Techmeme: How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands (Steven Levy/Wired)

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June 16, 2013, 7:40 PM

Top News

Associated Press:

Secret to Prism program: Even bigger data seizure — WASHINGTON (AP) — In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers. Around the world, government spies …

More: CNET, The Next Web, The Next Web, Ars Technica, SlashGear, Business Insider, Business Insider, Boing Boing, Guardian, emptywheel and Wired

Tweets: @xor, @csoghoian, @msbrumfield, @shiraovide, @anildash, @jayrosen_nyu, @buzzfeedben and @qthrul

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home — A recent briefing by senior intelligence officials on surveillance programs failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs. [WATCH VIDEO]

More: VentureBeat, The Next Web and The Verge

Tweets: @levie, @cmdrtaco, @karlbode and @csoghoian

Barton Gellman / Washington Post:

U.S. surveillance architecture includes collection of revealing Internet, phone metadata — On March 12, 2004, acting attorney general James B. Comey and the Justice Department's top leadership reached the brink of resignation over electronic surveillance orders that they believed to be illegal.

More: emptywheel, The Huffington Post, The Next Web, Mashable and Of Interest

Tweets: @kpoulsen and @dhh

Timothy B. Lee / Washington Post:

NSA-proof encryption exists. Why doesn't anyone use it? — Computer programmers believe they know how to build cryptographic systems that are impossible for anyone, even the U.S. government, to crack. So why can the NSA read your e-mail? — Last week, leaks revealed that the Web sites …

New York Times:

After Profits, Defense Contractor Faces the Pitfalls of Cybersecurity — WASHINGTON — When the United Arab Emirates wanted to create its own version of the National Security Agency, it turned to Booz Allen Hamilton to replicate the world's largest and most powerful spy agency in the sands of Abu Dhabi.

More: TechSpot and Gawker. Tweets: @ggreenwald and @nicoleperlroth

Kimberly Dozier / Associated Press:

Officials: NSA programs broke plots in 20 nations — WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday that information gleaned from two controversial data-collection programs run by the National Security Agency thwarted potential terrorist plots in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries …

More: Reuters, Detroit Free Press, Engadget, emptywheel, BBC, CNET, AllThingsD and Politico. Tweets: @kevinbankston

Carrie Johnson / NPR:

Source: Obama Considering Releasing NSA Court Order — NPR has learned that the Obama administration, under pressure to lift a cloak of secrecy, is considering whether to declassify a court order that gives the National Security Agency the power to gather phone call record information on millions of Americans.

More: The Verge

Declan McCullagh / CNET:

Facebook, Microsoft release NSA stats to reassure users

More: Reuters, PC World, AllThingsD, Valleywag, GigaOM, Softpedia News, www.idigitaltimes.co.uk, NYT Bits, Businessweek and Gizmodo. Tweets: @declanm

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Google Calls Facebook's Data Disclosure Deal With The Feds “A Step Back For Users”

More: Neowin, The Verge, Little Green Footballs, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, PC World, Yahoo! News, Marketing Land, Softpedia News, GeekWire, ZDNet, Engadget, AllThingsD and Politico

Tweets: @nickstatt, @benl and @vindugoel

Guardian:

GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits — Exclusive: phones were monitored and fake internet cafes set up to gather information from allies in London in 2009 — Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 …

More: Guardian, New York Magazine, Reuters, The Verge and Business Insider

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Xbox Music and Windows Store redesigns revealed in Windows 8.1 alongside new apps — Microsoft is tweaking a number of its built-in apps for Windows 8.1, but the Music app appears to include the most changes. A freshly redesigned copy of the Windows Store in leaked builds of Windows 8.1 …

More: Engadget, VentureBeat, T3 News and Windows Phone Central

David Barrett / Telegraph:

Google builds new system to eradicate child porn images from the web — Google, the internet giant, is to create a global database of child abuse images - which it will share with its rival companies - in a bid to eradicate child pornography from the web. — Google engineers are working …

More: The Official Google Blog, The Verge, CNET, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Steven Musil / CNET:

Saudi Arabia may block WhatsApp within weeks — Popular mobile chat app warned of possible blockage after voice and messaging app Viber was blocked last week. — Saudi Arabia plans to block WhatsApp in coming weeks if the makers of the mobile chat app don't comply with local regulations.

More: Arab News

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

If Office Hits The iPad, Even Fewer People Would Buy A Surface — Remember this ad? The ad where Microsoft attempts to position the iPad as a chopstick-playing toy and the Surface as a PowerPoint-editing machine? — Yeah, that's why we can't have nice things. — Microsoft just released Office the the iPhone.

Mike Cassidy / The Official Google Blog:

Introducing Project Loon: Balloon-powered Internet access — The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem.

More: Forbes, Digits, Electronista, Technabob, Digital Trends, Hypebeast and Reuters. Tweets: @qthrul

Steven Levy / Wired:

How Google Will Use High-Flying Balloons to Deliver Internet to the Hinterlands

More: Forbes, AllThingsD, GigaOM, Mashable, Ars Technica, Stuck in Customs, CNET, TechCrunch, The Verge, NEWS.com.au and 9to5Google

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