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Submission + - Declining LG's new ad-friendly Privacy Policy removes features from Smart TVs

Submitted by BUL2294
BUL2294 writes: Techdirt and Consumerist posted articles about a user in the UK who, after a firmware update to his 2-year old LG Smart TV, declined their new Privacy Policy, only to find that most Internet-connected features (e.g. BBC iPlayer, Skype) of the TV now no longer work. From the Techdirt article...

Does a manufacturer have the right to "brick" certain integral services just because the end user doesn't feel comfortable sharing a bunch of info with LG and other, unnamed third parties? LG certainly feels it has the right to do this. In fact, it makes no secret of this in its long Privacy Policy — a document that spends more time discussing the lack thereof, rather than privacy itself. The opening paragraph makes this perfectly clear.

To add, even declining the policy still results in non-specified information being sent to LG.

LG's policy of spying on the viewing habits of customers, along with sending filenames of videos stored on USB devices connected to TVs, was previously discussed on Slashdot.

Submission + - Lavabit Founder Explains Why He Was Forced To Shut It Down (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ladar Levison, founder of the encrypted email service Lavabit that shut down last year because of friction with U.S. government data requests, has an article at The Guardian where he explains the whole story. He writes, 'My legal saga started last summer with a knock at the door, behind which stood two federal agents ready to to serve me with a court order requiring the installation of surveillance equipment on my company's network. ... I had no choice but to consent to the installation of their device, which would hand the U.S. government access to all of the messages – to and from all of my customers – as they travelled between their email accounts other providers on the Internet. But that wasn't enough. The federal agents then claimed that their court order required me to surrender my company's private encryption keys, and I balked. What they said they needed were customer passwords – which were sent securely – so that they could access the plain-text versions of messages from customers using my company's encrypted storage feature. (The government would later claim they only made this demand because of my "noncompliance".) ... What ensued was a flurry of legal proceedings that would last 38 days, ending not only my startup but also destroying, bit by bit, the very principle upon which I founded it – that we all have a right to personal privacy.'

Submission + - FBI Need Potheads To Fight Cybercrime (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The rate of cybercrime is growing and growing, and law enforcement is struggling to keep up. The FBI is in the process of beefing up its headcount, but they're running into a problem: many of the hackers applying for these jobs have a history of marijuana use, and the agency has a zero tolerance policy. FBI Director James Comey said, 'I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview.' However, change may be on the horizon: Comey said the FBI is changing 'both our mindset and the way we do business.' He also encouraged job applications from former pot users despite the policy.

Submission + - Congress unhappy with FCC's proposed changes to net neutrality

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: FCC Chair’s Proposed Net Neutrality Rule Not Popular At Congressional Hearing

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler took the hot seat today in an oversight hearing before the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to testify about current issues before his agency, including net neutrality. The overriding theme of the day? Pretty much everyone who spoke hates the rule the FCC narrowly approved for consideration last week — just for different reasons.

Instructions for how to send your comment to the FCC for those so inclined. There is also a White House petition calling for the removal of Wheeler from his position as FCC Chair.

Intel

Submission + - Maryland Teen Wins World's Largest Science Fair (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Velcroman1
Velcroman1 writes: A Maryland student was awarded the top prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair on Friday for developing a urine and blood test that detects pancreatic cancer with 90 percent accuracy. Jack Andraka, 15, claimed the $75,000 prize for his test, which is roughly 28 times cheaper and faster, and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests. Each year, approximately 7 million high school students around the globe develop original research projects and present their work at local science fairs with the hope of winning.

Comment Re:Cold War (Score 1) 66

by darioushfaunk (#40021727) Attached to: Star City and the Baikonur Cosmodrome
That is an excellent point. My knowledge of Russian industrial development is pretty much nil, but maintaining that equipment and keeping it integrated with modern systems seems like it would be a fairly major undertaking. But the groundwork is the hardest part.
Canada

Submission + - Canada's Internet Surveillance Bill: not dead after all (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Maow
Maow writes: Despite a recent story claiming that Canada's Bill C-30, covering internet surveillance, has died a "lonely" death, the minister responsible claims otherwise.

"Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is denying reports that the Harper government intends to quietly shelve its controversial online surveillance bill, C-30. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, Toews insisted the legislation was moving ahead."

This is the bill that you either support, "or you stand with the child pornographers."
Television

Submission + - A DVR Ad-Eraser Causes Tremors at TV Upfronts (nytimes.com)

Submitted by gollum123
gollum123 writes: As with past technological threats, network executives are closing ranks against a Dish Network device that undermines the broadcast business model. The disruptive technology at hand is an ad-eraser, embedded in new digital video recorders sold by Charles W. Ergen’s Dish Network, one of the nation’s top distributors of TV programming. Turn it on, and all the ads recorded on most prime-time network shows are automatically skipped, no channel-flipping or fast-forwarding necessary. Some reviewers have already called the feature, called the Auto Hop, a dream come true for consumers. But for broadcasters and advertisers, it is an attack on an entrenched television business model, and it must be strangled, lest it spread elsewhere.

Comment Always On (Score 1) 1

Yet look at a game like Diablo 3, where many of the same people who railed against Always Online DRM shed their opinions to get at a game they've been dying to play for what... 12 years? I'm guilty of it too, I guess, but I do enjoy how Ubisoft handled it with Assassins Creed: Brotherhood. Certain features of the game just weren't available without the DRM (although I think that was addressed by a crack quite soon after.)

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