365299/

Of course, one can also get in trouble for using someone else's WiFi AP:

Wireless hijacking under scrutiny
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721723.stm

Richard

--------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8702329

Microsoft tracks WiFi for new mapping system
Move is part of a plan to create alternative to GPS satellite system
By Richard Waters
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 5 Aug 2005 17:58
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Google refuses to speak with news organization after critical story... for one year [fs]

http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-5819085.html
"Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with
CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues
raised by a previous story."

Slashdot thread:
"Google Blacklists CNet Reporters"
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/08/05/122217.shtml

-Declan

---

From: peter wayner <pwayner <at> gmail.com>
Date: August 5, 2005 10:41:11 AM EDT
To: dave <at> farber.net
Subject: google shuts down comments with reporters
Reply-To: pcw <at> flyzone.com

Dave--

This information comes from one source. My understanding is that
Google's lockout of CNet News began after the site ran a story about
privacy:

http://news.com.com/Google+balances+privacy%2C+reach/
2100-1032_3-5787483.html

It's a perfectly nice little piece about the tension between privacy
in an age when so much information is available online. The friction
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 5 Aug 2005 19:23
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Florida dentists drop case to shut down Web site [fs]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fla. dentists drop case to shut down Web site
Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 11:52:23 -0400
From: Paul Levy <plevy <at> citizen.org>
To: <declan <at> well.com>

Florida has a whole raft of laws that purport to forbid citizens from
going public about official proceedings of various kinds in which they
have become involved -- for example, grand jury testimony, bar grievance
proceedings, and police misconduct deliberations -- and many of them
have been struck down under the First Amendment, one case making it all
the way to the US Supreme Court.  Such laws are so common in Florida
that the really remarkable thing about the statute that the dentists
invoked in their effort to suppress our client's web site was that it
did NOT contain any such prohibition, it just required the state agency
to keep its files confidential.  That little detail didn't stop them
from suing, though.

The dismissal came just a couple of days before the hearing on our
motion to have the case dismissed; our brief  is available at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/PrenticeMemoSupportingJudgmentonPleadings.pdf

PUBLIC CITIZEN PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: 					
Aug. 4, 2005

Contact: LuAnn Canipe (202) 588-7759	           	
Paul Levy (202) 588-1000
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 5 Aug 2005 19:25
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Washington Post: "Pentagon Web Site Bans Politics" [fs]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Google refuses to speak with news organization 
after critical story... for one year [fs]
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 12:18:27 -0400
From: robert.macmillan <at> washingtonpost.com
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>

I and my intern wrote a fun story about the Defense Department that you 
might consider for the list:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080401918.html

Robert

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Declan McCullagh | 5 Aug 2005 21:20
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Montana Supreme Court justice warns Orwell's 1984 has arrived [priv]


http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-5820618.html

Montana Supreme Court justice warns Orwell's 1984 has arrived
August 5, 2005 12:13 PM PDT

Believe it or not, it's perfectly legal for police to rummage through 
your garbage for incriminating stuff on you -- even if they don't have a 
warrant or court approval.

The Supreme Court of Montana ruled last month that police could conduct 
a warrantless "trash dive" into the trash cans in the alley behind the 
home of a man named Darrell Pelvit. The cops discovered pseudoephedrine 
boxes -- a solvent with uses including the manufacture of 
methamphetamine -- and Pelvit eventually ended up in prison.

Pelvit's attorney argued that his client had a reasonable expectation of 
privacy in his trash, but the court rejected the argument and said the 
trash was, well, meant to be thrown away.

