Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans’ e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

It’s an abrupt departure from Leahy’s earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill “provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by… requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.”

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September. But after law enforcement groups including the National District Attorneys’ Association and the National Sheriffs’ Association organizations objected to the legislation and asked him to “reconsider acting” on it, Leahy pushed back the vote and reworked the bill as a package of amendments to be offered next Thursday.

Read more at CNET

Bloomberg refuses National Guard assistance to Sandy victims in Brooklyn because of guns.

NEW YORK—A report on Newsbusters indicates that Mayor Michael Rubens Bloomberg of New York refused to allow National Guard units into Brooklyn—despite the pleas of Borough President Markowitz. The reason for denying the aid to Sandy victims was because the National Guard carries guns.

Apparently Bloomberg refused the request an hour before his press conference claiming his brave NYPD and FDNY were “overwhelmed.” Bloomberg refused, alleges the story, because it would turn the Borough into a “police state.”

“We don’t need it,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Wednesday during a press update on the city’s ongoing Hurricane Sandy cleanup. “The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns.”—the article reports.

Markowitz hoped that the presence of soldiers would stop a rash of looting and break-ins that occurred in the aftermath of Sandy.

New email scam aimed at domain name owners

Internet–A new email scam is running around the web targeting owners of domain names. The email comes from “John” whose email address was john4873587806@gmail.com, but the Reply to is john4873587@gmail.com.

The initial email is in broken English informing the person that someone is interested in purchasing your domain name, but it does not specify which domain name. Subsequent emails offer you $9000 for your domain name and instruct you to go to ToSellDomains.com.

The first email reads:

Hi
We have a customer interested to buy your domain. If you are interested to sell it let me know your asking price
We dont know how to contact with you, if you got this email please contact us ASAP
Thanks

John Sean

A follow-up email reads:

Sorry for delayed, i lost your email in bulk folder.
my customer offer is $9000 for your domain
i want buy though www.ToSellDomains.com its secure for both

A Whois search reveals no information about the owner of the site and only reveals that it is registered in Colorado. The site was registered in February of this year.

The purpose of the scam remains a mystery.

Source: Williams TEA Party