Sweden is home to a vibrant community of file-sharing activists, but it is also at the forefront of a global recovery in music sales driven by streaming music services such as Spotify, AFP’s Sören Billing reports. … Read More
FBI secretly requests data on thousands of Google users annually
Internet giant Google has included stats on user data requestsfrom FBI in its recent Transparency Report, saying it has receivedbetween zero and 999 letters a year since 2009 that have asked forprivate information of 1,000 – 2,999 users. The company explainedits use of ranges instead of exact figures due to concerns of theFBI and the US Department of Justice that “releasing exactnumbers might reveal information about investigations.”National security letters (NSLs) compel Google to expose“name, address, length of service, and local and long distancetoll billing records” of specified users. NSLs are said to beused only for conducting national security investigations by the USgovernment.Google’s FAQ assures the FBI is still not permitted toobtain user email content, search queries, YouTube videos or IPaddresses. Representatives from Google have previously dismissedallegations of disclosing such data, publicly as well as in court.The FBI is “not required to get court approval to issue anNSL,” the FAQ adds. In order to have the needed data granted,it is sufficient for the agency to enclose a document provingrelevance to an “authorized investigation to protect againstinternational terrorism or clandestine intelligenceactivities.” The FBI also has the power to prohibit disclosureof the fact that an NSL was received in the first place.Google has become the first company to ever release data on thevolume of NSL requests. All internet companies and ISPs, as well ascredit companies and financial institutions, can receive NSLs fromthe federal government.The lack of court oversight makes extensive abuse and misuse ofthese highly secretive requests possible, Wired stated on Tuesday,telling of known cases of such abuse. The US Justice Departmentrevealed in 2007 that the FBI agents could “illegally look”at customer records of certain companies with no paperwork involvedat all.According the DOJ report with the latest available figures, thetotal number of NSLs issued by the FBI in 2011 is just over16,500.The NSL stats are not included in Google’s biannual TransparencyReport, which showed 42,327 requests for personal data weresubmitted to the company by national governments and lawenforcement agencies in 2012 alone. The US government topped thelist, having made 16,407 such requests last year. … Read More
Pope Benedict the liberal?
There’s a moment in Keith Richards’ recent memoir when he pauses his tale of addiction and debauchery to reflect that, once a certain number of stories about his excesses had been told and retold in public, his reputation became fixed. No countervailing or complicating evidence of moderation could change it. “Image is like a long shadow,” he writes. “Even when the sun goes down, you can see it.” In this, and most likely nothing else, the Rolling Stones’ guitarist is a bit like Pope Benedict XVI.
When Benedict delivered last year’s address to the Vatican diplomatic corps, it was reported by Reuters under the headline “Gay marriage a threat to humanity’s future: Pope.” Never mind that the lengthy speech contained no reference to gay marriage, and only one reference to opposite-sex marriage. (The speech noted that “policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.” This may imply same-sex marriage, but the “policies” he explicitly identified—prenatal sex selection and the patenting of human embryonic stem cells—were denied top billing in the press.)
NATO’s Afghan Airstrike Reported…Sort Of
Yesterday reports emerged about a NATO airstrike in Logar province that, according to local officials, killed 18 civilians—the vast majority women and children. Readers of the Washington Post could learn about this (6/7/12) by flipping to page 10 and looking for this headline: Afghanistan Suicide Blasts Kill at Least 22 Civilians A suicide attack gets top billing. Next comes word that "overall levels of violence have dropped" in the country. Following that, a helicopter crash that killed two NATO troops. Then finally: Separately, there were conflicting accounts about the killing of civilians in a NATO-led airstrike overnight in Logar province, [...] … Read More
