Phone Warrants Warranted, NSA Spying, Surveillance State, Your Privacy; Bad Cops, Authoritah, Cuffed, Killed, K9; Ticket, Speed, Crash, Morgan, Road Rage; Fatigue

Phone Warrants Warranted

• Supreme Court Says Phones Can't Be Searched Without a Warrant—A stunning 9-0 decision. NYT
• The most important sentence in the Supreme Court's cell phone privacy ruling
• What to do if police try to search your phone without a warrant

NSA Spying

• SCOTUS cellphone ruling resonates in NSA fight—"Chief Justice John Roberts's 28-page paean to digital privacy was like music to the ears of critics of the NSA's metadata program, which sweeps up details on billions of calls and searches them for possible links to terrorist plots." Politico
• Snarky Lawmaker Reminds Former NSA Chief That Selling State Secrets Is Illegal
• Over NSA worries, Germany ends government contract with Verizon—"Rare meaningful response after US revealed its spying on German chancellor."
• Denmark's ties with the NSA are deeper than previously thought
• NSA-proof messaging app Wickr gains £17m in funding
• Blimp flies over NSA's Utah Data Center to protest 'illegal mass surveillance program'

Surveillance State

• Surveillance: It's Worse Than You Think
• U.S. Says It Spied on 89,000 Targets Last Year, But the Number Is Deceptive
• New Data Shows FBI Issued More Than 19k National Security Letters in 2013
• Theresa May: There is no surveillance state—Bwahahahaha!
• Researchers uncover government digital surveillance tool—"A program used by governments around the world to access and monitor a person's digital footprint across mobile networks and the internet has been uncovered by two sets of researchers who have broken down how it works."

Your Privacy

• The Senate's New Cybersecurity Bill Threatens Net Neutrality
• Massachusetts high court orders suspect to decrypt his computers
• PRISM, Local Edition: NY DA Employs 381 Secret Orders to Gather Complete Digital Dossiers from Facebook
• Why the Supreme Court May Finally Protect Your Privacy in the Cloud
• Why Apple really cares about your privacy

Bad Cops

• Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they're private corporations, immune from open records laws—"Unusual law enforcement counsels that operate the SWAT teams say they aren't public entities." WaPo
• Major murder case collapses in new 'police corruption' scandal—"Scotland Yard is facing serious questions after the prosecution of a man charged with murder quietly collapsed following an investigation into alleged police corruption."
• White Detroit Police Lieutenant Files Discrimination Complaint Against Department—"A lieutenant in charge of the Detroit Police Department's drug unit says he was the victim of racial discrimination and subjected to a hostile work environment for reporting wrongdoing."
• Cleveland grand jury indicts six officers in deadly 2012 chase
• Denver police chief orders review of alcohol abuse reports in ranks
• Miami, Okla. officer indicted by a Grand Jury for her part in alleged scheme to protect the arresting officers
• SC sheriff latest to be charged in past 4 years—"... making him the eighth sheriff in the state to face criminal charges or investigations...."
• Police officer accused of recording men in bathroom, soliciting oral sex online
• Police Officer Fired For Secretly Filming Chief Having Sex In Ambulance

Authoritah

• Sheriff's deputy sought crazed vengeance after his car is egged by teens, charging documents show
• Mass. state trooper treats man like criminal for failing to show "respect"
• Roanoke Rapids police cleared in use of stun gun on autistic teen
• How Poor Young Black Men Run from the Police

Cuffed

• Officer tried to save handcuffed Clive man who drowned—"How a life jacket came off of a Clive man who was handcuffed when he went off a police boat and drowned will be a key part of the Missouri Highway Patrol's investigation into the incident, officials said."
• Durham police says teen shot self, family accuses officials of withholding facts
• Video released of local bodybuilder, Daniel Saenz, shot by El Paso police officer—Grand jury refuses to indict [Salon].
• Utah Democrat Fights Back After Police Smash Spinal Cord Stimulator: Running for State Rep. on Anti-Police State Platform

Killed

• Albuquerque ordered to pay $6m over man's wrongful killing by police—"Ruling says officers were not acting in self-defence when they shot dead a man with schizophrenia in his backyard in 2011."
• Video shows Albuquerque police killing homeless man
• 1 of 2 victims found in suitcases was from Minn.—"According to WTMJ, the [murder] suspect is a former West Allis police officer."
• City of Oxnard Agrees to Multimillion Dollar Settlement—"Oxnard paying record $6.7 million for police shooting death of innocent man."
• Dallas to pay $900000 to family of unarmed man killed by police
• Family of WWII vet killed by beanbag gun files suit—95-year-old man came out with a knife.
• Witness: Man fatally shot by Jersey City police asked 'Why did you shoot me?'—"You shouldn't have been wrestling with us."
• Prisoner: I cleaned up skin of inmate scalded in shower; human-rights groups call for federal intervention

K9

• Owners have questions after police shoot dog in home—"'I thought my dog would still be there, I may have wanted to bury my dog in my backyard. Who told you to take my dog away?' [Hope Lane] asked. The blood had also been cleaned up by police."
• Investigation underway into why officer shot dog in its own yard
• Police: Dog's throat cut; Officer charged with animal cruelty
• 2nd officer suspended in slitting of dog's throat
• Salt Lake man wants police officer who killed his dog fired
• Australia: ACT police officer removed from frontline duties after capsicum-spraying dog

Ticket

• Chief judge of Broward issues statement: Trust us—"Broward residents can trust the justice system — despite the spectacle of three sitting judges facing criminal charges for allegedly driving while under the influence, the county's chief administrative judge said Monday."
• Parma resident ticketed for sign warning of drunken driving checkpoint
• Chicago: Quinn signs bill banning police ticket quotas
• Florida Supreme Court: Early red-light cameras were illegal
• Man gets traffic ticket for running stop sign when video shows he clearly stopped—According to the police chief, "the law says you stop at the stop sign, you move forward, stop again, until you can see that the intersection is clear and then you go." What?
• Robin Hooder sentenced to jail in connection with city parking dispute
• Man sues L.A., saying his parking ticket violates the 8th amendment
• Open data saves New York City drivers from parking tickets—"Here's a great example of how making government data open can directly benefit you."

