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."

My Way News - Swedes protest sweeping e-mail eavesdropping law
AP reports: "The law, narrowly passed by legislators two weeks ago, will let officials eavesdrop on all cross-border e-mail and telephone traffic, in what technology companies have called the most far-reaching communications monitoring plan in Europe. Sweden's government plans to implement it in January."

Comment: Even the Swedes don't like to be spied on by their government.

My Way News - ISPs still considering tracking Web use
AP reports: "Although a large Internet service provider has backed away from technology that tracks subscribers' Web use in order to deliver personalized advertising, two other broadband companies said Wednesday they are still considering whether to deploy it."

Technology Leaders Favor Online ID Card Over Passwords - NYTimes.com
The New York Times reports: "The idea is to bring the concept of an identity card, like a driver’s license, to the online world. Rather than logging on to sites with user IDs and passwords, people will gain access to sites using a secure digital identity that is overseen by a third party. The user controls the information in a secure place and transmits only the data that is necessary to access a Web site."

Comment: I always feel like I have to add a comment to these posts, a reassurance that I'm not saying that this kind of ID card is the MOTB, merely that it's another step on the path toward a technology and a system that gives each person one official ID.