• Troubling news from the Senate. Senator Leahy (D-VT) has proposed that the FBI be granted broader access to stored communications records through the secretive National Security Letter regime. NSLs allow the FBI access to your private communications data without any court oversight. 
• The firm Illuminating Concepts' "Intellistreets" lampposts can listen in to pedestrian conversations, monitor traffic and blare advertisements at passersby, and DHS is paying for them to be installed in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Fears of Big Brother monitoring created an outcry about the program on the internet yesterday, prompting the company to pull a YouTube video that describes how the lampposts work. But someone saved a copy. Here it is. Welcome to the Brave New World.

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• The FBI has yet again relaxed its rules for domestic spying. Those of you familiar with the 'old' rules are likely asking, 'How could they possibly deregulate the system further?' It's a good question. Too bad we don't have all the answers. After all, who would keep democracy safe from the people if the FBI told us what authority it has to spy on us?
• An iPhone app enables spying on keyboard strokes.
• The FBI's racial mapping program either has no privacy impact assessment, as required by the Privacy Act, or they think it is secret and can't be released publicly. 
• Noble County, Indiana jumps on the mobile biometrics bandwagon.