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The head of the National Security Agency (NSA) on Wednesday appeared to downplay allegations in a recent report that claimed Yahoo developed a scanning software to help U.S. intelligence search its customers' incoming emails.
“I would only comment, I’ve read this real quickly and thought, well this is a little speculative,” Adm. Michael Rogers said at a cybersecurity summit in Cambridge, Mass., in apparent reference to the Yahoo report.
GETTY ENLISTS PHOTOGS AGAINST GOOGLE — Getty Images, the stock photography giant, is trying a new tactic as it ramps up its effort to get antitrust officials to crack down on Google: rallying the sort of photographers and small photo agencies whose images they license to complain that they feel the pain of Google’s design choices.
SOMETHING NEW? — In Tuesday evening’s vice presidential debate, Sen.
USMobile is launching a new version of its Scrambl3 app that lets you make private and secure encrypted mobile calls.
The app is taking a swing at popular mobile messaging networks WhatsApp and Viber. “Unlike all the other VOIP communication platforms these days, we can achieve the kind of security you need if you’re a target,” said Jon Hanour, CEO of USMobile, in an interview with VentureBeat.
Yahoo Inc. reportedly built a program allowing the U.S. government to scan millions of customers’ emails for a specific phrase last year, raising questions in the tech industry about why Yahoo didn’t fight the demand.
--UNMITIGATED FURY!: Privacy advocates were quick to register outrage after a report published Tuesday revealed that Yahoo developed software to help U.S. intelligence search its customers' incoming emails. "If true, the government's directive to Yahoo to write a software program and search all of its customers' incoming emails for certain content is a gross abuse of federal power," Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said in a statement. "Private sector companies and private citizens are not an arm of law enforcement or an extension of our intelligence agencies." Sen.
Yahoo built custom software for U.S. intelligence agencies last year so the agencies could scan customers' incoming email for specific information.
According to an Oct. 4 report from Reuters, two former employees of the company and a third person familiar with the activity said Yahoo built the program in response to a request from either the FBI or the National Security Agency to comply with a classified U.S. government directive sent to the company's legal team.
Yahoo’s trust with users is damaged today by a Reuters report that claims the company developed a custom program to search all users’ incoming email for specific queries given by U.S. intelligence officials.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington - Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) issued the following statement in light of the news that Yahoo, at the request of the NSA or the FBI, searched hundreds of millions of private emails.
Donald Trump has continued to say he would never take the nuclear option off the table. For example, he told Bloomberg: "I'm never going to rule anything out."
Comments like that make people — including Congressman Ted Lieu — a little worried about what Trump would do with a big, red nuclear button.
"Whether you supported Obama or McCain or Romney or Bush, you didn't think they were crazy," Lieu said when he sat down with Newsy.