Mike Masnick writes: In the last few months, we’ve seen multiple internet companies finally able to reveal National Security Letters (NSLs) they had received from the Justice Department, demanding information from the companies, while simultaneously saddling those companies with gag orders, forbidding them to speak about the orders. It started last June, when Yahoo was…
Month: January 2017
Family DNA Searches Seen as Crime-Solving Tool, and Intrusion on Rights
Back in 2005, when law enforcement was searching to identify the BTK (“Bind, Torture, Kill”) serial killer, they obtained a suspect’s daughter’s DNA by compelling a hospital to turn over a sample they held. Her DNA led to the arrest of Dennis Rader. At the time, there was a lot of discussion about using a family…
Samsung warns viewers: Our smart TVs could be snooping on your private conversations
Katherine Rushton reports: If you settle down to watch television this evening, you might want to think twice about what you say out loud. Samsung has warned owners of its internet-connected ‘smart TV’ that anything they discuss while sitting near the device may be overheard. The popular televisions are voice activated, so users can switch…
Republican Lawmaker Wants to Poll Texas Muslims About Their Beliefs
Meagan Flynn reports: Rep. Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg sent the three-question survey ahead of the Homeland Security Summit he’s hosting this week, where he will discuss “defending against radical Islamic terrorism in Texas,” as he described in it a release. Yet Musfafaa Carroll, executive director of the Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,…