Speed

• Speed Kills Your Pocketbook
• Sometimes Faster is Better
• Blast from the Past: Montana: No Speed Limit Safety Paradox

Crash

• Staggering toll: Car crashes cost $871 billion a year
• Emma Czornobaj guilty in 2 highway deaths after stopping for ducks
• Husband, Wife Killed After Colliding in Head-On Crash
• We Should Denounce Drowsy Driving
• Texts worse than drink-driving
• 4 in 10 Teens Admit Texting While Driving
• Volkswagen - Eyes on the road

Morgan

• Truck Driver Charged With Causing Crash That Injured Tracy Morgan
• Tracy Morgan crash: Truck driver hadn't slept for 24 hours, documents say
• Tracy Morgan's rep: Leg amputation rumors are false
• Comedian Tracy Morgan moved to rehab center as condition improves
• Walmart says it will take 'full responsibility' if their truck caused fatal crash

Road Rage

• Man with 150 arrests gets 5 years for fatal hit-and-run
• Man Killed Trying to Stop Daughter from Drunk Driving—She's gonna have to live with that for the rest of her life.
• Motorcyclist who filmed, uploaded police flight video to serve hard time—"Defendant Ali's GPS anklet from unrelated offense clocked him in at 115 mph."
• Driver, 60, caught 'using cell phone jammer to keep motorists around him off the phone'
• Motorcyclist Clocked At 150+ MPH On I-75 Speaks Out
• Car fleeing from police goes through park, nearly hits children—Fourteen-year-old was driving.
• Teens' attempted car theft foiled by stick shift
• Teenager's £13,000 car stolen and taken for 15-minute joyride... but thief drove so well it helped bring down his insurance costs

Fatigue

• Just Days Before Tracy Morgan Accident, Senate Moved To Weaken Trucker Fatigue Rules
• Air traffic controllers still work compressed 'rattler' schedules—Also: Your Safety Depends on Air Traffic Controllers Who Are Still Working Crazy Shifts
• Worker fatigue cause of health care mistakes, study finds

War on Terror, Iraq'd, Darth Cheney, Heritage Flounder-ation, M.I.C., Guns; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy, Police State, Your Rights Online, Free Speech, Whistleblowing, Facebook, Tech Tracking, Haxx0red

War on Terror

• How the 'War on Terror' Became a War on the Constitution—"Since 9/11, power-hungry political leaders have eviscerated the First Amendment—and we've allowed them to do it."
• A federal judge will review US 'secret court' rulings to see if they were improperly kept under wraps
• Appeals court reverses decision in Chicago terrorism case—"An appeals court has overruled a groundbreaking decision by a Chicago judge to let lawyers for an alleged terrorist see classified surveillance evidence."
• CIA hatched plan to make demon toy to counter Osama bin Laden's influence WaPo
• 'Extremely disturbing' force-feeding tapes cited in Gitmo abuse case
• UK: Student Stabbed To Death On Essex Footpath 'Targeted For Muslim Dress'
• Man says apartment complex called his US flag a 'threat to Muslim community'
• The Colbert Report: Arrest of Benghazi Terror Mastermind

Iraq'd

• No More Mr. Naïve Guy—"On the future of Iraq, President Obama is a cold-blooded realist."
• Eric Alterman Warns: Pundits and Partisans Are Up to Old Tricks in Iraq
• He blew it on Iraq, but makes sense now: Peter Beinart's thoughtful lessons—"If there's one Iraq war hawk worth listening to today, it's this one who's truly grappled with his mistake." Salon
• Karl Rove Unintentionally Predicted the Current Chaos in Iraq
• Petraeus: U.S. Must Not Become the Shia Militia's Air Force
• Iraq crisis: Britain and US must not meddle in Iraq, warns Saudi Arabia—"Saudi Arabia will oppose any US and British or regional intervention in Iraq against the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the country's ambassador to London tells the Telegraph."
• 1,000,000 Iraqis have fled their homes as ISIS continues armed siege
• The War Nerd: Here's everything you need to know about "too extreme for Al Qaeda" I.S.I.S.
• The Fall of Iraq - What You Aren't Being Told
• Blast from the Past: Dahr Jamail on what happened in Fallujah in 2004: U.S. War Crimes in Iraq

Darth Cheney

• Maybe listening to Dick Cheney on Iraq isn't a good idea WaPo
• Blow: The Gall of Dick Cheney NYT
• Dionne: Dick Cheney, did you really want to go there? WaPo
• The Ed Show: Dick Cheney is still wrong on Iraq
• Watch: Fox's Megyn Kelly tells Dick Cheney, history 'has proven you got it wrong'
• Dick Cheney Should be Rotting in The Hague, Not Writing Editorials
• Interview with Dick Cheney (1994)

Heritage Flounder-tion

• WaPo's Dana Milbank Bombarded For Column On Benghazi Panel That Turned Ugly—Milbank fires back.
• The right's hateful freak show: Dana Milbank vs. Heritage Foundation's abuse Salon
• Why We Shouldn't Be Surprised By Heritage Foundation Event's Islamophobia
  

M.I.C.

