EFF Helps Blogger Subpoenaed by TSA, TSA Backs Down: Via EFF.org Updates.

On December 31, 2009, the Transportation Security Administration backed off on an ill-considered administrative subpoena it issued to trasportation industry blogger, Christopher Elliott. EFF assisted Mr. Elliott in responding to the subpoena.

The subpoena was hand-delivered to Mr. Elliott by a TSA representative on the evening of December 29, 2009. It sought all documents "concerning your receipt of TSA Security Directive 1544-09-06 dated December 25, 2009." The much-criticized directive had been given to hundreds of employees of TSA and the airlines and described some of the passenger-related security measures put into place in the immediate aftermath of the unsuccessful attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight on December 25, 2009. The directive expired on December 30, 2009. Mr. Elliott obtained it in the course of his coverage of the situation and had sought TSA comment before publishing. The subpoena demanded all documents by the close of business on December 31, 2009, just two days after the agent delivered it.

Mr. Elliott’s counsel Anthony Elia, assisted by EFF and others, responded to TSA by objecting to the subpoena both on the grounds that it did not provide a reasonable time for Mr. Elliott to respond and because it improperly sought to require a journalist to reveal his sources and materials. Upon receipt of the objection, TSA first granted an extension to Mr. Elliott, then withdrew the subpoena entirely. [ Read more ... ]

TSA Threatens Blogger Who Posted New Screening Directive: Via Threat Level.

Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents Tuesday after they published a new TSA directive that revises screening procedures and puts new restrictions on passengers in the wake of a recent bombing attempt by the so-called underwear bomber.

Special agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection interrogated two U.S. bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous source that provided the TSA document.

The document, which the two bloggers published within minutes of each other Dec. 27, was sent by TSA to airlines and airports around the world and described temporary new requirements for screening passengers through Dec. 30, including conducting “pat-downs” of legs and torsos. The document, which was not classified, was posted by numerous bloggers. Information from it was also published on some airline websites. [ Read more ... ]

Hello folks !! For those of you in the USA, I hope that you have had a good Fourth of July(and Canadians enjoyed Canada day on July 1) and didn't each to much BBQ.

Sorry for the shortage of updates over the last few days, but I've been a bit busy recently and have also been working on upgrading the site.

Besides being the birthday of the United States, July 4th was also the 10th Anniversary of Privacy Digest. I started the site back in 1999 after migrating some material from an old general blog. I had hoped to have the upgrade completed by the Fourth, but it turned out to be a bit more involved than I had originally expected.

It is also two major parts. The first was upgrading the base CMS that I use, and the second part will involve adding some interesting new functionality that I think you will appreciate. I don't have much time this week, but I hope to have the base CMS upgraded in the next few days. I will then start phasing in the new features over the rest of the month. [ Read more ... ]

You probably won't notice to many changes up front, but if you can see this then I am running on the new version of the site. 99.9% of the archive should be accessible(except for the last few days - since July 4th). I have a few small issues that I am working on. The missing recent posts should be recreated shortly, and hopefully I will also be adding new items. [ Read more ... ]

Vietnam imposes new blogging restrictions: Via International Business Times

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam has approved new regulations banning bloggers from discussing subjects the government deems sensitive or inappropriate and requiring them to limit their writings to personal issues.

The rules ban any posts that undermine national security, incite violence or crime, disclose state secrets, or include inaccurate information that could damage the reputation of individuals and organizations, according to a copy of the regulations obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. [ Read more ... ]

RIAA Decries Attorney-Blogger as 'Vexatious' Litigator - Via Threat Level:

The Recording Industry Association of America is declaring attorney-blogger Ray Beckerman a "vexatious" litigator and is seeking unspecified monetary sanctions to punish him in his defense of a New York woman accused of making copyrighted music available on the Kazaa file sharing system.

