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Posts: 14359
Apr 15 15 8:35 AM
PeacefulSwannie wrote:icepick wrote:With all of this attention, it would be a deterrent. Which is far better than we have now. While it's not perfect by any means, I am upset that they didn't even debate it.Tim, here is an excerpt from an article I just read....The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata. The NSA, on the other hand, continues to parade the idea that the government needs access to encrypted data on smartphones and other devices to track and prevent criminal activity. Now, NSA director Michael S. Rogers says he might have a solution.
icepick wrote:With all of this attention, it would be a deterrent. Which is far better than we have now. While it's not perfect by any means, I am upset that they didn't even debate it.
The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata. The NSA, on the other hand, continues to parade the idea that the government needs access to encrypted data on smartphones and other devices to track and prevent criminal activity. Now, NSA director Michael S. Rogers says he might have a solution.
Interact
Posts: 27156
Apr 15 15 1:12 PM
I'm not buying Google and MS advocating very hard to stop this. Google did fight it once, but only after being exposed. The remainder of the time, both of them were happily turning everything over. If you follow the money trail, you would probably discover that they were being paid for their trouble. This has become a huge mess, which I hope will be allowed to expire. But I'm not happy that the ringleaders are about to get away with presenting themselves as heroes. I would like it very much more if something were passed to prevent its happening again. Or at the very least, making it procedural like this would. Expiration is a solution, but it's an imperfect solution.
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
Apr 17 15 11:36 AM
Senate Intelligence Committee Kicks Off Budget Season
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Intelligence Committee kicked off budget season this week with a slew of appearances from Washington’s top spies. CIA Director John Brennan, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart all made trips up to the Hill this week to talk budget lines. Lawmakers leaving the briefings said the Senate panel’s meetings were fairly broad. The intelligence leaders touched on a variety of issues, they said, but dollar signs were the hearings’ main focus. This week’s itinerary signals the beginning stages of the Senate committee’s preparation of the infamous "black budget" checkbook -- the top-secret budget that funds the nation’s intelligence apparatus. “We’re holding hearings now,” committee member Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said after a briefing with Rogers on Tuesday. “We’re just in the beginning stage.”
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Intelligence Committee kicked off budget season this week with a slew of appearances from Washington’s top spies. CIA Director John Brennan, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Vincent Stewart all made trips up to the Hill this week to talk budget lines.
Lawmakers leaving the briefings said the Senate panel’s meetings were fairly broad. The intelligence leaders touched on a variety of issues, they said, but dollar signs were the hearings’ main focus.
This week’s itinerary signals the beginning stages of the Senate committee’s preparation of the infamous "black budget" checkbook -- the top-secret budget that funds the nation’s intelligence apparatus.
“We’re holding hearings now,” committee member Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said after a briefing with Rogers on Tuesday. “We’re just in the beginning stage.”
Read more @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/16/black-budget-intelligence_n_7082254.html
The 2016 campaign is in full swing now, with significant candidates in both parties officially declaring they will run. We are fully a year and a half away from election day, and each big name candidate will raise and spend close to (or well over) $1 billion. I wonder what our founding fathers would think of the modern campaigns and the way money operates in the political system? Of course, the founding fathers had wildly different viewpoints on liberty and the role of government. Recently I saw a Broadway musical called Hamilton by Lin Manuel-Miranda. Alexander Hamilton was a unique and often forgotten founding father. He rose from nothing, an orphan living in the West Indies, to become a key figure in the American Revolution, a close ally of George Washington and one of the most significant contributors to the Federalist Papers. The founding fathers had lengthy and heated debates over the proper role of government in American life. Hamilton was a strong proponent of an active and strong federal government, much more so than Jefferson, for example. But, he believed a key check on a more expansive and powerful federal government was a strong legislature that truly represented all of its citizens. That is to say, the basis for legitimate government was consent of all of the governed. Were he alive today and witnessing what our political system has become, I am certain he would say that we have badly damaged and perhaps substantially abandoned this principle of democratic government. Given the outsize role of money in politics, thus empowering those who possess the most money, it is totally inconsistent to say that all Americans have a say in their government.
The 2016 campaign is in full swing now, with significant candidates in both parties officially declaring they will run. We are fully a year and a half away from election day, and each big name candidate will raise and spend close to (or well over) $1 billion. I wonder what our founding fathers would think of the modern campaigns and the way money operates in the political system?
Of course, the founding fathers had wildly different viewpoints on liberty and the role of government. Recently I saw a Broadway musical called Hamilton by Lin Manuel-Miranda. Alexander Hamilton was a unique and often forgotten founding father. He rose from nothing, an orphan living in the West Indies, to become a key figure in the American Revolution, a close ally of George Washington and one of the most significant contributors to the Federalist Papers.
The founding fathers had lengthy and heated debates over the proper role of government in American life. Hamilton was a strong proponent of an active and strong federal government, much more so than Jefferson, for example. But, he believed a key check on a more expansive and powerful federal government was a strong legislature that truly represented all of its citizens. That is to say, the basis for legitimate government was consent of all of the governed.
