Friday, October 14, 2016

Netiquette IQ Blog Of 10/14/16 - Lawmakers Ask the White House to Review Yahoo's Email Spying







Oct 14 2016, 12:52 pm ET


Lawmakers Ask the White House to Review Yahoo's Email Spying
by Reuters -

A bipartisan group of 48 lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday asked the Obama administration to brief Congress "as soon as possible" about a 2015 Yahoo program to scan all of its users' incoming email at the behest of the government.
Lawmakers want to learn more about a 2015 Yahoo program to scan all of its users' incoming email at the behest of the government. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic REUTERS
The request comes amid scrutiny by privacy advocates and civil liberties groups about the legal authority and technical nature of the surveillance program, first revealed by Reuters last week. Custom software was installed to search messages to hundreds of millions of accounts under an order issued by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
"As legislators, it is our responsibility to have accurate information about the intelligence activities conducted by the federal government," according to the letter, organized by Republican Representative Justin Amash of Michigan and Democratic Representative Ted Lieu of California.
"Accordingly, we request information and a briefing as soon as possible for all members of Congress to resolve the issues raised by these reports."
Investigators searched for messages that contained a single piece of digital content linked to a foreign state sponsor of terrorism, sources have told Reuters, though the nature of the content remains unclear.
Intelligence officials said Yahoo modified existing systems used to stop child pornography and filter spam messages on its email service.
But three former Yahoo employees told Reuters the court-ordered search was done by a module buried deep near the core of the company's email server operation system, far below where mail sorting was handled.
The Senate and House intelligence committees were given a copy of the order when it was issued last year, sources said, but other members of Congress have express concern at the scope of the email scanning.
Some legal experts have questioned the breadth of the court order and whether it runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.
Half of registered U.S. voters believe the Yahoo program violated the privacy of customers, according to a poll of 1,989 people conducted last week by Morning Consult, a polling and media company.
Twenty-five percent were supportive of the program because of its potential to stop criminal acts, the survey found, while another quarter did not know or had no opinion.
==============================================

Another Special Announcement - Tune in to my radio interview,  on Rider University's station, www.1077thebronc.com I discuss my recent book, above on "Your Career Is Calling", hosted by Wanda Ellett.   

In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ has a website with great assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super Charge Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for young people. You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:

 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki

In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.


I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.
=============================================================

No comments:

Post a Comment