The RIAA said Beckerman, one of the nation's few attorneys who defends accused file sharers, "has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs," the RIAA wrote (.pdf) in court briefs. "Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions." [ Read more ... ]

EFF and ACLU of Northern California to ISPs and Content Owners: Do Your Part to Protect Political Speech - Via EFF.org Updates:

Coauthored by ACLU of Northern California Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director Nicole A. Ozer

On blogs, personal and political websites, and through user generated content sites, ordinary citizens in extraordinary numbers are recreating a public sphere and reinvigorating the democratic debate at the core of our political system. 46% of Americans have already used the Internet in connection with the political campaign- more than during all of 2004.1 User-generated content is playing a particularly integral role, with 35% of Americans watching online videos and 10% using social networking sites to engage in political activity. 2

An overwhelming number of political discussions are taking place in publicly-accessible but privately-owned, online town squares. Which means that this important political speech depends on service providers, users, and content owners all doing their part to safeguard free speech.

Unfortunately, political speech has been threatened repeatedly by claims that controversial material violates a site’s terms of use or infringes copyrights or trademark rights. Here are just a few recent examples: [ Read more ... ]

OneWebDay 2008: An E-Democracy Time Capsule - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:

We’re just under a month away from OneWebDay 2008, and the Washington, DC OneWebDay planning committee would like to invite you to participate. Susan Crawford started OneWebDay four years ago to promote the Internet and keep it vibrant, in the same way that Earth Day promotes taking care of the environment. The Internet is under a lot of pressure, from inadequate connectivity and the digital divide to censorship. When the Internet is in the news, it is usually to highlight one of the feared aspects of the Internet, rather than the positive transformative power of the Internet. OneWebDay is intended to create a town square of sorts where people far and wide can come together to celebrate and protect the Internet- keeping it innovative, open and free. [ Read more ... ]

This doesn't have anything to do with privacy, but since I just finished the upgrade to my server I wanted to test one of the new function that I can now do. The software that I use to support Sunflower Children (the non-profit I work with) has a few new capabilities now that we are on a current version o PHP.

Instead of just running a banner on a remote site, we can now display a widget that will be dynamically updated as the donation campaign receives money. I am testing it here before inserting it in my sidebar and on the sites of others that support us. If you like the organiztion and would like to donate, please do. The widget is Live and all donations go directly to Sunflower Children. They of course do NOT keep your credit card number on file. It is just used to process the transaction and then forgotten. [ Read more ... ]

Hello Readers,

Well despite all the fun I had with upgrading my iBook(not my best day), I am upgrading the server that the Privacy Digest site runs on. I am increasing the RAM & Hard-drive. Getting a faster CPU and upgrading lots of the system software. In the near future I also have some site upgrades planned that required the new software that this upgrade is giving me. [ Read more ... ]

First the good news. I got it back and it now has a nice big new hard-drive installed. So now I can use my normal setup to make my posting more streamlined. And since it has no camera, I have a laptop I can take with me to the client who does not allow any type of camera onsite.

Now the bad news. Unfortunately somewhere during the process my motherboard's RAM connections got hosed(a technical term). It seems that if I have anything other than the minimum 256meg installed I lose all access to the video. So instead of upgrading from 768meg to 1.2 gig, I have been dropped down to only 256meg ... ARGH!!! [ Read more ... ]

Hello readers,

I just wanted to let you know that there will probably be limited updates for the next few days till I get my laptop back from the shop. Remember my hard drive died a horrible death a while ago? Well I've been operating off an external drive, which while it works is definitely not convenient(no quick sessions due to setup time). Well I finally thought I had enough time to pull out my instructions and tackle the replacement of the dead internal drive. Well while it wasn't going fast(I am more software than hardware, though I can handle desktops and basic laptop repairs), I finally got to a point where my laptop was in approx 7 pieces and I had taken out almost 50 screws of various sizes and I was almost at the hard-drive. The final hurdle that made me stop was two tiny connectors to the motherboard that I just couldn't disconnect without risking damage :-( So I admitted that I had found my limit and decided to bring my disassembled laptop in to my local Mac hardware gurus and have them finish the job. While they of course gave me a curious look due to its condition, they said, "sure - no problem we'll finish the install for you". Hmm, I wonder what the Apple Store would have said? [ Read more ... ]

Happy Fourth of July everyone !! and Happy Birthday Privacy Digest !!

