Nine months ago, Congress closed down the Pentagon’s controversial computer surveillance program, Total Information Awareness. But there still ain’t no way to hide the government’s prying eyes, apparently: a congressional report says Uncle Snoopy is still combing private records for “suspicious activity,” scanning “a vast array of databases for clues about criminal or terrorist activity,” says the General Accounting Office.
According to Reuters, 36 of the government’s 1999 data mining efforts collect personal information from the private sector. According to Ohio State University law professor Peter Swire, this amounts to TIA under other names. And, according to various civil libertarians, this could violate civil liberties if allowed to continue unchecked. Electronic Privacy Information Center general counsel David Sobel has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more about one unidentified federal agency said to be mining intelligence reports and Internet searches alike “to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities.”…
Those identified as spammers in Maryland’s e-mails are going to be looking at fines between $5,000-25,000 and three to 10 years in the can under a law signed May 26 by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. The new law bans individuals, groups, and companies from sending bulk e-mail with falsified or disguised senders’ identities, addresses, or subjects, not to mention cracking down on those who infiltrate legitimate service providers to use their systems for spamming. State lawmaker Neil F. Quinter, a co-sponsor of the law, told reporters they can expect to see “a couple of” high-profile prosecutions under the law…
How many times has your spam bulleted or trumpeted FREE PORN!!!? For your consideration: Danish information technology company LL Media giving its workers free Internet porn site subscriptions. The idea, apparently, was to stop the workers from accessing the naughty stuff on their own on company time. Director Levi Nielsen called it a natural fringe benefit comparable to a free phone or a company car. Uh-huh....
Speaking of fringe, three men have been indicted by a federal grand jury [registration required to view full story – Ed.] in Dallas for selling videos featuring rape and sexual torture from a number of Websites. According to one report, one of the indicted, Clarence Gartman, is a former partner of a Fort Worth couple sentenced to the slammer in March on similar charges from their Web business. The two others under indictment: Brent McDowell and Lou Santilena…
A Walnut Creek, California eighth grader isn’t in that kind of trouble, but he has been arrested for creating an animated Internet cartoon said to have referred to killing a teacher. The boy and his mother say authorities overreacted, considering he had never been in trouble in school before; but Walnut Creek police cuffed and stuffed the kid at his intermediate school. The boy says he intended only to poke fun at school, but officials said phrases like “Maybe I should kill him and urinate on his remains” were to be taken seriously enough…
It’s anything but fun for RCN Corp., which provides telephone, Internet, and cable service in Chicago and has filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection. The company said its creditors support the restructuring and looks forward to coming up from bankruptcy in the fourth quarter of the year. RCN reportedly spent over $1.8 billion building its own network to challenge established outfits like Comcast, but revenues slacked at only $542 million by 2003…
Dirty tricks never really slack off when it’s election season, and cyberspace isn’t exactly immune to them. Consider a round of computer geeks said to have been playing spoofs on Google – by posting the word “waffles” on their Websites and linking it to the Website of Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, who is often accused of waffling or flip-flopping, even as the word never shows up on the Kerry site. The technique is called Google-bombing, and don’t be surprised if Kerry supporters give the Kerry opponents a taste of their own cybermedicine soon enough…
Kerry isn’t the only high-profile American who might have to worry about a cyberspoof. The cyberbuzz around Hollywood apparently centers around an anonymous Weblogger known as Rance, who claims to be a top-draw actor – speculation has suggested he’s anyone from George Clooney to Jim Carrey and back to Ben Affleck – and writes with “a trenchant wit and a jaundiced eye” against the cult of celebrity. Giving a pseudonymous interview to Reuters, Rance (http://captainhoof.tripod.com/blog) said he was either a well-known actor “or a well-known actress, perhaps. Just not Donald Trump.” Whoever his is, Reuters said he has Hollywood playing a furious online guessing game and making him a regular topic at the usual parties.
See you in 15 minutes, Rance.…
