Via TechFreedom President Berin Szoka: “Today, the Department of Justice announced that it has reached an agreement with Google and Microsoft to allow them and other tech companies to report, within broad ranges, the number of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders they receive, and the number of user accounts surveilled. Google and Microsoft have agreed to drop their… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Patriot Act
Spy Agencies Scour Mobile Phone Apps for Personal Data
This ProPublic story was co-produced with The New York Times and The Guardian. “When a smartphone user opens Angry Birds, the popular game application, and starts slinging birds at chortling green pigs, spy agencies have plotted how to lurk in the background to snatch data revealing the player’s location, age, sex and other personal information, according to secret… Continue Reading
Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Issues Report on NSA Massive Metadata Surveillance
Report on the Telephone Records Program Conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and on the Operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. January 23, 2014. “The PCLOB is an independent bipartisan agency within the executive branch established by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.6 The Board is comprised of… Continue Reading
CDT – Verizon Transparency Report Sets Industry Standard
“Today Verizon released its first transparency report, which detailed the number of government demands it received in 2013 for disclosure of customer data. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) welcomes Verizon’s report and believes it should set a precedent for greater transparency in the industry. CDT released the following statement in response to the report:… Continue Reading
EPIC Files Appeal, Challenging Secrecy of Presidential Directives
“EPIC has filed a Statement of the Issue Presented with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. EPIC is appealing a lower court decision that NSPD 54 — a Presidential Directive setting out the scope of the NSA’s authority over computer networks in the United States — is not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. EPIC sought… Continue Reading
CDT – President Supports End to NSA Bulk Collection; Fails to Provide Clear Path Forward
News release: “Far more needs to be done to restore the faith of the American people and repair the damage done globally to the U.S. reputation as a defender of human rights on the Internet. We certainly welcome judicial review of metadata queries, the support for more transparency about surveillance, a voice for civil liberties… Continue Reading
Guardian – NSA collects millions of text messages daily in ‘untargeted’ global sweep
James Ball – UK Guardian: “The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents. The untargeted collection and storage of SMS messages – including their contacts – is revealed in a… Continue Reading
NYT – N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
New York Times – David Sanger and Thom Shanker: “The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks. While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks,… Continue Reading
Small San Francisco mobile company first to release transparency report
Wired – Kim Zetter: “A small telecom believed to be at the center of a historic court battle over government surveillance published its first transparency report on Thursday, noting that it had received 16 government requests for customer data in 2013. But the report may be most significant for what it doesn’t say. Credo Mobile, the… Continue Reading
NSA and GCHQ activities appear illegal, says EU parliamentary inquiry
Nick Hopkins and Ian Traynor, UK Guardian: “Mass surveillance programmes used by the US and Britain to spy on people in Europe have been condemned in the “strongest possible terms” by the first parliamentary inquiry into the disclosures, which has demanded an end to the vast, systematic and indiscriminate collection of personal data by intelligence agencies. The inquiry by the European… Continue Reading
Transcript: NSA Deputy Director John Inglis
“National Security Agency Deputy Director John C. “Chris” Inglis has spent most of his time recently defending the NSA from revelations by former contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden disclosed that the agency was gathering phone records of millions of Americans. Inglis retires(d) Friday [January 10, 1014). Before stepping down, he talked to Morning Editionco-host Steve Inskeep about running… Continue Reading
CRS – National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations
National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Legal Background, January 3, 2014: “Five statutory provisions vest government agencies responsible for certain foreign intelligence investigations (principally the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)) with authority to issue written commands comparable to administrative subpoenas. A National Security Letter (NSL) seeks customer and consumer transaction information in national security investigations from communications providers,… Continue Reading
