Politics and Law

Sprint may end up in court after a U.S. judge refused to throw out a case accusing the carrier of deliberately not collecting and paying millions in tax.

According to Reuters, the U.S.-based firm could be facing a lawsuit brought forward by the New York state over the allegations. Under the state's False Claims Act (.pdf), the Attorney General -- Eric Schneiderman -- is able to file a suit against Sprint on the basis that the company withheld funds from the state and local government through "false or fraudulent conduct."

If a case is … Read more

Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency who leaked classified documents regarding the agency's surveillance program, has apparently broken his silence for the first time since fleeing Hong Kong for Moscow eight days ago.

In a letter addressed to the Ecuadorian government, Snowden thanked Ecuador for helping arrange passage to Russia and said he remained committed to publishing information about the NSA's PRISM data collection program. Snowden, 30, has been charged by the U.S. government with espionage, theft, and conversion of government property. He has reportedly applied for asylum in Russia.

"I remain … Read more

The Washington Post published on Saturday a set of slides regarding PRISM, revealing more details about the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance program and how it operates.

The new slides, which come nearly a month after former NSA employee Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to the press about the program, appear to confirm that the NSA and FBI have the ability to perform real-time surveillance of e-mail and stored content.

The slides also seem to contradict denials from tech companies such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Microsoft about their level of participation in the program. The program "uses … Read more

Secret documents describing the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus have highlighted vulnerabilities in outdated Web encryption used by Facebook and a handful of other U.S. companies.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden confirm that the NSA taps into fiber optic cables "upstream" from Internet companies and vacuums up e-mail and other data that "flows past" -- a security vulnerability that "https" Web encryption is intended to guard against.

But Facebook and a few other companies still rely on an encryption technique viewed as many years out of date, which cryptographers … Read more

Amazon is facing a few demands from the Chinese government following charges of counterfeit book sales.

China's National Copyright Administration said it recently discovered 36 third-party Amazon sellers hawking books found to have violated copyright laws, according to Sina Tech, as reported by The Next Web.

To remedy the problem, the group wants the retail giant to make four changes: First, Amazon must shut down the 36 sellers in question. Second, it must tighten the criteria through which third-party sellers are approved. Third, it must improve communications between itself, publishers, and the National Copyright Administration and respond to customer … Read more

The U.S. Army has apparently opted to restrict Army personnel access to The Guardian's Web site after the newspaper broke stories about the National Security Agency's confidential surveillance activities.

The Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks," Gordon Van Vleet, a spokesman for the Army's Network Enterprise Technology Command, told the Monterey Herald. Netcom is charged with operating and defending the Army's computer networks.

Van Vleet told the Herald that the Department of Defense routinely takes preventative "network hygiene" measures to prevent unauthorized … Read more

Want to play a game of "guess who?"

A newly disclosed top secret document lauds the National Security Agency's "productive" and long-standing surveillance "partnership" with a pair of telecommunications providers -- that permitted tapping into their fiber links -- but without naming names.

This is where things get interesting for clue sleuths.

Even in the top-secret document published by the Guardian today, the firms are described only as "Company A" and "Company B." But the NSA's inspector general did disclose that, at the time the program was being … Read more

Your MacBook could one day save space by combining two ports into one.

"Combined Input Port," an Apple patent application published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describes a way to unite a USB port and a memory card slot into a single unit.

Combining two ports with two different connectors poses a challenge. But the invention envisioned by Apple would vary the depth and position of the respective connectors, allowing for both a USB device and a memory card to be inserted.

As the patent application describes it in technical jargon:

A future version of Apple's iTunes Radio could let you reveal why you liked or disliked a certain song in your playlist.

Published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple patent application called "Playlist Configuration and Preview," describes some handy ways to customize and manage your playlist of streaming songs.

Most streaming music services let you vote thumb's up or thumb's down on a certain song to gauge your musical tastes. But they don't give you the ability to explain why you voted the way you did.

The service described … Read more