Besides being a popular Holiday, tomorrow(Friday) is also the 9th Anniversary of Privacy Digest. Nine years ago I split this content off from its original location as part of a blog I had on MacRonin.com and I gave it it's own domain. It had been becoming obvious that the issue was becoming more important and deserved a platform of it's own.

So in honor of the ideals that got the United States of America started, I choose the Fourth of July as the birthday for Privacy Digest. [ Read more ... ]

Lawyer Who Subpoenaed Blogger Seidel Sanctioned - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:

Zathras26 writes "Slashdot has previously reported on a lawyer subpoenaing Kathleen Seidel for blogging about him in an unflattering light. Seidel successfully moved to quash the subpoena. In granting the motion to quash, the judge ordered the lawyer, Clifford Shoemaker, to show cause as to why he should not be sanctioned for his behavior. Whatever his response was, if any, it apparently wasn't good enough, because Shoemaker has been formally sanctioned for his actions.

(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online.)

Record Number of Bloggers Arrested - Via Threat Level:

The BBC is reporting a record number of arrests of bloggers worldwide.

The arrests largely stem from the publication of personal viewpoints. The wire service said Monday as many as 344 bloggers have been arrested in Burma alone.

"The rising number of arrests was testament to the 'growing' political importance of blogging," the story said, noting that arrests increased during general elections and during large scale protests in nation's without speech rights. [ Read more ... ]

It's official my hard drive is completely hosed, and I need to obtain a new internal hard-drive for my iBook. Not sure exactly how it happened, but my recovery tools were only able to read approximately half of the drive(24 out of 51 Gigs). And tools that had performed wonders on other drives in the past, churned for untold hours (actually days in one case - 56+ hours) and gave me next to nothing usable in return. Luckily I have more than one trick in my toolbox, and I think I was able to recover the majority of the critical data. Worst case, I have a backup from a few months ago, but that would not have had all my recent account details/updates

I lost a bunch of time where I could use my laptop during this recovery process, and so have a pile of work I have to catch-up on. While not exactly convenient, I do have things running off an external drive at the moment. Since I am more of software person than a hardware techie, I am not going to try and push/rush things doing my internal hard-drive upgrade. Before I take my iBook apart(and hopefully back together again), I am going to try and catch-up on the delayed work, and finish next week's project. This way I hopefully won't be in a rush and screw things up. Plus it will give me a bit of time to convince myself that since I need a laptop without a camera, that holding off on that nice shinny new MacBook Pro(15 inch) is the right thing to do at the moment. So I'll probably hold off on getting the new internal hard-drive and RAM till after Apple's WWDC (which ends on Friday the 13th)

So everybody,learn from my aggravation, and run your backup Today !!

Update May30,2008 10 PM - It's official my hard drive is hosed, and I need to get a new hard-drive for my iBook. I'll probably order it Monday or Tuesday, so if you want to help out you have some time to order this from my wish list. :-) So it will be a few days before I can make any serious updates to the site. I'll know when my new drive is in place, but I think I recovered most of the critical data.

You may have noticed a lack of updates recently. I have not decided to stop blogging, but my laptop has had a meltdown making it impossible for me to use my normal tools to kep the site up to date.
Unfortunately my hard-drive has had a massive failure and I am currently trying to recover my data, but just to make it more challenging than it should be, Its been a while since my last backup.

My first three rounds of working on this all failed due to the problem being to much for the recovery software to handle, and this included two tools which had never failed me before. The current round is running (but extremely slowly) since 2PM yesterday and is only half way thru the drive. I won't know how successful it has been till its complete.

After I have recovered all the data I can, I have to run some destructive hardware tests to see if the hard-drive itself is bad or if it was just a corrupted directory that brought me down. If it turns out to actually be a hardware failure, this might be a good time to upgrade the capacity of the internal drive since prices have come down. I had seriously thought of upgrading the entire iBook to a current MacBookPro(15 inch), but one of my clients won't allow any type of camera(regular, phone or laptop) onsite, which kills my ability to use it on-site. Oh well, maybe later.

