Court Rules Cops Can Track You by Phone Without a Warrant

A 2 - 1 ruling handed down by the Sixth District Court of Appeals yesterday makes anyone who has a smartphone smelly.

Don't get so injured, unwashed people. We're talking about the smell of the GPS signal coming from your phone. The court decided that the odor it gives off is fair game for authorities to use when "sniffing out" perps — no warrant necessary.

The perp in question here, Melvin Skinner, tried to invoke the Fourth Amendment to get his phone data thrown out, but to no avail.

(Judge John) Rogers likened it to the use of dogs tracking a scent, and criminals complaining they didn't know they were giving one off, or that the dog had picked it up.

The whole court document is below in all its stuffiness.

VIA: Engadget via Ars Technica

SOURCE: U.S. Court of Appeals

CISPA Passes House, Obama Threatens Veto

Associated Press  

Although the vote was set for tomorrow, the U.S. House just sneak-passed H.R. 3523, a.k.a. CISPA, the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, by a vote of 248-168.

Bad news bears...

Facebook threatening to sue employers who require passwords

It was only a matter of time before the regent of the social realm got involved in this employers-wanting-Facebook-passwords business.

Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan issued a statement on Friday regarding Facebook's stance on their users' privacy in the job search.

Read on to see what they had to say...

Little white plug-in strips your network in seconds

The PWN Plug, from PwnieExpress.com

It's called the "Pwn Plug" and it is quickly becoming the new weapon of choice for Infosec specialists. This small, pearly box connects directly to a local network and - through a pre-installed suite of hacker tools - attempts to quickly compromise the network for remote access.

This little baby is virtually indistinguishable from other simple plug-in devices - air fresheners, power cords and the like - especially with "camouflaged" models.

Pwnie Express CEO Dave Porcello says this is the next evolution of a hacker dropbox.

I say, "Hack the Planet."

[HOW-TO] Stop Google from tracking you

As per Google's new privacy policy, beginning March 1, all Google product users will be subject to some semi-alarming changes in the search habits data Google can collect on you and distribute to its other services.

This new umbrella policy means Google can treat you as one user across all its services, where collected data was previously withheld.

"This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a web rights watchdog group that has a simple, four-step process that removes your search history and keeps Google from tracking it ever again.

After March 1, Google will have unhindered access to all that info so click here to see how you can protect yourself.

SOURCE: Boing Boing via Electronic Frontier Foundation

Anonymous goes after Canadian MP Vic Toews

The hacker collective known as Anonymous has set its sights on Canadian MP and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews over a piece of proposed legislation that will require Canadian ISPs to report users' online activity to authorities, sans warrant.

They released a "communiqué" with all the Anon trappings (text-to-voice speech and a nerd movie score - this one's from The Dark Knight) to threaten Toews with "Operation White North," a large dump of incriminating documents that could spoil Toews' moral platform.

Anonymous' video and details inside...

Microsoft: Google tricks IE into tracking users through cookies

Talk about companies with their hands in the cookie(s) jar...


Microsoft is accusing Google of circumventing default privacy settings in certain browsers. Last week, Ars Technica reported that only Safari was affected by this. Now, Microsoft's realized the same exploit script Google is using on Apple's browser also works in Internet Explorer.


Google has since fired back, claiming that Microsoft's privacy policies are "outdated."


Read on... this is an interesting one...

iPhone users: Who has your contacts' info?

The wholesale auction of our personal information on the Internet is nothing new. 

Ever used one of those charming little Facebook apps to chart birthdays, answer inane questions about your friends or seed digital corn rows? The first time you use it, you're greeted with a confirmation page that says the app developer gets to summarily de-pants your profile. 

Click 'Allow' and that information is just... out there. Who knows where it eventually ends up or how it's stored?

Last week, the developer of social networking app Path was caught with its hand in the contacts jar. Literally, they were taking the contact books of users and storing them, unencrypted, without user consent or even a pleasant little note: "Hey u, just takn all ur stuffz lol!!!1"

How many more app developers would engage in such an insidious practice? The answer might be surprising/stomach-churning...

Europe starts to tip against ACTA

Source: Nexus404

Just recently, digital demonstrators in the States hammered out a definitive victory against the Stop Online Piracy Act. Far-flung pockets of the Internet were gimped or blacked out entirely in protest of the censorship implications of SOPA.

This caused dozens of lawmakers - mostly bandwagon-jumpers to be sure - to think twice before supporting a bill that might make potential voters mad.

This won't stop those same lawmakers from pushing similar legislation on other countries - where anti-piracy proponents claim thieves are stealing the content of "hard-working" Americans on a daily basis.

Read on to see how the SOPA victory may not have meant a damn thing against the might of a pincer attack from foreign governments.