My Way News - China claims victory in scrubbing Internet clean
My Way News reports: "Beijing launched the campaign this summer, arresting dozens of people for spreading rumors, creating new penalties for people who post libelous information and calling in the country's top bloggers for talks urging them to guard the national interest and uphold social order. At the same time, government agencies at all levels have boosted their online presence to control the message in cyberspace. [...] Observers say the crackdown has noticeably curtailed speech by suppressing voices and triggering self-censorship, with more liberal online voices being more ginger in their criticism and posting significantly less."

My Way News - Techies vs. NSA: Encryption arms race escalates
My Way News reports: "Encrypted email, secure instant messaging and other privacy services are booming in the wake of the National Security Agency's recently revealed surveillance programs. But the flood of new computer security services is of variable quality, and much of it, experts say, can bog down computers and isn't likely to keep out spies."

Comment: Two reports from two different countries that reflect the ease with which governments have succeeded at controlling and monitoring communication on the internet.

My Way News - Biometrics researchers see world without passwords
My Way News reports: "Research into new uses of biometrics is blossoming as universities enlist the technology for tasks ranging from paying for meals to restricting access to high-security facilities. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has even studied using sensors in special 'bio-soles' that measure the unique gaits and foot pressure to identify people. Soldiers in Iraq carry handheld devices that allow them to scan fingerprints, retinas and faces and compare them with a database filled with hundreds of thousands of identities."

My Way News - Report: NSA broke into Yahoo, Google data centers
My Way News reports: "The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden."

My Way News - Growing backlash to government surveillance
My Way News reports: "Policy makers, privacy advocates and political leaders around the world have been outraged at the near weekly disclosures from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that expose sweeping U.S. government surveillance programs. [...]  Activists are fighting back with high-tech civil disobedience, entrepreneurs want to cash in on privacy concerns, Internet users want to keep snoops out of their computers and lawmakers want to establish stricter parameters."

My Way News - Groups launch privacy suit against UK spy agency
My Way News reports: "Three organizations in Britain have filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights, accusing their country's eavesdropping agency of using its online surveillance programs to violate the privacy of millions of citizens. English PEN, Big Brother Watch and the Open Rights Group claim that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, acted illegally by collecting vast amounts of data, including the contents of emails and social media messages."

My Way News - NSA chief admits testing US cellphone tracking
My Way News reports: "National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander revealed Wednesday that his spy agency once tested whether it could track Americans' cellphone locations, in addition to its practice of sweeping broad information about calls made. [...] Alexander told the committee that his agency once tested, in 2010 and 2011, whether it could track Americans' cellphone locations, but he says the NSA does not use that capability, leaving that to the FBI to build a criminal or foreign intelligence case against a suspect and track him."

My Way News - London police use super recognizers to fight crime
My Way News reports: "Charles Farrier, a spokesman for the U.K. privacy group, No CCTV, called the police's use of super recognizers 'the latest gimmick' being used to promote the widespread use of surveillance cameras. According to the group, Britain has the most surveillance cameras per person in the world."

My Way News - NSA watchdog details surveillance misuse:
My Way News reports: "Some workers at the National Security Agency intentionally misused the government's secret surveillance systems at least 12 times over the past decade, including instances when they spied on spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends, according to embarrassing new details disclosed by the agency's inspector general. In nearly every case, the workers were allowed to retire before they could be punished."

My Way News - Senate pursues law to limit NSA surveillance:
My Way News reports: "Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein says the Senate Intelligence Committee is drafting legislation to limit the National Security Agency's access to U.S. phone and email data in an effort to win back public trust following disclosures about widespread domestic surveillance."

My Way News - Internet blocks return in Iran after brief opening
My Way News reports: "Word of the opening of Iran's blocked social media sites was spread, of course, by social media itself: in celebratory tweets and breathless Facebook posts. Hours later, the same sites Tuesday chewed over the sobering reality that the four-year-old firewalls were back in place. Iran's Internet overseers blamed a 'technical' glitch on the brief window to the Web."

My Way News - Brazil looks to break from US-centric Internet
My Way News reports: "The effort by Latin America's biggest economy to digitally isolate itself from U.S. spying not only could be costly and difficult, it could encourage repressive governments to seek greater technical control over the Internet to crush free expression at home, experts say."

My Way News - PayPal app adds more mobile wallet features
My Way News reports: "PayPal is updating its mobile app, adding features such as the ability to place an order ahead of time and pay with it while at the restaurant table. [...] The free app is available Thursday for iPhones and Android phones. It includes a feature called "Shop." With it, people can find nearby stores and restaurants that take PayPal payments. People can use their phones to pay for things."

My Way News - Study finds online privacy concerns on the rise
My Way News reports: "Americans might be sharing more personal information online than ever through social networking sites and email. But they also want to better control who can see it, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project."