Contrary to suspicions that were reported in BBC, Microsoft claims that they will not put a secret government backdoor into their new Vista operating system.

US News & World Report published aninteresting article about unwarranted searches of Americans.

The White House says spying on terror suspects without court approval is ok. What about physical searches?

More information on the AT&T spying lawsuit:

"AT&T’s wholesale diversion of communications into the hands of the NSA violates federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. “More than just threatening individuals’ privacy, AT&T’s shameful choice to allow the government to spy on millions of ordinary Americans’ communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article on how tax-return preparers will soon be allowed to sell your personal tax information to marketers.

I found a couple of articles mentioned on Slashdot about a new surveillance laws in Australia, and one about some unexpected information ‘cleansing’.

A chilling story from the SBS World News Australia about how Carmel Travers, a film maker was visited by the Australian government:

"The government officials responsible claimed they were from the Attorney-General’s Department, and spent a day trawling through her computers, looking for sensitive information. When they found any, they smashed the hard drives with a hammer to make sure it was really erased. They referred to the process as ‘cleansing’. . . .

These new anti-terrorism laws hang like the sword of Damocles over anyone who becomes caught up in the world of national security. In this case, no warrants were issued under the ASIO act as everyone agreed to the cleansing. If they had resisted, they could have faced possibly five years in jail, and even talking about the fact that the cleansing had taken place would have been a crime. It raises the question of how many secret raids, destruction of research and even intimidation of witnesses may have have taken place."

The Sydney Morning Herald also has a story about how a new Australian law allows government surveillance of any civilians without a warrant if they have ever corresponded with someone suspected of a crime. We all know how broad that definition can be…

Already on its way to your country.

This new technology will result in increase security for banks, airports and will have many other uses:

Face recognition technology that could revolutionise security systems worldwide has been developed by computer scientists at Sheffield Hallam University. The new specialist software can produce an exact 3D image of a face within 40 milliseconds.

I found a post on discourse.net about how police are trying to get deleted email from Google (Gmail).

Google has archived usenet newsgroup posts going back to the early 1980s. How long will Google store your deleted email?

Amazon.com just released a service called S3 which allows you to store your personal data files on their servers. Big brother is watching.

As mentioned previously, New Jersey has bills in place that would eliminate anonymous online speech. The EFF has a recent news release on it.

The Guardian reports that the British government wants to expand their massive roadway video surveillance system to crack down on people who don’t wear their seatbelts, and people who talk on their mobile phones while driving:

Existing road cameras divide into two groups: speed cameras, of which there are around 6,000 nationally; and up to 8,000 ANPR cameras which trigger a reaction when wanted, stolen or cloned number plates or uninsured cars are spotted. Under the proposal, police would also look out for mobile phone users and seatbelt offenders.