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Submission + - FBI studied how much drones impact your privacy, & then marked it secret

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: When federal agencies adopt new technology, they're required by law to do Privacy Impact Assessments, which is exactly what the FBI did regarding its secretive drone program. The PIAs are created to help the public and federal government assess what they're risking through the adoption of new technology. That part is a little trickier, since the FBI is refusing to release any of the PIA on its drone project, stating it needs to be kept, er, private to protect national security.

Submission + - Comcast executives appear to share cozy relationships with regulators (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: A month before Comcast's announcement of a $45B takeover of rival Time-Warner, Comcast's top lobbyist invited the US government's top antitrust regulators to share the company's VIP box at the Sochi Olympics. A Freedom of Information Act request from Muckrock reveals that the regulators reluctantly declined, saying "it sounds like so much fun" but the pesky "rules folks" would frown on it, instead suggesting a more private dinner later.

Submission + - Red sneakers and hoodies: The surprising upside of standing out (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: The casual outfit that Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg sported in front of elegantly dressed bankers and investors just before his company went public generated much clamor in the media. While some observers judged the young entrepreneur’s choice to wear his typical hoodie and jeans on such an official occasion as a mark of immaturity, others defended it as a sign of boldness that helped spread publicity about the deal. The research seems to be on Zuck's side: Dressing down might help you get ahead in many environments.

Submission + - Citing "Terrorism," Illinois spent $250k on Stingray to fight regular crime

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: New documents released on MuckRock show the Illinois State Police crying "Terrorist" in order to get funding and approval for a $250,000 Stingray cell snooping system, even though, as Mike Masnick at Techdirt notes, the technology is being used to fight regular crime. The ToS on the device actually prevent officers from seeking a warrant to use it, because doing so would disclose the device's use to the courts. MuckRock currently has a crowdfunding campaign to fund similar requests across the country.

Submission + - Even in digital photography age, high schoolers still flock to the darkroom (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: In the age of camera-equipped smart phones and inexpensive digital cameras, many high schoolers have never seen a roll of film or used an analog camera — much less developed film and paper prints in a darkroom. Among those that have, however,
old school development has developed a serious cult following, with a number of high schools still finding a dedicated audience for the dark(room) arts.

Submission + - Help Crowd-FOIA Stingray usage across America

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Collaborative investigative news site MuckRock is trying to take a national look at Stingray usage across America, and is looking for people to submit contact information for their local police departments and other law enforcement groups for a mass FOIA campaign. The submissions are free, but the site is also running a crowdfunding campaign to cover the cost of stamps, etc. on Beacon Reader.

Submission + - With cheeky first tweet, @CIA comes to life--now it just needs to use email (muckrock.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: With a bit of self-effacing spy humor, the CIA joined Twitter with a couple tweets and promises to disclose #unclassified information going forward. Unfortunately, this comes as the CIA still requires those filing FOIAs to mail or fax their requests in rather than use email or even a web portal, as more and more agencies are increasingly doing. The FOIA filers at MuckRock have a run down on just how hard it is to get declassified info, hashtag or no, out of America's most prominent spy agency.

Submission + - Echelon Everywhere: Local police increasingly rely on secret surveillance (beaconreader.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: The Wall Street Journal reports on how local law enforcement is increasingly requesting (and receiving) sealed wiretap requests and surveillance that doesn't require a warrant (subscription required) for cellular data, a move that is making some courts uneasy — but not uneasy enough to stop the practice. One group has set up a crowdfunding campaign to research how far the practice has spread, hoping to raise money to file and follow up on public records requests across the country for policies, invoices, and other "surveillance metadata."

Submission + - 50 years later, MIT looks back at AI and networking pioneer Project MAC

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Fifty years ago, a major project that ultimately seeded much of today’s computer technology was created at MIT: Project MAC, and the Multics operating system initiative within the project. Daniel Dern interviews some of the key figures involved in the pioneering project, looking at how one laboratory helped spawn Ethernet, AI, and dozens of tech companies and other innovations that took ideas from the lab to the personal computer.

Submission + - The Exploitative Economics of Academic Publishing (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Taxpayers in the United States spend $139 billion a year on scientific research, yet much of this research is inaccessible not only to the public, but also to other scientists. This is the consequence of an exploitative scientific journal system that rewards academic publishers while punishing taxpayers, scientists, and universities. Fortunately, cheap open-access alternatives are not only possible, but already beginning to take root, as this article explores in-depth.

Submission + - Aereo has its (first) day before Supreme Court

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: Aereo, which streams broadcast TV over the Internet, devised a somewhat extreme hack to get around public performance and copyright law: Give each user their own antenna, creating thousands of individual "remote DVRs" for the masses. Predictably, broadcaster have freaked out, and now the Supreme Court has heard initial arguments to determine whether Aereo's model has any legal weight. Here's the full transcript (Warning: Big PDF). The court is expected to rule by the end of June.

Submission + - FBI says Russians out to steal technology from Boston firms, posing as VCs (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: It sounds like a scare from 1970s Cold War propaganda or a subplot from the popular TV series “The Americans,” but the FBI says the threat is real: Russian investment firms may be looking to steal high-tech intelligence from Boston-area companies to give to their country’s military. Many of the firms under scrutiny are in the Boston area, including those partnered with a number of area biotech companies and with ties to MIT.

Submission + - New service lets you hitch a ride with private planes for cost of tank of gas (betaboston.com)

Submitted by v3rgEz
v3rgEz writes: A new service, Airpooler, matches pilots with passengers looking to head the same way. Since it's not an officially licensed charter service, prices are limited to roughly the passengers share of the gas, giving pilots a way to share the expense of enjoying the open blue and flyers a taste of their personal pilot.

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