A Christmas Message From Edward Snowden: “Asking Is Always Cheaper Than Spying” (Video)

Then again, Santa has been using a magic snowball to naughty-or-nice monitor us at no cost for centuries now.

NSA Needs a Zoloft After Obama No-Show, but Here Comes Internet’s “Wrecking Ball” Letter

I came in like a wrecking ball/I never hit so hard your code/All I wanted was to break your (fire)walls/All you ever did was hack me/Yeah, you, you ha-aa-aack me!

Weekend Reading — The Latest Open Government Plan (Post-Edward Snowden)

Sunshine is the best disinfectant. As it turns out, we might need something a little stronger these days.

Qualcomm Says China Is Investigating Whether Firm Broke Its Anti-Monopoly Law

CEO Paul Jacobs had said the company has been seeing fallout in China related to the NSA scandal and other U.S. government actions.

Requests for Google User Account Info by Governments Are on the Rise

Requests worldwide have nearly doubled since 2010, data shows.

AllThingsD Week in Review: Twitter’s Product Problem and Ballmer Keeps His Microsoft Shares

The Top 10 stories that powered AllThingsD this week, in one convenient post.

Apple: “Our Business Does Not Depend on Collecting Personal Data”

Apple publishes its first formal report on federal government data requests.

Don’t Regulate Me, Bro! Social Casino Companies Band Together to “Inform” Lawmakers.

The social casino gaming trade group ISGA wants to stop government regulation before it can start. Whether it’s going to start is another question.

Voices

Obama Unaware as U.S. Spied on World Leaders: Officials

The National Security Agency ended a program used to spy on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other world leaders after an internal Obama administration review started this summer revealed to the White House the existence of the operations, U.S. officials said.

Mark Cuban Unplugged (As Usual) About Victory in SEC Insider Trading Case

The billionaire entrepreneur takes a victory lap (or two).

Twitter Debuts Emergency Alerts Service