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Jan 2 16 9:51 PM
Challenge to State’s data retention law returns to court
Digital Rights Ireland action questions law requiring records be kept for two years A landmark legal challenge to the State’s legislation requiring the retention of the phone and internet records of all individuals for up to two years returns to the High Court on Monday. The action being taken by the Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) privacy lobby group follows its success in April 2014 in having the entire European regime for the retention of such personal data about more than 500 million citizens overturned by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg. DRI launched a court action against the State in 2006 questioning the legality of Irish data retention laws requiring phone companies and internet service providers to keep data about customers’ locations, calls, texts and emails, and store that information for up to two years.
A landmark legal challenge to the State’s legislation requiring the retention of the phone and internet records of all individuals for up to two years returns to the High Court on Monday.
The action being taken by the Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) privacy lobby group follows its success in April 2014 in having the entire European regime for the retention of such personal data about more than 500 million citizens overturned by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.
DRI launched a court action against the State in 2006 questioning the legality of Irish data retention laws requiring phone companies and internet service providers to keep data about customers’ locations, calls, texts and emails, and store that information for up to two years.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/challenge-to-state-s-data-retention-law-returns-to-court-1.2472892
Recent court decisions, and legislation, will most likely affect everyone handling data In the first week of January this year, I began the new year with a prediction. “Privacy will be a big issue in 2015. In Ireland as well as internationally, three big ‘Ps’ are aligning around the topic, building on developments in 2014: politics, policy and populism.” As we say farewell to 2015, I would add a fourth P: plus ça change. Privacy has been a looming issue for years now, if less publicly noticeable in the past, and isn’t about to go away. We are all digital pioneers, grappling with what it means to have our personal information accessible, transferable, analysable and storable in unprecedented ways, following several decades of silicon-driven technological developments, and especially, the growth of the internet. And yes, digital privacy became a truly dominant international concern this year, whether you wanted it better protected, wanted less regulation and greater access to data, or faced angry customers.
In the first week of January this year, I began the new year with a prediction.
“Privacy will be a big issue in 2015. In Ireland as well as internationally, three big ‘Ps’ are aligning around the topic, building on developments in 2014: politics, policy and populism.”
As we say farewell to 2015, I would add a fourth P: plus ça change.
Privacy has been a looming issue for years now, if less publicly noticeable in the past, and isn’t about to go away. We are all digital pioneers, grappling with what it means to have our personal information accessible, transferable, analysable and storable in unprecedented ways, following several decades of silicon-driven technological developments, and especially, the growth of the internet.
And yes, digital privacy became a truly dominant international concern this year, whether you wanted it better protected, wanted less regulation and greater access to data, or faced angry customers.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/privacy-can-no-longer-be-a-low-level-box-checking-exercise-1.2480700
Secret mass surveillance continued to spark global controversy this year, yet the National Security Agency’s dragnet programs unconstitutionally monitoring Americans are stretching into their second decade. Ignited by news reports in 2005, eight years before Edward Snowden’s revelations blew the lid off illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying in 2013, mounting concerns around the world about the threat to free expression made 2015 a watershed year in the battle to restore privacy. Federal courts issued a series of competing decisions this year. Some acknowledged severe, ongoing abuses of millions of Americans and our fundamental rights. Others effectively turned a blind eye to government misconduct, agreeing with government arguments that the serious constitutional questions about these programs simply cannot be considered by the judiciary, even if they impact millions of innocent Americans. Meanwhile, Congress finally took action to address some intelligence abuses, passing the USA FREEDOM Act this spring. While reforms in the USA FREEDOM Act remained less than needed to restore the rights and democratic principles undermined by mass surveillance, this summer was only the second time in US history that Congress cut back the powers of the intelligence agencies. Repudiating longstanding congressional deference to secrect mass surveillance, the USA FREEDOM Act reflects a growing transpartisan recognition of the need for oversight, transparency, and privacy-protecting reforms. Beyond the courts and Congress, popular concerns surrounding mass surveillance continue to resound around the world, and all across America. With so little having been done to assuage those concerns, rest assured that EFF—along with the global civil society harmed by mass surveillance—will be back in 2016.
Secret mass surveillance continued to spark global controversy this year, yet the National Security Agency’s dragnet programs unconstitutionally monitoring Americans are stretching into their second decade. Ignited by news reports in 2005, eight years before Edward Snowden’s revelations blew the lid off illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying in 2013, mounting concerns around the world about the threat to free expression made 2015 a watershed year in the battle to restore privacy.