Were he alive today and witnessing what our political system has become, I am certain he would say that we have badly damaged and perhaps substantially abandoned this principle of democratic government. Given the outsize role of money in politics, thus empowering those who possess the most money, it is totally inconsistent to say that all Americans have a say in their government.
Read more @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-glickman/do-the-people-still-govern-here-alexander-hamilton-and-money-in-politics_b_7070926.html
The CyLon London incubator was announced back in January, billing itself as Europe’s first dedicated cyber-security accelerator. At the time it said it was expecting to select about 10 startups in its first intake. In the event it’s gone for six for its first 12-week program, announcing the team list today. The not-for-profit incubator is not disclosing how many applications it received in total for, with Alex van Someren of Amadeus Capital Partners, one of the CyLon co-founders, saying only that it received “a lot” of applications, and has focused on “quality not quantity”. The selected startups cover a mix of security areas, including mobile behavioral biometric authentication, a BYOD b2b solution relying on sandboxing to reduce risk, and cyber-attack risk assessment and attack simulation products. (See below for details on all six startups.) The CyLon program does not take equity in any of the selected startups, with the £5,000 per founder living allowance that goes to selected teams provided by program sponsors. (Sponsors include Amadeus and Epsilon; global hedge fund Winton, and international law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.) Despite only selecting six teams, CyLon’s extra office space is not going begging — with two established security companies, Ripjar and SQR Systems, being invited and choosing to base themselves in the West London co-working space, alongside the selected entrepreneurs. Regarding inviting two established companies to join the co-working space, van Someren noted: “There are no strict limits on when people move out. We are building a community here so it’s important that we can be flexible.”
The CyLon London incubator was announced back in January, billing itself as Europe’s first dedicated cyber-security accelerator. At the time it said it was expecting to select about 10 startups in its first intake. In the event it’s gone for six for its first 12-week program, announcing the team list today.
The not-for-profit incubator is not disclosing how many applications it received in total for, with Alex van Someren of Amadeus Capital Partners, one of the CyLon co-founders, saying only that it received “a lot” of applications, and has focused on “quality not quantity”.
The selected startups cover a mix of security areas, including mobile behavioral biometric authentication, a BYOD b2b solution relying on sandboxing to reduce risk, and cyber-attack risk assessment and attack simulation products. (See below for details on all six startups.)
The CyLon program does not take equity in any of the selected startups, with the £5,000 per founder living allowance that goes to selected teams provided by program sponsors. (Sponsors include Amadeus and Epsilon; global hedge fund Winton, and international law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.)
Despite only selecting six teams, CyLon’s extra office space is not going begging — with two established security companies, Ripjar and SQR Systems, being invited and choosing to base themselves in the West London co-working space, alongside the selected entrepreneurs.
Regarding inviting two established companies to join the co-working space, van Someren noted: “There are no strict limits on when people move out. We are building a community here so it’s important that we can be flexible.”
Read more @ http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/16/london-security-incubator-cylon-selects-first-cohort/
The Edward Snowden revelations made it clearer than ever that your online messages are not safe from snooping. With that in mind, technologists are now building better ways for people to shield their communications from prying eyes. The technology driving most of these programs is called “end-to-end encryption,” which means that a message is ciphered before it’s sent and then deciphered after its received. This way, anyone looking to snoop on intermediary servers won’t be tablet to understand what the message says. While end-to-end encryption is a known standard, it’s a hard practice for the layperson to adopt into their everyday work. Now developers are figuring out new ways to make message-sending as easy as possible using this kind of encryption.
The Edward Snowden revelations made it clearer than ever that your online messages are not safe from snooping.
With that in mind, technologists are now building better ways for people to shield their communications from prying eyes.
The technology driving most of these programs is called “end-to-end encryption,” which means that a message is ciphered before it’s sent and then deciphered after its received. This way, anyone looking to snoop on intermediary servers won’t be tablet to understand what the message says.
While end-to-end encryption is a known standard, it’s a hard practice for the layperson to adopt into their everyday work. Now developers are figuring out new ways to make message-sending as easy as possible using this kind of encryption.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-7-safest-apps-to-send-private-and-secure-messages-2015-4
· Debate reignites on Capitol Hill with Patriot Act section set to expire · Agency representatives secretly meet with members of Congress With about 45 days remaining before a major post-9/11 surveillance authorization expires, representatives of the National Security Agency and the FBI are taking to Capitol Hill to convince legislators to preserve their sweeping spy powers. That effort effectively re-inaugurates a surveillance debate in Congress that has spent much of 2015 behind closed doors. Within days, congressional sources tell the Guardian, the premiere NSA reform bill of the last Congress, known as the USA Freedom Act, is set for reintroduction – and this time, some former supporters fear the latest version of the bill will squander an opportunity for even broader surveillance reform. Republican leaders of the House intelligence committee arranged for NSA and FBI representatives to hold secret briefings for members of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Staff did not name the officials addressing legislators.
· Debate reignites on Capitol Hill with Patriot Act section set to expire
· Agency representatives secretly meet with members of Congress
With about 45 days remaining before a major post-9/11 surveillance authorization expires, representatives of the National Security Agency and the FBI are taking to Capitol Hill to convince legislators to preserve their sweeping spy powers.
