Is Microsoft reading your Skype instant messages?

That’s the inflammatory allegation that a UK-based security blog made in a post earlier today:

Anyone who uses Skype has consented to the company reading everything they write. The H’s associates in Germany at heise Security have now discovered that the Microsoft subsidiary does in fact make use of this privilege in practice. Read More

The country’s largest mobile phone operator is selling details of the internet habits of its 27 million customers. The telecommunications giant EE has struck a deal with the research firm Ipsos Mori to pass on data including what websites smartphone users visit. Read More

Washington’s Blog

We noted in March that all U.S. intelligence agencies – including the CIA and NSA – are going to spy on Americans’ finances.

The IRS is joining the fun. Read More

An 18-year-old high school student from the greater Boston area has been arrested and charged with making terroristic threats after police were alerted to “disturbing verbiage” on his personal Facebook page.

Authorities have set bond at one million dollars for Cameron B. D’Ambrosio of Methuen, MA following a Thursday afternoon arraignment one day after he was apprehended at his home around 30 miles north of Boston. Read More

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court quietly rubber stamped nearly 2,000 government requests to search or electronically monitor people in the United States last year, according to a Justice Department report published this week.

The agency, which oversees requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents on US soil Read More

By Iain Thomson

Draft legislation to impose fines on companies that refuse to provide wiretap facilities to US federal agents is in the planning stages, government officials have told the Washington Post under condition of anonymity.

Initial plans are for an automatic fine for refusal in the range of tens of thousands of dollars, an amount that would escalate over time. After 90 days, a judicial review would be held which could double the monetary reparations and possibly impose extra charges. Read More

China sent high-definition earth observation satellite “Gaofen 1″ into space shortly after noon on Friday, marking the start of a program that will substantially improve its capabilities in disaster relief, resources and environment survey.

The satellite unfolded its solar panel in orbit at 12:39 p.m. after its carrier — a Long March-2D rocket — was launched from northwest China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:13 p.m. Read More

by Declan McCullagh

Senior Obama administration officials have secretly authorized the interception of communications carried on portions of networks operated by AT&T and other Internet service providers, a practice that might otherwise be illegal under federal wiretapping laws.

The secret legal authorization from the Justice Department originally applied to a cybersecurity pilot project in which the military monitored defense contractors’ Internet links. Read More

The US House of Representatives has passed the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protect Act (CISPA).

Lawmakers in the House voted 288-to-127 Thursday afternoon to accept the bill. Next it will move to the Senate and could then end up on the desk of US President Barack Obama for him to potentially sign the bill into law. Read More

Telegraph.co.uk

The surveillance was only the latest instance of compromised confidentiality at Guantanamo Bay, following revelations earlier this year that secret censors could block a public feed of court proceedings and that listening devices masked as smoke detectors were hidden in meeting rooms. Read More

By Robert Watts

It had been thought that only police, intelligence agencies and the taxman would be able to use the Communication Data Act, which will also allow scrutiny of social network sites including Twitter and Facebook.

But dozens of public sector organizations have applied to use the powers. They include nine Whitehall departments, NHS trusts, the Environment Agency, the Charity Commission and the Pensions Regulator. Read More

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com

The IRS argues it has the right to violate the Fourth Amendment under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986.

The Internal Revenue Service believes it is not beholden to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and can read your email without a warrant, according to documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act request. Read More

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post

According to documents recently obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) believes they have the authority to read the private e-mail messages, Facebook chats and other online communications of Americans without obtaining a warrant.

This probably isn’t surprising given the blatant nature of the government’s illegal spying Read More

If you thought you’d never see the words “drone” and “ethical” in the same place, then think again. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) say they want to acquire a drone to monitor unlawful hunters.

The animal-rights’ group announced on Monday that they’ve reached out to Australia-based drone manufacturer Aerobot in hopes of acquiring a CineStar Octocopter — an unmanned aerial vehicle that can be affixed with a camera and used to snoop. Read More

As wars become increasingly automated, we must ask ourselves how far we want to delegate responsibility to machines. Where do we want to draw the line?

Weapons systems have been evolving for millennia and there have always been attempts to resist them. But does that mean that we should just sit back and accept our fate and hand over the ultimate responsibility for killing to machines? Read More