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The article states that a 2013 international agreement concerning the prevention of cyberweapons from reaching rogue nations was in jeopardy of unraveling due to objections from U.S. corporations claiming that the pact would overturn the use and sale of legitimate spyware. According to the article, the U.S. government was considering asking the 40 countries involved in the agreement, including Russia, France, and Great Britain, to alter the proposal. The article presents comments from U.S. agency the Commerce Department assistant secretary Kevin Wolf.

The article discusses the practice of magistrate judges in the U.S. of keeping permanently sealed government requests for permission to conduct electronic surveillance. Requests typically focus on obtaining information about a person's cell-phone or Internet use. Former magistrate judge Brian Owsley is among those concerned that indefinite confidentiality prevents legislators from monitoring whether federal laws regarding surveillance are being observed.

The article discusses mass surveillance of U.S. citizens' Internet communications by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as of August 2013. Topics include the legal authority of the NSA to monitor telecommunications in the U.S., the level of surveillance for domestic communication, and the NSA's filtering system to identify foreign intelligence.

The article looks at U.S. government counterterrorism policy as of July 2013, focusing on the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA's) policy of collecting massive telephone-record databases. It cites rulings by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that it says enabled the policy under the U.S. Patriot Act and discusses political debates over the text and interpretation of the act.

The article discusses national security letters (NSL) that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can issue to obtain Internet, telephone, and other records, and the efforts of an unnamed telephone company in the U.S. to challenge an NSL it received. The company is challenging a gag order associated with NSLs that bars recipients from discussing them. INSET: The Secret Letter.

The article reports that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama will seek legislation to safeguard Americans against unauthorized collection of personal data. A December, 2010 report from the Commerce Department proposed guidelines that Obama is expected to support. The Federal Trade Commission's authority may be broadened to enforce any new law.

The article discusses litigation in the U.S. against Web sites that use tracking cookies to gather information about Internet users. Several suits filed in California allege defendant Web sites violated federal laws against deceptive practices. Web sites for cable-television firm Cable News Network and media company Fox Entertainment Group are among those that have been targeted by litigants.

The article presents U.S. news briefs as of March 28, 2014 on topics which involve a Texas law that restricts abortion clinics by requiring physicians to have regional admitting privileges at hospitals, warrants for the hacking of computers owned by criminal suspects, and the listing of the lesser prairie-chicken as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The article discusses information about the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA's) Internet and telecommunications surveillance programs leaked in government documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013, and mentions the collection of Internet metadata and surveillance policies after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

The article notes concerns raised about the potential infringement upon civil liberties by U.S. anti-terror measures, and reports that on June 21, 2013 President Barack Obama met in private with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a panel created to safeguard those liberties.

The article reports that in March, 2013 U.S. Judge Susan Illston ruled unconstitutional laws that allowed the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to seek financial, phone, and electronic records about people without first obtaining approval from a judge or grand jury.

The article discusses the June 27, 2012, U.S. Department of Justice release of templates for U.S. national security letters employed by the U.S. government to investigate banks and technical companies for financial, phone, and computer data without judicial approval.

The article discusses proposed legislation from the U.S. Department of Commerce aimed at giving consumers greater control over the online privacy of their personal data.

The article reports on the growing reliance of U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence agencies on information from the Web and electronic records to evaluate threats and solve crimes, which produces new business for companies.

The article deals with the vulnerability of automobiles to online hacking since most of the devices installed in cars are linked to Internet or cellphone networks in the U.S. in 2011.

The article presents an update from the U.S. high technology sector, including a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate which would amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and would require law enforcement to get a search warrant before obtaining old data, and a report from Yudu Media which revealed that 40% of customers who downloaded applications from Apple consented to allow the company to share their contact details.

The article reports that opt-out policies for consumers included in catalog lists in the U.S. vary depending on merchant, with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) asking members to comply with removal requests.

The article reports that U.S. Senator John Kerry and an official of Microsoft Corp. expressed support for U.S. legislation which would create broad privacy rights for Internet users. Kerry's statement that he is working with Senator John McCain to create such legislation is said to indicate it has possible bipartisan support. Objections to the legislation from companies which are involved with Internet advertising are considered.

This article reveals that major media companies and start-ups in the U.S. are conducting experiments on how to create a gaming system that combine technology and reality in an effort to get children to engage with real world objects that current gaming technology does not provide.

This section offers news briefs in the U.S., including Internet usage by consumers and search links by Google.

The article reports that AT&T Inc. sees a positive development in broadband Internet regulations in the U.S. given the joint proposal by Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

The article presents an update related to the high technology industry in the U.S. as of August 11, 2010, including the move of some university dorms to discard landline telephones amid the growing popularity of cellular telephones and appointments to the sales team of social-media Web site Twitter.

The article reports on the move of research firm comScore to correct an error which undercounted U.S. page views of Internet company Yahoo by over a billion in June 2010.

This section offers news briefs on digital technology in the U.S. as of July 14, 2010, including the move by record labels to file a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the use of copyrighted songs by pornographic Web sites, the decision by the technology company Apple not to bar rival services from placing advertisements on iPhones and iPad tablet computers, and the invitation to eBay Inc. chief John Donahoe to be the guest speaker at the annual summit of electronic retailer Alibaba Group this year.

The article discusses conflict between the administration of U.S. president Barack Obama and high-technology firms such as Apple Inc. and Google Inc. over whether the companies can be permitted to enable users to encrypt digital use that would be unavailable to government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The article states that the Obama administration has not clearly defined its policy preferences and discusses FBI Director James Comey's scheduled testimony to the U.S. Congress scheduled for July 8, 2015.

The article discusses a U.S. court ruling which concerns the illegal collection of domestic communications without sufficient privacy protection by the U.S. National Security Agency as of August 2013. Topics include U.S. national security, citizen privacy laws, and types of communications including Internet and telephone communications.

The article discusses the release of an August 2013 decision from the secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court regarding the National Security Agency's (NSA's) telephone surveillance program, and mentions NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Judge Claire Eagan, and NSA data collection.