Declan McCullagh reports: Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws. The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which…
Category: U.S.
Florida court reverses opinion on FERPA case involving confidentiality of student complaint against professor
A Florida appeals court has reversed its opinion in a student privacy case, ruling last month that the college does not have to disclose to a professor the name of a student who sent an email complaining of his classroom behavior and teaching methods. The ruling, issued by Florida’s First District Court of Appeals in…
The Boston Marathon bombings and the march to total video surveillance of Americans.
Joe Cadillic, a frequent submitter to this blog and a private investigator in Massachusetts, expresses his concerns in a blog post: Surveillance cameras — which have proliferated in London, Chicago and elsewhere — may take on new allure. Informal surveillance by private citizens may proliferate as well; the FBI says it expects the public to…
The Navigator: Speak out now on full-body scanners
Christopher Elliott reports: In 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the TSA to engage in what’s known as notice-and-comment rulemaking on its use of the technology. You can share your opinion on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at the Federal Register Web site (www.federalregister.gov) until June 24. In…