The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it has been keeping track of the border-crossing habits of U.S. citizens and will store the information for 15 years to "guard against terrorist threats."

YouTube won't be dropping dime on all you pirates: "We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand for all users' viewing histories and we will not be providing that information."

The U.S. Senate has approved a new wiretapping law that allows the government to spy on anyone making overseas phone calls to a "suspected terrorist" – without a warrant. The FISA bill has also granted legal immunity to phone companies that previously turned over customers' personal information to government.

A U.S. judge has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom the personal information of millions of YouTube users, including their log-in IDs, IP addresses and viewing history. Google purchased YouTube nearly two years ago. Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, alleges YouTube users consume more "pirated" content than user created videos.

A federal court has ruled that border agents can search laptops without cause.

Four families sue MySpace after their daughters are sexually assaulted by adults they met on the site. In a possibly related story, MySpace plans to offer a monitoring tool for parents. (via digg)