• Congress prepares to renew $40bn bill terrorism insurance law—"The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act has never covered a single company from terrorism costs and has earned $40bn in revenue for insurance companies. But Congress is too afraid to end it."
• South Dakota has Raked in $100 Million in Homeland Security Grants Despite No Known Terrorist Threats… Ever
• $40-billion missile defense system proves unreliable
• Golden Hammer: Pentagon sank $3 million in boats that never made it to Afghanistan
• House votes again to prevent retirement of A-10—"The U.S. House today overwhelmingly adopted an amendment to the 2015 defense appropriation bill that would prohibit the Pentagon from spending any money to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt II close-air support jet, a mainstay of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base."

Guns

• Supreme Court rules that 'straw' purchases of guns are illegal
• BLM Shooting Suspect Is Anti-Government Conspiracy Theorist With Pending Gun Charge
• Open-Carry Activists Return to Target With Assault Rifles—"The retailer is in the crosshairs of an escalating fight over Texas gun laws."
• Video Captures MI Police Struggling To Respect Gun-Toting Ranter's Open Carry Rights
• Deadly Brawl Tests "Make My Day" Self-Defense Laws
• Florida dad killed by neighbor's stray bullet as family welcomes home newborn
• Man accidentally shoots himself in penis

NSA Spying

• House votes 293-123 to cut funding for NSA spying on Americans—"The amendment would also stop 'backdoors' from being built into tech products."
• Inspired by Edward Snowden, Lawmakers Want Missouri to Stand Against NSA Surveillance
• More Snowden Effect: Grayson amendment protects security standards from NSA
• New Ruling Shows the NSA Can't Legally Justify Its Phone Spying Anymore
• Citing "Intense Public Interest and Concern" Over Mass Surveillance, Judge Orders DOJ to Turn Over Secret Legal Opinions for Court to Review
• Court Overturns Sharing Of FISA Surveillance With Defense Lawyers
• How Secret Partners Expand NSA's Surveillance Dragnet
• U.S. officials scrambled to nab Snowden, hoping he would take a wrong step. He didn't. WaPo
• Petition with 150,000 signatures calls on France to grant Snowden asylum
• New Snowden Revelations on NSA Spying in Germany—"An analysis of secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden demonstrates that the NSA is more active in Germany than anywhere else in Europe -- and that data collected here may have helped kill suspected terrorists. "
• Interview with Ex-Stasi Agent: 'The Scope of NSA Surveillance Surprised Me'
• EU states let NSA tap data cables, Danish media say
• NSA helps foreign governments conduct mass surveillance at home
• NSA Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny It Uses The Phrases It Used On A Leaked Slide

Surveillance and Privacy

• Mike Rogers Says Google Is Unpatriotic For Not Wanting NSA To Spy On Its Users
• Apple, Cisco, AT&T join Microsoft in fight against global search warrant
• Canada: Supreme Court Delivers Huge Victory for Internet Privacy & Blows Away Gov't Plans for Reform
• Hackers reverse-engineer NSA's leaked bugging devices—"Using documents leaked by Edward Snowden, hackers have built bugs that can be attached to computers to steal information in a host of intrusive ways."
• LinkedIn must face privacy lawsuit over contact reminder emails, says judge—"A federal judge said on Thursday that LinkedIn must face a lawsuit by customers who claimed it violated their privacy by accessing their external email accounts, downloading their contacts' email addresses and soliciting business from those contacts."
• Following TrueCrypt's bombshell advisory, developer says fork is "impossible"—"TrueCrypt developer withholds permission, suggests 'starting from scratch.'" Something is very fishy—or canary-ish—about this.
• eBay pulls sales of Chinese 'spyware phones'

Police State

• Judge allows US Marshals' seizure of stingray records, dimisses lawsuit—"What began as request for info on cell tracking records turns into surreal tale."
• Cops hid use of phone tracking tech in court documents at feds' request—"ACLU uncovers e-mails regarding Stingray devices borrowed from US Marshals Service."
• Stingray Documents Show Law Enforcement Using 'Terrorism' To Obtain Equipment To Fight Regular Crime
• Legal experts: Cops lying about cell tracking "is a stupid thing to do"—"Deception in legal filings could lead to bad consequences for police, attorneys."
• State Legislators Discussing Laws That Will Put Law Enforcement Surveillance Cameras Inside Private Businesses
• When the Pentagon Wants to Predict Unrest, It's Time to Be Unpredictable
• How an FBI Informant Helped Orchestrate the Hack of an FBI Contractor
• Removal of border agency's internal affairs chief raises alarms—"James F. Tomsheck's removal was designed to sooth critics who say the agency has been too soft on misconduct, abuse and corruption. But his supporters say he is a scapegoat for a broken and byzantine hierarchy."
• UK: Green party peer put on database of 'extremists' after police surveillance—"Political movements of Jenny Jones and Green party councillor Ian Driver were recorded, though neither have a criminal record."

Your Rights Online

• Facebook and the First Amendment: Supreme Court to Consider Online Threats
• The senate is still trying to jam through its hugely controversial cybersecurity bill
• Social media mass surveillance is permitted by law, says top UK official—"Charles Farr's statement marks first time government has commented on how it exploits the UK's legal framework to operate mass interception."
• Google will be forced to make a company disappear—"Inspired by the 'right to be forgotten,' a Canadian court has ordered Google to delete links to a company."
• How to Anonymize Everything You Do Online

Free Speech

• Appeals court throws out $340,000 online libel ruling—"CDA Section 230 prevents 'the speech-chilling threat of the heckler's veto.'"
• How your inbox looks after becoming Internet Enemy #1—"The mayor of Peoria, Illinois, meets anonymous online commenters."
• US Secret Service wants software to "detect sarcasm" on social media

