Feds lack plan to oversee privacy issues of drones, experts say

As domestic drone use takes on a higher profile nationally, it is unclear which federal agency will take the lead in addressing privacy concerns, experts at a House subcommittee hearing said Friday. (Continue reading . . .)

FAA behind in plan to integrate commercial drone use in US airspace

Last February, Congress passed legislation outlining steps for the Federal Aviation Administration to integrate unmanned aerial systems – drones — into the national airspace and setting deadlines for those steps to be made.

But the FAA missed its Nov. 10 deadline for drafting a plan for UAS integration. (Continue reading . . .)

ACLU: Surveillance of Muslims a threat to civil liberties

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union are calling on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to investigate religious and racial profiling by the New York Police Department. (Continue reading . . .)

Rise of the machines: domestic drones take off

Drones – the same unmanned aircraft used for attacking the Taliban and killing Islamist terrorists – could soon come to a sky near you. (Continue reading . . .)

Updating regulations to protect children online

The co-chairs of the Congressional Privacy Caucus and actor Nick Cannon are supporting a bill to regulate companies wishing to track children under 13 online. (Continue reading . . .)

Supreme Court decision leaves unanswered questions on GPS tracking

U.S. v. Jones declared that attaching a GPS device to an object for the purpose of tracking a suspect’s movement requires a search warrant, but broader questions still remain on how police can use location tracking in the future. (Continue reading . . .)

Secret law: The ‘Panopticon’ in the U.S. government

The Patriot Act expanded the government’s power of surveillance within the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Portions of these laws and their interpretations are classified. Julian Sanchez, a research fellow at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute believes the government, through those laws, has created it’s own Panopticon. (Continue reading . . .)

Downloading information – 140 characters at a time

WASHINGTON — The more than 7,000 characters in Twitter’s online privacy policy break down how little privacy each 140-character tweet has. Twitter users may be forfeiting far more information than they realize.

In February, it came to light that through the “Find Friends” function on its mobile app, Twitter is able to download the full address books of mobile users, including phone numbers and emails. The iPhone app does not alert users that their information is being downloaded, but rather says they can “scan” contacts for people they already know. (Continue reading . . .)

Tracked by cyber-footprints

We are living in a time of information overload, and sometimes it becomes difficult to remember where we have left cyber-footprints. For 48 hours, I tracked exactly who was taking my information digitally and how it could be used. During this time, I spent one day in Washington and the next day traveling by air to Chicago. (Continue reading . . .)

Weapons of mass instruction: Governments learning to use social media for security purposes

Political unrest throughout the world has only increased visibility for platforms like Twitter and Facebook. These and other social media tools have become critical elements of conflict – for rebels as well as governments themselves. (Continue reading . . .)