Law and Order

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

In a press release published right after the US elections, Anonymous hacktivists claimed that they had managed to prevent American political consultant and policy advisor Karl Rove from stealing votes in Mitt Romney’s favor by utilizing the ORCA program.

The hackers stated that, in the weeks before the elections, they had created what they called The Great Oz, a “targeted password protected firewall” designed to prevent fraud.

Typically when policy makers brainstorm ideas on new legislation, they'll talk to their colleagues or constituents. But California Rep. Zoe Lofgren is trying something different -- she's turning to Reddit.

 Justice has prevailed! The FBI has arrested a worker at New York's JFK airport who acted as a lookout for a pair of accomplices who stole 3,600 iPad minis last week. Renel Rene Richardson (not to be confused with René Ritchie of iMore.com) was arrested after co-workers told Port Authority detectives that he had made inquiries about when the iPad minis were supposed to arrive, as well as where he might get a forklift.

The affiliate ad network behind a tidal wave of bogus pitches for Acai Berry weight loss products and colon cleansers has agreed to pay a $2 million penalty to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for deceptive advertising.

The FTC announced the judgement on Wednesday against Clickbooth Affiliate Network of Sarasota, Florida and said the funds recovered from Clickbooth would be used to provide refunds to consumers who were taken in by the company's deceptive marketing practices.

The public prosecutor in Hamburg has decided not to start a criminal investigation into the way Googles' Street View cars gathered data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks in Germany, the lawyer who requested the inquiry said Thursday.

15 Google Streetview and Earth mysteries

A judge from the Western District of Washington Seattle Court approved a class action suit against Papa John's on Friday. The plaintiffs, three people from Washington State, are standing in for thousands of customers claiming that Papa John's and a marketing firm called OnTime4U worked together to send spam texts to customers who hadn't given their consent to be texted with marketing information, violating the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.

John McAfee, the founder of the world-renowned security solutions provider, is accused of having murdered his neighbor. McAfee claims that he’s innocent and he even believes that he might have been the killer’s target.

It’s no secret to anyone that John McAfee doesn’t get along with authorities from Belize. Back in April, the Gang Suppression Unit raided his home, confiscated his weapons and his passport, killed one of his dogs, and arrested him.

A Hong Kong IT business owner has been banged up for nine months after launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on a Hong Kong Stock Exchange web site in a botched attempt to market his firm’s anti-DDoS service.

Tse Man-lai, the 28-year-old owner of local web hoster Pacswitch Globe Telecom, was found guilty of launching the attacks on the HKExnews site on August 12 and 13 last year, according to South China Morning Post.

Two gamers have filed a class action lawsuit against Blizzard Entertainment, claiming that the developer has improperly guarded player information leading to several security breaches and leaked account data.

The suit also accuses Blizzard of fraud, claiming that the company "negligently, deliberately, and/or recklessly" fails to protect users' details. Referring to Battle.net once again, the suit claims that the site encourages you to purchase an Authenticator for $6.50 (£4.08) which generates passcodes every time you log in to further safeguard information.