That effort effectively re-inaugurates a surveillance debate in Congress that has spent much of 2015 behind closed doors. Within days, congressional sources tell the Guardian, the premiere NSA reform bill of the last Congress, known as the USA Freedom Act, is set for reintroduction – and this time, some former supporters fear the latest version of the bill will squander an opportunity for even broader surveillance reform.
Republican leaders of the House intelligence committee arranged for NSA and FBI representatives to hold secret briefings for members of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Staff did not name the officials addressing legislators.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/15/nsa-fbi-surveillance-patriot-action-section-215-expiration
ASIO has the right to access every phone number you call, to know where and when you called it and to collect your web browsing history. The NSA is reading so many emails and phone messages that whistleblower Edward Snowden says it has millions of “dick pics”. So you’d be forgiven for thinking that any privacy you still have is a 20th century relic – like Betamax video players, steam engines or cameras that use film. In these dark times for privacy, however, an unlikely champion has arisen. His name? Joe Hockey. His goal? To protect the privacy of tax-dodging multinational corporations. It’s not easy to set up complex corporate structures so that revenue earned in Australia is treated for taxation purposes as having been earned in low tax counties like Singapore or Ireland, or in outright tax havens like the Cayman Islands. Joe Hockey is going out of his way to make sure you can do it in secret, without having to worry about pesky public scrutiny. The Australian Tax Office, with the backing of the treasurer, is so concerned that multinational corporations won’t like it any more that it denied a Uniting Church freedom of information request to release names of resources companies accused of tax avoidance.
ASIO has the right to access every phone number you call, to know where and when you called it and to collect your web browsing history. The NSA is reading so many emails and phone messages that whistleblower Edward Snowden says it has millions of “dick pics”.
So you’d be forgiven for thinking that any privacy you still have is a 20th century relic – like Betamax video players, steam engines or cameras that use film.
In these dark times for privacy, however, an unlikely champion has arisen. His name? Joe Hockey. His goal? To protect the privacy of tax-dodging multinational corporations.
It’s not easy to set up complex corporate structures so that revenue earned in Australia is treated for taxation purposes as having been earned in low tax counties like Singapore or Ireland, or in outright tax havens like the Cayman Islands.
Joe Hockey is going out of his way to make sure you can do it in secret, without having to worry about pesky public scrutiny.
The Australian Tax Office, with the backing of the treasurer, is so concerned that multinational corporations won’t like it any more that it denied a Uniting Church freedom of information request to release names of resources companies accused of tax avoidance.
Read more @ http://redflag.org.au/article/finally-some-privacy-%E2%80%93-multinational-tax-dodgers
And who is going to watch over them to make sure they do it?
Germany's justice minister reportedly has introduced legislation allowing authorities to keep citizens' phone and Internet data for up to two and a half months. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Germany's justice minister has introduced legislation allowing authorities to keep citizens' phone and Internet data for up to two and a half months, Die Zeit reported on Wednesday. The German weekly quoted Heiko Maas as saying a "balance between freedom and security" has been attained with the introduction of the bill outlining maximum retention periods of information pertaining to phone calls, text messages and e-mails.
Germany's justice minister reportedly has introduced legislation allowing authorities to keep citizens' phone and Internet data for up to two and a half months.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Germany's justice minister has introduced legislation allowing authorities to keep citizens' phone and Internet data for up to two and a half months, Die Zeit reported on Wednesday.
The German weekly quoted Heiko Maas as saying a "balance between freedom and security" has been attained with the introduction of the bill outlining maximum retention periods of information pertaining to phone calls, text messages and e-mails.
Read more @ http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150416/1020945327.html
The German government has announced new guidelines for data retention - pinning its hopes on what is known as the placebo effect, writes DW's Marcel Fürstenau. In 2010, Germany's constitutional court made it clear that the automatic storage of personal communications data is incompatible with basic rights, overturning a law introduced in 2008 by both the conservative CDU and the Social Democratic SPD. Okay thus far. Nonetheless, the very same parties in their 2013 coalition pact agreed to implement an EU guideline on data retention. Only a few months later, in April 2014, that became moot because the European Court of Justice (ECJ) declared the EU data retention directive invalid, too. Okay thus far. Which is what Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas - who was never an advocate of data retention - may also have thought. One year after the ECJ ruling, the German government is about to launch new guidelines for data retention, despite the fact that the European Commission explicitly does not plan to submit revised rules. The EU member states may do as they please; binding standards from Brussels no longer exist. Justice Minister Maas gave in to pressure from Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, both Christian Democrats, as well as from SPD leader and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel and a few SPD state interior ministers.
The German government has announced new guidelines for data retention - pinning its hopes on what is known as the placebo effect, writes DW's Marcel Fürstenau.
In 2010, Germany's constitutional court made it clear that the automatic storage of personal communications data is incompatible with basic rights, overturning a law introduced in 2008 by both the conservative CDU and the Social Democratic SPD.
Okay thus far. Nonetheless, the very same parties in their 2013 coalition pact agreed to implement an EU guideline on data retention. Only a few months later, in April 2014, that became moot because the European Court of Justice (ECJ) declared the EU data retention directive invalid, too. Okay thus far. Which is what Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas - who was never an advocate of data retention - may also have thought.
