CBS had this up in their technology section: Court Rules Against Work E-mail Snooping

(AP) A federal appeals court has made it more difficult for employers to snoop legally on e-mails and text messages their workers send from company accounts.

Under Wednesday’s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, employers that contract an outside business to transmit text messages can’t read them unless the worker agrees.

Users of text-messaging services “have a reasonable expectation of privacy” regarding messages stored on the service provider’s network, Judge Kim Wardlaw wrote in the three-judge panel’s unanimous opinion.

The ruling limits employers’ access to employee e-mail on internal servers.

I think everyone should understand the part about texting, i.e. it is an outside service and there is a presumption of privacy. The employer doesn’t own the equipment or establish the privacy rules, the outside company does.

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From WKMG again, this time from their police beat: Palm Frond Used As Weapon In ‘Most Bizarre’ Central Fla. Store Robbery

Police said Gelando Olivieri attempted to rob the V&F Discount Beverage store in DeLand by threatening harm with a spiked Spanish bayonet, a palmetto-like plant with sharp points on its leaves.

“The man came in with the branch. I have never seen anything like this,” owner Goutam Sarkar told the DeLand-Deltona Beacon Thursday.

Surveillance video showed Olivieri wildly waving the palm frond in front of a worker’s face.

Investigators said Olivieri threatened to use the leaves to stab if he wasn’t given $50.

“(The plant) was sharp,” Sarkar said.

Before any money was exchanged, Oliveiri was chased out of the store by a man armed with a bar stool.

Oliveri was arrested a short time after the crime and charged with armed robbery.

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They really are going to give the telecoms and Hedgemony a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card according to CNN: Deal clears way for wiretap-law overhaul

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A bipartisan deal that clears the way for a sweeping overhaul of domestic wiretapping laws will let telecommunications companies escape lawsuits over the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program, congressional leaders announced Thursday.

The measure could be brought to the floor of the House of Representatives as early as Friday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said the bill is “not perfect” but “strikes a sound balance” between intelligence-gathering and court oversight.

Democrats have managed to kill previous efforts in Congress to revise the Watergate-era law governing domestic spying.

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