Whistleblowing

• Julian Assange Asks The US To Drop Wikileaks Investigation—"Julian Assange has asked the US Attorney General Eric Holder to respect the principles of free speech and dissolve the Grand Jury investigation into Wikileaks, or resign."
• G20 whistleblower protection laws lacking—"The majority of whistleblower protection laws in G20 countries fail to meet best international standards despite a public pledge to shield whistleblowers from retaliation, a new report has found."
• US Circuit Court Questions Whether Whistleblower Protections Apply Abroad—"A circuit court on Monday probed whether whistleblower protections apply abroad during oral arguments of a case where a former staffer is suing Siemens AG over alleged retaliation." WSJ
• Polish authorities search premises of weekly that revealed tape scandal —"Polish authorities searched the premises of Wprost, the news magazine that published tapes of officials' conversations that have embarrassed to the government, the prosecutor's spokeswoman said on Wednesday."
• Passport Office orders inquiry over photographs leaked to Guardian—"MPs and unions say inquiry is heavy-handed and a waste of money after photographs show stacks of passport applications."

Facebook

• Facebook Is Now Using Your Browsing History to Target Advertising—Also: Facebook Lets Users Opt Out of Targeted Ads
• Facebook will track users outside of the site, says 'people want more targeted advertising'—Riiiight.
• Creepy Facebook personality test could be dream for advertisers, nightmare for privacy WaPo

Tech Tracking

• Why online tracking is getting creepier—"Online marketers are increasingly trying to track users offline as well."
• Ars tests Internet surveillance—by spying on an NPR reporter—Also: Listen to the results of our Internet spy project
• Resistance Is Futile: Apple And Google Are Going To Track Your Location No Matter What
• Android no longer reveals app permission changes in automatic updates
• iOS 8 strikes an unexpected blow against location tracking
• How Nest Is Already Using All That Data From Its Army of Smoke Alarms

Haxx0red

• AT&T Waits a Month to Notify Customers of Data Breach—"Hackers breached AT&T Mobility and stole social security numbers and call records. AT&T won't say why it waited a month to notify affected customers, and that's a major concern, according to CIO.com blogger Bill Snyder."
• Nokia paid millions of euros in ransom—"MTV News Investigative Team reveals that Nokia became a target of extortion and ended up paying several millions of euros in ransom. The case is unsolved."
• Domino's Pizza blackmailed over mass data leak
• Hacker infects Synology storage devices, makes off with $620,000 in Dogecoin
• Teens Hack Into ATM Just to Let Everyone Know They Can—White-hats.

Comcast Merger, Broadband and Wireless; Copyfight and Piracy; Patent Trolls; Digital Life, Tech Death; CIA Senate Spying; Snowden, SXSW, Surveillance and Privacy, Media and Whistleblowers, Cybersecurity

Comcast Merger

• Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal to face antitrust probe
• Time Warner Cable Deal Sets Comcast's D.C. Lobbying Machine in Motion
• Comcast spreads cash wide on Capitol Hill Politico
• Top Official Can't Rule on Cable Merger—"The Justice Department official, William Baer, represented NBCUniversal during its takeover by Comcast and is therefore forbidden from considering the merger." NYT
• Our Rights Shouldn't Come with an Expiration Date

Broadband and Wireless

• In Tennessee, four bills seek to reverse restrictions on public broadband—"Telco lobby angry about prospect of facing competition."
• Frustrated Cities Take High-Speed Internet Into Their Own Hands
• This is why Verizon gets away with charging customers more money
• Our $7 Billion Emergency LTE Network Appears Stuck In Corrupt, Bureaucratic Purgatory
• Ultra-fast 5G broadband to download a film in less than ONE SECOND
• True Detective Finale Crashes HBO GO—Took them 3.5 hours to come back online.
• Why a Netflix Price Increase Is Inevitable

Copyfight and Piracy

• US Solicitor General's Office, Run By Former Top MPAA Lawyer, Shockingly Sides With Broadcasters Over Aereo
• The world's largest photo service just made its pictures free to use—"Getty Images is betting their business on embeddable photos."
• 'Candy' Trademark Bully King Gets Trolled In Exquisite Fashion By 'Trademarkville'
• Popcorn Time Is So Good at Movie Piracy, It's Scary
• Dutch Supreme Court Agrees To Let Rights Group Collect Back 'You Must Be A Pirate' Taxes On Mp3 Players And Hard Drives

Patent Trolls

• Stalking trolls—"Intellectual property: After being blamed for stymying innovation in America, vague and overly broad patents on software and business processes could get the chop."
• Congress gets out club for patent 'trolls'
• Nintendo and HTC score a win against patent trolls
• German court dismisses $2 billion patent troll claim against Apple
• EFF goes to court, quashes patent troll's attempt to grab donor names—"Podcasting patent troll sought 1,300 EFF donor names; it's getting zero."

Digital Life

• 15 Theses About the Digital Future
• Study: 11% of Americans Think HTML Is an STD
• Keurig Insists Coffee DRM Brings 'Interactive-Enabled Benefits' And Is For Your Own Safety—Keep bullshitting.
• Yahoo will block Google and Facebook accounts from accessing its services
• Mozilla anger over Dell Firefox fee—Charging users to install the free browser.

Tech Death

• History's 15 Worst Named Tech Products
• RadioShack closing 1,100 stores after dismal holidays
• How QuarkXPress became a mere afterthought in publishing—"In the early '90s, Quark boasted 95% market share. In '99, InDesign arrived..."

