New bus shelter boosts commuters’ batteries

An advertising agency has come up with a bus shelter that allows commuters to charge up their portable devices before jumping aboard.

Ever since the bus was invented, the accompanying bus shelter has been a common feature of city life.

Not only does it inform the would-be passenger where to wait, it also provides the driver with vital information regarding where to stop. Without them, who knows, there could be thousands of empty buses in our cities going around in circles, while lines at the aforementioned bus shelters snake around the block.

Furthermore, as the name suggests, the bus shelter also provides cover during heavy downpours, ensuring passengers can board the bus in a comfortable fashion, with dry clothes.

So it’s fair to say that the humble bus shelter has served the people of this planet well over the years, and long may it continue to do so.

But wait – there’s more. Thanks to advertising and design agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky, the bus shelter that we all know and love is about to get a whole lot more lovely.

As reported by Engadget, CP&B has come up with the Glacéau Vitamin Water Energy Bus Shelter. This beauty of a bus stop incorporates three USB ports so that those waiting for their bus can, should their portable device be running a bit low on juice, plug it in and top it up. The marketing campaign highlights the idea that the vitamin drink, like the USB ports, can give you a quick energy boost, should you need one.

According to Creativity, the special bus shelters can be found in Boston, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Bus users in other cities, however, will have to continue to ensure they’re fully juiced up when they leave home in the morning.

by Trevor Mogg

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Facebook secretly hands over private user data to law enforcement

Since 2008, Facebook has repeatedly allowed law-enforcement agents to access private account data without the user's knowledge, a new report shows.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange once called Facebook “the most appalling spying machine ever invented.” And based on a new report from Reuters, it seems as though he’s 100 percent right.

An extensive review of the Westlaw legal database by Reuters reveals that law-enforcement agencies are increasingly obtaining search warrants to snoop into users’ Facebook accounts, often without the users — or their Facebook friends — ever knowing that authorities had combed through their accounts.

Since 2008, federal judges have granted at least two dozen warrants to search users’ accounts, 11 of which were granted in 2011 alone. The agencies most often involved are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). Reuters reports that “the investigations range from arson to rape to terrorism.”

The information given up by Facebook to authorities includes the full range of activities: Wall posts, messages, status updates, links, videos, photos, calendar items and even rejected friend requests. This data comes in the form of “Neoprints” (a user’s total textual profile and activities) and “Photoprints” (snapshots of all photos a user has uploaded). Contact details, IP logs and group members are also included.

The terms of these warrants are posted in manuals, which appear to be created by Facebook. (An example of one of these manuals can be found here.) A Facebook representative would neither confirm nor deny whether the company created the manuals.

In none of the cases uncovered by Reuters did anyone challenge the legality of the searches, which could potentially violate citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights, the protection against unlawful search and seizure. The lack of challenges are likely because Facebook did not inform the users that their information was being accessed by law enforcement. This contrasts with Twitter’s policy to inform users when authorities have requested their private account information.

Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan tells Reuters that the social network regularly pushes back against police “fishing expeditions.” He would not, however, comment on the number of searches that the company had allowed law enforcement to conduct.

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