TechCrunch
Microsoft Vows To Fight Government For Right To Disclose More Information About User Data Requests
Microsoft today published a short blog post stating that it feels that recent government changes to how it reports surveillance activities are insufficient. Calling the decision by the federal government to publish more information on the quantity of consumer data requests relating to national security each year “a good start,” Microsoft claims the Constitution demands more progress.
Microsoft cites the founding document several times in its post, also declaring that it believes that it has “a clear right under the U.S. Constitution to share more information with the public.”
In a rare moment of solidarity, Microsoft name-checked Google, saying that the two companies agree that more must be made legally allowable to disclose. Both companies are in litigation with the government for the right to share more about what they are forced to hand to the government. Specifically, Microsoft wants to disclose how often user content such as the content of an email is demanded.
Revelations from documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to journalist Glenn Greenwald showed that through a program called PRISM, the United States government requested hefty amounts of user data from large Internet companies.
There are gag rules around what can be said regarding government data requests. This stifles discussion, debate, and functional oversight of the government by its ultimate leaders, the citizenry. Microsoft and Google are also likely not particularly excited about sharing their private user data with intelligence agencies.
Microsoft, citing a “failure of [its] recent negotiations” promises to press forward with its lawsuit “in the hope that the courts will uphold [its] right to speak more freely.” The company claims to have met with the government on six different occasions. Microsoft indicated that its suit was filed in June.
You don’t often see a company worth hundreds of billions go full philosophy, but Microsoft went there (this appears to be a trend at the company – I’m looking at you, Frank):
The United States has long been admired around the world for its leadership in promoting free speech and open discussion. We benefit from living in a country with a Constitution that guarantees the fundamental freedom to engage in free expression unless silence is required by a narrowly tailored, compelling Government interest.
We believe there remains a path forward that will share more information with the public while protecting national security. Our hope is that the courts and Congress will ensure that our Constitutional safeguards prevail.
Microsoft is not always on the right side of privacy issues. However, in this case it is, and that is worth noting. Also, the combined Google and Microsoft legal budget is formidable. Perhaps progress will be made.
Top Image Credit: Amit Chattopadhyay
Twitter To Appoint Vijaya Gadde as General Counsel as Alex Macgillivray Moves On
Twitter is appointing Vijaya Gadde as its new General Counsel after current appointee Alex Macgillivray has announced his plans to move on. The news came as a post on Macgillivray’s personal site and was shortly thereafter reported on by Mike Isaac at All Things D.
Techcrunch has confirmed both the departure of Macgillivray and the hire of Gadde with Twitter.
Macgillivray says that he is planning on dialing back his involvement with Twitter as the team transitions to new leadership. “I’ll continue to support the company and its great people by staying on as an advisor for the legal, trust & safety, corporate development and public policy teams,” says Macgillivray. “I continue to care deeply about Twitter, the folks who work at Twitter and our tremendous users, so I’ll remain close to all three.”
Macgillivray was hired by Twitter in 2009 and previously served as DGC of Product at IP at Google. Gadde has been a director in Twitter’s legal department since July of 2011 and will now take on the GC role.
Macgillivray’s former post at Google had him going to bat for the company over its efforts to scan books. His move there was seen as a key ‘first amendment’ hire as Twitter began to be considered a platform for expression and came under attack from government agencies of various countries looking to quash or investigate statements made by users.
Gadde was formerly an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where Macgillivray was also formerly an attorney.
More to follow…
Bitmonet Monetizes Your Blog Through The Power Of Bitcoin
Bitmonet – think “Bitcoin Monetization” rather than “Bitcoin Impressionist Painter” – is a platform for creation microtransaction-based paywalls on your blog or content portal. While most people don’t like paywalls, most people are also going to have to start expecting them and this open source service definitely makes a lot of sense.
Founded by Bo Li, Ankur Nandwani, and designer Valerie Chao, the site adds very basic functions to your average blog. When you click on a link, a window pops up asking for a few cents to read a post and a little more to buy an hour’s worth of access or a day pass. This obviously requires access to and a willingness to use Bitcoin although you could pay in another currency.
The team launched the app using the BitPay API, a service that allows for nearly seamless BTC integration. They have a full tutorial on how to implement the platform here. You can see a demo of the platform here. It is an open source project and the team is releasing the code today.
