Free Republic

The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as “highly collaborative,” while another lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T’s cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003...

These iPhones are dressed to kill. [UPDATE – August 13, 10:00 AM] In Manitoba, Canada, a man attended a crowded beach with the iPhone 6 gun case mentioned in this article tucked into his bathing suit. Forced to assume that the handle sticking out of the man’s pants was a real handgun, multiple police officers, armed with rifles and tasers, were sent to the beach to address the situation. When it became clear that the man was armed with merely a cell phone case, the frustrated officers let the man go after destroying the case. Sgt. Bert Paquet of the...

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile users across the country, but especially in the Southeast reported outages Tuesday afternoon, with reports coming in from California, the midwest U.S. and the Chattanooga region. Though some users reported that their phones displayed several bars of signal strength, they were still unable to complete calls or use mobile data. AT&T's outages appeared to be concentrated in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Georgia, with other scattered outages appearing from coast to coast, with T-Mobile users losing service in Huntsville, Alabama, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Chicago area..and west coast areas

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency lost its authority at midnight to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk, after GOP Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stood in the way of extending the fiercely contested program in an extraordinary Sunday Senate session.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency has begun winding down its collection and storage of American phone records after the Senate failed to agree on a path forward to change or extend the once-secret program ahead of its expiration at the end of the month. Barring an 11th hour compromise when the Senate returns to session May 31, a much-debated provision of the Patriot Act — and some other lesser known surveillance tools — will sunset at midnight that day. The change also would have a major impact on the FBI, which uses the Patriot Act and the other...

AT&T settles with FCC over customer data that was stolen from data centers overseas and used to unlock stolen mobile phones. AT&T has reached a $25 million settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over stolen customer data from three international call centers. The data breaches took place at contracted call centers in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines, and involved the unauthorized disclosure of almost 280,000 U.S. customers' names, full or partial Social Security numbers and unauthorized access to protected account-related data. The FCC said the information obtained from these breaches was used to unlock codes for stolen phones. Workers at...

The Drug Enforcement Administration formerly maintained a secret database of Americans’ telephone calls to some foreign countries, the Justice Department revealed this week. A document filed by the department in a criminal case on Thursday revealed that the agency collected details about Americans’ calls to certain countries believed to be closely linked to drug trafficking networks. The program is different from a more well-known database maintained by the National Security Agency (NSA), though it appears similar in some respects. According to the government’s brief, the DEA tracked information about phone calls from the United States to other “designated” countries that...

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - An Israeli company says it has developed technology that can charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and an electric car in minutes, advances that could transform two of the world's most dynamic consumer industries. Using nano-technology to synthesize artificial molecules, Tel Aviv-based StoreDot says it has developed a battery that can store a much higher charge more quickly, in effect acting like a super-dense sponge to soak up power and retain it. While the prototype is currently far too bulky for a mobile phone, the company believes it will be ready by 2016 to...

It’s called a Stingray: A cellphone surveillance device so top secret, law enforcement agencies don’t even like to admit they have it. But KPIX 5 has confirmed Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose police are using Stingrays to track suspects. Now, Fremont Police and the Alameda County District Attorney’s office are applying for federal grants to get a new version of Stingray, called Hailstorm. The use of the devices is increasing, potentially at the expense of your privacy. You may think you are private when you’re talking on your cell phone, think again. From an undercover car or even strapped...

Anyone else catch the homosexual proposal during the Android commercial. These IT/tech companies know they're all drinking the same koolaid, so now they're just rubbing our noses in it.

A secure cell phone maker has uncovered more than a dozen cell phone towers around the U.S. that no one seems to know who owns them and no one is sure how they get installed. The towers were uncovered by ESD America, which built the CryptoPhone 500, a highly modified Galaxy S III secured phone with end-to-end encryption and firewall protection of its baseband chip, plus its own custom Android distribution with many vulnerabilities the ESD team found and removed.

SIERRA VISTA — Residents are urged to be cautious after a local business reported being contacted by a suspected con artist seeking money for an alleged overdue electric bill. The business owner reported being called from a phone line with an 850 area code, originating out of the Florida Panhandle, when a man on the other line said they had only 30 minutes to pay or their electricity would be shut off, according to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.

Does anybody have Verizon Home Phone Connect, and if you do, how do you like it? and do you find it useful? We are concerned that if we get it, our Verizon DSL might be impacted. It would be great to cut our home landline contract, but we're worried about losing the DSL. Thanks. Loving my FReeper FRiends. Happy Fourth of July.

Can cops simply take your cell phone and browse through it to their hearts’ content after they arrest you? Today, in Riley v. California, a unanimous Supreme Court answered that question with a resounding “no.” It’s not only a victory for digital privacy, but an example of the kind of judicial engagement that we desperately need to protect our liberties from unreasonable government interference. In Riley, the Court addressed the question of whether the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement applies to cell phone searches. In two separate cases, individuals were arrested and searched by police. The police took their cell phones...

Obviously Cochran is not going to resign. The governor should appoint McDaniel to his seat the GOP can be unified. Wicker is more open to amnesty than Cochran as well. Wicker only voted against the final cloture after he got hundreds of angry calls.

A cheap brand of Chinese-made smartphones carried by major online retailers comes preinstalled with espionage software, a German security firm said Tuesday. G Data Software said it found malicious code hidden deep in the propriety software of the Star N9500 when it ordered the handset from a website late last month. The find is the latest in a series of incidents where smartphones have appeared preloaded with malicious software.

The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas. According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a top-secret system – code-named SOMALGET – that was implemented without the knowledge or consent of the Bahamian government. Instead, the agency appears to have used access legally obtained in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to open a backdoor to the country’s cellular telephone network, enabling it to covertly record and store the “full-take audio” of every mobile call...

A well-known Saudi Islamic scholar has issued a fatwa (religious edict) prohibiting men from using a gold-plated mobile phone. Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Fowzan, a jurisprudence professor and member of the Saudi human rights commission, said women can use such handsets. “As for men, they are prohibited from using gold or gold-plated mobile handsets…such handsets are allowed for women but not men,” he said on his Twitter page in response to a query from a reader. Saudi newspapers said Fowzan’s fatwa came as thousands of men in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states started to opt for gold-plated mobile phones.

So, the phone call happened. Pope Francis called an Argentine woman married to a divorced man and reportedly told her that she could receive the sacrament of Communion, according to the woman’s husband, in an apparent contradiction of Catholic law. Julio Sabetta, from San Lorenzo in the Pope’s home country, said his wife, Jacqueline Sabetta Lisbona, spoke with Francis on Monday. Jacqueline Sabetta Lisbona wrote to the pontiff in September to ask for clarification on the Communion issue, according to her husband, who said his divorced status had prevented her from receiving the sacrament. “She spoke with the Pope, and...