Silicon Valley county cancels Stingray surveillance contract

Silicon Valley, as seen from over north San Jose, facing southbound towards Downtown San Jose (Image from wikipedia.org)
Officials in Santa Clara County were about to acquire a new surveillance device known as a “Stingray,” but negotiations broke down after Harris Corporation wouldn’t agree to even the most basic public records responsibility.
Local lawmakers in Santa Clara had initially approved using federal funds to acquire the device in February. Little is known about the Stingray devices, which intercept phone data by mimicking cell phone towers, because local governments that are using them are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement by the corporations that make them, such as Harris.
READ MORE: NSA's telephone metadata collection not authorized by Patriot Act - appeals court
“After negotiations regarding contract terms, including business and legal issues, the County and Harris have been unable to reach agreement on a contract for the purchase of the System,”
wrote James Williams, the deputy county executive, to County Executive Jeffrey Smith. “Accordingly, the System will not be purchased at this time.”
County Executive Smith told Ars Technica the contract with Harris involved overly strict restrictions on disclosures through the public records process.
“What happened was, we were in negotiations with Harris, and we couldn’t get them to agree to even the most basic criteria we have in terms of being responsive to public records requests,”
said Smith.
“After many hours of back and forth it became clear that they weren’t going to consent to a contract in an attempt to keep everything secret and non-discoverable and that’s not something we could live with as a public agency. The negotiations are going to be terminated and the grant money will go to other purposes.
”

Santa Clara may be the first county in the US to refuse to accept Harris Corporation’s non-disclosure agreement, but it comes at a time when a number of investigations are underway into whether the technology breaks the law and violates the privacy rights of Americans.
“Stingrays are very invasive surveillance tracking technology and Santa Clara County was right to bring the issue of its acquisition to the Board of Supervisors and thoroughly consider the legal issues,
” the American Civil Liberties Union of North California said in a release on Wednesday.
READ MORE: FBI admits to using surveillance plans above Baltimore protests
The ACLU has identified 51 agencies in 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, as owning Stingray surveillance devices. Civil liberties groups that have been making public records requests in order to learn more about the technology have discovered that non-disclosure agreements exist between governments and companies like Harris. The ACLU has filed public records requests with more than 30 Florida law enforcement agencies, while the New York Civil Liberties Union has filed one with the sheriff’s office in Erie County, New York.
What is known is that these cell-site simulators trick phones into connecting to them by posing as cell phone towers – they can block or drop phone calls, and disrupt other mobile devices that use the same cell network, according to recent court disclosures. The ACLU said that law enforcement officials in Florida have used Stingray surveillance to track cell phone locations on more than 1,800 occasions, all without warrants.
The Harris Corporation’s Stingray is the most well-known device utilizing the controversial spying technology, which is used by the FBI, the Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency and many state and local police agencies. By impersonating cell towers, the devices force phones in the area to broadcast information that can be used to identify and locate users. Ars Technica reported earlier that the FBI is trying to “prevent disclosure” of how the devices are used in local jurisdictions across the US.
READ MORE: 'Stingray' surveillance devices can degrade service for any cell phone in vicinity - report
The ACLU’s recent disclosure included a court filing that uncovered the ability of a Stingray to negate cell phone calls by either downgrading mobile devices from 3G or 4G connectivity to 2G – enabling them to access identification and location information – or by using the devices’ “catch-and-release”
functions
“As each phone tries to connect, [the stingray device] will say, ‘I’m really busy right now so go use a different tower. So rather than catching the phone, it will release it,”
Chris Soghoian, the ACLU’s chief technologist, told WIREDof the “catch-and-release” theory.
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First phase of 'Clean Ganga' campaign to be completed by 2016

Kanpur: The first phase of 'Clean Ganga' campaign will be completed by October 2016 for the conservation of the river, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti said Saturday.

The work for the completion of the first phase of 'Ganga Samagra Abhiyan' is in full swing and is expected to be completed by October next year, Bharti said at a meeting here.

A report on the conservation of the river's ecological system till Rishikesh has also been submitted by an IIT Kanpur professor and another report on the 'Ganga Sagar' is expected to be submitted by him in 1-2 months, she said.

"We have identified 23 sewers adjacent to the Ganga and have initiated the treatment of the sewage. There will be no delay of any scheme due to lack of funds falling under 'Namami Ganga,'" she said.