CIA Senate Spying

• Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers—"Head of intelligence panel said agency appears to have violated Constitution and federal laws." What's Dianne complaining about? Isn't that what she's enabling the NSA to do anyway on ordinary citizens? WaPo
• Snowden accuses Senate intelligence chair of hypocrisy over CIA disclosures—"NSA whistleblower accuses Dianne Feinstein of double standards, pointing out her lack of concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens."
• How CIA snooped on Senate Intel Committee's files—"It's easy to search someone's network when you hired the IT department."
• Why Does Congress Lack the Backbone to Oversee the CIA?—"The spy agency should pay a price for its intransigence. But not enough legislators are willing to defend the oversight role of their colleagues."
• Behind Clash Between C.I.A. and Congress, a Secret Report on Interrogations—"A dispute over a classified C.I.A. report has led to a bitter fight between the agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee, with each side accusing the other of spying on it." NYT
• CIA: We Only Spied On Senate Intelligence Committee Because They Took Classified Documents That Prove We're Liars
• The CIA has brought darkness to America by fighting in the shadows—"After 9/11 the agency was given free rein to break the rules but when allowed to play dirty abroad, it's difficult to stop at home."

Snowden

• Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue WaPo
• Snowden Gives Testimony To European Parliament Inquiry Into Mass Surveillance, Asks For EU Asylum
• Snowden has shown the 'huge disparity of surveillance and power', says Gellman—"Government needs reminding that they work for us, says Pulitzer-winning reporter Barton Gellman, who describes Edward Snowden as ending an era of indifference to surveillance."
• Edward Snowden is Becoming the Face of Leadership in America—"He may not even be allowed back on American soil, but Edward Snowden is becoming a pioneer for an America that is finally beginning to value information and transparency over pride and fear."
• Weirdest Snowden leak yet: The NSA has an advice columnist—"'Ask Zelda' column was a favorite among staffers."

SXSW

• Kill the Snowden interview, congressman tells SXSW—"Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo wants organizers of South by Southwest Interactive to back out of their scheduled video conference interview of Edward Snowden." Fat chance.
• Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW, calls for public oversight of U.S. spy programs—And of Congress itself.
• Edward Snowden: 'They're setting fire to the future of the Internet' WaPo

Surveillance and Privacy

• Court Rejects NSA Bid to Hold Phone Data Longer—"A federal surveillance court has rejected the Obama administration's bid to hold onto millions of phone records beyond the current five-year limit."
• Julian Assange: 'We're heading towards a dystopian surveillance society'—"Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange joins Alex Wagner to discuss society 'heading towards surveillance totalitarianism,' his exile, censorship and why Edward Snowden 'has become a symbol.'"
• Digital surveillance: How you're being tracked every day
• Disney Bets $1 Billion on Technology to Track Theme-Park Visitors
• Judge orders Internet commenter's name revealed

Media and Whistleblowers

• Outgoing NSA chief hints at 'media leaks legislation' Politico
• The Guardian's Alan Rusbridger: 'It's Essential to Be Paranoid' NYT
• I got 30 months in prison. Why does Leon Panetta get a pass?—"The Espionage Act should be rewritten to deal with issues of intent and motive, and it should be enforced equally."

Cybersecurity

• Embarrassing stories shed light on U.S. officials' technological ignorance—"One U.S. official asked what an ISP is in preparation for cybersecurity negotiations with China."
• Why Your Mobile Device Isn't As Secure As You Think
• Stop Glorifying Hackers—"I would not learn for nine months that within my short, oblivious interval of defenselessness Guccifer had managed to capture a passwords list I had Gmailed to myself at the office." Maybe she should stop doing stuff like that in the first place.
• HTTPS can't be trusted to obscure private online activity
• Apple security rules leave inherited iPad useless, say sons—Sound like a necessary CYA on Apple's part.

Climate Change, Drought, Pollution, China Smog-åsbord, Environment; Agri-Torture, Food Insecurity, Ecology; Ukraine; NSA Spying, Private Messaging, Cybersecurity

Climate Change

• Why are we still debating climate change?—"Most Americans can't even name a living scientist. I suspect the closest many Americans get to a living, breathing scientist is the fictional Dr. Sheldon Cooper from CBS's sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory.'"
• Unfrozen Caveman Pundit Debates Climate Change—"If you want to argue about science, it's helps to know how the scientific method itself works."
• Cruz to CNN: Global warming not supported by data

Drought

• "It could last decades": 5 shocking facts about California's drought—"Droughts aren’t new to the golden state, but this one is for the ages and it comes with a distinct set of troubles." Salon
• California farmers brace for little or no water amid extreme drought
• California drought: Why farmers are 'exporting water' to China
• State water board considers 50-gallon daily limit—"Ration would apply to communities at risk for drought."
• California fights drought with big data, cloud computing

Pollution

• Don't Drink the Water in West Virginia
• Halliburton dodges charges again—"Halliburton Energy Services Inc. will not be charged criminally for transporting large quantities of hazardous waste for 12 years and storing it at an Indiana County site in violation of state environmental laws, the state Attorney General's Office said on Thursday."
• U.S. Magnesium dumped acid on Utah public lands
• The CEO of Exxon Stands Up for Homeowners Against Frackers (When He's the Homeowner)
• How 5 billion gallons of pig manure per year are poisoning Iowa's drinking water Salon
• Federal study says oil sands toxins are leaching into groundwater, Athabasca River
• China to spend $330 billion to fight water pollution

China Smog-åsbord

• China Like Cancer-Risking Smoker as Smog 8-Fold WHO Danger Mark
• China's toxic air pollution resembles nuclear winter, say scientists—"Air pollution now impeding photosynthesis and potentially wreaking havoc on country's food supply, experts warn."
• Smog chokes China as public, experts demand change
• Chinese man first to sue government over smog
• Smog is the best defense against laser weapons from the US, Chinese theorist says—Spin city.

