Human Rights Watch: “The United Nations General Assembly should approve a new resolution and make clear that indiscriminate surveillance is never consistent with the right to privacy, five human rights organizations said in a November 20, 2013 letter to members of the United Nations General Assembly. After heated negotiations, the draft resolution on digital privacy initiated by Brazil and Germany emerged on… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Free Speech
Guardian – Fisa court documents reveal extent of NSA disregard for privacy restrictions
Spencer Ackerman, UK Guardian article – “Newly declassified court documents indicate that the National Security Agency shared its trove of American bulk email and internet data with other government agencies in violation of specific court-ordered procedures to protect Americans’ privacy. The dissemination of the sensitive data transgressed both the NSA’s affirmations to the secret surveillance court about the… Continue Reading
National Programmes for Mass Surveillance of Personal Data in EU Member States and their Compatibility with EU Law Study
Follow up to Committee Inquiry on Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens – Sixth Hearing, see DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR INTERNAL POLICIES POLICY DEPARTMENT C: CITIZENS’ RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS – National Programmes for Mass Surveillance of Personal Data by EU Member States and its Compatibility with EU Law. See also another version of this document… Continue Reading
Government to Release More NSA Documents and FISA Court Opinions in Response to EFF Lawsuit
“On Monday, the US Department of Justice will release to the public hundreds of additional pages of government documents concerning its use of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision of law the NSA relies on to collect the call records of millions of Americans. The disclosures will follow closely on the heels of yesterday’s reports in… Continue Reading
Google Report Shows Growing Government Demands for User Data, Highlights Need for ECPA Reform
CDT – “Today’s Transparency Report from Google, which shows a sharp increase in government demands for user data, provides the latest in a long list of reasons why Congress should act now to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), to make it clear that government officials must obtain a warrant in order to access email and other communications stored… Continue Reading
Report – Telecoms plan shielded European Internet
Via Deutsche Welle: “Deutsche Telekom says the scandal over US and British eavesdropping has prompted German providers to contemplate an inner-German or inner-European Internet. Data would no longer be routed and stored via other continents. Germany’s state-backed Telekom confirmed on Sunday that German providers were discussing an Internet confined within Europe’s “Schengen” countries. One project code-named… Continue Reading
Oversight Board Adopts EPIC’s Recommendations in New FOIA Rule
“In response to extensive comments submitted by EPIC, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has issued a final rule that will govern its Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and Sunshine Act practices. The Board’s initial draft of the rule allowed the agency to encourage other agencies to classify information, reserved the Board’s right to terminate public participation in Board meetings “at… Continue Reading
UK Guardian – Google and Facebook may be our best defenders against Big Brother
The big online companies are calling for urgent reforms to protect us from having data intercepted – Jemima Kiss “Surveillance is the undercurrent in every tech conversation now, a lens for understanding our vulnerability and exposure to every part of the online world. This is not a choice between catching terrorists and what David Cameron astonishingly… Continue Reading
Senate Intelligence Committee Approves FISA Improvements Act
Increases privacy protections, oversight, transparency of critical intelligence programs: The Senate Intelligence Committee [October 31, 2013] approved the FISA Improvements Act by a vote of 11-4. The bipartisan legislation increases privacy protections and public transparency of the National Security Agency call-records program in several ways, while preserving the operational effectiveness and flexibility of this vital… Continue Reading
OECD report measures human cost of crisis
How’s Life? [November 5, 2013] “finds that subjective well-being deteriorated in countries most affected by the crisis. Between 2007 and 2012, reported average life satisfaction declined by more than 20% in Greece, 12% in Spain, and 10% in Italy. However, moderate increases were recorded in Germany, Israel, Russia, Mexico and Sweden. The report also finds that citizens in… Continue Reading
Apple Reports to Customers on Government Information Requests
Report on Government Information Requests: “We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the… Continue Reading
UK Guardian’s interactive interviews, charts open the debate on NSA surveillance
NSA Files Decoded – Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations explained – By EWEN MACASKILL and GABRIEL DANCE – Produced by FEILDING CAGE and GREG CHEN “When Edward Snowden met journalists in his cramped room in Hong Kong’s Mira hotel in June, his mission was ambitious. Amid the clutter of laundry, meal trays and his four laptops,… Continue Reading
