Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers – by Claire Cain Miller and Somini Sengupta, October 5, 2013 “Now, smartphones know everything — where people go, what they search for, what they buy, what they do for fun and when they go to bed. That is why advertisers, and tech companies like Google and Facebook,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Patriot Act
47 Prominent Technologists to NSA Review Panel: We Need Better Technical Oversight
EFF – “A group of prominent technologists submitted a letter today to the NSA Review Group, a body charged with conducting a review of NSA activities that does not currently have a technologist as a member. The letter urges the Review Group to seek assistance from independent technologists in order to conduct a thorough review,… Continue Reading
UK Guardian faces financial hurdles in taking investigations global
A British newspaper wants to take its aggressive investigations global, but money is running out. by Ken Auletta, New Yorker, October 7, 2013. “Since June 5th, the Guardian had been publishing top-secret digital files provided by Edward Snowden, a former contract employee of the National Security Agency. In a series of articles, the paper revealed… Continue Reading
DOJ opposes tech company requests to publish surveillance statistics
“The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed requests by Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other companies to publish the number of surveillance requests they receive from the National Security Agency and other agencies. Requests from five Internet companies, also including Yahoo and LinkedIn, would hurt the NSA’s ability to conduct surveillance on “particular” Internet communications, the… Continue Reading
Guardian – Selected excerpts – NSA drone document
The Guardian: “Top-secret NSA drone document – selected excerpts. Documents list various dangers to American drones, including ‘air defense threats’, ‘jamming of UAV sensor systems’, ‘terrestrial weather’, and ‘electronic warfare’” Read Glenn Greenwald’s blogpost on the NSA’s drone document Continue Reading
Microsoft’s Law Enforcement Requests Report for first six months of 2013
What does the data show? “Microsoft (including Skype) received 37,196 requests from law enforcement agencies potentially impacting 66,539 accounts in the first six months of this year. This compares to 75,378 requests and 137,424 potential accounts in the whole of 2012. Approximately 77 percent of requests resulted in the disclosure of “non-content data”. No data… Continue Reading
NYT Reports – NSA maps some Americans’ social connections
Via cnet – “Facebook, Google, and other tech firms apparently aren’t the only ones who’ve been fascinated by the potential of “social graphs” — maps of people’s social connections. The NSA has reportedly been tapping its giant repositories of phone and e-mail data to create complex diagrams of some Americans’ interactions, including lists of associates… Continue Reading
Senators Call for Public Report by IC Inspector General on NSA Surveillance
“A bipartisan group of Senators, including the Chairman and Ranking Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have called for a full-scale review of the use of surveillance authorities by the intelligence community. The Senators emphasized that the findings and conclusions of this review be made public to “help promote greater oversight, transparency, and public accountability.”… Continue Reading
EPIC – Foreign Intelligence Court Releases Controversial Opinion on Domestic Telephone Records Program
“The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has released an Opinion, justifying the NSA’s telephone record collection program. In the Opinion, Judge Claire Eagan states that “there is no Fourth Amendment impediment to the collection” of all domestic call detail records. Judge Eagan also concluded that all domestic call detail records are “relevant” under Section 215 because “individuals associated… Continue Reading
Declassified FISA Court Opinion Released – Addresses Legality of Phone Metadata Collection
Ellen Nakashima – Washington Post: “A federal surveillance court on Tuesday released a declassified opinion upholding the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s sweeping collection of billions of Americans’ phone records for counterterrorism purposes. The gathering of “all call detail records” from phone companies is justified as long as the government can show that it… Continue Reading
Office of National Intelligence Releases New Documents on NSA Surveillance
EPIC: “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has just released new documents concerning the NSA’s surveillance programs. The documents, which include numerous filings with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, date back to 2006. The documents specifically relate to the governments collection of information under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. In a… Continue Reading
Spiegel Online – NSA Can Spy on Smart Phone Data
“The United States’ National Security Agency intelligence-gathering operation is capable of accessing user data from smart phones from all leading manufacturers. Top secret NSA documents that SPIEGEL has seen explicitly note that the NSA can tap into such information on Apple iPhones, BlackBerry devices and Google’s Android mobile operating system. The documents state that it… Continue Reading