What's remarkable is the concurring opinion of Montana Supreme Court 
Justice James C. Nelson, who reluctantly went along with his colleagues 
but warned that George Orwell's 1984 had arrived. We reproduce his 
concurring opinion in full:

-Declan

--------------

Justice James C. Nelson concurs.
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 5 Aug 2005 22:22
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Jonaathan Weinberg on 1984 and right to privacy in your trash


Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/08/05/montana-supreme-court/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Montana Supreme Court justice warns Orwell's 
1984 has arrived [priv]
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:02:04 -0400
From: Jonathan Weinberg <weinberg <at> mail.msen.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan <at> well.com>

Declan --

         In the case you describe, Pelvit argued that Montana's
constitution gives that state's citizens greater protections against
searches than the U.S. Constitution gives citizens of the country at
large.  As far as the U.S. Constitution is concerned, the Supreme Court
held seven years ago in California v. Greenwood that the police can freely
search your garbage; the vote was 6-2.  Justice White, writing for the
majority, wrote that the determinative question was whether people had a
"reasonable expectation of privacy" in the garbage they put out, and 
continued:

"It is common knowledge that plastic garbage bags left on or at the side of
a public street are readily accessible to animals, children, scavengers,
snoops, and other members of the public. Moreover, respondents placed their
refuse at the curb for the express purpose of conveying it to a third
party, the trash collector, who might himself have sorted through
respondents' trash or permitted others, such as the police, to do so.
Accordingly, having deposited their garbage "in an area particularly suited
(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 5 Aug 2005 23:41
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Bush-appointed civil liberties panel has never, well, met [priv]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Bush-appointed civil liberties panel has never met - please 
withhold email address (also in autosig)
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 20:03:27 +0000 GMT
From: Richard Uhl <richard.uhl <at> [removed].net>
To: declan <at> well.com

Declan,

The intelligence reform law of 2004 (in response to a recommendation 
from the 9/11 Commission) called for the Bush administration to create a 
civil liberties board with oversight over federal agencies fighting 
terrorism. The board only exists on paper...

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050804/2005-08-04T163439Z_01_N04656647_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-SECURITY-USA-RIGHTS-DC.html

R.U.

_________________
richard.uhl <at> [removed].net
via BlackBerry

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Declan McCullagh | 8 Aug 2005 18:04
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Weekly column: Schizo FCC deregulates DSL, but regulates Net-wiretapping [priv]


http://news.com.com/FCC+schizo+on+DSL%2C+wiretapping/2010-1071_3-5821077.html

FCC schizo on DSL, wiretapping
August 8, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

The Federal Communications Commission has become weirdly schizophrenic.

In a pair of decisions on Friday, the commissioners voted to veer in
two radically different directions: deregulating DSL lines while
simultaneously imposing onerous wiretapping requirements on broadband
providers.

[...]

The text of the FCC's CALEA order is not yet public, but early signs
are worrisome. The FCC's two-page summary says that voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers like Vonage that mimic traditional
phone service must rewire their networks to be easily wiretappable.

It also proposes--and this is the worrisome part--to levy the same
requirement on "facilities-based broadband Internet access service
providers," which seems to cover any company or school offering any
type of cable modem, DSL, satellite or wireless service. They'll have
18 months to comply or be fined.

[...remainder snipped...]
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(Continue reading)

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Declan McCullagh | 8 Aug 2005 18:34
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Terrorists reportedly use the Internet as new "base of operations" [fs]


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/05/AR2005080501138_pf.html

Terrorists Turn to the Web as Base of Operations

By Steve Coll and Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 7, 2005; A01

In the snow-draped mountains near Jalalabad in November 2001, as the 
Taliban collapsed and al Qaeda lost its Afghan sanctuary, Osama bin 
Laden biographer Hamid Mir watched "every second al Qaeda member 
carrying a laptop computer along with a Kalashnikov" as they prepared to 
scatter into hiding and exile. On the screens were photographs of Sept. 
11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.

Nearly four years later, al Qaeda has become the first guerrilla 
movement in history to migrate from physical space to cyberspace. With 
laptops and DVDs, in secret hideouts and at neighborhood Internet cafes, 
young code-writing jihadists have sought to replicate the training, 
communication, planning and preaching facilities they lost in 
Afghanistan with countless new locations on the Internet.

Al Qaeda suicide bombers and ambush units in Iraq routinely depend on 
the Web for training and tactical support, relying on the Internet's 
anonymity and flexibility to operate with near impunity in cyberspace. 
In Qatar, Egypt and Europe, cells affiliated with al Qaeda that have 
recently carried out or seriously planned bombings have relied heavily 
on the Internet.
(Continue reading)

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Gmane