Environment

• Did EPA overstep in tackling global warming? Supreme Court sharply split.
• Idaho Bill Would Get Rid Of All EPA Regulations In The State
• Colorado adopts tougher air rules for oil, gas industry
• John Kerry calls for expansion of world's marine reserves—"Secretary of state’s second environmental initiative this month signals bolder US approach to international protection."
• Google makes huge investment in clean energy

Agri-Torture

• Investigation reveals horrific treatment at KY hog farm
• Is That Sausage Worth This?—"Most sows live, give birth and then die in cages hardly bigger than their bodies. Now, that’s changing." NYT
• Idaho's 'Ag-Gag' Bill: Shameful Attempt to Hide Animal Cruelty on Factory Farms

Food Insecurity

• Slaughterhouse accused of selling meat from cows with cancer
• Food Scam: Tons of Fake Food, Drinks Seized in Interpol Bust
• Mafia and Other Criminal Gangs Selling 'Fake Food' Across Europe
• Fake food: Criminal gangs move from drugs to a new 'underground economy'
• Seamless Reportedly Home to a Bunch of Sketchy Fake Restaurants
• Fake Italian olive oil; chicken liver contamination: food safety roundup
• Fake Labels Reveal The Chemicals In Natural Foods

Ecology

• Jackie Chan interview: 'They served me shark fin soup and I said no way'—"He has karate-chopped some of cinema's most fiendish adversaries in his 40-year film career. And now Jackie Chan is taking on his toughest challenge yet: changing the mindset of a billion Chinese citizens."
• Jellyfish are taking over the seas, and it might be too late to stop them
• USDA spending $3M to feed honeybees in Midwest

Ukraine

• Rival rallies confront each other in Crimea
• In Ukraine turbulence, a lad from Lviv becomes the toast of Kiev—"When the history of the bloody turbulence in Ukraine is written, a 26-year-old who learned combat skills in the army cadets may be recorded as the man who made up Viktor Yanukovich's mind to cut and run."
• Ukraine minister disbands Berkut riot police blamed for violence—See their act of contrition.

NSA Spying

• Bush cyberczar: NSA created 'the potential for a police state'
• Op-Ed: NSA has a special fusion center in Mexican U.S. embassy
• NSA-dodging undersea cable to connect Brazil and EU

Private Messaging

• Telegram Saw 8M Downloads After WhatsApp Got Acquired
• Bye Bye, WhatsApp: Germans Switch To Threema For Privacy Reasons
• Why Skype isn't safe for journalists

Cyberecurity

• Choosing a Secure Password
• Apple finally fixes 'gotofail' OS X security hole
• 360 million newly stolen credentials on black market: cybersecurity firm

Take-nology; Net Neutrality, Netflix, Broadband; Patent Trolls, Copyfight; Haxx0red; Uber; Charrrge; Games

Take-nology

• How a Few Monster Tech Firms are Taking Over Everything from Media to Space Travel and What it Means for the Rest of Us—"The monster tech firms are stifling competition and consolidating their power while they expand into new markets. Like the old industrial magnates, they want to control everything."
• Tech fears shadow campaign to seize global control of Internet
• Tim Berners-Lee: we need to re-decentralise the web

Net Neutrality

• Disruptions: Paying to Travel in the Internet's Fast Lanes—"Has the Internet become so fundamental to our lives that it is, in essence, a utility that should be subject to regulation?" NYT
• Obama: I Care Deeply About Net Neutrality
• U.S. Democrats seek to restore net neutrality
• EFF: Why the FCC Can't Actually Save Net Neutrality
• AT&T Has Invented A Way To Charge You Twice For The Same Internet

Netflix

• Netflix warns it will provoke customer protest if ISPs violate net neutrality principles
• Verizon denies reports of Netflix throttling following net neutrality's death—Will they be able to deny the numbers?
• Netflix speed index shows further decline in Verizon quality
• Why Carriers Won't Win War On Netflix
• Netflix to spend $3bn on TV and film content in 2014—"On-demand streaming site ended 2013 with net profits of $112m despite rise in cost of international rights and commissioning."
• How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood—"To understand how people look for movies, the video service created 76,897 micro-genres. We took the genre descriptions, broke them down to their key words, … and built our own new-genre generator."
• Netflix's Gain Is HBO's Loss in Subscriber Wars
• Here's how Netflix is thinking of changing subscription prices

Broadband

• Kansas: Hearings on community broadband services bill postponed—Cable companies blame "misinformation" for bill's derailment.
• Google can leverage municipalities to bring fiber to the masses—"One small ISP in Kansas thinks city-funded fiber would give consumers choice."
• Utah bill would stop regional fiber networks from expanding—"Bill seen as gift to incumbent ISPs who are threatened by UTOPIA fiber network."
• Mozilla Is Shelling Out $300K to Help Develop Super-Fast Internet
• How the U.S. can avoid becoming a 'third-world country' in broadband

Patent Trolls

• Wi-Fi "patent troll" will only get 3.2 cents per router from Cisco—3.2 cents too much.
• Apple complains of 'patent trolls'—"The tech giant says it has faced nearly 100 patent suits in the last three years from firms demanding royalties."
• The ultimate patent troll is going to trial against Google and Motorola

Copyfight

• Antivirus Software Starts Blocking Pirate Websites
• One Year Later, Unlocking Your Phone Is Still A Crime
• What happens with digital rights management in the real world?—"DRM is one of the most salient, and least understood, facts about technology in the contemporary world."