She also claimed that Narendra Modi will continue to serve as the Prime Minster for three more terms and what he has done for the economic development and foreign policies for India in one year was not even achieved by Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

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Master orchestrator of genome discovered

Washington: A team of researchers has discovered the "master orchestrator" of genome and has described how a single nuclear protein functions like an orchestra conductor, programming the "symphony of biology."
University at Buffalo research provides evidence that it all begins with a single "master" growth factor receptor that regulates the entire genome.
Senior author Michal K Stachowiak said that the finding provides a new level of understanding of the fundamental aspects of how organisms develop, adding that the research shows how a single growth factor receptor protein moves directly to the nucleus in order to program the entire genome.
The research challenges a long-held supposition in biology that specific types of growth factors only functioned at a cell`s surface. For two decades, Stachowiak`s team has been intrigued by the possibility that growth factors function from within the nucleus, a point, he says, this current paper finally proves.
A more advanced understanding of how organisms form, based on this work, has the potential to significantly enhance the understanding and treatment of cancers, which result from uncontrolled development as well as congenital diseases, the researchers say.
The new research, which was conducted on mouse embryonic stem cells, not human cells, will also contribute to the understanding of how stem cells work.
The study is published in PLOS ONE.

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Only accredited agencies can do EIA: Javadekar

Chennai: Only accredited agencies will be allowed to do Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and there will be more such agencies which can do the EIA, Union Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar said here Saturday.

"Only accredited agencies will be allowed and there will be more number of accredited agencies which can do Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)," he told reporters here.

Asked on the EIA done by Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History for a Rs 1,500 crore Neutrino Observatory project in Tamil Nadu, which is not accredited by agencies like Quality Council of India, he said "I will have to check, I do not know the facts, the file has not come to me."

He, however, said the government would take cognisance of EIA done only by recognised institutes, those accredited by the QCI.

"Only accredited bodies will do it...Many went to court, individuals also," he said, adding that a clarificatory notification will be issued in this regard.

"We will issue clarificatory notification to avoid this kind of situation, with proper notification and explanation we will put all facts before court and sooner we will have a system where only accredited agencies will be allowed and there will be more number of accredited agencies which can do EIA," he said.

On marsh lands, he said "it will be protected and nurtured and more migratory birds will come."

To a query on action against some green NGO's, he said "we are taking all NGOs on board who are on field and there are thousands of them."

Earlier, Javadekar chaired a meeting of top officials of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. Over the interaction, the minister said "we had a good meeting."

Under the urban green campaign of the Centre, lands under forest category sans greenery will be brought under forest cover across the country including Tamil Nadu, he said.

It will be ensured that such forest lands were encroachment free with proper compound wall and made useful, he said.

"In a growing city like Chennai, which also faces water scarcity, we also need to create water harvesting in green spaces and this has also been discussed with the Forest officials," he said.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill has been introduced in Parliament and the Centre wants to unlock about Rs 38,000 crore in the Fund and provide it to states for such efforts, he said.

The funds are "locked in bank accounts as per supreme court orders."

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First quarter of 2015 the warmest ever in US

Washington: The US recorded its warmest first quarter since the 1880s this year even as central India experienced a cooler temperature than the average, according to an American scientific agency.

Further, March this year became warmest month in the last 136 years, latest US official figures reported.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in its latest report said the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for March 2015 was the highest for the month since record keeping began in 1880.

Central India, southeastern Mauritania, central Mexico, and eastern Canada were cooler than average, the report said.

The year-to-date (January-March) globally averaged temperature was also record high.

During March, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.53F (0.85C) above the 20th century average.

This was the highest for March in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record of 2010 by 0.09F (0.05C), it said.

Also during January-March, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.48F (0.82C) above the 20th century average.

This was the highest for January-March in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record of 2002 by 0.09F (0.05C), it said.

The average March temperature over land surfaces across the globe tied with 1990 as the second highest for March on record, at 1.59C (2.86F) above the 20th century average. 

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Goodbye forever to 'Candy Crush' invites on Facebook

New York: Already fed up of annoying app and game invites from friends on Facebook? There is some good news for you. You can now block all such irritating requests and reminders.
And that's just a click of a few buttons away now, so let's get started.
Invitations to install apps or join games are the number one most frustrating feature of Facebook. You could be bombarded with invites on a daily basis, and most apps make it quite easy to spam an entire friends list with annoying alerts.
Now you can put a lid on this nightmare.
Open your Settings screen on the Facebook Web client and click on the "Blocking" tab on the left sidebar.
Under the heading "Block App Invites", type the name of the person on your friends list who has been pestering you for long enough now with unwarranted invites. It's done!
You can use this same page to block specific apps from contacting you entirely, and even prevent your friends from sending you event invitations.

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