One year after the ECJ ruling, the German government is about to launch new guidelines for data retention, despite the fact that the European Commission explicitly does not plan to submit revised rules. The EU member states may do as they please; binding standards from Brussels no longer exist. Justice Minister Maas gave in to pressure from Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, both Christian Democrats, as well as from SPD leader and Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel and a few SPD state interior ministers.
Read more @ http://www.dw.de/opinion-data-retention-and-the-placebo-effect/a-18386194
Read more @ http://www.euractiv.com/sections/infosociety/german-government-repackages-data-retention-regulations-313821
Read more @ http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/04/15/berlin-strikes-compromise-on-privacy-security-with-new-data-guidelines/
The German federal government agreed on new guidelines for data retention. In the future, the connection data of telephone calls and online traffic should be kept up to ten weeks. The opposition is outraged. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere described the guidelines as "a good and wise compromise." The proposed regulations would prove effective and modest at the same time, he added. "The content of communications may not be saved in any way," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told reporters in Berlin. In addition, "all e-mail traffic will be excluded from retention" and it would not be permitted to create a personal profile of a person or record their movements. Several groups of people and professions, such as doctors, lawyers, parliamentarians and journalists, are also exempt from the surveillance.
The German federal government agreed on new guidelines for data retention. In the future, the connection data of telephone calls and online traffic should be kept up to ten weeks. The opposition is outraged.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere described the guidelines as "a good and wise compromise." The proposed regulations would prove effective and modest at the same time, he added.
"The content of communications may not be saved in any way," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told reporters in Berlin. In addition, "all e-mail traffic will be excluded from retention" and it would not be permitted to create a personal profile of a person or record their movements. Several groups of people and professions, such as doctors, lawyers, parliamentarians and journalists, are also exempt from the surveillance.
Read more @ http://www.dw.de/opposition-blasts-coalition-data-retention-deal-for-germany/a-18385887
One thing this article really missed is that the spies use algorithms to search out information using key words.... and they have literally thousands of workers scouring peoples personal information. And not sure I trust anything from Brietbart anymore....
The Edward Snowden story is a rare beast: you can’t predict how people will feel about it. And they usually feel very strongly one way or the other. Snowden is either a hero who can do no wrong, or a traitor who has caused immense damage to national security. It’s not often you find liberals and libertarians on the same side of an issue, but as acknowledged by outgoing Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, the two often meet in approving of Snowden’s actions. The journalists who have reported on the Snowden material have also often noted, sometimes with a tinge of despair, that despite huge interest in the US, Germany and elsewhere, British readers have been noticeably colder to the story. In October 2013, The Guardian even gave journalist and novelist John Lanchester access to Snowden files in the hope he could make the case better, which he did: In the UK there has been an extraordinary disconnect between the scale and seriousness of what Snowden has revealed, and the scale and seriousness of the response. One of the main reasons for that, I think, is that while some countries are interested in rights, in Britain we are more focused on wrongs. I think there’s some truth to this. Brits don’t necessarily trust their government any more than Americans do, but I suspect many find the idea their spy agencies are so powerful and efficient they can practically monitor everyone’s movements by the second highly implausible. This is perhaps a cultural difference, and one that is striking in a lot of fiction and entertainment. As a Brit, I tend to watch American TV crime series feeling like a Dickensian child pressing my nose against a window-pane: the beaches, the sunshine, the cops who look like they have a second gig as models. British crime series tend to be much grittier affairs, with middle-aged detectives in wrinkled trench-coats rubbing their hands together in the rain as they stand over yet another body of a young woman found in the woods. Such bleakness is of course just as much a device as the glossiness of CSI: Miami. But British shows do seem more realistic to me when it comes to the way they treat two aspects of police work: bureaucracy and technology. In an American series, a detective simply has to lean over the shoulder of a colleague for a few moments before barking ‘Wait – what’s that?’, whereupon a slightly-less-preposterously-good-looking computer savant zooms into the close-circuit footage on screen and instead of the picture becoming grainer as would happen in real life, a previously unseen detail is now magically made crystal-clear. Similarly, a detective on an American show only needs to mention a suspect’s name and within moments their entire life history is pulled up on a giant screen. Some of this has seeped into British TV, but generally there is a greater sense that finding evidence is time-consuming, tedious and often thwarted by internal politicking. These differences rely on stereotypes, but I think contain a grain of truth about the national psyche of Brits and Americans – and that they go some way to explaining the gulf in how the two nationalities have reacted to the Edward Snowden disclosures. For many Brits, the claims made by Snowden and his supporters of the capabilities of the NSA and other agencies feel as realistic as those ‘Zoom in on that!’ moments in American TV shows. I’ve no doubt the spooks want to gather as much information as is humanly possible, but I think the key word is humanly. Humans are flawed, messy creatures. In a Guardian article a month before the Snowden story broke, Glenn Greenwald pointed to an astonishing statistic that had been reported by the Washington Post three years earlier: Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. For Greenwald, this was alarming: more evidence that the US had become a ‘ubiquitous, limitless Surveillance State’. But for me, at least, that figure is reassuring. It’s simply too large to be sifted. Snowden supporters pour scorn on the ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’ argument, but it’s more that in such a vast ocean of information the likelihood of my petty secrets being of interest to anyone seems vanishingly small. Indeed, the Washington Post article Greenwald was quoting from made this clear in context:
It’s not often you find liberals and libertarians on the same side of an issue, but as acknowledged by outgoing Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, the two often meet in approving of Snowden’s actions. The journalists who have reported on the Snowden material have also often noted, sometimes with a tinge of despair, that despite huge interest in the US, Germany and elsewhere, British readers have been noticeably colder to the story. In October 2013, The Guardian even gave journalist and novelist John Lanchester access to Snowden files in the hope he could make the case better, which he did:
In the UK there has been an extraordinary disconnect between the scale and seriousness of what Snowden has revealed, and the scale and seriousness of the response. One of the main reasons for that, I think, is that while some countries are interested in rights, in Britain we are more focused on wrongs.
