News Today
EC goes after Britain over Phorm DPI
The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over online data pirate Phorm. The move follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioral advertising ’service’ was tested on the BT broadband network without the knowledge or permission of users. “Last year Britain had said it was happy Phorm conformed to European data laws,” says the BBC, but, “the commission has said Phorm ‘intercepted’ user data without clear consent and the UK need to look again at its online privacy laws.”
Nigerian group frees UK hostage
A British man held hostage in Nigeria for more than six months has been freed, a military official said. The official said Robin Barry Hughes was handed over to the military in Nigeria’s southern oil region. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) had held the 59-year-old oil worker, from St Margaret’s Bay in Kent, since September. Kidnapping is common in the Niger Delta by armed groups trying to force the government to share oil revenue.
Mr. Hughes is being released on age and health grounds, the group said.
Iran plans fast appeal for US ’spy’
The head of Iran’s judiciary has ordered a “quick and fair” consideration of an appeal against an eight-year jail sentence imposed on a US journalist convicted of spying. Roxana Saberi was sentenced on Saturday following a trial that was conducted behind closed doors in a Tehran court. Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Monday released a statement that “emphasized the necessity of access to fair consideration of Roxana Saberi’s case, especially at the appeals stage, which is the certain right of the accused”. “Different dimensions of this case, including material and moral elements of the crime, must be considered at the appeals stage in a careful, quick and fair way,” it said. Saberi, who has US and Iranian nationality and has lived in Iran for six years, has been detained in the Evin prison in Tehran, the capital, since she was arrested in January.
Roxana Saberi with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.
The CIA and NSA Want You to Be Their Friend on Facebook
The online social-networking service Facebook works for finding old classmates or arranging happy hours, so why not use it to help recruit the next generation of spies? That’s what’s happening now in cyberspace, as the country’s intelligence community turns to such sites to attract a wider range of résumés. The CIA now has its own Facebook page, as does the hush-hush National Security Agency, which vacuums up the world’s communications for analysis. Both invite Facebook members to register and read information about employment opportunities. It’s part of a larger, multiyear hiring push to boost the size of the U.S. intelligence community.
2007 Senator James Webb
Webb’s Prison Crusade
After more than a year of hearings before the Joint Economic Committee, in March Virginia Senator Jim Webb introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. The legislation would create a blue-ribbon panel with the mandate to make recommendations for wholesale reform of criminal justice policy.
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