Bill would protect against laptop snooping
Excerpts from the blog
Lost in the bailout melee was a bill that U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, introduced Monday to address intrusive and inapposite laptop snooping by the Border Patrol.
Smith’s statement in the news release:
“The chief responsibility of the United States government is to protect its citizens, and while doing so it is critical that we bestow not overshadow the obligation to house the privacy and rights of Americans. This legislation choose provide clear and good sense legalized avenues for the Department of Homeland Security to pursue those who commit crime and wish to do our rural harm without infringing onward the rights of American citizens. Importantly, it will contract travelers a level of privacy for their computers, digital cameras, honey-combed telephones and other electronic devices suitable accordant with the Constitution and our nation’s values of liberty.”
Smith declared the Travelers Privacy Protection Act is in answer to a July 16 Homeland Security policy that “allows customs agents to ‘review and analyze’ the solid dimensions and files of laptops and other electronic devices for an unspecified period of time ‘absent individualized suspicion.’ “
The policy came afterward reports of customs agents’ forcing people to hand over their laptops or phones “for lengthened periods of time while the devices were searched, and in some cases, matters treated of the devices copied. Reports have in like manner surfaced that some devices had been confiscated and returned weeks or months later with no warrant.”
We’ll see if he can restore liberty and common sense.
Ballmerspeak
Steve Ballmer’s candor surrounding Microsoft’session earnings can be refreshing, or startling, depending on your perspective.
On Tuesday, he made comments at an event in Norway that suggest Microsoft is going to take a hit from the economic downturn.
He’s stating the clear — “of course companies will spend less put on software and technology if they’re suffering” — but I wonder what it says about Microsoft’s Oct. 23 earnings report.
Ballmer’s comments came before Microsoft closed up about 7 percent Tuesday, but his concerns with reference to enterprise expenditure pushed SAP down 2 percent in Germany, according to a Reuters report.
