Major information technology providers opposed to the broadening of class action litigation related to consumer protections have taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The companies are hoping the court will strike down a lower court ruling which makes it easier for consumers to file class action suits. The tech companies may not have to wait too long for a decision.
35 Years Ago: Captain Midnight Jams the HBO Signal krna.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from krna.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Published: April 28, 2021
This originally appeared in the Washington Post
Three years ago, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that appeared to reaffirm Americans’ right to privacy in the digital age. The court had long held that the Fourth Amendment does not protect information we voluntarily disclose to others including to phone companies (this encompasses, by the court’s definition of “voluntary,” the numbers we call). But when police tried to force a cellphone company to turn over several weeks’ worth of precise location information for a customer they suspected of robbing electronics stores, the court said that was a bridge too far. Noting that location information can be used to determine a person’s associations, habits and even beliefs, the court ruled, in
For four and a half minutes on April 27, 1986, HBO s broadcast signal was jammed.
Viewers in the entire eastern half of the U.S. were beamed a protestation that read: GOODEVENING HBO. FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT $12.95/MONTH ? NO WAY [SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!]
Eventually, the signal returned, and the movie that had been screening at the time,
The Falcon and the Snowman, resumed, but not before presumably several million HBO subscribers witnessed the interruption.
For several days, the identity of Captain Midnight was unknown. It wasn t until after multiple days of investigation and hundreds of false confessions from people around the country that 25-year-old John R. MacDougall, a satellite operator at a ground station in Ocala, Fla., was subpoenaed following a tip from a tourist who had overheard him discussing what he had done at a payphone.
Thu, Apr 22nd 2021 5:28am
Karl Bode
We ve covered for a while how consumer location data is consistently abused by telecom providers, app makers, stalkers, debt collectors, people pretending to be law enforcement, and pretty much any idiot with a nickel and a dream.
Of course that also extends to government agencies like the IRS, CBP, and ICE, which have increasingly been buying access to your daily location habits so they can skirt around pesky warrants. The government still needs a warrant if it targets individuals, but nothing stops the government from hoovering up vast swaths of movement data en masse. Until now.