Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook are calling for more disclosure of secret requests to hand over date of users, The Guardian reports. “Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests, including Fisa orders, would help the community understand and debate these important issues,” Microsoft said in an…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Google is fed up with the FBI snooping on its users without a warrant. Now, the company appears to be challenging so-called national security letters, which do not require a warrant to gather electronic information, reports CNet.com. The judge hearing the case, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco, ruled last…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI has been demanding that Google divulge account information of up to thousands of its users to authorities without warrants, Wired.com reports. Google revealed it has received numerous National Security Letters from the FBI since 2009. Those letters, which the FBI has abused in the past, are written demands to compel…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A defiant Google earlier this year refused to unlock a suspected pimp’s cellphone, prompting a potential legal battle with the FBI that could have sweeping ramifications, the Wall Street Journal reports. When the FBI can’t unlock cell phone information, such as texts, phone numbers and emails, it appears the agency is…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Technology is once again bumping up against law enforcement. PC Magazine is reporting that the FBI has issued a warrant to get Google to give it a Gmail account and password and other info so it can tap into the Android cell phone of an alleged pimp suspected of playing a…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Using a law passed before the birth of the Internet, the U.S. government has obtained a controversial court order to force Google and a small Internet provider, Sonic.net, to hand over information regarding a WikiLeaks volunteer, reports the Wall Street Journal. The WikiLeaks volunteer was identified as Jacob Applebaum, and the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Google, the 800-pound gorilla in the cyber world, is going to to be a little lighter in the pocket as a result of some wrongdoing. Google has agreed to forfeit to the Justice Department $500 million for allowing online Canadian pharmacies to illegaly pedal prescription drugs, authorities announced Wednesday. The Justice…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III headed out to California earlier this week, not to let his hair down, but to meet in Silicon Valley with top executives from several companies including Facebook and Google to discuss a proposal to make it easier to wiretap Internet users, the New…