I think there’s some truth to this. Brits don’t necessarily trust their government any more than Americans do, but I suspect many find the idea their spy agencies are so powerful and efficient they can practically monitor everyone’s movements by the second highly implausible. This is perhaps a cultural difference, and one that is striking in a lot of fiction and entertainment.
As a Brit, I tend to watch American TV crime series feeling like a Dickensian child pressing my nose against a window-pane: the beaches, the sunshine, the cops who look like they have a second gig as models. British crime series tend to be much grittier affairs, with middle-aged detectives in wrinkled trench-coats rubbing their hands together in the rain as they stand over yet another body of a young woman found in the woods.
Such bleakness is of course just as much a device as the glossiness of CSI: Miami. But British shows do seem more realistic to me when it comes to the way they treat two aspects of police work: bureaucracy and technology. In an American series, a detective simply has to lean over the shoulder of a colleague for a few moments before barking ‘Wait – what’s that?’, whereupon a slightly-less-preposterously-good-looking computer savant zooms into the close-circuit footage on screen and instead of the picture becoming grainer as would happen in real life, a previously unseen detail is now magically made crystal-clear.
Similarly, a detective on an American show only needs to mention a suspect’s name and within moments their entire life history is pulled up on a giant screen. Some of this has seeped into British TV, but generally there is a greater sense that finding evidence is time-consuming, tedious and often thwarted by internal politicking.
These differences rely on stereotypes, but I think contain a grain of truth about the national psyche of Brits and Americans – and that they go some way to explaining the gulf in how the two nationalities have reacted to the Edward Snowden disclosures. For many Brits, the claims made by Snowden and his supporters of the capabilities of the NSA and other agencies feel as realistic as those ‘Zoom in on that!’ moments in American TV shows.
I’ve no doubt the spooks want to gather as much information as is humanly possible, but I think the key word is humanly. Humans are flawed, messy creatures. In a Guardian article a month before the Snowden story broke, Glenn Greenwald pointed to an astonishing statistic that had been reported by the Washington Post three years earlier:
Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications.
For Greenwald, this was alarming: more evidence that the US had become a ‘ubiquitous, limitless Surveillance State’. But for me, at least, that figure is reassuring. It’s simply too large to be sifted. Snowden supporters pour scorn on the ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear’ argument, but it’s more that in such a vast ocean of information the likelihood of my petty secrets being of interest to anyone seems vanishingly small. Indeed, the Washington Post article Greenwald was quoting from made this clear in context:
Read more @ http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/04/15/how-the-press-misled-us-over-what-edward-snowden-really-revealed/
A broad group of civil-rights, technology and political groups from across the spectrum has developed a new initiative to advocate for the repeal of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the part that provides the authority for the bulk collection of phone metadata and other information. The new group is calling itself Fight215.org and comprises more than 30 organizations, including the ACLU, the EFF, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Internet Archive, Silent Circle and Human Rights Watch. The members of the coalition are using the upcoming June 1 expiration of Section 215 as the impetus for people to call members of Congress and urge them to vote against the renewal of that provision. Section 215 of the Patriot Act gives the National Security Agency the ability to collect and store massive amounts of bulk data, including metadata associated with cell phone calls. That metadata includes things such as caller and recipient numbers, length of call and other data that privacy advocates argue can be used to build profiles of targets who have nothing to do with any terrorism investigations. A year ago President Barack Obama laid out a plan that would end the Section 215 bulk collection as it’s currently conducted and instead would keep the data at the telecom providers and require agencies to get an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to query a provider about a specific phone number.
Some of the largest digital rights groups in the United States have formed a coalition, unveiling a new campaign intended to urge Congress to keep from renewing the surveillance authority granted to the government under the post-9/11 Patriot Act. The group — Fight 215 — announced its formation on Wednesday, less than two months before a June 1 deadline under which the Patriot Act and its provisions are scheduled to expire if lawmakers in Washington don’t reauthorize the law in the coming weeks. Congress rushed to sign the Patriot Act into law shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the legislation has since been renewed by the US government as terrorism fears remain rampant. Section 215 of the Act allows federal authorities to compel companies across the US for sensitive user details including phone internet records according to secret documents disclosed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. In a statement on Wednesday, Fight 215 urged Americans to call up their congressional representatives and voice their concerns about the provision ahead of any potential efforts on Capitol Hill to reauthorize the rule and in turn allow the National Security Agency and the American intelligence community to keep scooping up user records in the name of counterterrorism.
