PID News

Incredible but true! The Philippines government wants to set up a tattle-tale system whereby anyone can rat on his/her neighbor’s tweets, posts, or comments–with a stiff fine and prison term as punishment. The government is given carte blanche to spy on all social media and even snoop into Filipinos’ Skype calls!

Read all about it at RT.com: Philippines gags internet with ‘draconian’ cyber crime law — RT.

People, this is getting out of hand! The millions spent on these cameras could have gone toward books, exercise equipment, or computers for classrooms! Sheesh! — PID

(HOUSTON CHRONICLE) SAN ANTONIO — Smile, Texas schoolchildren. You’re on calorie camera.

That’s the idea behind a $2 million project being unveiled Wednesday in the lunchroom of a San Antonio elementary school, where high-tech cameras installed in the cafeteria will begin photographing what foods children pile onto their trays — and later capture what they don’t finish eating.

MORE via Smile, peas and carrots. You’ll be photographed on lunch tray | News Bizarre | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

(McCLATCHY) — The Obama administration’s Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process or court oversight, according to a document obtained by McClatchy.

The controversy over the telephone records is a legacy of the Bush administration’s war on terror. Critics say the Obama administration appears to be continuing many of the most controversial tactics of that strategy, including the assertion of sweeping executive powers.

via Obama assertion: FBI can get phone records without oversight | McClatchy.

(WIRED.COM) — Police departments around the country are warming up to unmanned spy planes. But don’t expect the Department of Homeland Security to catch drone fever anytime soon. It’s too controversial for an agency already getting hammered for naked scanners and junk-touching.

via Even DHS Is Freaked Out by Spy Drones Over America | Danger Room | Wired.com.

(PC WORLD) — Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group largely focused in recent years on Google’s privacy practices, has called on a congressional investigation into the Internet giant’s “cozy” relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.

In a letter sent Monday, Consumer Watchdog asked Representative Darrell Issa, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate the relationship between Google and several government agencies.

The group asked Issa to investigate contracts at several U.S. agencies for Google technology and services, the “secretive” relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency, and the company’s use of a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration airfield in California.

via Google Comes Under Fire for ‘Secret’ Relationship with NSA – Yahoo! News.

(AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE) — The US Justice Department wants Internet service providers and cell phone companies to be required to hold on to records for longer to help with criminal prosecutions.

John Morris, general counsel at the non-profit Center for Democracy & Technology, said mandatory data retention “raises serious privacy and free speech concerns.”

Kate Dean, executive director of the Internet Service Provider Association, said broad mandatory data retention requirements would be “fraught with legal, technical and practical challenges.”

via Justice Department seeks to have all web surfing tracked | Raw Story.

(RAW STORY) — A bill giving the president an Internet “kill switch” during times of emergency that failed to pass Congress last year will return this year, but with a revision that has many civil liberties advocates concerned: It will give the president the ability to shut down parts of the Internet without any court oversight.

via Obama may get power to shut down Internet without court oversight | Raw Story.