Political Action Network » privacy

US State Dept To Formally Protest To China Regarding Hacking Attacks

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:20:17 +0000

Following the Google investigation of recent hacking attacks, which resulted in the discovery of potential Chinese government involvement or acceptance, the US State Department will formally protest to the Chinese Government demanding an explanation. “We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days,” said state department spokesperson PJ Crowley. “It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it.”

Yahoo and other US companies have also come forward with cases that potentially point back to China.

Google has already threatened to pull out of China following the hacking attempts and security violations which intruded on intellectual property rights. The hacking attempts included illegal access of human rights workers using Gmail.

Google announced that the company is no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine – google.cn. In response to the hacking attempts, Google demanded that China allow it to operate within censorship restrictions. A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, asseted the internet in China was “open.” Some of the current censorship restrictions that the Chinese Government require of web operators include removing content covering: 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan independence or Falun Gong, among others.

High Tech Gadgets To Be Inspected US Border From Mexico

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:17:45 +0000

Although customs has possessed the right to inspect high tech gadgets like laptops and digital cameras, they have not always exercised that right.

From now on, high tech gadgets will undergo inspections from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they pass across the border from Mexico to the United States.

Customs and Border Protection will be looking for cyber threats, terrorist plots, bulk cash smuggling and counterfeited trademarks specifically.

Street View By Google May Contain Privacy Issues In Switzerland

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:42:22 +0000

A government official in Switzerland is demanding that Google turn off its street view map service citing privacy issues. One cause of concern was that numerous vehicle license plates and human faces were not blurred in the street view maps. The official is asking that Google shut down the service until it conforms to Swiss law.

Google’s street-view map displays detailed street-level images of cities worldwide. Currently over 100 cities have been mapped using the street view service worldwide.

Greece’s Data Protection Authority already barred Google from photographing its streets to be included in the service.