Bitmonet’s origin story began at a hackathon.
“I spend 2-3 hours every day reading news from all over the world,” said Nandwani. “Over the last few years I have noticed that more and more newspapers are setting up paywalls. Now if I want to just read an article, it doesn’t make sense to pay $20 for a monthly subscription. So I was trying to solve this problem. At the same time I was researching investment opportunities in Bitcoins by talking to people in the Bitcoin community, when this idea clicked to me and I ended up developing the prototype at the Bitcoin Hackathon.”
“Our goal behind BitMonet is to increase Bitcoin adoption. Hence we have made BitMonet free and easy to install. Also, it is completely customizable, giving the publisher complete control of how they want to monetize their content,” said Nandwani. “They can monetize a single [piece of] content, or they can offer time-metered subscription services.”
The team is focusing on publishers right now and will soon move on to game makers and other content creators. There are other services, like Gumroad and even Apple’s own payment system that creators can use but this looks to be one of the first with BTC support. While this is obviously still a niche tool, it’s interesting to see how seamless Bitcoin payments can be using open source and a little API magic.
Flutter Is A Wireless Platform For Arduino-Based Projects To Network Over Wi-Fi-Busting Distances
Getting Arduino-powered devices to talk to each other over long distances is going to get cheaper and easier if this Kickstarter project flies. Flutter is a wireless development platform for Arduino with over half a mile of usage range — making it suitable for outdoor projects covering greater distances than Wi-Fi can comfortably manage.
Possible use-cases could include home automation systems, flying bots like quadcopters, environmental monitoring systems and radio-controlled cars. In short any Arduino-powered project that needs to ferry data from one relatively distant point to another. Flutter’s range will be 1,000m+ (3,200ft) but its creators also intend to include a mesh networking component, so multiple devices can be positioned to cover even greater distances than the standard half mile+ range.
The plan — assuming Flutter hits its crowdfunding target of $80,000 to turn its current Kickstarter prototypes into shipping product — is to offer two main Flutter board options to network up your devices: a basic board costing $20 and a pro board with a built in antenna for $30. The boards will be powered by an Atmel SAM3s ARM CPU.
The Flutter Basic board will have an integrated (rather than external) antenna and is smaller in size thanks to having components on both sides. It also has a micro USB for power and programming, an LED, and a button, plus digital and analog I/O. The Pro board will include battery charging, a professional screw mount antenna, an additional button, and more memory for more code.
Flutter’s makers also plan to offer a few other bits of kit to flesh out their wireless system, including a variety of shields for easier plug and play (and minimal soldering); a home base station which can connect to a router via Ethernet or Wi-Fi; and a Bluetooth shield for talking to a smartphone and interfacing with a planned Flutter mobile app.
The more devices you want to talk to each other, the more boards/bits of kit you’ll obviously need but at $20/$30 a pop for the main boards the cost should scale to support sizeable projects without breaking the bank.
Kickstarter backers are being offered a veritable pick ‘n’ mix of options, starting at $25 for one basic board — rising to $475 for this “autonomous swarm” supporting haul: 5x Flutter Basic, 5x Flutter Pro, 4x RC Shield, 2x Shield shield, 1x Flutter Network Shield, 1x Bluetooth Shield, 1x Starter Kit, 10x USB and 12x (two extra) Breakouts.
Security is an obvious focus for Flutter’s creators — being as you’re transmitting potentially sensitive data over relatively large distances where it could be intercepted. Data transfers will be encrypted and the Flutter devices themselves will include a cryptographic chip to store and protect encryption keys.
The project is also open source. “Every aspect of our system will be made available, from schematics, board designs, the bill of materials, right down to the firmware and mobile app. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to build or improve upon our foundation,” they note. Plus they intend to offer a set of tutorials to open up wireless development to a broader base of makers.
It’s an ambitious project for sure, and still has a fair bit of work to do — including redesigning the prototype, gaining FCC certification for the wireless hardware, developing their supporting software and mobile apps (iOS and Android are planned) — but they are already approaching the half-way mark of their funding target with 27 days left to run on their campaign so have clearly struck a chord with the maker community. With that kind of support this is one Kickstarter project that looks all but certain to take off.
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