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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 29 declined, 3 accepted (32 total, 9.38% accepted)

Submission + - Congress Didn't Notice the FBI Creating a 'Small Air Force' for Surveillance (theatlantic.com)

Errorcod3 writes: Last week, Americans learned that even as the NSA collected information on their telephone and Internet behavior, the FBI was using fictitious companies to secretly operate what the AP called “a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cell phone surveillance technology.”

The news organization reported that surveillance flights may be more than a decade old, and identified “more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.”

The merits of this program will now be debated.

What’s already clear, however, is the anti-democratic nature of keeping it hidden all these years. The U.S. is supposed to be governed by the people. Whether Americans want a federal law-enforcement agency using planes to conduct surveillance on vast swaths of the country is a question properly aired and debated.

It is for Americans to choose.

Instead, an executive branch that has grown alarmingly powerful since the September 11 terrorist attacks, or perhaps even before, imposed its preferred policy in secret. The vast majority of Americans were completely unaware of its choice.

Submission + - Google Shuts Down Map Maker Following Hacks (techcrunch.com)

Errorcod3 writes: After a series of spam attacks and other obscene edits, Google has temporarily taken its crowd-sourced map editing tool Map Maker offline. The online tool has, for years, allowed those in countries without detailed maps to be able to add various details and points of interest to Google Maps, like new roads or parks, for example. But in more recent months, the tool has been instead used by some to upload inappropriate content to Google Maps – like the recent prank which added an image of the Android mascot urinating on the Apple logo, for instance.

Submission + - With Windows 10, The OS Becomes A Service Instead Of A Series Of Major Releases (techcrunch.com)

Errorcod3 writes: "Microsoft is moving to a different kind of software model with Windows 10; A developer evangelist noted that Windows 10 would be the “last version of Windows” during the company’s Ignite conference this week, and a follow-up confirmation from an official Microsoft spokesperson revealed (via the Telegraph) that indeed, updates to Windows after that release would follow an incremental path that would lead to ongoing improvements, instead of splashy, more occasional numbered launches."

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