Obama wants computer privacy ruling overturned

Georgetown SLB reports that the Obama administration is seeking to reverse a federal appeals court decision that dramatically narrowed the government’s search-and-seizure powers in the digital age. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-2 decision in August offered Miranda-style guidelines to prosecutors and judges on how to protect Fourth Amendment privacy rights while conducting [...]

TSA behaviour detection officers check for dangerous people

Georgetown SLB reports that to identify dangerous people, the Transportation Security Administration stations behavior-detection officers at 161 US airports, including ones in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles. The officers can be anywhere, from the parking garage to the gate, looking for passengers who seem highly nervous or stressed. They don’t focus on nationality, race, [...]

New ACLU report: Building American Institutions to protect privacy in the face of new technology and government powers

Read it here.
More here.

EU Parliament report on use of information technology for customs purposes

Read it here.Related: Frontex presentation.

UK has no figures on closing extremist websites

The register reports that UK Security Minister Lord West told the Lords on Wednesday that he could not say how many websites have been censored because no records have been kept. The Terrorism Act 2006 granted powers for police to compel web hosts to shut down websites promoting terrorism. But the powers have never been [...]

DoS attack can defeat law enforcement wiretaps University reports

People who think they are being wiretapped by the cops could disable the taps by sending a stream of text messages or making numerous VOIP calls to overwhelm the system’s thin bandwidth, researchers in Pennsylvania postulate.The researchers say they’ve found a vulnerability in U.S. law enforcement wiretaps, if only theoretical, that would allow a surveillance [...]

Iran sets up special unit to monitor political websites

The head of the unit, Col Mehrdad Omidi, said it would target political “insults and the spreading of lies”. Most opposition websites are already banned, especially those linked to the defeated presidential candidates from Iran’s disputed June elections. More here.

UK consultation about changing communications environment

The consultation examined how the rapidly changing communications environment means the existing capability of the police, the security and intelligence agencies and other public authorities is declining, and why change is necessary in the UK. It asked for views on options for maintaining vital communications data capabilities. The responses found that the rejection of a [...]

FBI rules out use of facial recognition technology

(The Guardian) Speaking at the Biometrics 2009 conference in London, James A Loudermilk II (the man behind the FBI’s automated fingerprint identification system) outlined the plans for the future of biometrics at the FBI.

Under the next generation identification initiative, an irisprint database is likely to be added to the FBI’s existing fingerprint and DNA databases. [...]

Civil society declaration on global privacy standards

The declaration was presentation at a privacy conference in Madrid and included a call for a moratorium on “the development or implementation of new systems of mass surveillance, including facial recognition, whole body imaging, biometric identifiers, and embedded RFID tags, subject to a full and transparent evaluation by independent authorities and democratic debate.”
More news here.