The chilling Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), drafted by Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, would have catastrophic affects on how you use the web and who (namely the U.S. government) controls it. Think China, Malaysia, or Iran. SOPA also represents another reality-estranged attempt attempt from "Hollywood, the Recording Industry Association of America, and their allies to counter what they claim to be rampant piracy online, especially from offshore sites such as ThePirateBay.org," notes CNET. The act would essentially let the Justice Department make any "allegedly piratical Web sites virtually vanish from the Internet." more ›

Medical records for around 15,500 Northern California Kaiser patients - 9,000 from the Bay Area - were compromised after an external drive was stolen from a Kaiser employee’s car in December. The theft occurred December 1... more ›

Ever since Facebook altered its privacy settings in a ploy to get more traffic, users have been confused as to how re-privatize their profiles. So, Valleywag came up with this handy guide to help you restore your settings. more ›

Despite efforts to get it removed from the internet, Yahoo!'s 2006 "Law Enforcement Investigators Guide" details the various fees that government and police officers would need to pay in order to obtain information on a user -- like access to someone's email account, which would run them $30-$40 -- and how to go about requesting it. The guide also details what kind of information is kept on users through services like Yahoo! Groups, Chat, and Flickr, and how long such information is retained. more ›

After receiving numerous complaints in Japan, "where personal privacy is highly valued," according to SF Business Times, Google will reshoot the country's street scenes. It seems that some of the shots in Japan, as in many other countries, looked over fence tops and into private residences. Google now plans to lower the camera, which is affixed to a car that helps capture said scenes, about 16 inches to help ensure less intrusive images. The Mountain View-based company did not say when, exactly, the new images will go live. In related news, Greece's Data Protection Authority (DPA) barred Google from snapping any more images "until the company provides additional privacy safeguards." more ›

Oh, this is rich. Flickr photog extraordinaire The Inadvertent Gardener snapped this shot. While taking a shot of a rain-soaked BART train, she inadvertently (heh) captured an angry man's middle finger. She explains what went down. more ›

U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. ruled in favor of keeping proposition 8 donor info public. Anti-gay marriage ilk tried to get a preliminary injunction to hide the identities of those who financially backed prop 8 campaign. Because they are cowards. But today, things were coming up neither roses nor daffodils for those who helped allow discrimination into the California state constitution. more ›

Hey, Bay Area, are you tired of full out Big Brother control taking its sweet time getting here? So are we. In an effort to speed things up, if you have or know of choice live cams pointed at mildly interesting things in SF (extra points for Presidio Terrace and areas of concern), Oakland, Berkeley, or wherever, share them with us. You can let us know in the comments. Please. more ›