Ellen Nakashima reports: The Obama administration wants to maintain the secrecy of terrorist watch-list information it routinely shares with federal, state and local agencies, a move that rights groups say would make it difficult for people who have been improperly included on such lists to challenge the government. Intelligence officials in the administration are pressing…
Category: Surveillance
China web sites requiring users’ names
Jonathan Ansfield reports: News Web sites in China, complying with secret government orders, are requiring that new users log on under their true identities to post comments, a shift in policy that the country’s Internet users and media have fiercely opposed in the past. Until recently, users could weigh in on news items on many…
Web-monitoring software gathers data on kid chats
Deborah Yao of Associated Press reports that: Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids’ online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their children’s chat messages – and sell the marketing data gathered. Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats conducted through Yahoo,…
Want a wiretap warrant? No problem, court says
David Kravets writes: Despite refusing to “endorse” the government’s tactics in securing a warrant for a wiretap, a federal appeals court is ruling that authorities could use the fruits of their questionable eavesdropping in prosecuting an alleged drug dealer. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court judge who last year suppressed the…