Haxx0red

• Sochi hack report 'fraudulent,' security researcher charges—What really happened?
• Hackers can use Snapchat to disable iPhones, researcher says
• Retailers must guard against craftier hacks, senators say
• Hackers access 800,000 Orange customers' data
• New Google Chrome feature warns users when browser has been hijacked
• Senate cybersecurity report finds agencies often fail to take basic preventive measures WaPo
• PNG Image Metadata Found Leveraging iFrame Injections

Uber

• Uber and Its Enemies—"How taxi cartels resort to desperate measures to kill innovation and save their crumbling industry."
• Smartphone ride-share apps Uber, Lyft, facing strict regulation
• Chicago Cabbies Sue Over Unregulated Uber, Lyft Services
• Council Of State Suspends 15-Minute Law Against Uber, LeCab And Others In France
• Black Car Competitor Accuses Uber Of DDoS-Style Attack; Uber Admits Tactics Are "Too Aggressive"—There's more to this story.
• Family sues Uber for wrongful death of their 6-year-old daughter
• Should Uber Be Responsible For Driver Recklessness?

Charrrge

• 'Special Excess': The Secret Broadband, Internet, Cable, Wireless and Phone Networks
• HP to begin charging for firmware updates and service packs for servers
• Free alternatives to LogMeIn

Games

• Dungeon Keeper review: 1/10—And deservedly so. This is "free-to-play" gone amuck, all thanks to EA and their underhanded actions. It seems, however, some players aren't aware they're being scammed and that some reviews never see the light of day.
• Flappy Bird Stops Flapping—But Why?
• Valve win German court battle: resale of Steam games still a no-no
• League of Legends developer promises it's not a patent troll—"Riot Games explains its patents on spectator mode features and promises not to use them offensively."
• Batman: Arkham Origins has no plans to fix several game breaking bugs
• Blizzard to fund competitive gaming at the college level
• An unpaid bill leads to costly video game battle

TPP, Copyfight, Piracy, DRM, Patents; Gaming, Tilt, Nintendon't; Chrome Malware, Haxx0red

TPP

• Congress introduces Obama fast-track authority on global trade pacts like TPP
• Constituents Opposing TPP Fast Track Locked Out of Congressman Becerra's Office
• Sen. Bernie Sanders lambastes Democrats and Republicans over Trans-Pacific Partnership
• TPP holds out a kind of Potemkin democracy
• Tokyo, Washington agree to stay course on sealing TPP

Copyfight

• In Response To Growing Protests, EU Pulls Corporate Sovereignty Chapter From TAFTA/TTIP To Allow For Public Consultation
• EU Offers Public a Chance to Fix Copyright Law
• Internet Censors Came For TorrentFreak & Now I'm Really Mad
• The End of Ownership: Why You Need to Fight America's Copyright Laws
• The awkward copyright collision of Fair Use and Creative Commons
• It's the 30th Anniversary of the Supreme Court's Monumental Decision About Betamax

Piracy

• IP address does not prove online piracy, US judge says in landmark ruling
• Three Strikes Law Does Nothing to Curb Piracy, Research Finds
• City Of London Police Cannot Seize Domains Just Because Hollywood Says The Websites Are Infringers
• Prince Targets Facebook Users in $22m Live Concert Piracy Lawsuit
• This Google Glass user went to the movies. Then he got interrogated for about four hours.—Department of Homeland Security, in particular the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, doing the bidding of the MPAA.
• Here We Go Again: Canadian Recording Industry Calls on Government To Regulate the Internet

DRM

• DRM Circumvention May Be Legal, European Union Court Rules—"... under some circumstance."
• Latest Twist On DRM Of Physical Products: Machines Locked Down By Geolocation
• You can't download your .mobi files from Amazon anymore, even if they're DRM free
• All library audiobooks going to DRM-free MP3s
• Xbox One Disc-Based DRM Issues Are Due To Suspended Play, Says Xbox Support

Patents

• Supreme Court upends top patent court's "burden of proof" rule
• Google wins jury verdict against patent troll that sued its customers
• Samsung And Google Bury The Apple Hatchet, Sign 10-Year Patent Agreement

Gaming

• Master of His Virtual Domain—"George Yao, an ordinary guy, spent $250 a week conquering the online game Clash of Clans, at one point bringing five iPads into the shower with him so that none of his accounts would go inactive." NYT
• How online gamers are solving science's biggest problems—"A new generation of online games don't just provide entertainment – they help scientists solve puzzles involving genes, conservation and the universe."
• Tech Demo for Pillow Castle's First Person Puzzler—In the words of Immortal Keanu: "Whoa."
• IGN's 2013 Game of Year—Would love to watch a full movie—CG or live action—based on the story.
• Robot Odyssey: The Hardest Computer Game of All Time

Tilt

• Microsoft And Machinima Defend YouTube Promotion Deal—At first anyway, but Microsoft scuttled the XBOX deal and Machinima's opting for full disclosure.
• King has trademarked the word CANDY (and you're probably infringing)—And apparently "saga" as well. These guys are out of control and probably hypocritical.
• Judge reverses huge jury award over Madden video games

Nintendon't

• Nintendo Confirms Wii U Has Flopped, Slashes Sales Forecast By ~70%
• Nintendo Stock Drops Off a Cliff After Forecasts Lowered
• Nintendo 'studying' mobile devices in wake of bleak hardware sales forecast

Chrome Malware

• Adware vendors buy Chrome Extensions to send ad- and malware-filled updates
• Google bans Chrome extensions purchased to deliver adware
• Warning: Your Browser Extensions Are Spying On You

Haxx0red

• Target, Neiman Marcus Breach Caused By Code Written By Russian Teen
• As Target breach unfolds, information vanishes from Web
• Craft store Michaels may be latest mega-retailer to get hacked
• Cyber attack that sent 750k malicious emails traced to hacked refrigerator, TVs and home routers
• Millions of passwords and email details stolen in Germany
• Massive data theft hits 40% of South Koreans
• For 2013, '123456' unseats 'password' as worst password

