Items tagged with Congress
President Biden commends the COMPETES Act that just passed the House of Representatives as a necessary step to begin weaning America off its dependence on China for chip manufacturing. The act passed the House in a 222-210 vote along party lines, and must now be reconciled with a similar bill passed by the Senate last...
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A group of congressional Democrats hope to save Christmas from greedy scalpers using bots to steal all of Santa's gifts online. The legislation called 'The Stopping Grinch Bots Act' was rolled out Monday.
PC enthusiasts are well aware of the damage scalpers using bots can cause. It seems that each time a graphics...
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Facebook's recently announced re-brand may be coming a bit too late as new whistleblower documents continue to emerge this morning. Documents collectively known as "The Facebook Papers" began being published on Friday, October 22nd.
Facebook has been experiencing a torrent of backlash since whistleblower Frances...
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The United States Congress is currently looking to break “Big Tech” monopolies. However, the companies that they are targeting are unwilling to go down without a fight. Apple recently released a report that defends their current App Store practices.
Many people have contended that Apple should allow developers to...
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The Right to repair movement is a hot topic as manufacturers of various products ranging from mobile devices to tractors have stood in the way of third-party repairs, which tend to be cheaper than the OEM repair method. Even the Federal Trade Commission has intervened over companies blocking right to repair with a...
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Companies like Apple and Google have been accused of anti-competitive practices for many years. A United States House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee has been investigating these major tech companies for sixteen months. A memo from Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) provides some insight into the conclusions of...
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U.S. lawmakers have been on a mission to kill end-to-end encryption as we known it. And we're not just talking about killing encryption (or at least providing backdoors) on devices like iPhones or the Google Pixel 4, but also online software platforms from Facebook and Google.
The bill is entitled "The Eliminating...
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The reign of the Blackberry on Capitol Hill has come to an end. Blackberry phones had long been the phone of choice for members of Congress, but Blackberry recently informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices has been discontinued.
BlackBerry’s smartphone market share was below 1% this...
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Over the past couple of years, law enforcement at large has ramped up its efforts to try to gain access to communication mediums, which can include being able to browse unlocked smartphones. As it stands today, most jurisdictions do not give a member of law enforcement the ability to gain access to a smartphone...
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This past Wednesday, several Republican senators argued before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the topic of Net Neutrality and the Federal Communications Commission. While a large amount of companies are asking that the FCC classify the internet as a utility, Republicans are arguing such a move would give the FCC...
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Score one for the customer. President Barack Obama signed the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act,” which Congress recently passed with unusual ease. The bill makes it legal for mobile phone service customers to unlock their phones and move from one service to another. Carriers...
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If you’ve ever searched for information at the Congress website, you’ve used The Library of Congress’ venerable THOMAS system, which has been around since 1995. (That’s THOMAS, as in, Thomas Jefferson.) Search now at Congress.gov, and you’ll be using an entirely new search engine that is designed to provide an...
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Last month, Microsoft dropped a bombshell on advertisers -- its Internet Explorer 10 that ships with Windows 8 would ship with its "Do Not Track" setting enabled. Users would have to opt out of DNT by manually changing this setting if they wanted websites to track them. The DNT standard is still being debated, and...
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There's a bill currently up for debate in the US House of Representatives that would give companies and government agencies the right to share information when issues of cybersecurity were at stake. If the first thing you thought after reading that was "Wait, don't we already do this," the answer is "Yes, we do." The...
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The bills (one in the Senate, one in the House) have nice names, but they would require you and us, assuming we have routers in our houses, as well as ISPs and hotspots, to maintain records on users for two years. Yes, you read that right, you and us, as well. The bills, Senate Bill S-436 and House Bill HR1076 are both named the "Internet...
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The U.S. Congress has recently approved a new bill, known as the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007, that makes it illegal for anyone in the U.S. using any telecommunications service to transmit misleading / inaccurate information by modifying caller ID data. Each violation could result in a fine of up to $10,000.For some, this news may mark the...
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Congress is considering two pieces of legislation to counter the rise of botnets, denial of service attacks, and spyware like keyloggers. And they're finally taking an approach to Cyber-crime that reflects the seriousness of the crimes; they're bringing it under the umbrella of the RICO act, which was originally intended to attack real-world...
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Organizing the world's information is a big job. The Library of Congress has been trying to do it for years. Is Google doing it better, for free? While Google talks to corporations and Wall Street about its desire and means to drive the sky's-the-limit profits to Google shareholder coffers, The Library of Congress reaches out to individuals...
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With the 2008 mid-term elections over with, many folks are hoping for a change for the better in everything from the economy, to immigration. As CNN reports, we may also see a welcomed new approach to the growth and governing of technology in this country. "Fourteen bills related to technological...
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The debate over how to ethically handle China's internet censorship carried on in Congress today, as major tech companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco, and Google were brought in for questioning. While the argument over internet freedoms is only about as old as the internet, the debate on Business vs. ethics, and where do draw the line...
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The 3GSM World Congress 2006 is around, showcasing everything mobile, and Hardware Zone is ready with the first part of their event coverage. How bout them cell phones? "It's that time of year again where we pay a visit to the mobile mecca, the 3GSM World Congress. This is where deals are...
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