Federal courts issued a series of competing decisions this year. Some acknowledged severe, ongoing abuses of millions of Americans and our fundamental rights. Others effectively turned a blind eye to government misconduct, agreeing with government arguments that the serious constitutional questions about these programs simply cannot be considered by the judiciary, even if they impact millions of innocent Americans.
Meanwhile, Congress finally took action to address some intelligence abuses, passing the USA FREEDOM Act this spring. While reforms in the USA FREEDOM Act remained less than needed to restore the rights and democratic principles undermined by mass surveillance, this summer was only the second time in US history that Congress cut back the powers of the intelligence agencies. Repudiating longstanding congressional deference to secrect mass surveillance, the USA FREEDOM Act reflects a growing transpartisan recognition of the need for oversight, transparency, and privacy-protecting reforms.
Beyond the courts and Congress, popular concerns surrounding mass surveillance continue to resound around the world, and all across America. With so little having been done to assuage those concerns, rest assured that EFF—along with the global civil society harmed by mass surveillance—will be back in 2016.
Read more @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/dragnet-nsa-spying-survives-2015-review
In October, the Senate passed a controversial new bill called the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). This bill is strikingly similar in language and intent to the Protecting Cyber Networks Act passed by the House in April as they both focus on information sharing among private entities and between them and the federal government. With the two bills now reconciled by House and Senate negotiators and included in the omnibus budget spending bill, the combined bills join the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which modernized roles, responsibilities, and requirements for management of information security and the National Cybersecurity Protection Act, which codified the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), as significant pieces of legislation to address the growing cybersecurity threat facing the United States. As the words “Information Sharing” embedded in the act’s name would suggest, the core concept behind CISA is to incentivize information sharing between the private sector and U.S. government departments and agencies. The legislation provides needed clarity for private and public entities to share information, and in so doing, takes steps to develop trust with private companies. Despite significant differences of opinion among partisans on both sides of the aisle, a consensus that “something had to be done” was achieved to prevent, and in some cases possibly retaliate against, the rampages of hacktivism by criminals, terrorists and nation states. As Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) put it post-passage–“we need to enable a cooperative effort to share critical information about cyber threats between private sector companies and the government.” A dangerous degree of private immunity
In October, the Senate passed a controversial new bill called the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). This bill is strikingly similar in language and intent to the Protecting Cyber Networks Act passed by the House in April as they both focus on information sharing among private entities and between them and the federal government. With the two bills now reconciled by House and Senate negotiators and included in the omnibus budget spending bill, the combined bills join the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which modernized roles, responsibilities, and requirements for management of information security and the National Cybersecurity Protection Act, which codified the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), as significant pieces of legislation to address the growing cybersecurity threat facing the United States.
As the words “Information Sharing” embedded in the act’s name would suggest, the core concept behind CISA is to incentivize information sharing between the private sector and U.S. government departments and agencies. The legislation provides needed clarity for private and public entities to share information, and in so doing, takes steps to develop trust with private companies. Despite significant differences of opinion among partisans on both sides of the aisle, a consensus that “something had to be done” was achieved to prevent, and in some cases possibly retaliate against, the rampages of hacktivism by criminals, terrorists and nation states. As Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) put it post-passage–“we need to enable a cooperative effort to share critical information about cyber threats between private sector companies and the government.”
A dangerous degree of private immunity
Read more @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/12/22/a-practical-path-to-cybersecurity/
Max Schrems delivers a body blow in data privacy war, and cheating website hacked Safe Harbour no more The battle between Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner over its treatment of his complaint against Facebook continued in 2015. Schrems had claimed that Facebook’s retention of his data in the US violated his right to privacy, given the revelations from Edward Snowden about mass surveillance and access to the data of large US companies. Schrems struck a body blow in the European Court of Justice when the court ruled the 15-year-old Safe Harbour agreement – governing the safe transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US – to be invalid. A subsequent trip to the High Court in October means the DPC will now investigate Schrems’ complaint against Facebook, three years after he started his campaign.
The battle between Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner over its treatment of his complaint against Facebook continued in 2015.
Schrems had claimed that Facebook’s retention of his data in the US violated his right to privacy, given the revelations from Edward Snowden about mass surveillance and access to the data of large US companies.
Schrems struck a body blow in the European Court of Justice when the court ruled the 15-year-old Safe Harbour agreement – governing the safe transfer of EU citizens’ data to the US – to be invalid.
A subsequent trip to the High Court in October means the DPC will now investigate Schrems’ complaint against Facebook, three years after he started his campaign.
