National Public Radio

A patent from Apple could play a big role in helping teens -- and adults -- avoid accidents.

The proposed feature, which would lock out certain features such as texts and calls, is not the first of its kind. There's DriveAssistT, created in 2008, and TEXTL8R, both developed by Aegis Mobility to block calls and texts. There're other devices that try to make young drivers safer beyond the texting angle, such as by using MyKey, a chip in the car key that you program to limit radio volume or sound a continuous alert if the driver doesn't wear a seatbelt. And Drive Pulse, which tracks the location of the car, as well as things like driving at high speeds or slamming on the breaks.

The Apple patent would lock out certain phone functions in one of three ways: by using a motion sensor that knows when the phone is moving at driving speeds; by using a "scenery analyzer" that can tell whether the phone is in a safe place in the car; and a lock-out mechanism that automatically disables things like texting for a period of time.

In the past several years, as more and more people are connected through more and more social media, the idea of turning personal grievances into class actions has been popping up, well, more and more. In Virginia, a group that is against affirmative action in education went fishing for plaintiffs on websites recently, according to National Public Radio. The group seeks college applicants who feel they were discriminated against. In Utah, the American Civil Liberties Union posted a tweet on Twitter earlier in 2014 seeking plaintiffs in a suit to protect the rights of same-sex couples married there. And in California, Tea Party organizations have come together in a class action alleging that the Internal Revenue Service treated them unfairly. They have created a website, Sue the IRS, that focuses on aspects of the suit. According to a recent post on Law360, the action -- which comprises tax and privacy issues -- could be a test case for social media and the law. Citizens for Self-Governance, the group behind the case, is led by Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler. Such public activity could have repercussions for the case, reports Law360. "As the overlap of social media and class actions continues to escalate, this could be a great case to watch."

The people who design marketing apps are celebrating a change in the way iBeacon works on iPhones. iBeacon has been around for a while, and marketers liked the concept in principle.

But there was a big practical problem: It only worked when a customer's phone was running the marketer's app. Once you closed the app, the tracking stopped. That problem has now been fixed.

When Apple updated the iPhone's operating system in February 2014, it changed it to allow marketing apps to keep tabs on your location even when they're off. When you close an app, it "deputizes" the phone's operating system to keep listening for iBeacon signals on its behalf. Of course, the change has others spooked.

"As a privacy researcher, I always get nervous when marketers are celebratory about something," says Garrett Cobarr, a technologist and writer based in Seattle. He says Apple seems to ignore certain assumptions that people make about what's happening on a device.

The National Security Agency says it did not know about a critical security bug until it recently became public.

The NSA was responding to a report from Bloomberg that the agency had known about the vulnerability known as "Heartbleed" for two years and instead of alerting the tech community, it exploited the bug to "gather critical intelligence."

In a statement, the NSA said Bloomberg's report was simply "wrong." The US, the NSA said, would reveal this kind of vulnerability to developers if it ever came upon it.

The funding of a social media platform designed to undermine the Cuban government was not a covert American operation, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said during his regular press briefing.

"The program referred to by the Associated Press was a development program run by the United States agency for International Development and that program was completed in 2012," Carney said. "As you know, USAID is a development agency not an intelligence agency." Carney went on to say that the US does take steps to be discreet when operating in "non-permissive environments."

Flip on Daystar television at any hour of the day and you'll likely see the elements of modern televangelism: a stylish set, an emotional spiritual message and a phone number on the screen soliciting donations.

Based in a studio complex between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and broadcasting to a potential audience of 2 billion people around the globe, Daystar calls itself the fastest growing Christian television network in the world. The Internal Revenue Service considers Daystar something else: a church. Televangelists have a choice when they deal with the IRS. Some, like Pat Robertson and Billy Graham, register as religious organizations. They're exempt from most taxes but still must file disclosure reports showing how they make and spend their money.

Daystar and dozens of others call themselves churches, which enjoy the greatest protection and privacy of all nonprofit organizations in America. Churches avoid not only taxes, but any requirement to disclose their finances. And, as NPR has learned, since 2009, churches have avoided virtually any scrutiny whatsoever from the federal government's tax authority.