Cyber Monday, Game of Drones, Google, Facebook, Copyfight, e-Media, Censorship, Prenda, Bitcoin, Haxx0red, Passwords, Healthcare.gov

Cyber Monday

• The Unmitigated Inanity of Cyber Monday—"The dumbest fake holiday of the year."
• T-Mobile and AT&T went head-to-head on Twitter over a customer… T-Mobile won
• Yahoo sends rambling memo demanding employees start using its webmail—"A close read of the anachronistic historical universe where Yahoo takes place."
• The internet mystery that has the world baffled
• Stuxnet's Secret Twin—"The real program to sabotage Iran's nuclear facilities was far more sophisticated than anyone realized." ForeignPolicy

Game of Drones

• Amazon says drone deliveries are the future—Starting to fly in China.
• Hexacopter used to smuggle tobacco and cell phones into Georgia prison
• Army Scores a Super-Stealthy Drone That Looks Like a Bird

Google

• Google Is Ordered to Block Images in Privacy Case—"The Internet company said it would appeal a French court's ruling that it strip from its search results nine images of the former European racing chief Max Mosley." NYT
• Google's frightening patent: collect data and interact with others automatically on your behalf
• Will This Google+ Flaw Abruptly Shut Down Your YouTube Account?—User gets false-flagged as an impersonator and Google requires photo ID to have it reinstated.
• YouTube hilariously impotent against ASCII comment pornographers
• Google employee goes on Facebook rant after cafe bans him from wearing Google Glass—What a self-entitled Glasshole.
• Gmail is boiling the frog – and we are the frog
• This Google ad has moved people to tears across India and Pakistan—Frickin' onions, I tell ya.

Facebook

• Louis C.K. parody reveals the one button Facebook needs—"No, it's not a 'hate' button or 'private' button. It's something far more pertinent to the truth of social networking."
• On Facebook, a growing teenage wasteland
• Fraud problem makes Facebook more attractive to online advertisers, say ad insiders
• Why I'm (Still) Not Going to Join Facebook: Four Arguments that Failed to Convince Me
• Snapchat turned down more than $3B from Facebook

Copyfight

• Study shows removing DRM increased music sales
• Russell Brand: Get My New DVD From The Pirate Bay
• Copyright Monopoly Disintegration Inevitable As It Only Takes A Single Country

e-Media

• Young adult readers 'prefer printed to ebooks'—"Survey finds that 62% of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer traditional books over their digital equivalents."
• A Brief Whine About E-Books, Digital Publishing, and International Nonsense
• Apple Doesn't Want to Pay the Feds' E-Book Lawyer $70,000 a Week

Censorship

• UK's Internet-Porn Crackdown Threatens Free Speech—"Critics of the law fear it will give the gov. the power to censor any information it feels is dangerous."
• Apple Blocks "Sex Criminals" #2 on comiXology iOS App—It recently rejected #3 and retroactively removed #1.
• Amazon removes abuse-themed e-books from store
• 'Ryse: Son of Rome' design director comments on cutting sex scenes in U.S.
• Let us say 'faggots' on Facebook, says maker of pork snack—"Mr Brain's, which makes the traditional pork product, is urging Facebook to allow people to use the word 'faggots' to refer to the dish."

Prenda

• Prenda's massive trolling take revealed: $1.9 million in 2012
• Prenda's John Steele: Accused of identity theft by his own mother-in-law
• Porn trolls slammed again: Minnesota judge calls in the feds on Prenda—"Prenda Law is referred to investigators—and it must repay its victims."
• Copyright troll starts filing ADA lawsuits—without knowledge of his "clients"—"Disabled 'tester' didn't know Hansmeier sued small businesses in her name."
• Unhappy Thanksgiving for Prenda Law, ordered to pay $261K to defendants

Bitcoin

• We need anonymity to make democracy safe – Stallman talks bitcoin
• Texas Hacker Debunks Link Between Bitcoin Founder and Online Drug Market
• E-sports site settles covert Bitcoin mining case for $1 million
• The secret Hong Kong facility that uses boiling goo to mine Bitcoins
• Bitcoin Thefts Surge, DDoS Hackers Take Millions
• Sheep Marketplace Scam Revealed, $40 Million Stolen
• Missing: hard drive containing Bitcoins worth £4m in Newport landfill site

Haxx0red

• Malware Analysts Say Breaches Are Not Being Disclosed by Their Employers—40% of infections come from company executives visiting porn sites.
• How Somebody Forced the World's Internet Traffic Through Belarus and Iceland
• Alleged Windows support scammer forfeits money earned by "fixing" PCs
• Estonia to extradite 3 men for "Operation Ghost Click" malware scheme—"US government claims botnet group took in $14 million from traffic diversion."
• Ding Ding Ding! Video Poker 'Hackers' Cleared of Federal Charges—"Two gamblers who took advantage of a software bug to win a small fortune from casino video poker machines will enjoy Thanksgiving without the threat of federal prison hovering over them like a carving knife. A federal judge in Las Vegas this morning dismissed federal charges against the men, ending a nearly two-year-long legal battle over when beating the house becomes a crime."

Passwords

• The gentle art of cracking passwords
• Hack of MacRumors forums exposes password data for 860,000 users
• Password hack of vBulletin.com fuels fears of in-the-wild 0-day attacks
• Cupid Media Hack Exposed 42M Passwords—Stored as plaintext. Oy.
• Now Selfies Can Be Used as Passwords

Healthcare.gov

• Obama Administration Says Health Care Website Is Vastly Improved NYT
• Report: 100,000 Signed Up For Obamacare As Website Was Revamped
• Consumer tips for HealthCare.gov show administration's cautious optimism WaPo
• HealthCare.gov will work. That means Obamacare can work, too. WaPo
• Obamacare website progress garners muted reaction from Congress