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/top-5-tech-stories-of-2015-1.2477864
It may have a reputation as a do-nothing body, but the US Congress managed to pass more than 100 bills into law – including the landmark USA Freedom Act In 2015, Congress passed more than 100 laws that were then signed by President Barack Obama. Some, like the omnibus budget deal agreed in December, accomplished the most basic task of funding the federal government. There were also 14 different bills to rename individual post offices, including one sponsored by Representative Steve Chabot to name the post office in Springboro, Ohio after longtime local mail man Richard “Dick” Chenault. But besides keeping the lights on and renaming post offices, the federal government actually did a few consequential things in 2015. These are seven of the more interesting new laws of the year. USA Freedom Act In June, Congress passed the first significant rollback of government surveillance in decades. The USA Freedom Act, which was passed with bipartisan support, ended bulk collection of phone records by the United States government after Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency program. Instead, phone companies would hold those records. The bill also ended a brief lapse in many government surveillance powers after key provisions of the Patriot Act had expired just two days before it was signed into law. But it’s considered a modest reform by many privacy advocates. While the NSA will have to go through court to get phone records, it won’t face the same obstacle to obtain bulk communications on the internet and social media records.
It may have a reputation as a do-nothing body, but the US Congress managed to pass more than 100 bills into law – including the landmark USA Freedom Act
In 2015, Congress passed more than 100 laws that were then signed by President Barack Obama. Some, like the omnibus budget deal agreed in December, accomplished the most basic task of funding the federal government. There were also 14 different bills to rename individual post offices, including one sponsored by Representative Steve Chabot to name the post office in Springboro, Ohio after longtime local mail man Richard “Dick” Chenault. But besides keeping the lights on and renaming post offices, the federal government actually did a few consequential things in 2015. These are seven of the more interesting new laws of the year.
In June, Congress passed the first significant rollback of government surveillance in decades. The USA Freedom Act, which was passed with bipartisan support, ended bulk collection of phone records by the United States government after Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency program. Instead, phone companies would hold those records. The bill also ended a brief lapse in many government surveillance powers after key provisions of the Patriot Act had expired just two days before it was signed into law. But it’s considered a modest reform by many privacy advocates. While the NSA will have to go through court to get phone records, it won’t face the same obstacle to obtain bulk communications on the internet and social media records.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/01/congress-bills-2015-usa-freedom-act-every-student-success-act
NSA’s targeting of Israeli leaders swept up the content of private conversations with U.S. lawmakers President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs. But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill. The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.
President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.
But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill.
The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.
Read more @ http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-spy-net-on-israel-snares-congress-1451425210
Read more @ http://www.jewishaz.com/us_worldnews/nation/report-us-spied-on-netanyahu-during-talks-on-iran-deal/article_074137d6-af27-11e5-948c-5f939d0fec4d.html
The NSA kept spying on Israel's Netanyahu even after Edward Snowden leaks, WSJ details
Read more @ http://theweek.com/speedreads/596653/nsa-kept-spying-israels-netanyahu-even-after-edward-snowden-leaks-wsj-details
Ever more complex tracking programmes are being used to analyse consumers’ internet habits. And the information gathered is not to your benefit. YOU’RE sitting at home watching TV. Your smartphone is lying on the couch beside you. An ad comes on the box. You watch for a few seconds, then pick up the remote and change channel. That little act — deciding not to watch a particular ad — is one of the many fragments of consumer activity that make up our lives. Each day is filled with them. Buying a particular brand of teabag, browsing a particular website, clicking off a pop-up ad, ordering a book on Amazon. The difference however, between these four actions and zapping away a TV ad is that where the former can be monitored, the latter cannot. Or at least, that used to be the case. They’re called audio beacons. An ad comes on the TV and as it plays, it also emits an audio beacon set at a frequency which the human ear can’t pick up. However, if your smartphone has an app on which the relevant software is embedded, it can hear the beacon. And when it does, the marketing company responsible for this innovation gets access to a cluster of previously unrecordable data points. It knows what ad you watched, how long before you turned off and what kind of smart device you’re using. This is just one example of a rapidly growing marketing phenomenon called cross- device tracking. It’s all about solving a major problem that the latest phase of the technology revolution has caused marketing companies. Ten years ago, we had a golden age in marketing. Internet use snowballed, and as it did data mining became child’s play. As we logged on here and logged off there, browsed, emailed, and clicked, we left an indelible trail for marketers to follow, allowing them to build a heretofore unimaginably accurate profile of each consumer’s likes and dislikes. If I browse Amazon’s French guidebooks, then subscribe to a literary magazine, then email someone about which wine should go with asparagus, I am creating a series of data points which taken together amount to an exceptionally detailed picture of how I interact with the world.
