Tag Archives: obama

With just a few days left in his presidency, Barack Obama has continued his trend of pardoning and communing the sentences of more U.S. prisoners than the last 12 Presidents combined. This time though the prisoner is a little more high profile: Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower who released secretive documents …

Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama gave his farewell speech last night and for the first time in history, it can be viewed in its entirety in 360 degree video form. That means that if you have a compatible VR headset, be it PC or mobile based, you can take in …

President-elect Donald Trump has doubled down on his commitment to end plans for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal on the first days of his presidency. The agreement was championed by President Obama, who claimed it would open up trade between countries. Detractors however claimed it would send U.S. jobs …

If you ever wanted to send an email to the president of the United States, now you can. As part of its big leak of emails from Hilary Clinton campaign head, John Podesta, the personal, pre-presidential email address of Barack Obama was revealed. Unfortunately at the time of writing it …

As much as the commercialisation of manual and autonomous drone technology has gone some way to democratising the skies, that won't be possible during U.S. President Obama's visit to the UK at the end of this week. Beginning today, Thursday 21st April, drones are banned across whole swathes of London, …

The Obama administration will not be backing legislation that would allow judges to force companies like Apple to weaken the security of their hardware and software in order to facilitate snooping. While President Obama's personal opinion seems to still be in favour of this sort of bill, clearly there is …

Although there is still some debate over whether we'll use hydrogen, electricity or perhaps not even own cars at all in the future, there has been a big push for electric vehicles (EV) in recent years. Unfortunately for their proponents though, falling oil prices have seen sales of EVs fall …

Although the U.S. and Russia were at each other's throats when it came to the 20th century space race, they did agree in 1967 that no state could claim ownership of celestial bodies. That hasn't stopped some commercial ventures from doing so of course, even without legal binding, but now …

The Trans Pacific Partnership is the other side of the world's TTIP. It's a piece of legislation masquerading as a trade deal, which for a long time, leaked drafts of have scared privacy campaigners, doctors, tech companies, nationalists and just about every internet user who can wrap their head around …

Larger than life internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has been in the sights of U.S. and New Zealand authorities for years as they attempted to deport him to America to face charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and money laundering. While he managed to postpone the necessary extradition trial for …

One of the more obvious disagreements between politicians and security services, and technology leaders and journalists in recent years, has been the topic of encryption. Law makers and law enforcement have painted it as a dangerous weapon of terrorists and paedophiles, whilst many others consider it an important tool to avoid …

The topic of China and its continued tug of war with the United States on the digital battleground is a hot one at the moment. With Chinese president Xi Jinping set to meet with President Obama to discuss hacking and digital defences, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper has …

The United States is said to be considering applying sanctions to both Russia and Chinese individuals and companies for conducting aggressive hacking attempts against U.S. targets, according to several unnamed U.S. officials. While no decision has been made one way or another just yet, they claim that the Obama administration …

The currently ongoing discussions by politicians from various countries about the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has drawn the ire of many privacy advocates, doctors and technological professionals the world over, despite us knowing only a little about it. However following further Wikileaks reveals, the wool is gradually being pulled …

One of the more exciting, burgeoning aspects of modern democracy, is the fact that people can organise far easier than ever before. That's why when Edward Snowden fled to China and eventually Russia in 2013, releasing documents on government spying that embarrassed and incriminated many agencies around the world, more …

The Trans Pacific Partnership is a trade deal much like the TTIP which currently threatens to affect medicine prices, copyright law and consumer privacy in the UK and elsewhere. It affects much of the Pacfic island nations, the Western coast countries of South America and North America, with politicians trumpeting …

When the White House's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was cracked wide open by some unknown actors earlier this year, it was thought that as many as 4.2 million people had had their records copied away. That included their medical histories, employment details and potentially confessions made to help them …

Another day, another leading public figure who's calling for the breaking of encryption so that it can effectively track terrorist organisations. This time it's the head of the FBI, James Comey, who said that his policing agency needed a “backdoor” to encryption standards so that the FBI could track the …

In the aftermath of revelations that the USA spent half a decade spying on France's presidents and members of its cabinet, discovering phone call meta data and occasionally content, many French politicians have made public statements condemning the actions. Although many suspect little will happen behind the scenes due to the …

The Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a trade deal that affects almost half of the world's economy and will bring a number of sweeping changes to the world of trade, law and copyright if enacted. Many organisations have railed against it and governments have defended it, but even now, …

In the aftermath of the Edward Snowden revelations, the US tech industry took a big hit in consumer confidence, as it came to light that many of the biggest companies had been feeding the NSA and GCHQ customer data. While arguably not their fault as they were legally required to …

Whoever said talking too much was a bad thing? Thanks to unending debates, filibusters and a growing unease at the US government's willingness to spy on its own citizens, the clause within the Patriot Act that allowed the NSA to record every phone call made by a member of the …

Despite the British Parliamentary Office urging against it, prime minister David Cameron has repeatedly attacked the idea of being able to hide what you're saying from the government, but he's not the only one. The Obama administration in the US is also spinning up its fear mongering wheel when it …

Just a few years ago the internet and the world outside that took a stand against restrictive bills like SOPA, ACTA and PIPA, which would have caused immeasurable harm to the internet as we know it. Today it's being threatened by a whole new kind of legislation, the kind that …

When you imagine the compound that Osama Bin Laden was eventually found in, hidden away in Pakistan, there are likely a lot of things you could conjure up about his stronghold. However having manuals for popular software packages on his bookshelf is unlikely to be one of them, but that's …

Despite British MP's quickly jumping on the idea of increasing the amount of spying that agencies like GCHQ perform against the British public, across the pond things don't look quite so rosy for the intelligence agencies. The NSA's record of spying on US citizens has been deemed illegal by a …

The last year has revealed a lot of stories of nefarious hacking, with a good number of them seemingly sponsored by one nation or another. More often than not too, those actions – like the one against Sony – target US facilities and companies, which is why, despite its own efforts …

Last week Vice debuted a trailer of founder Shane Smith's sit down with US President Barack Obama, hinting at some of the topics that they had discussed earlier in the week. Now the interview has been released in full, touching on everything from climate change, to political gridlocks and even on …

According to anti-malware security firm Kapersky, many of the world's major banks have been hit by digital thieves over the past year and a half, with the attackers making off with at least $300 million, but potentially as much as a billion (£648 million), after using malware and social engineering …

In a move to help protect American online businesses and help them coordinate with US authorities, Obama has signed an executive order that will make federal agencies set up a way of sharing data between technicians in these businesses and federal agents. This information sharing will go both ways, with companies tipping …