Surveillance

Danny O’Brien | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – The spread of knowledge about the NSA’s surveillance programs has shaken the trust of customers in U.S. Internet companies like Facebook, Google, and Apple: especially non-U.S. customers who have discovered how weak the legal protections over their data is under U.S. law. It should come as […]

Displaced and Refugees

Ghoul’s Glossary: “Migrants” or “Refugees” or “Anchor Babies”?

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Migrants: Those who voluntarily go to another country to live and work, seeking a better life. Refugees: Those who are forced out of their homes, because of political persecution or natural disaster or a chronically bad economy. and have no choice but to try to make […]

Domestic Surveillance

Appeals Court Falls for Government’s Shell Game in NSA Spying Case

contributors

By Cindy Cohn | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s opinion today in Klayman v. Obama is highly disappointing and, worse, based on a mistaken concern about the underlying facts. The court said that since the plaintiffs’ phone service was provided by one subsidiary of Verizon—Verizon […]

Bill of Rights

New Proof: AT&T and NSA’s Long Surveillance Partnership shredded 4th Amendment

contributors

By Mark Rumold | ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – Reports today in the New York Times and ProPublica confirm what EFF’s Jewel v. NSA lawsuit has claimed since 2008—that the NSA and AT&T have collaborated to build a domestic surveillance infrastructure, resulting in unconstitutional seizure and search of of millions, if not hundreds […]

BDS Occupied Territories

French Telco CEO Receives Death Threats, is Cyberstalked over Withdrawal from Israel

contributors

By IMEMC | – – Orange boss Stephane Richard has taken legal action after receiving death threats against himself and family members amid a row over withdrawing his brand from Israel, legal sources said Tuesday, according to AFP. Richard filed a complaint at a Paris court last week before heading to Israel in a bid […]

Bill of Rights

Fighting for Privacy, Two Years After Snowden

contributors

By Richard Esguerra | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – Two years ago today, Glenn Greenwald published in the Guardian a single document confirming a key piece of the NSA’s surveillance program, a document that fundamentally transformed EFF’s long-running battle for an end to unchecked government surveillance. To recap briefly, the document was a secret […]

Government surveillance

Wins and Losses for Liberty and Privacy in USA Freedom Act

contributors

By Cindy Cohn and Mark Jaycox | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – The Senate passed the USA Freedom Act today by 67-32, marking the first time in over thirty years that both houses of Congress have approved a bill placing real restrictions and oversight on the National Security Agency’s surveillance powers. The weakening amendments to […]

Bill of Rights

Thank you, Edward Snowden: An End to General Warrants as so-called PATRIOT Act expires

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The US government behemoth dedicated to spying on us all in contravention of the Constitution will likely be only slightly inconvenienced by the expiration of the misnamed “PATRIOT Act”, forced by Sen. Rand Paul late Sunday night. But at least a few baby steps back toward democracy will […]

Bill of Rights

Why Rand Paul is right to Kill the So-Called PATRIOT Act: It was never about Terrorism

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has vowed to force the expiration of the so-called PATRIOT Act on Sunday. Paul is right that it is unconstitutional and in this regard he is a better constitutional scholar than Barack Obama, whose stance on this issue is, to say the least, […]