Ever more complex tracking programmes are being used to analyse consumers’ internet habits. And the information gathered is not to your benefit.
YOU’RE sitting at home watching TV. Your smartphone is lying on the couch beside you. An ad comes on the box. You watch for a few seconds, then pick up the remote and change channel.
That little act — deciding not to watch a particular ad — is one of the many fragments of consumer activity that make up our lives. Each day is filled with them.
Buying a particular brand of teabag, browsing a particular website, clicking off a pop-up ad, ordering a book on Amazon. The difference however, between these four actions and zapping away a TV ad is that where the former can be monitored, the latter cannot. Or at least, that used to be the case.
They’re called audio beacons. An ad comes on the TV and as it plays, it also emits an audio beacon set at a frequency which the human ear can’t pick up. However, if your smartphone has an app on which the relevant software is embedded, it can hear the beacon. And when it does, the marketing company responsible for this innovation gets access to a cluster of previously unrecordable data points. It knows what ad you watched, how long before you turned off and what kind of smart device you’re using.
This is just one example of a rapidly growing marketing phenomenon called cross- device tracking. It’s all about solving a major problem that the latest phase of the technology revolution has caused marketing companies.
Ten years ago, we had a golden age in marketing. Internet use snowballed, and as it did data mining became child’s play. As we logged on here and logged off there, browsed, emailed, and clicked, we left an indelible trail for marketers to follow, allowing them to build a heretofore unimaginably accurate profile of each consumer’s likes and dislikes.
If I browse Amazon’s French guidebooks, then subscribe to a literary magazine, then email someone about which wine should go with asparagus, I am creating a series of data points which taken together amount to an exceptionally detailed picture of how I interact with the world.
Read more @ http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/future-of-mobile-advertisers-and-the-quest-for-your-data-374074.html
Canadian researchers find that a large amount of Canadians’ internet traffic is routed through the United States, making it vulnerable to interception.OTTAWA–Done any online shopping this holiday season? Paid any bills online? Maybe sent an email to your local MP about road salt? If you answered yes to any of the above, there’s a good chance your data made its way through the United States. And that puts your personal information at risk of interception, new research by two Canadian academics shows. Researchers Andrew Clement and Jonathan A. Obar call it the “boomerang effect.” Because most of the Internet’s infrastructure runs through the United States, even communications beginning and ending in Canada are often routed through America. “When (data) passes through the United States . . . Canadians have no legal rights at all. We lose our constitutional rights, and under U.S. law Canadians are foreigners, so there’s no protection for our communications,” Clement said in an interview.
OTTAWA–Done any online shopping this holiday season? Paid any bills online? Maybe sent an email to your local MP about road salt?
If you answered yes to any of the above, there’s a good chance your data made its way through the United States. And that puts your personal information at risk of interception, new research by two Canadian academics shows.
Researchers Andrew Clement and Jonathan A. Obar call it the “boomerang effect.” Because most of the Internet’s infrastructure runs through the United States, even communications beginning and ending in Canada are often routed through America.
“When (data) passes through the United States . . . Canadians have no legal rights at all. We lose our constitutional rights, and under U.S. law Canadians are foreigners, so there’s no protection for our communications,” Clement said in an interview.
Read more @ http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/12/30/canadians-internet-traffic-at-risk.html
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Edward Snowden will appear via video link as a featured speaker at a New Hampshire convention of libertarian activists. The Valley News reports that the former National Security Agency contractor will participate in a 30-minute discussion and Q&A at the New Hampshire Free State Project’s convention in Manchester in February. The Free State Project describes itself as an effort to recruit “liberty-loving people” to move to New Hampshire. The group says it is trying to recruit 20,000 people who agree that a government should act to protect people’s rights.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Edward Snowden will appear via video link as a featured speaker at a New Hampshire convention of libertarian activists.
The Valley News reports that the former National Security Agency contractor will participate in a 30-minute discussion and Q&A at the New Hampshire Free State Project’s convention in Manchester in February.
The Free State Project describes itself as an effort to recruit “liberty-loving people” to move to New Hampshire. The group says it is trying to recruit 20,000 people who agree that a government should act to protect people’s rights.
Read more @ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/12/20/edward-snowden-to-appear-via-video-link-at-libertarian-convention/
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