Techno-politics

The line between youthful rebelliousness and something more dangerous is not always clear. But in her angry musings on Twitter, Alba González Camacho, 21, who describes herself as a “very normal girl,” sailed across it. After she posted messages calling for a far-left terrorist organization to return to arms and kill politicians, Spain’s national court Continue Reading →

The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place. The national license-plate recognition Continue Reading →

The maker movement is officially coming to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. On Tuesday, as CNET reported first, the White House announced its first-ever official Maker Faire, bringing a celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math, not to mention the ground zero of the do-it-yourself world, to the home of the leader of the free world. In Continue Reading →

Google is selling its Motorola Mobility smartphone unit to Lenovo for about $2.91 billion, the companies announced on Wednesday. Google’s Mobility unit includes handset technology that the search giant acquired when it bought Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2011. That acquisition was Google’s largest by far, and the biggest bet that Larry Page, its Continue Reading →

Did you miss President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night? On one hand, you should be happy that you didn’t subject yourself to the millions of #SOTU jokes flowing through Twitter. On the other hand, the State of the Union is an important event that should be watched by everyone in Continue Reading →

In an online Q&A session, former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden answered 13 questions posed by Twitter users. The questions he considered ranged from the reasoning behind his leaks, to his hope for what the future of American intelligence programs may look like.  In the session, hosted by a “Free Snowden” group, he noted the report Continue Reading →

President Obama will once again use Google Hangouts to speak to Americans, this time after his State of the Union address next Tuesday. On Friday, January 31st, the president will use Hangouts on Air to chat with three different citizens from the West, Midwest, Northeast, and South, who will be able to ask questions about Continue Reading →

President Obama on Friday announced a number of radical changes to the US government’s extensive surveillance programs, as reassurance that it’s striking the right balance between security and civil liberties. The most significant change will be the abolition of the current program that collects domestic phone call metadata in bulk. The President said he would Continue Reading →

The federal government’s HealthCare.gov website continues to be riddled with flaws that expose confidential user data to the public, a security expert testified Thursday at a hearing on Capitol Hill. David Kennedy, founder of security firm TrustedSec, told members of the House of Representatives Science Committee that only one of 18 issues he reported in Continue Reading →

President Obama will unveil his proposed reforms to the nation’s surveillance programs in a speech next Friday, Jan. 17, the White House announced. “He will be remaking remarks to discuss the outcomes of the work that has been done in the review process,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. The administration provided no details Continue Reading →