Gawker: valleywag, spying

The Law Of Aerial Spying

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:53:52 EDT

When reporting on The Rich, it's critical to prove that they are, in fact, rich. This is most easily accomplished by showing their homes, because every reader can immediately tell that they couldn't even afford the solid gold horse stable, much less the platinum guest house or uranium master bedroom. But most of The Rich aren't gauche enough to allow a photographer to set foot on their property. What to do? Hire a helicopter, of course. You can spy on wealthy barons from the air all you want, and it's perfectly legal! Here's the proof, and the pudding:

[A legal expert] said that generally speaking, it’s OK to take aerial photos of objects that are readily visible to the naked eye, since they’re taken from public airspace.

The possibility of trouble arises when people use high-powered telephoto lenses. If a photo reveals a home’s security operations or shows close-ups of people, there could be an argument for an invasion of privacy claim. She said that “capturing someone sitting on their patio sunbathing nude” could create a legal challenge, but added that “if you’re just showing that someone has this lovely home, I’m not sure that would be a compelling argument for a claim.”

You heard it straight from the WSJ: you are well within your rights to try to "incidentally" snap a photo of Bill Gates in the buff. Because you like his lovely home. And thank god for that. Without these rights, the media would never get jealousy-producing shots like these:

Rodney Propp's $40 million Hamptons spread, from Vanity Fair:

A mere glimpse of Abigail Johnson's hideously valuable Massachusetts manse:

You get the idea, plebe.

[WSJ]

Is Your Company Spying On You Right Now?

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:08:39 EDT

File this under "Confirmation of scary news that you already suspected was true": a new survey says that corporations have become so paranoid about leaks (justifiably) that many are now engaged in "systematic snooping" in employees' electronic communications. More than 40% of large companies read employee emails, but that's not all; they're also looking at your instant messages and Facebook pages. Delete! Delete!

Businesses are also increasingly concerned about the risks posed by blogging, social networking sites, and instant messaging. Approximately 21 percent of the companies surveyed have investigated leaks that occurred through blogs and message boards, and 12 percent investigated leaks that occurred through social networking sites. Other emerging leak vectors include peer-to-peer file-sharing services and multimedia sharing sites like YouTube.

Corporate leakers: remember that everything you do on your work computer is subject to spying. But none of this should be construed as discouragement from leaking to us. Use your personal email account, or your home computer, or even your phone! There is no "NEUWS" without "U."

[ars technica via Jossip; image via Current]

Salon one-ups Wired News with double-secret NSA spying rooms

Nick Douglas — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:22:07 EDT

Score one for Salon Magazine, which just trumped last month's Wired News NSA-at-AT&T story with news of a more sinister, even more highly secured NSA spying room in AT&T's St. Louis facilities.

Salon writer Kim Zetter expertly plays down the Wired News piece without outright calling it dog-bites-man. But she gets amusingly close. All references to "the Klein case" below are about the earlier, wussier story.

"Whatever is happening [in the more important Bridgeton facility] with the security you're talking about is a whole lot more closely held than what's going on with the Klein case" in San Francisco, [former NSA officer Russ Tice] said. (The San Francisco room is secured only by a special combination lock, according to the Klein documents.)

After the jump, another Klein-referencing graf from Page 2 follows Rule 1 of the Secondary Scoop: Show why your story's more important than the first guy's.

According to the two former AT&T workers and the Klein documents, the room in the pivotal Bridgeton facility was set up several months before the room in San Francisco. According to the Klein documents, the work order for the San Francisco room came from Bridgeton, suggesting that Bridgeton has a more integral role in operations using the secured rooms.

Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic? [Salon]

DOJ wants Google, MS, and AOL to screw us over

Nick Douglas — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:33:40 EDT

Hide the porn and stop searching for "Bush is a loser" — the US government today asked Internet companies to keep records of e-mails and web searches. Not demanded — they'd need Congress's approval for that — but asked. Like, as a favor, in between the Chinese censorship and the Nazi collaboration. The Attorney General and FBI director made this request to AOL, Microsoft, Comcast, and Google (and Verizon, a known informant). Who will sell us out first? Let's guess!

Microsoft, AOL, Google Asked by U.S. to Keep Internet Records [Bloomberg]