An amendment in the United States Senate that would have blocked the government from surveilling Americans’ browser history without a warrant failed on Wednesday — by a single vote.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the amendment to the 2001 Patriot Act, which was meant to explicitly restrict authorities’ ability to search both browser and search histories under Section 215 of the act.
Wyden’s measure was essentially meant to block what another amendment was trying to accomplish: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had introduced a measure that would, in effect, greatly expand the surveillance powers of the Department of Justice.
“McConnell is that much closer to give [Attorney General] Bill Barr the green light to spy on Americans’ private information,” Wyden wrote on Twitter.
Fifty-nine members of the Senate just voted in favor of my amendment to block warrantless government surveillance of Americans' browser history. It failed by just one vote. McConnell is that much closer to giving Bill Barr the green light to spy on Americans' private information. https://t.co/IV5ERbte48
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) May 13, 2020
“Now that Americans have been asked to stay home and not move around, they are more vulnerable than ever to abusive surveillance,” Wyden said in his statement. “Now more than ever, during this pandemic, Americans deserve assurances that the government isn’t spying on them as they move around the internet.”
In his own statement, McConnell called the bill “strong” and said that it “strikes a correct and delicate balance” between “the need for accountability with our solemn obligation to protect our citizens, and defend our homeland.”
“Common sense tells us this crisis demands more vigilance on other fronts of national security not less,” McConnell said.
A total of 59 senators voted in favor of that amendment, one short of the 60 needed to approve the measure.
According to the Daily Beast, the amendment McConnell introduced would block the FBI from seeing the “content” of searches and browser activity, but it “explicitly permits the FBI to warrantlessly collect records on Americans’ web browsing and search histories. In a different amendment, McConnell also proposed giving the attorney general visibility into the ‘accuracy and completeness’ of FBI surveillance submissions to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court.”
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.