I'll be back as soon as I can.

My other commitment has just been completed and now i should able to head over to the CFP08 - Computers Freedom & Privacy conference in New Haven. It would be great to meet some of my readers. From what I've heard at least a few of you should be there. Assuming that they have wireless available, I think I'll try and setup a time and place where I can be found. If you have any suggestions, just reply to this post.

I think I'm going to try and get some sleep now, since my train will leave in approximately 3 hours. Hope to see some of you there. Its to late to think straight, but I think I might be wearing a brown Drupal NYC t-shirt, so say hello

Coverage for May 21 - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08:

• Presidential Technology Policy: Priorities for the Next Executive, by Markus Beckedahl on netzpolitik.org, May 21
• Presidential panel liveblogged at dailykos by Ben Masel, May 21
• CFP08: Neutralidade de rede, by Renato Cruz on Estadão.com.br, May 21
• Presidential Campaign Reps at CFP 2008, by Jeremy Duffy, May 21
• McCain Campaign: Telecom Amnesty Requires Hearings and Apologies for Spying, by Ryan Singel on Wired's THREAT LEVEL, May 21
• Obama and McCain Surrogates Describe Two Very Different Tech Presidents by Nancy Scola on Personal Democracy Forum's TechPresident, May 21

If you're blogging about CFP -- or if you see other coverage -- please add it to the wiki. Thanks!

(Read Original Article - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08.)

CFP coverage in the blogospheres, press, etc. - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08:

Blogging about CFP? Or have you seen some articles or posts about CFP?

We're tracking CFP coverage on the wiki. Please contribute!

Also, if you're blogging about CFP -- or adding entries to digg, del.icio.us, or other sites, please remenber to use the tag cfp08. Thanks!

(Read Original Article - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08.)

Bloggers wanted! - CFP08 (Computers, Freedom, and Privacy) - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08:

We're looking for bloggers:

• before the conference, to discuss the issues and highlight relevant news stories; and
• 'at the conference', to make information available to the people who aren't there

If there's a session that interests you, please add your name either in a comment here or on the wiki page along whether you'll be doing pre-conference or at-conference blogging (or both, of course) -- and feel free to include links to your blog!

No worries if there's already somebody else covering a topic; it's always good to have multiple perspectives.

So, jump in!

(Read Original Article - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08.)

Military Report: Secretly Recruit or Hire Bloggers - Via Wired News: Security Blanket:

A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers." 

Since the start of the Iraq war, there's been a raucous debate in military circles over how to handle blogs -- and the servicemembers who want to keep them. One faction sees blogs as security risks, and a collective waste of troops' time. The other (which includes top officers, like Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. William Caldwell) considers blogs to be a valuable source of information, and a way for ordinary
troops to shape opinions, both at home and abroad. 

This 2006 report for the Joint Special Operations University, "Blogs and Military Information Strategy," offers a third approach -- co-opting bloggers, or even putting them on the payroll. [ Read more ... ]

StopBadware discussion group sees flurry of hacked WordPress blogs - Via StopBadware Blog:

We like to feature occasional guest posts from members of the StopBadware community. Below, guest poster and StopBadware discussion group volunteer Steven Whitney sheds some light on a recent flurry of attacks on WordPress sites:

The StopBadware discussion group began receiving in January a flurry of reports about WordPress blogs suddenly flagged for badware by Google. The blogs had been hacked, and one or both of the following iframes were injected into their posts: [ Read more ... ]

Athletes Can Blog at Olympics - with Restrictions - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:

Hugh Pickens writes "The IOC has given athletes the right to blog at the Beijing Games this summer, a first for the Olympics. They're allowed, as long as they follow the many rules it set to protect copyright agreements, confidential information and security. The IOC said blogs by athletes 'should take the form of a diary or journal' and should not contain any interviews with other competitors at the games. They also should not write about other athletes. Still pictures are allowed as long as they do not show Olympic events. Athletes must obtain the consent of their competitors if they wish to photograph them. Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain."

(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online.)