Lauri Love -- suspected FBI and NASA hacker -- wins appeal against extradition to US
A hacker has won his appeal against extradition to the US where he faced charges of compromising various American systems including NASA and the FBI. Lauri Love, won his case in the High Court of England and Wales after his lawyers argued there was a serious risk that he would kill himself.
The court also took into account the fact that the alleged hacking offenses were committed in the UK. The appeals win does not mean, however, that Love's legal battles are over.
Italy launches investigation into Samsung and Apple for slowing down phones
Just a couple of weeks ago a French watchdog announced that it was investigating Apple about the "planned obsolescence" of iPhones. Now Italy is also looking into both Apple and Samsung after complaints that the companies are purposefully slowing down older phone models.
Apple has already admitted and defended the fact that it slows down older iPhones, saying that it is done to ensure the best performance from aging batteries -- later saying that an upcoming update will make the slowdown optional. In Italy, both Apple and Samsung stand accused of reducing handset performance to "induce consumers to buy new versions."
Kodi addon site TVAddons to stop proactively checking for piracy
Justified or not, Kodi has been somewhat synonymous with pirated content. At the heart of Kodi-related controversy are the addons that provide access to such material, and addon site TVAddons constantly finds itself embroiled in things.
Having recently announced that it managed to build up 12 million monthly users despite being closed down, TVAddons has now announced a change to the way it operates. While still perfectly happy to comply with the law when it comes to pirated content, the site will now rely on DMCA takedown notices rather than proactively checking for infringments.
Privacy: UK government to tweak Snooper's Charter after conceding it is illegal in its current form
The highly controversial Snooper's Charter -- also known as the Investigatory Powers Act -- is, the government has been forced to admit, illegal under European law in its current form.
The Brexit process may well be underway, but at the moment, the UK is still subject to EU law. As such, the government is making changes to the law. While the tweaks will not change the level of surveillance people are subjected to, they will restrict who has automatic access to that information.
New drone laws will require owners to take tests, and give police new powers of seizure
The UK government is planning to introduce new laws to control the use of drones. Under the new legislation, drone owners may be forced to take safety awareness tests before they can take to the air.
The draft Drone Bill also sets out new powers for police, granting them the authority to seize drones believed to have been used in criminal activity. The bill also places restrictions on where drones can be used, and requires larger drones to be registered.
UK broadband companies banned from advertising misleading top speeds
The advertising of broadband services has long been fraught with complaints and controversy, but a new rule change should help to bring this to an end.
Following an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), ISPs will no longer be able to advertise high "up to" speeds. Instead they will have to advertise the average speed achieved by at least 50 percent of customers at peak times. Previously, the rules permitted the advertising of headline speeds enjoyed by just 10 percent of people, and the ASA found that many broadband customers were disappointed with their connection speed.
FBI can't access data on Texas shooter's encrypted phone
With echoes of the San Bernardino shooting from a couple of years ago, the FBI has revealed that it is unable to break the encryption on the phone belonging to Devin Patrick Kelley, the gunman who killed 26 people in Texas at the weekend.
The agency has not said what make or model of phone they are not able to access, and this is information that will not be revealed -- and for very good reason, says the FBI. Despite the agency's desire for secrecy, there is strong speculation that the device is an iPhone.
Paradise Papers: details of Apple's tax arrangements revealed in leaked documents
The Paradise Papers -- a massive cache of documents leaked to newspapers and journalists -- reveal the tax avoidance strategies used by millionaires, billionaires and businesses around the world. The leaks comprise over 13 million documents, and it shows the financial structure and offshore accounts for many big-name companies.
Included in the list is Apple -- a company already known to have taken advantage of the "double Irish" tax loophole in Ireland to massively reduce its tax bill. The Paradise Papers show that Apple made use of another tax haven after it faced criticism for its exploitation of Irish taxes and a clampdown on the loophole.
