There is frequently talk of warrantless spying on citizen communications and online data, but what about how the government and law enforcement can track people - legally? With the scandal between the former CIA Director Gen. David Patreaus and his former mistress Paula Broadwell coming to light thanks to content stored in an email account, many have begun to wonder about the privacy of their own communications.

Tech experts say it really comes down to outdated laws. Laws which Congress is expected to update soon, but this update might not be in favor of more privacy.

The scarier part though is when people don't even care. As Chris Weber with Casaba, a security consulting firm, said in an email, the sentiment of many regarding surveillance of their communications is that they don't care since they're not doing anything bad. "They failed to see the bigger problem here, as it wasn't about your personal business, it was a larger erosion of civil liberty, and a right to privacy," Weber said.

"The authorities are using technology to monitor women," said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the "state of slavery under which women are held" in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Women are not allowed to leave the kingdom without permission from their male guardian, who must give his consent by signing what is known as the "yellow sheet" at the airport or border.

A forthcoming United Nations-organised conference on communications poses a grave threat to the freedom of the internet, Google has warned.

The Silicon Valley search giant said the December gathering of the UN's International Telecommunications Union comes amid 'a growing backlash on Internet freedom'. The World Conference on International Communications in Dubai will update global telecom rules for the first time since 1988, and some countries see this as an opportunity to set up new rules for the Internet.

There are fears proposals made by China, Russia and other nations could threaten the open model of Internet governance by giving the UN a greater role. Oversight of the net's domain name system and technical specifications is currently undertaken by U.S.-based bodies, but some countries want an international organisation to take responsibility.

Google's statement said 'the ITU is the wrong place to make decisions about the future of the Internet' because 'only governments have a voice at the ITU,' including some 'that do not support a free and open Internet.' 'The ITU is also secretive,' Google said. 'The treaty conference and proposals are confidential.'

Mannequins in fashion boutiques are now being fitted with secret cameras to 'spy' on shoppers' buying habits. High Street fashion chains have deployed the dummies equipped with technology adapted from security systems used to identify criminals at airports.

From the outside, the $3,200 (£2,009) EyeSee dummy looks like any other mannequin, but behind its blank gaze it hides a camera feeding images into facial recognition software that logs the age, gender and race of shoppers.

Its makers boast: 'From now on you can know how many people enter the store, record what time there is a greater influx of customers (and which type) and see if some areas risk to be overcrowded.

With growth slowing in the luxury goods industry, the technology taps into retailers' desperation to personalise their offers to reach increasingly picky customers. The video surveillance mannequins have been on sale for almost a year, and are already being used in three European countries and in the U.S.

Dennis Chang, president of VoIP-PAL, an chat service similar to Skype, claims his system would allow authorities to identify and monitor suspects merely by accessing their username and subscriber data, Slate reports.

According to the patent, they could also be tracked down by billing records that associate names and addresses with usernames.
Such a capability would make not only audio conversations but 'any other data streams such as pure data and/or video or multimedia data' open for interception.

"It's so quick that a child could be standing in line, call mom and say, 'I forgot my lunch money today.' She's by her computer, runs her card, and by the time the child is at the front of the line, it's already recorded," says Art Dunham, director of food services for Pinellas County Schools.

Demand for food assistance - unrelenting as the U.S. economy slowly recovers from the worst recession since the Great Depression - ticks higher during the winter holidays.

Dialogue between faiths "can serve our nation and the world in ways that professional diplomats cannot," said Auxiliary Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Washington, D.C., who delivered the keynote address at the event. He explained that a shared "commitment to an authentic and robust dialogue will foster understanding and peaceful coexistence."

Held Nov. 10 at St. Paul's College in Washington, D.C., the day-long "Generations of Faith" conference was the second of its kind sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It included talks, personal testimonies, discussion groups and prayers from different faith traditions.

"We have been witnessing the emergence of a more-complicated form of colonialism and hegemony which has been tightening its grip on the world resources, imposing its toll on all of us one way or another," the Iranian president said at the ongoing D-8 ( Developing Eight) summit in Islamabad. "Former colonial power and slave masters in a new guise and with new slogans are using different methods and tactics to dominate and plunder resources of nations on the basis of the same hegemonic doctrines," he said.

One of Cincinnati's largest employers fired approximately 150 employees Wednesday for failing to get a required flu shot.

TriHealth offered all of its 10,800 employees free flu shots. Employees had a month to get the flu shot. The deadline was Nov. 16. Employees who did not get the shot were terminated Wednesday, a company spokesperson said.

A number of big car manufacturers are accelerating research into equipping vehicles with so-called biometric sensors that would keep tabs on a driver's vital health signs, including pulse, breathing and "skin conductance," aka sweaty palms. When that information is fed into the computers that manage a car's safety systems, it could enable a vehicle to better react to whatever challenges the road and traffic dish out.

Already, some Lexus models use in-cabin cameras and some Mercedes-Benz vehicles have steering sensors to detect drowsy-driving behavior. The cars sound a warning beep or flash a coffee-cup icon to suggest that it's time for a break. Separately, car makers and federal safety regulators are working on in-vehicle systems that could reliably detect when someone is too drunk to drive.