News & Commentary

Responding to public outcry over Wednesday's new privacy settings, Facebook backtracked today, announcing that it would allow users to hide their list of friends from both visitors to their profile and search results. However, you've still lost the ability to control this information: you can't select specific groups who can see your friends lists (it's either displayed or it isn't) and you can't prevent applications from accessing it no matter what.

The next time you log onto Facebook, you'll be thinking about privacy: how private are your photos, friends, status updates, and personal details, and how public do you actually want them to be?

A Federal Judge ruled on Nov. 30 that a lawsuit brought by two Bay Area community organizations against federal agents over the seizure of their computers can continue.

California policymakers are deciding now whether your sensitive health-care records can be electronically shared.

On Wednesday, November 18 the Tiburon, California Town Council approved a license-plate camera surveillance system that will keep track of every vehicle that enters and leaves the city. These cameras are expensive: The system carries an initial price tag of between $137,000 and $196,000, with an additional $15,000 yearly maintenance fee.

Your life, your data. Or is it?

On Saturday, we wrote that the amended Google Book Settlement fails to answer the core privacy problems raised by the ACLU, the EFF and the Samuelson Clinic.

The Amended Google Book Search Settlement, filed with the Court on Friday, November 13, does not resolve the privacy concerns.

Following a lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has revised its policies governing airline passenger screening to make clear that TSA agents are authorized to conduct searches related to safeguarding flight safety, not to engage in general law enforcement. Calling the policy changes a victory for civil liberties, the ACLU has moved to drop its lawsuit, originally filed in June on behalf of a traveler who was illegally detained and harassed by TSA agents at the airport after they discovered he was carrying approximately $4,700 in cash.

"This new policy provides much needed clarity to TSA screeners and reflects the critical requirement