Some of the largest digital rights groups in the United States have formed a coalition, unveiling a new campaign intended to urge Congress to keep from renewing the surveillance authority granted to the government under the post-9/11 Patriot Act.
The group — Fight 215 — announced its formation on Wednesday, less than two months before a June 1 deadline under which the Patriot Act and its provisions are scheduled to expire if lawmakers in Washington don’t reauthorize the law in the coming weeks.
Congress rushed to sign the Patriot Act into law shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the legislation has since been renewed by the US government as terrorism fears remain rampant. Section 215 of the Act allows federal authorities to compel companies across the US for sensitive user details including phone internet records according to secret documents disclosed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
In a statement on Wednesday, Fight 215 urged Americans to call up their congressional representatives and voice their concerns about the provision ahead of any potential efforts on Capitol Hill to reauthorize the rule and in turn allow the National Security Agency and the American intelligence community to keep scooping up user records in the name of counterterrorism.
Read more @ http://rt.com/usa/248001-patriot-act-fight-surveillance/
A campaign has been set up by more than 30 civil liberties organisations in an attempt to bring an end to a controversial section of the Patriot Act that allows the NSA and FBI to conduct suspicionless mass surveillance. Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which was first passed through Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, is set to expire on 1 June unless the US Congress votes for it to be reauthorised. Thirty eight advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch, Media Alliance and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have now joined to form Fight 215, a campaign aiming to prevent Congress from rubber stamping the programme. "Ending phone record surveillance is the first step to reining in surveillance abuses by the NSA," Fight 215's website reads. "Please join us in making this the year we stand for privacy and liberty, not secrecy and fear." The campaign claims that Section 215 of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional, illegal and "violates the privacy of millions of innocent people".
A campaign has been set up by more than 30 civil liberties organisations in an attempt to bring an end to a controversial section of the Patriot Act that allows the NSA and FBI to conduct suspicionless mass surveillance.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which was first passed through Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, is set to expire on 1 June unless the US Congress votes for it to be reauthorised.
Thirty eight advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch, Media Alliance and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have now joined to form Fight 215, a campaign aiming to prevent Congress from rubber stamping the programme.
"Ending phone record surveillance is the first step to reining in surveillance abuses by the NSA," Fight 215's website reads. "Please join us in making this the year we stand for privacy and liberty, not secrecy and fear."
The campaign claims that Section 215 of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional, illegal and "violates the privacy of millions of innocent people".
Read more @ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/patriot-act-civil-liberties-groups-seize-chance-end-notorious-nsa-surveillance-program-1495555
Apr 19 15 6:12 PM
As some government spying powers are set to expire, Congress will soon decide whether to reauthorize provisions of the Patriot Act. Tech associations argue for greater accountability and transparency. A host of technology trade groups are lobbying Congress to end the government’s controversial metadata collection program that was brought to public prominence by Edward Snowden almost two years ago. In a letter sent to intelligence and judiciary leadership yesterday, groups representing a vast array of tech firms, including Google, IBM, Facebook, and Apple, expressed support for fundamental surveillance reform. The groups take specific issue with Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which federal agencies claim gives authority to collect American phone records without a warrant. The six groups that sent the letter, including TechNet, the Information Technology Industry Council, and the Information Industry Association, also appealed for increased government transparency. Their primary concern was that the current state of affairs is leading to a worldwide erosion of trust. “U.S. technology providers continue to face concerns from global customers regarding the safety and security of their offerings,” the groups wrote. “In fact, foreign competitors and foreign governments regularly seize on this opportunity to challenge U.S. technological leadership by raising questions about our nation’s surveillance regime.”
As some government spying powers are set to expire, Congress will soon decide whether to reauthorize provisions of the Patriot Act. Tech associations argue for greater accountability and transparency.
A host of technology trade groups are lobbying Congress to end the government’s controversial metadata collection program that was brought to public prominence by Edward Snowden almost two years ago. In a letter sent to intelligence and judiciary leadership yesterday, groups representing a vast array of tech firms, including Google, IBM, Facebook, and Apple, expressed support for fundamental surveillance reform.
The groups take specific issue with Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which federal agencies claim gives authority to collect American phone records without a warrant. The six groups that sent the letter, including TechNet, the Information Technology Industry Council, and the Information Industry Association, also appealed for increased government transparency. Their primary concern was that the current state of affairs is leading to a worldwide erosion of trust.
“U.S. technology providers continue to face concerns from global customers regarding the safety and security of their offerings,” the groups wrote. “In fact, foreign competitors and foreign governments regularly seize on this opportunity to challenge U.S. technological leadership by raising questions about our nation’s surveillance regime.”
Read more @ http://www.buzzfeed.com/hamzashaban/tech-groups-pressure-congress-to-end-nsa-bulk-data-collectio#.fdG53Jg5D
They have said a lot of things about how the surveillance has thwarted terrorist attacks but not one shred of proof to back it up. All the spying never stopped the Boston bombings nor the recent attacks in France.
