Police will be given new powers to eavesdrop on Internet-based communications as part of a contentious government bill, to be announced Thursday, which Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan has said is needed to modernize surveillance laws crafted during “the era of the rotary phone.” The proposed legislation would force Internet service providers to allow…
Category: Govt
No monetary damages in veterans’ breach lawsuit against VA
The Associated Press reports that a federal appeals court rejected two veterans’ claims for monetary damages in their lawsuit over a 2007 computer security breach at the Birmingham, Ala., VA hospital. As in other breach lawsuits reported in the past, the court held that Jim Henry Perkins and Jessie Frank Qualls had to prove actual…
E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress
The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said. The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed…
Germany settles with Google over Street View
Germany has settled a dispute with internet giant Google over its Street View facility, meaning that photos of homes, shops and offices in Europe’s biggest nation will soon appear on Google Maps, an official said Wednesday. Although users of the website can currently see snapshots of British, French and other European streets, Germany has been…