An anonymous reader quotes the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
It was a stunning accusation: Two days before the 2018 election for Georgia governor, Republican Brian Kemp used his power as secretary of state to open an investigation into what he called a “failed hacking attempt” of voter registration systems involving the Democratic Party. But newly released case files from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation…
Tag: constitution
‘Japan Model’ Has Beaten Coronavirus, Shinzo Abe Declares
Prime minister Shinzo Abe has declared victory for the “Japan model” of fighting coronavirus as he lifted a nationwide state of emergency after seven weeks [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source]. From a report: Speaking at a press conference on Monday evening in Tokyo, Mr Abe said that Japan had avoided an explosive increase in cases without the…
‘Video Vigilante’ Arrested After Filming a Hospital’s Emergency Ramp
The Boston Herald writes that a “video vigilante faces numerous charges after being arrested outside Massachusetts General Hospital where police say he was recording the emergency ramp at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.” schwit1 shares their report: John L. McCullough, 41, was charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace and threats to do bodily harm after police say he refused to…
Oracle Responds To Wage Discrimination Claims By Suing US Department of Labor
According to The Register, Oracle is suing the Department of Labor for repeatedly accusing the company of discriminating against and underpaying women and minorities. From the report: In a lawsuit [PDF] filed Wednesday in a Washington DC district court, Big Red accuses the U.S. Department of Labor of “unprecedented overreach by an executive agency,” and claims the agency doesn’t have the…
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Police Can’t Force You To Tell Them Your Password
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a forceful opinion today holding that the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects individuals from being forced to disclose the passcode to their devices to the police. In a 4-3 decision in Commonwealth v. Davis, the court found that disclosing a password is “testimony”…
FBI’s Use of Surveillance Database Violated Americans’ Privacy Rights: Court
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: Some of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s electronic surveillance activities violated the constitutional privacy rights of Americans swept up in a controversial foreign intelligence program (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), a secretive surveillance court has ruled. The ruling deals a rare rebuke to U.S. spying activities that have generally withstood…
Why California May Go Nuclear
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last week, a California state legislator introduced an amendment to the state’s constitution that would classify nuclear energy as “renewable.” If the amendment passes, it would likely result in the continued operation of the state’s last nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, well past 2025, its current closure date. Diablo generates 9% of California’s electricity and 20%…
Is Silicon Valley Building a Chinese-Style Social Credit System?
schwit1 shared this thought-provoking article from Fast Company:
Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social media activity…
The Fashion Line Designed To Trick Surveillance Cameras
Freshly Exhumed shares a report from The Guardian: Automatic license plate readers, which use networked surveillance cameras and simple image recognition to track the movements of cars around a city, may have met their match, in the form of a T-shirt. Or a dress. Or a hoodie. The anti-surveillance garments were revealed at the DefCon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas on…
Brazil To Add Digital Data Protection To Fundamental Rights
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: The Brazilian Senate has approved a proposal to add protection of data in digital platforms to the list of fundamental rights and individual citizen guarantees set out in the country’s constitution. Brazil’s general data protection law was due to go live in February 2020 but a stopgap measure signed by former president Michel…