A new cybersecurity bill is working its way through the system looks a lot like previous attempts and raises the same privacy concerns, we’ll cover the details.

Plus Samsung gets into VR and the Potato Salad Kickstarter that’s already earned $70k USD.

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Senate Panel Passes Cybersecurity Bill Despite NSA Fears

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, advanced in a 12-3 vote, would make it easier for businesses and the government to share information with each other about cyberattacks. Business groups argue that legal barriers are preventing them from getting the information they need to stop hackers.

But the privacy groups are still worried that the legislation could encourage a company such as Google to turn over vast batches of emails or other private data to the government. The information would go first to the Homeland Security Department, but could then be shared with the NSA or other intelligence agencies.

“Instead of reining in NSA surveillance, the bill would facilitate a vast flow of private communications data to the NSA,” the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and dozens of other privacy groups wrote in a letter to senators last month.

Exclusive: Samsung’s virtual reality headset will be called Gear VR, launch at IFA 2014 | SamMobile

A month ago, Engadget exclusively reported on Samsung’s upcoming VR device, which is being developed in collaboration with Facebook’s Oculus VR. Today, we can confirm that Samsung is indeed working on a virtual reality device, and it’s called the “Gear VR”. Samsung will be announcing the device, alongside the Galaxy Note 4, at IFA 2014.

Instead of making a completely standalone virtual reality headset, Samsung has developed a modular design, which allows the user to dock in a Galaxy device into the Gear VR using USB 3.0. Virtual reality effect is achieved through head tracking, and instead of equipping the headset with sensors, Gear VR makes use of the smartphone’s accelerometer, gyroscope and processing power to track head motion.

You might say that this is exactly like Google’s Cardboard VR headset, which was handed out to I/O 14 attendees, and you would be right! The main concept behind Gear VR is the same. However, the Gear VR is much more comfortable to wear, thanks to the elastic head band and soft padded cushions on each side of the device, and Samsung’s implementation is also much better than that of Google’s Cardboard.

The hardware of the device is being developed by Samsung alone, but the software is being developed in cooperation with Oculus VR

Potato Salad by Zack Danger Brown — Kickstarter

• Potato salad on Kickstarter: The project has raised more than $40,000.

Last week, Zack Brown posted a Kickstarter page titled simply “Potato Salad.”

“I’m making potato salad,” Brown wrote. Then, in case anybody was confused or skeptical or more inclined to support the preparation of a German-style potato salad than a mayo-heavy American version, he clarified: “Basically I’m just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.”

His goal: $10.

Manjaro Linux Developers Experience A Mass Exodus

• Follow up: Manjaro Linux Developers Experience A Mass Exodus

Feedback:

• Waze claiming anonymize user data is probably arguably laughable.