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The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has cracked down on drivers smiling in their driver’s license photos because their smiles could interfere with new facial recognition software. New Jersey resident Velvet McNeil told the Philadelphia Inquirer Thursday that when she went to get her license at her local New Jersey motor vehicle center, she was told she could not smile for her photo. Shocked, McNeil said she walked out of the center. …

Anyone using file-sharing service BitTorrent to download the latest film or music release is likely to be monitored, UK-based researchers suggest. A Birmingham University study indicates that an illegal file-sharer downloading popular content would be logged by a monitoring firm within three hours. The team said it was "surprised" by the scale of the monitoring. Copyright holders could use the data to crack down on illegal downloads. The three-year research was carried out by a team of computer scientists who developed software that acted like a BitTorrent file-sharing client and logged all the connections made to it. BitTorrent is a...

Privacy is highly valued – until we can sell it for a small discount. Hundreds of thousands of auto insurance customers allowed an electronic ankle bracelet fitted to their car in exchange for a possible insurance discount. A year ago, Progressive offered its “”Snapshot“ device. It plugs into your car’s OBD system keeps and collects data that help Progressive to profile your driving. According to Reuters, Progressive already analyzed more than 5 billion driven miles. The company says its driving-behavior data is twice as good as any other factor in predicting risk, and that bad drivers cost Progressive more than...

Wristbands fitted with microchips have been worn by everyone at a UK festival for the first time. The technology, which designers claim will cut out fake tickets and queues, was used by 15,000 festival-goers at Wakestock, Cardigan Bay, Wales. Organiser Stuart Galbraith said: "The benefits are huge. This will be the future of festivals." Critics, however, have said they are "uncomfortable" to wear and go against the spirit of festivals. The bands look like standard material festival bands except they're fitted with an RFID (radio frequency identification) microchip, the same technology as London's Oyster card public transport swipe cards. Festival-goers...

In an unusual move, federal authorities will be contacting computer users with systems infected by the Coreflood botnet Trojan and asking them to agree to allow them to send commands to the malware so it will delete itself. The move comes in the in the wake of a coordinated takedown earlier this month by the FBI and other authorities, in which the U.S. government essentially substituted its own command-and-control servers in place of those used by Coreflood and issued commands telling the program to shut down on infected PCs. The move reduced activity from the Coreflood botnet by about 90...

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is drafting a bill that would require Internet service companies to maintain the computer identification records of users for the FBI to work with in investigating child-pornography suspects. Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) has thrown her support behind the measure, which, with its sponsor, Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (Texas), could prove to be one of the rare pieces of legislation that manages to find bipartisan support in an increasingly divided House. The bill, which Smith is planning to introduce in the next several weeks, would require Internet service providers (ISPs)...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Philadelphia-area school district agreed Monday to pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptops. The Lower Merion School District admitted it captured thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops in a misguided effort to locate missing computers....

Privacy-conscious travelers may cringe to think of the full-body scanners finding their way into dozens of airport checkpoints around the country. Most likely aren't aware that the same technology, capable of seeing through walls and clothes, has also been rolling out on U.S. streets. American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Mass., has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter X-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles or cargo containers to snoop into their contents. And while the biggest buyer of AS&E's machines over the last seven years has been...

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday. National security officials and federal law enforcement argue their ability to eavesdrop on terror suspects is increasingly "going dark," The New York Times reported, as more communication takes place via Internet services, rather than by traditional telephone. The bill, which the White House plans to deliver to Congress next year, would require communication service providers be technically capable of intercepting and decrypting...

A new ruling says that--in most cases--government and law agencies don't need a search warrant to track cell phones.Tuesday a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that--in most cases--the FBI and other police agencies do not need a search warrant in order to track the location of cell phones used by Americans. The three-judge panel of the Third Circuit sided with the Obama Administration (pdf) in the belief that a signed search warrant--one based on a probable cause to suspect criminal activity--isn't necessary when obtaining logs from wireless carriers that depict the whereabouts of a cell phone. However the panel...

The town is using Google Earth to check on backyard pools. ( Some pools don't have proper permits) And of course that means hefty fines for the owners of the 'illegal pools.'

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a...

Walmart Means To Spy On Clothing Use July 23, 2010 by Douglas A. McIntyre Walmart (NYSE: WMT) plans to put radio chips into clothing including underwear. The big box retailer wants to know what and how much people buy so it can order enough inventory.Walmart will be, of course, accused of spying on its customers,but the question is whether there is any harm in it.The move should certainly improve the company’s supply chain management.The new system will allow Walmart to see right down to the size level which clothing in about to go out of stock. If  it is effective,  all the...

If you drive a General Motors or Ford vehicle and subscribe to proper services, you’ll be able to avoid printing maps and schlepping them to the car before the end of the month. That’s because both auto companies today announced new partnerships with Google that enable users to beam turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps directly to their OnStar or SYNC navigation systems that are built into their cars’ dashboards. If you drive a Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury, you’ll click a “Send to SYNC” link on Google Maps results. Once you’re in your car, and if you subscribe to SYNC’s Traffic,...

Cell phone companies are making it easier for authorities to solve cases when time is of the essence, turning a simple device most of us keep in our pocket or purse into a potential clue. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile confirmed Wednesday that divisions within their companies now specifically deal with calls from police to find missing people or crime victims. They'll provide authorities with call records and even locations of cell phones should police demonstrate that finding the person is an emergency. Two companies, AT&T and T-Mobile, also confirmed their staff is on hand around the clock to deal with...

Want to earn tons of cool badges and prizes while competing with you friends to see who can be the best American? Download the SnapScouts app for your Android phone (iPhone app coming soon) and get started patrolling your neighborhood. It's up to you to keep America safe! If you see something suspicious, Snap it! If you see someone who doesn't belong, Snap it! Not sure if someone or something is suspicious? Snap it anyway! Play with your friends and family to see who can get the best prizes. Join the SnapScouts today! SnapScout Features * Colorful interface and sounds...

Google and the Google-owned YouTube received more than 10,000 requests for user data from government agencies in the six months ending Dec. 31, 2009, according to newly released data. "Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products," Google says on a new site that sheds more light onto government demands for user information and requests to take offensive material off the Web. The vast majority of requests for private user data "are valid and the information...

The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district. More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins' school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district. Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled...

Branford, Conn. (WTNH) - When it comes to fighting crime police will use any tool they can get their hands on. In Branford , they've equipped one of their cars with cameras that act almost like a set of eyes in the back of officer's heads. The electronic eyes are specifically designed to read and remember license plates. They are Branford's newest tools for proactive policing. "Our database is updated every day with the Dept. of Motor Vehicle registration files, so this gives the officer an indication that a vehicle may not be registered properly," Lt. Geoff Morgan, Branford olice,...