DIGILIFE | Court uses search history as evidence: Search To Kill !

In the first case of its kind, Internet search-history is being used against a defendant charged with murdering his wife and daughter.

Apparently, Neil Entwistle from Boston used his PC to search the Internet for "how to kill someone."

Authorities got their hands on his PC, analyzed it and found out that he'd also searched for escort services, in addition to other suspicious information related to murder.

To quote the news reports, “Entwistle looked at an electronic document that describes such things as ‘how to kill people by various methods’; and that Neil Entwistle actually typed in Internet searches regarding how to kill yourself, suicide, how to kill someone with a knife, and euthanasia.’

Chilling isn’t it? It spooked everyone involved to see how an Internet search can give you an inside view of a potential murderer’s thought process!

Anyway, as it turns out, the ‘search’ evidence is being considered, but the much stronger evidence is the defendant DNA which was found on the gun used to commit the murders.

Yet, media is making a big deal out of the 'Internet search evidence' and is treating like it's a first, when no one really knows whether or not governments have been watching users on the Internet for years, and no one admits to anything because its an unauthorized form of surveillance in countries that have laws ad societies that value privacy.

This all brings back the big argument that erupted last month when the US federal government ordered Google to provide search history information.

Google refused saying that it was obliged to safeguard the privacy of its users, citing civil liberties laws as reference in this regard.

Google can rest assured that it hasn't heard the last of this matter and a legal battle is brewing.

In any case, authorities are not waiting for Google, Yahoo or MSN to deliver search information, they are seeking it out from the source- the PCs of defendants, if they have one!

It makes you wonder what a difficult job that would be if criminals started using disk drive cleaning utilities that remove any traces of their Internet activities. It's probably going to happen.

In the mean time, it seems that every person's privacy will be compromised, should search and Internet access records be accessible to authorities. The pressure is now mounting in this regard. Sooner or later, this matter will be cleared up, one way or the other.

The good thing about it is that you catch the criminals who could hurt people, but such information is dangerous as it can be used to black-mail or threaten law abiding citizens who just indulge in some 'embarrassing'
searches!

Think about that next time you perform a supposedly private search.

zanasser@gmail.com

TECH | Telegram: Sent for the last time!

One of the first signs of email replacing the 'traditional' forms of communications became apparent this week as Western Union decided to cancel its Telegram service in the US. Western Union, now more known for their long-distance money transfers, started out as a telegram delivery company in the US in 1856.

Utilizing what was state-of-the-art technology using telegraph wire, the number of telegrams inside the US would peak at 20 million a year, some 80 years ago, slowly decreasing with the widespread use of telephones.

A few decades ago fax machines hit telegrams hard, but the simple fact that people didn't typically have a fax machine at home meant that there would still be a need for the traditional telegram/telex.

But a decade of email use in the US has brought the life of the telegram to an end. In 2005, there were only 20,000 telegrams sent across the US, presumably by senior citizens who don't use email!Actually, and this is an ironic fact, many of the telegram wordings were sent by email to Western Union, who then put them on a telegram.

Strange, but true.Another reason for the demise of the telegram is that it costs $10, whereas an email is free. However, the telegram provides a 'guarantee of delivery' and stood as legal notice if required. Email is nowadays acquiring some of those characteristics. One of the unwelcome things that may come with that is a fee.

Apparently, Yahoo and AOL have already taken steps in this direction, providing a 'premium email delivery service' for a fee. But, that's another story.

What's important is that the fate of the telegram is surely a sign of what will happen all over the world, including our country were to this day, for some reason, people send condolences everyday by telex.

Apparently, email is not considered a courteous form of condolences.In any case, this all raise the question whether or not this age we live in- with its email, Internet telephony, mobile text messaging and video conferencing kills- may spell the beginning of the end for 'snail mail'?

Not likely! Especially that the mail system's main role is evolving today into a mechanism for product delivery, rather than letter or greeting card delivery.

Think about it for a minute. How can technology replace the mail order of products?

If the product cannot be transferred into a digital format (such as books, music or films), then you'll still need the good old mail system to get it.In any case, technology could still surprise us all. But for now, the first victim is the telegram/telex, and then we'll see what's next.

zanasser@gmail.com