[ad_1] Politicians have been poking at Section 230 for months. The DoJ doesn’t typically weigh in on legislation, but now, Barr is asking Congress to roll back critical aspects of Section 230. Not only is that unusual, it could add to speculation that some politicians are attempting to “bully tech companies into political submission,” as […]
Category: william barr
AG Barr seeks ‘legislative solution’ to make companies unlock phones
[ad_1] Last December, a Saudi Arabian cadet training with the US military opened fire at Naval Air Station Pensacola, killing three soldiers and wounding eight others. The FBI recovered two iPhones, and after failing to access their data, asked Apple to unlock them. The company refused, but eventually the FBI unlocked at least one of […]
NYT: $100 million US phone surveillance program produced two unique leads
[ad_1] After 2015, the USA Freedom Act replaced NSA mass surveillance of American’s call metadata that had been enacted under the Patriot Act and Section 215. While it didn’t go so far as to completely reform the system as groups like the EFF and ACLU hoped, it changed things by having phone companies collect the […]
It doesn’t matter if China hacked Equifax
[ad_1] It was a message of PR reprieve for the skinsuits at Equifax, who spend their life cycles profiting from tracking and trading our personal and financial information (and we’re powerless to stop them). Especially now as we’re seeing reports about how four Chinese hackers “took down Equifax.” That sure sounds a lot better (for […]
Attorney General asks Apple to unlock naval base shooter’s iPhones
[ad_1] Apple has given investigators details from Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani’s iCloud account, but it rejected a plea from the FBI to unlock the phones. The company has claimed complying with such a request could set a precedent that may compel it to unlock a device whenever a federal agency asks it to. The Justice Department […]
Facebook tells US, UK and Australia it won’t weaken chat encryption
[ad_1] If you soften encryption in one area, you soften it for “everyone, everywhere,” Facebook noted. The social network argued that backdoor access would represent a “gift to criminals, hackers and repressive regimes,” letting them pry in the messages of innocent people by exploiting weaknesses. As support, Facebook pointed to more than 100 organizations echoing […]
DOJ will ask Facebook to halt end-to-end encryption plans
[ad_1] Attorney General William Barr is set to make the request in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton also signed the draft letter, which BuzzFeed News and the New York Times obtained […]
Justice Department launches sweeping review of competition in tech
[ad_1] Officials vowed to “seek redress” if they found any lawbreaking. Wall Street Journal sources claimed that the DOJ wouldn’t ignore violations of other laws if discovered during the review. The Department didn’t name specific targets, but it’s not hard to guess which tech giants are likely to come under the crosshairs. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, […]