Olympic organisers agree to China blocking 'sensitive' internet sites - Times Online
The Times Online reports: "Kevan Gosper, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) press commission, confirmed that some of its officials had agreed to Chinese demands that some sensitive sites be blocked on the ground that they were not related to the Olympics."

Biometrics - a view of the future - SourceSecurity.com
SourceSecurity.com reports: "In many ways, it has taken the increased threat from global terrorism and organised crime to create an acceptance of biometric security, convincing an anxious and cynical public that systems do not necessarily pose a threat to civil liberties, provided they are properly controlled and effectively managed."

My Way News - Ex-Google engineers debut 'Cuil' way to search
AP reports: "Cuil is hoping to attract traffic by promising not to retain information about its users' search histories or surfing patterns - something that Google does, much to the consternation of privacy watchdogs."

ITN - Police recruit surveillance volunteers
ITN reports: "Police have been recruiting volunteers to help spy on their neighbours by monitoring CCTV cameras. The unpaid surveillance team are needed to help Dorset Police spot any troublemakers by watching the output from 26 CCTV cameras across North Dorset."

Comment: I wonder what Orwell would think of his country in the 21st Century?

Space War - Advertisers' dream as Japanese display identifies customers
AFP reports: "A new high-tech Japanese electronic display can instantly identify people's sex or age range and target them with advertisements to suit them, maker NEC Corp. said Friday."

Comment: I think I saw this movie.

My Way News - Italy scales back Gypsy fingerprinting campaign
AP reports: "That plan provoked a storm of criticism from center-left opposition as well as from the European Union and human rights groups. Opponents say the campaign is a discriminatory measure that singles out a minority."

Ahead of Olympics, Congressman Pushes 'Global Online Freedom Act' - Wired.com
Threat Level reports: "Republican congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey used a meeting with international human rights group Reporters Without Borders last week to lobby for passage of a bill aimed at curtailing U.S. tech companies' participation in foreign countries' internet censorship schemes. Smith is hoping that the bill reaches the floor of the house and passes before the Olympics begin in August."

Comment: I've always felt it was indefensible for American companies birthed in freedom and liberty to sell technology to be used for oppression.

My Way News - Italy fingerprint plan gets initial OK
AP reports: "An Italian parliamentary panel gave initial approval Wednesday to a plan to fingerprint everyone in the country, a move that could defuse criticism over a mandatory program to fingerprint Gypsies."

My Way News - YouTube, Viacom agree to mask viewer data
AP reports: "Viacom and other copyright holders have agreed to let YouTube mask user IDs and Internet addresses when Google Inc.'s online video site hands over viewership records in a $1 billion lawsuit accusing YouTube of enabling copyright infringement. A federal judge ordered the database produced in a July 1 ruling widely criticized by privacy activists."

Comment: So they won't be handing over records of what individual users watched, but they could...if they wanted to.

My Way News - FCC chief says Comcast violated Internet rules
AP reports: "The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday he will recommend that the nation's largest cable company be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet. [...] Comcast has "arbitrarily" blocked Internet access, regardless of the level of traffic, and failed to disclose to consumers that it was doing so."

My Way News - Ways consumers can safeguard personal data on Web
AP reports: "Your privacy protections may disappear with a court order or subpoena, but there are steps that privacy activists suggest you take to reduce your exposure."

Comment: This AP report gives four tips on protecting your privacy on-line. I'd like to re-post the whole thing (because it's so short), but that would probably be a violation of copyright, so read it before AP removes it and it becomes a dead link. Their best recommendation: use anonymizing software like Tor to avoid leaving tracks on the net. We gave very little privacy left anymore, we need to jealously guard the little we have left.

My Way News - Privacy protections disappear with a judge's order
AP reports: "Credit card companies know what you've bought. Phone companies know whom you've called. Electronic toll services know where you've gone. Internet search companies know what you've sought [...] a recent federal court ruling ordering the disclosure of YouTube viewership records underscores the reality that even the most benevolent company can only do so much to guard your digital life: All their protections can vanish with one stroke of a judge's pen."

My Way News - Bush signs new rules on government wiretapping
AP reports: "The president said the bill gives the government anti-terror tools it needs without compromising Americans' civil liberties. [...] 'The new law gives the government the power to conduct dragnet surveillance that has no connection to terrorism or criminal activity of any kind,' said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, in a conference call to reporters."

My Way News - Senate bows to Bush, approves surveillance bill
AP reports: "The long fight on Capitol Hill centered on one main question: whether to protect from civil lawsuits any telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines without the permission or knowledge of a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The White House had threatened to veto the bill unless it immunized companies such as AT&T Inc. (ATT) and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) (VZ) against wiretapping lawsuits."

Comment: So, if Bush threatened to veto the bill if it didn't include immunity for the telcos, can we then assume that this had nothing to do with protecting the American people and everything to do with protecting the telcos?

My Way News - Microsoft, Google back broad privacy legislation
AP reports: "At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on online advertising, representatives of the two technology rivals said meaningful privacy rules should be based on three core principles: Consumers should be clearly notified what information is being collected about them; people should control how that information is used; and such data should be secured to ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands."

Comment: This will be interesting, it's a clash of interests. On the one hand, we have consumers who view their personal data as "theirs" and on the other hand we have businesses who view consumer data as a commodity to be bought and sold. If only consumers had their own lobbyists we could hope that privacy laws would favor them.

Video surveillance firm gets $10 million in VC funding | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
CNET reports: "The funding will be used to help VideoIQ expand to new markets and continue product development of its IP video surveillance and video analytics products, the company says."

My Way News - EU lawmakers scold Italy for Gypsy fingerprinting
AP reports: "European Union lawmakers on Monday condemned Italian plans to fingerprint tens of thousands of Gypsy adults and children, calling it a discriminatory action that smacked of Nazi Germany."

My Way News - Rights like free speech don't always extend online
AP reports: "Meanwhile, in response to complaints it would not specify, Network Solutions LLC decided to suspend a Web hosting account that Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilders was using to promote a movie that criticizes the Quran - before the movie was even posted and without the company finding any actual violation of its rules."

Comment: Think about this for a minute, before "offending" content could even be posted on a website, the provider suspended the account. There were no TOS violations, it was an act of preemptive censorship. I wonder if this would have happened if the religion that might have been offended had been any other religion than that "religion of peace," whose followers take it upon themselves to riot whenever there is a perceived slight.

My Way News - EU, US near deal on pact on protecting privacy
AP reports: "European privacy rules are generally stronger than those in the U.S., and authorities have clashed in recent years over specific deals reached to transfer data taken from passengers flying to the United States and on banking and financial data transfers. [...] the pact would not give a blank check to U.S. or European police authorities to snoop into e-mails, bank accounts, credit card details or telephone records across the Atlantic."