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The unfolding scandal that led to the resignation of Gen. David Petraeus, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, started with some purportedly harassing emails sent from pseudonymous email accounts to Jill Kelley. After the FBI kicked its investigation into high gear, it identified the sender as Paula Broadwell and, ultimately, read massive amounts of private email messages that uncovered an affair between Broadwell and Petraeus (and now, the investigation has expanded to include Gen. John Allen 's emails with Kelley).
When Will our Email Betray Us? An Email Privacy Primer in Light of the Petraeus Saga
Google Glass: is it a threat to our privacy? | Technology
If you haven't heard about the excitement around Google Glass – the head-mounted glasses that can shoot video, take pictures, and broadcast what you're seeing to the world – then here's an idea of the interest in them. Last week, someone claiming to be testing Glass for Google auctioned their $1,500 (£995) device on eBay. Bidding had reached $16,000 before eBay stopped it on the basis that the person couldn't prove they had the glasses. (They weren't due to get them until last Friday.) Google Glass is the most hotly anticipated new arrival in "wearable computing" – which experts predict will become pervasive.
IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant | Politics and Law
The IRS continued to insist on warrantless e-mail access, internal documents obtained by the ACLU show, even after a federal appeals court said the Fourth Amendment applied. (Credit: Getty Images) The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail. Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers says that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.
Michael Price: Digital Privacy at the Border
Until recently, U.S. Customs agents were free to copy every bit of data from your electronic devices. They could read all your documents, see all your pictures, review your browsing history, and even rummage through deleted files - for no reason whatsoever.
CISPA is Back. <div class="message"> Javascript must be enabled to use this action. </div> Send a message to your representatives asking them to oppose this dangerous bill.
CISPA is Back. | Electronic Frontier Foundation
California Attorney General Releases Mobile Privacy Recommendations | Electronic Frontier Foundation
2:19pm | 4 January 2013 | by Peter Micek Access is encouraged to see that Yahoo! is now supporting HTTPS globally for its mail and messaging services, an important and overdue step for the security and privacy of its users. Pending technical analysis of its implementation, we believe this decision by Yahoo! responds to some of the concerns raised by civil society and security experts, and signals a continuing strengthening of their services’ privacy protections.
Blog | Access
Facebook Messages has a feature that tells you when a chat recipient has seen a message. This "read receipt" is, in true Facebook fashion, both nifty and unsettling. And it brings with it tons of potential for abuse . Unfortunately, there's no built-in method to opt out. Facebook's privacy interface has undergone change upon change, yet some needed controls simply don't exist—and these days consumer privacy depends heavily on control . Luckily, the developers over at Crossrider have an extension, Chat Undetected , that disables the read receipt feature.
Extension Gives You More Control Over Your Facebook Privacy | Electronic Frontier Foundation
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon state officials are proposing an alternative tax for drivers who have bought efficient or electric vehicles that seldom or never stop at the gasoline pump, where government has traditionally collected money to build and fix roads. But the auto-making industry calls the idea of mileage taxes another roadblock for its efficient vehicles, the Salem Statesman Journal reports. In its upcoming session, the Oregon Legislature is expected to consider a bill to require drivers with a vehicle getting at least 55 miles per gallon of gasoline or its equivalent to pay a per-mile tax after 2015.
Oregon officials propose per-mile tax for gas sippers | Local & Regional News
The federal government will continue to access Americans’ emails without a warrant, after the U.S. Senate dropped a key amendment to legislation now headed to the White House for approval. Last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment attached to the Video Privacy Protection Act Amendments Act (which deals with publishing users’ Netflix information on Facebook pages) that would have required federal law enforcement to obtain a warrant before monitoring email or other data stored remotely (i.e., the cloud).
Top Stories - Congress, at Last Minute, Drops Requirement to Obtain Warrant to Monitor Email
travel - privacy/security
Prosecutors Demand Laptop Password in Violation of Fifth Amendment
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal court in Colorado today to block the government's attempt to force a woman to enter a password into an encrypted laptop, arguing in an amicus brief that it would violate her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. A defendant in this case, Ramona Fricosu, is accused of fraudulent real estate transactions. During the investigation, the government seized an encrypted laptop from the home she shares with her family, and then asked the court to compel Fricosu to type the password into the computer or turn over a decrypted version of her data. But EFF told the court today that the demand is contrary to the Constitution, forcing Fricosu to become a witness against herself. "Decrypting the data on the laptop can be, in and of itself, a testimonial act -- revealing control over a computer and the files on it," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann.
EFF activist Eva Galperin interviews EFF criminal defense attorney, Hanni Fakhoury, on the newest edition of Line Noise , the EFF podcast. Whether law enforcement wants to search your home computer, tries to browse through your smart phone at a traffic stop, or seeks to thumb through your camera at customs, you should know your rights. Learn more about your privacy rights by reading our Know Your Rights guide, or test your skills with our quiz .
Line Noise: Electronic Device Search and Seizure
Appeals Court Upholds Constitutional Right Against Forced Decryption
San Francisco - A federal appeals court has found a Florida man's constitutional rights were violated when he was imprisoned for refusing to decrypt data on several devices. This is the first time an appellate court has ruled the 5th Amendment protects against forced decryption – a major victory for constitutional rights in the digital age. In this case, titled United States v.hackers & hacking
surveillance
Internet & location privacy/security
Next Frontier in Credit Scores: Predicting Personal Behavior
By SCOTT THURM Do you know your Medication Adherence Score? Fair Isaac Co. FICO -0.44% thinks it does. The company that created the FICO credit score is branching into new territory, assembling disparate data in an effort to better understand a range of human behaviors. "We know what you're going to do tomorrow," Mark Greene, Fair Isaac's chief executive, told investors earlier this year.Jason Henry for The New York Times Thomas Goddard, of Santa Clara, Calif., says online ads for Mitt Romney have continued to appear since he visited the candidate’s Web site. Then, as he visited other Web sites, he started seeing advertisements asking him to donate to ’s campaign.