With the clock winding down, lawmakers are staging one last attempt to rein in the government’s surveillance powers. Backed up against a rapidly approaching do-or-die deadline, bipartisan lawmakers are poised to introduce legislation next week that would roll back the National Security Agency’s expansive surveillance powers. The legislation could land as soon as Tuesday in the House, congressional aides and privacy advocates said, who would only speak on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. The bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, would effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone metadata—the numbers, time stamps, and duration of a call but not its actual content—by instead relying on phone companies to retain that data. The program is the first and one of the most controversial spying programs exposed by the Edward Snowden leaks that began nearly two years ago. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Rep. John Conyers, the panel’s top Democrat, are expected to back the bill, as is Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, the author of the original Freedom Act that first emerged in the fall of 2013, and Rep. Jerry Nadler. All four have been intensely involved in negotiations since the measure fell apart in Congress late last year.
With the clock winding down, lawmakers are staging one last attempt to rein in the government’s surveillance powers.
Backed up against a rapidly approaching do-or-die deadline, bipartisan lawmakers are poised to introduce legislation next week that would roll back the National Security Agency’s expansive surveillance powers.
The legislation could land as soon as Tuesday in the House, congressional aides and privacy advocates said, who would only speak on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
The bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, would effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of U.S. phone metadata—the numbers, time stamps, and duration of a call but not its actual content—by instead relying on phone companies to retain that data. The program is the first and one of the most controversial spying programs exposed by the Edward Snowden leaks that began nearly two years ago.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Rep. John Conyers, the panel’s top Democrat, are expected to back the bill, as is Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, the author of the original Freedom Act that first emerged in the fall of 2013, and Rep. Jerry Nadler. All four have been intensely involved in negotiations since the measure fell apart in Congress late last year.
Read more @ http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2015/04/nsa-spying-stake-last-ditch-reform-bill/110443/
Apr 21 15 7:10 AM
Apr 21 15 5:15 PM
Hundreds of WA police officers could be hit with criminal charges over allegations they unlawfully accessed information from the police computer system about former West Coast Eagles players Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr.Kerr and Cousins made head-lines last month over unrelated incidents and close to 300 officers are believed to have let their curiosity get the better of them by logging into the police dispatch system to get updates on the investigations.
Hundreds of WA police officers could be hit with criminal charges over allegations they unlawfully accessed information from the police computer system about former West Coast Eagles players Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr.
Kerr and Cousins made head-lines last month over unrelated incidents and close to 300 officers are believed to have let their curiosity get the better of them by logging into the police dispatch system to get updates on the investigations.
Read more @ https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/27219238/cops-in-strife-over-cousins-kerr-peak/
Read more @ http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/wa-police-angry-over-ben-cousins-daniel-kerr-probe-20150421-1mpns4.html
Apr 21 15 5:58 PM
Goodlatte talks NSA program in Amherst County stop
The effort to end government’s mass collection of phone records and other data will return this week as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to take up the issue. U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, committee chairman, said the panel will be marking up a bill this week to ban the bulk collection of metadata — a National Security Agency program revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden. “It’s crucial that government get access to the right information at the right time, but they should do it through the right process that protects Americans’ civil liberties,” Goodlatte, R-6th, said Monday during a stop in Amherst County. The proposal, introduced in the last Congress as the USA Freedom Act, was passed by the House of Representatives last year but stalled in the Senate in the face of GOP-led opposition. The issue is returning with a deadline as the law authorizing the program will expire June 1. The reform bill was supported by the Obama administration, but opposed by those who feared it would undermine counterterrorism efforts.
The effort to end government’s mass collection of phone records and other data will return this week as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to take up the issue.
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, committee chairman, said the panel will be marking up a bill this week to ban the bulk collection of metadata — a National Security Agency program revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden.
“It’s crucial that government get access to the right information at the right time, but they should do it through the right process that protects Americans’ civil liberties,” Goodlatte, R-6th, said Monday during a stop in Amherst County.
The proposal, introduced in the last Congress as the USA Freedom Act, was passed by the House of Representatives last year but stalled in the Senate in the face of GOP-led opposition.
The issue is returning with a deadline as the law authorizing the program will expire June 1. The reform bill was supported by the Obama administration, but opposed by those who feared it would undermine counterterrorism efforts.
Read more @ http://www.newsadvance.com/new_era_progress/news/goodlatte-makes-stop-in-amherst-county-talks-about-nsa-program/article_55fcd438-e7be-11e4-a0cf-af879e1f35cf.html
America’s modern history is now defined as pre/post 9/11, a terrible day that rocked Americans and thrust the country into a perpetual “war on terror.” But with the permanent war footing came a highly secretive world of espionage tactics that threatens to throw civil rights out the window. The intrigues of the clandestine world eventually spawned surveillance whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who spoke-out against a repressive US government bent on obstructing the very fabric of our Constitution. Henceforth, this new millennial era will view individual rights in a pre/post Snowden lens. Case in point surrounds new revelations about an invasive surveillance program known as “Stingray” boxes. They trick cell phone towers to divert mobile calls of targeted individuals to the Stingray box allowing law enforcement to record and track suspects’ location. The trouble is two-fold, first the device can capture any cell phone’s users in the vicinity of the target and two, the targeting isn’t always subject to warrants issued by judges. This week the San Diego Police Department acknowledged to this reporter that it owns and uses the “Stingray” technology. The police department released a heavily redacted Purchase Order from the Harris Corp, the company who originally created the surveillance box for the CIA and US military to track terrorists worldwide. The pricy equipment costs the law enforcement community somewhere around $400,000.
