Flickr adds video, with some limitations

Popular photo sharing site Flickr has announced it’s now allowing members to upload videos. The catch: Videos will be limited to no longer than 90 seconds.

The Flickr announcement, posted last week, said: “If you’re a pro member, you can now share videos up to 90 glorious seconds in your photostream. While this might seem like an arbitrary limit, we thought long and hard about how video would complement the flickrverse…. Video will be no different. And so what quickly bubbled up was the idea of ‘long photos,’ of capturing slices of life to share.”

Identity theft worth up to $15

A new security overview produced by Symantec Corp. gives an interesting summary of the black-market value of personal products stolen by identity thieves.

Here are the top five in terms of popularity: bank accounts sell for $10 to $1,000; credit cards, from 40 cents to $20; full identities, from $1 to a measly $15; eBay accounts, $1 to $8; hosting scams, from $2.50 for hosting a bogus site, up to $25 for designing a bogus site.

All figures are in U.S. dollars.

Site ignites storm over salary release

A small Washington, D.C., Internet site has ignited a Beltway battle by releasing the salaries of all U.S. congressional staffers.

The site, Legistorm.com, argues it has a First Amendment right to publish already public information about some of the Capitol’s most powerful players — including staffers working at the White House.

“Congressional staffers are among the most powerful people in Washington, and in the past they have received very little scrutiny. It’s about time there was a little more scrutiny given to what they’re doing,” said Jock Friedly, president and founder of LegiStorm, which has six employees. He was quoted in a recent Washington Post article.

For several years, LegiStorm has published salary and expenditure reports issued regularly by the House and Senate. The reports, released quarterly by the House and semiannually by the Senate, provide detailed information on how much each lawmaker spends, along with the names, titles and salaries of every employee.

The site has also raised eyebrows, and drawn praise, for developing a comprehensive database of all privately financed trips taken by members of Congress and congressional staffers.

The site says its intention is to be nonpartisan and provide fresh information for taxpayers about where tax dollars are spent.