On Thursday, January 18, the U.S. Senate voted to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017, which expands the U.S. government’s ability to pursue warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens. The bill was met with a bit of bi-partisan opposition, in the form of a failed filibuster by Senators Ron Wyden, D-OR, and Rand Paul, R-KY. The Senate voted to limit debate to 30 hours, according to Motherboard, effectively putting an end to the filibuster.
The FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act would effectively renew the authorization the U.S. government used to gather surveillance on U.S. citizens without requiring a warrant. The methods fall into two categories: “About collection” and “backdoor search.”
“With backdoor search, intelligence agencies can monitor the communications of any American that has been in touch with any foreigner the agency deems a target,” Motherboard reports, “About collection allows intelligence agencies to monitor the electronic communications of any American that mentions information, such as a phone number or email address, about a foreign target, even if they have never communicated with that foreigner.”
The bill is expected to be signed as soon as it hits President Donald Trump’s desk, at which time the amendments will in effect for six years, when they will be up for reauthorization again.
The American Civil Liberties Union released a coalition letter outlining its opposition to the law, describing it as “short-sighted” and “rushed” given it was put together in 48 hours.
“Indeed, the bill is measurably worse than a short-term straight reauthorization of Section 702 with a sunset. Given this — and the enormous privacy interests at stake — it is astounding that the bill is being rushed through committee and was released less than 48 hours before the scheduled markup,” the Coalition letter reads, undersigned by 36 different groups opposing the passage of the bill.
The ACLU’s criticism stems not only from the drafting of the bill but of the way it reauthorizes provisions of the FISA act, which the ACLU claims are unlawfully interpreted by U.S. law enforcement agencies.
“The broad language of the bill could be interpreted by the government to sweep in individuals only tangentially related to malicious cyber activities,” the Coalition letter reads.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.