Another in the long series of interesting RFID stories that we'll be seeing in the next few years. Wired is reporting that Benetton is planning on putting RFID (Radio Frequency ID) devices into its clothing. The intent is supposedly to allow for faster inventory and better theft prevention, but privacy …

According to reports from SlashDot and an article from CNet, AOL has started to block personal mail servers running on its broadband lines.

An article on SlashDot sites the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) as the primary cause of the chilling effect going on for the technological investigations of flaws in security technology. One unfortunate side-effect of the DMCA is that it provides cover for companies that release flawed security technology. The article …

According to a news release, EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center), has announced that they have established the Privacy Threat Index, a color-coded graphical depiction of how under threat our privacy is due to recent government changes.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, designed to increase potability of health insurance also includes provisions that are aimed at increasing the privacy of health care users. An article from Wired describes some of the confusion surrounding these provisions.

A report from CNET discusses a 38-year old nationalized US citizen (with a wife and 3 kids) that has been detained in solitary confinement since March 20. Mike Hawash is an employee of Intel. He is being detained as a "material witness", which means that (unlike someone charged with a …

Once again, the question of whether a CD with some of the newer copy protection is really a CD or not has come to the fore. An Australian Xbox user is reporting that these CDs are not compatible with the Xbox. This detailed article from The Age in Australia describes …

So far, the FCC has been holding to its thrice-postponed November 11th deadline for number portability despite clamoring from the major cell carriers to postpone it yet again. At issue is the ability to keep your telephone number when you move from one cell carrier to another. Hidden inside is …

An article on Yahoo recounts the story of U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns throwing out a request by an MIT student to allow him to decompile internet filtering software in order to determine what sites are being blocked. The judge disagreed, stating ""there is no plausibly protected constitutional interest …

An article in the New York Times covers the behind-the-scenes jockeying by the administration and congressional republicans to remove the sunset provisions from the USA PATRIOT act.

An interesting article on SlashDot points to recent moves by a large ISP in New Zealand whose recent change to their TOS (terms of service) appear to claim ownership of the intellectual property of their customers. The TOS states that they aren't trying to gain control of customer's intellectual property …

An anti-spam activist, Francis Uy, appears to have won a victory for tracking down and complaining to purveyor of spam. Uy created a web site that claims to have a list of "Maryland's most wanted spammers". Unfortunately, I couldn't find the site (it also wasn't in Google's cache), but appears …

Wired is reporting in an article this morning that a man who shares his name with a suspected terrorist (now held by the US government at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba) has to get special clearance from the FBI every week when he flies out of his home town of Rochester …

Those wondering, as I was, what had recently caused PayPal to change some of its policies, may finally have an answer. According to information from eBay, PayPal's parent company, disclosed earlier this week that they had received a letter from the Attorney General of Missouri complaining that the subsidiary had …

Wired is reporting in this article that a number of well-known hackers (mostly white hats), are standing up against the people who hacked the Al-Jazeera site, on the grounds that it is tantamount to the same kind of censorship of unpopular speech that are promulgated by those who seek to …

Once again, the government is moving to peek into all aspects of your life, including shopping. Apparently, this new system is going to ignore the obvious solution to the "terrorist trap" of watching credit cards and monitoring grocery store purchases of just using cash. However, in so doing, it means …

Representatives from the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, and the American Association of Research Libraries collaborated on a letter to legislators in Arkansas and Colorado to inform them of the organizations' opinion that pending legislation is "deeply flawed". According to an article on CNet, the letter continues …

Just when you thought it was safe to go out on the internet, it appears that a number of states, including TX, MA, SC, FL, GA, AK, and CO are enacting bills that will make it illegal to have devices or software that "obscure the origin or destination of data …

If you are wondering if you should get an unlisted number, type your phone number into Google in the format xxx-yyy-zzzz. In return you'll get your name, address, any web sites with your phone number on it and TWO maps to your house.

The venerable PayPal, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ebay, has decided to start enforcing their own values on what can be bought with PayPal's virtual cash. According to an article in Wired magazine, a variety of items will no longer valid for purchase by PayPal. The list of things that …