Surveillance

By Jillian York | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Following a terrorist attack, it is not uncommon to hear calls from politicians and government officials for increased surveillance. Fear and grief can lead to quick “solutions” that have significant consequences; as we pointed out last week, some of the most far-reaching surveillance and law enforcement powers around […]

Dissent

Online Freedom of Speech under Siege even in “Democracies”

contributors

By Jillian York | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) In the midst of the global surveillance debate, talk of online censorship has often taken a backseat. Yet, all around the world, the inalienable right to freedom of expression is violated on a regular basis. While in 2014, issues such as terrorism and online harassment generated new discussions […]

Bill of Rights

Is the NSA Responsible for N. Korea’s Hack of Sony Pictures?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — In all the discussions of what is alleged to be North Korea’s horrible cyber-vandalism against Sony Pictures, I haven’t seen anyone bring up a key issue: The National Security Agency has been for two decades a powerful behind-the-scenes lobby for weak internet encryption and privacy protocols. I don’t know enough […]

Democratic Party

The Beltway Beast: How two Tribes in D.C. are Destroying the Middle Class

contributors

By Munir Moon The area inside the Beltway consists of Washington, D.C., and surrounding counties, and what I call the Beast includes defense contractors, lobbyists, Wall Street, think tanks, advocacy groups, journalists, foreign agents, and everyone else who wants something from our government. All of these congregate in the Beltway and are actively engaged in […]

Bill of Rights

Can the Police Phone-Track you without a Warrant?

contributors

Hanni Fakhoury and Jennifer Lynch (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Once again, a federal court will decide whether police can track your movements over an extended period of time without a search warrant. Federal and state courts have divided over whether the Fourth Amendment requires police seek a search warrant to obtain historical cell site location information […]

Domestic Surveillance

Snowden Docs.: UK Telecom Conspired to Turn over millions of our Emails to British Intelligence

contributors

Channel 4 News | — “An unprecedented grab of personal data: this programme reveals that a communications firm not only handed over its own information to GCHQ, but also allowed access to the internet traffic of another telecoms company.” Channel 4 News: “Spy cable revealed: How telecoms firm worked with GCHQ”

Drones

Stealth Drone Proliferation: Iranians Reverse engineer captured US Spy Drone

contributors

Press TV: | “Iran has released a video showing the test flight of an Iranian-made version of the captured US RQ-170 spy drone. The stealth drone was designed and made in less than three years and will be ready for surveillance, combat and other related missions in the next few months. The RQ-170 Sentinel stealth […]

Bill of Rights

Congress has a Bill Ready to Curb NSA Snooping; if You care, Tell them to Pass it!

contributors

By Mark Jaycox (EFF) Congress continues its path towards becoming the least productive Congress in modern history while on its second vacation in as many months. During their first vacation, we ranked Congressional lawmakers on their support for NSA reform by reviewing bills like the Surveillance State Repeal Act, the USA Freedom Act, and the […]

Domestic Surveillance

Uncle Sam’s Making a List, Checking it Twice & You Might be on It

contributors

By Hina Shamsi and Matthew Harwood (Tomdispatch.com) It began with an unexpected rapping on the front door. When Wiley Gill opened up, no one was there. Suddenly, two police officers appeared, their guns drawn, yelling, “Chico Police Department.” “I had tunnel vision,” Gill said, “The only thing I could see was their guns.” After telling […]