Consumer group Which? calls for amendments to Data Protection Bill to allow for 'collective redress' after breaches
UK consumer group Which? is calling on the government to make an amendment to the Data Protection Bill that's currently being debated in Parliament. The group is looking for a change in the law that would make it easier for organizations to seek redress for groups of people in the event of a data breach.
Research by Which? suggests that there is confusion surrounding who is responsible for safeguarding data, and little knowledge among consumers about how to go about obtaining compensation.
Microsoft drops lawsuit against US government after DOJ reins in use of gagging orders
Microsoft has announced that it will drop its lawsuit against the US government after the Department of Justice said that it will use fewer secrecy orders when making requests for user information.
Microsoft's battle has been running since April last year, and it gained support from the likes of Mozilla, the EFF, Google and Apple. The company was not happy that gagging orders prevented it from telling customers when investigators requested access to their data. The move by the DOJ is described by Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith as an "important step for both privacy and free expression," and a step to "protect the constitutional rights of all Americans."
PureVPN scrambles to defend itself against accusations of logging users
Last week it transpired that PureVPN had helped the FBI track down a cyberstalker from Massachusetts. This came as something of a surprise to other PureVPN users who were under the impression that using the service made them completely anonymous -- a belief strengthened by the company's assertion "We do NOT keep any logs that can identify or help in monitoring a user's activity."
Strictly speaking, this is true, but that's not to say that the company doesn’t maintain IP logs that can be used to identify users. The company does exactly this, logging IP addresses and timestamps, and this is how it helped the FBI. In a blog post, the company tries to explain this as it attempts to convince concerned users that it is not logging their activities.
Windows 10 telemetry violates privacy laws
The data collecting activities of Windows 10 has landed Microsoft in trouble again. Investigating the telemetry built into the operating system, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has said that Microsoft's spying is a violation of local privacy laws.
Of particular concern to the authority is the fact that users are not clearly told that data will be collected in both Windows itself and Microsoft Edge. With Microsoft's web browser gathering data about every URL that's visited by users who have not opted out of telemetry, and Windows 10 itself sucking up detailed information about app usage, the DPA is concerned that users are not adequately informed or protected.
TVAddons: We shouldn't be in MPAA's 'Online Notorious Markets' report after zero DMCA complaints from members
TVAddons is famous -- some would say infamous, even notorious -- in Kodi circles. The controversial Kodi addons site has been the subject of a lawsuit and even abuse from Kodi itself. Last week the site was mentioned in the Online Notorious Markets report produced by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) -- and TVAddons is not happy.
The report refers to the site as a "piracy add-on repository," but TVAddons is quick to point out that it has never received a single DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint from MPAA members or affiliates. The site accuses the MPAA of deciding to "drag our reputation through the mud."
UK government could imprison people for looking at terrorist content
Not content with trying to "combat" encryption, the UK government also wants to criminalize looking at terrorist content. The leading Conservative party has announced plans which threaten those who "repeatedly view terrorist content online" with time behind bars.
New laws will be introduced that could see consumers of terrorist content imprisoned for up to 15 years. The same maximum sentence would face those who share information about police, soldiers or intelligence agencies with a view to organizing terrorist attacks.
Kodi: EFF says courts should reject 'abusive' lawsuits against add-on distributors
The war against copyright infringement has always been a difficult one for rights holders. Aside from the scale of the problem, there are multiple platforms that make illegal downloads, streams, and sharing possible. For many years, the main target for anti-piracy bodies was BitTorrent, but in recent months a new number one enemy has surfaced in the form of Kodi, and in particular various companies and addons associated with the media center software.
While in Europe and the UK, sellers of "fully loaded" media center boxes seem to be the primary focus for Kodi-related lawsuits, in Canada and the US, it’s hosting site TVAddons and the ZemTV Kodi addon that are in the firing line. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was setup to "defend civil liberties in the digital world" and it has now weighed in on the Kodi situation, pointing out the shaky legal grounds these cases rest on.
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