America’s modern history is now defined as pre/post 9/11, a terrible day that rocked Americans and thrust the country into a perpetual “war on terror.” But with the permanent war footing came a highly secretive world of espionage tactics that threatens to throw civil rights out the window. The intrigues of the clandestine world eventually spawned surveillance whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who spoke-out against a repressive US government bent on obstructing the very fabric of our Constitution. Henceforth, this new millennial era will view individual rights in a pre/post Snowden lens.
Case in point surrounds new revelations about an invasive surveillance program known as “Stingray” boxes. They trick cell phone towers to divert mobile calls of targeted individuals to the Stingray box allowing law enforcement to record and track suspects’ location. The trouble is two-fold, first the device can capture any cell phone’s users in the vicinity of the target and two, the targeting isn’t always subject to warrants issued by judges.
This week the San Diego Police Department acknowledged to this reporter that it owns and uses the “Stingray” technology. The police department released a heavily redacted Purchase Order from the Harris Corp, the company who originally created the surveillance box for the CIA and US military to track terrorists worldwide. The pricy equipment costs the law enforcement community somewhere around $400,000.
Read more @ http://www.examiner.com/article/san-diego-police-acknowledge-stingray-cell-phone-spying
There is a fundamental tension within the national dialog regarding government surveillance: To accurately and adequately address many of the specific National Security Agency programs revealed as part of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s now-(in)famous document leaks, a person would need years of advanced expertise in some of the most complex information architecture ever assembled. Put simply, while the implications and effects of the now-public NSA surveillance programs can and should be debated by everyone they affect, the technical specifics therein are a bridge too far for many. When it comes to our privacy—one of the defining issues of the digital age—most people simply lack the requisite vocabulary to fully explore the extraordinarily complex features of an issue for which technical complexity is a sin-qua-non. It’s that inherent tension which Last Week Tonight host John Oliver addressed during his surprise (as in, even Oliver seemed surprised it was happening) sit down with Edward Snowden, himself. There, the comedian and the whistleblower/leaker/hero/traitor discussed the challenge of holding a substantive debate on a subject for which the very complexities that render it important also render it inaccessible to many. Oliver, to his credit, did not go easy on Snowden, posing tough questions regarding the moral implications of leaking state secrets, and asking how to weigh the benefits of the programs exposed against their implied costs. Then, in an effort to frame the debate over government surveilance and privacy in terms most people, regardless of technical expertise, can understand, Oliver zeroed in on what seems, at this point, to be a universal truth: People absolutely do not want the government looking at their dick pics. Given the visceral reaction against governmental overreach into the field of dick pics, web designer and software engineer Oliver Lacan this week unleashed upon the world cantheyseemydick.com. The site is a simple companion to Oliver and Snowden’s conversation, and outlines the various NSA programs and methods by which government agents and contractors can legally see that dick pic you just sent or received. Lacan, the site explains “cares about security and privacy and the freedom for everyone to send dick pictures as long as the recipient is cool with it.”
There is a fundamental tension within the national dialog regarding government surveillance: To accurately and adequately address many of the specific National Security Agency programs revealed as part of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s now-(in)famous document leaks, a person would need years of advanced expertise in some of the most complex information architecture ever assembled. Put simply, while the implications and effects of the now-public NSA surveillance programs can and should be debated by everyone they affect, the technical specifics therein are a bridge too far for many. When it comes to our privacy—one of the defining issues of the digital age—most people simply lack the requisite vocabulary to fully explore the extraordinarily complex features of an issue for which technical complexity is a sin-qua-non.
It’s that inherent tension which Last Week Tonight host John Oliver addressed during his surprise (as in, even Oliver seemed surprised it was happening) sit down with Edward Snowden, himself. There, the comedian and the whistleblower/leaker/hero/traitor discussed the challenge of holding a substantive debate on a subject for which the very complexities that render it important also render it inaccessible to many. Oliver, to his credit, did not go easy on Snowden, posing tough questions regarding the moral implications of leaking state secrets, and asking how to weigh the benefits of the programs exposed against their implied costs. Then, in an effort to frame the debate over government surveilance and privacy in terms most people, regardless of technical expertise, can understand, Oliver zeroed in on what seems, at this point, to be a universal truth:
People absolutely do not want the government looking at their dick pics.
Given the visceral reaction against governmental overreach into the field of dick pics, web designer and software engineer Oliver Lacan this week unleashed upon the world cantheyseemydick.com. The site is a simple companion to Oliver and Snowden’s conversation, and outlines the various NSA programs and methods by which government agents and contractors can legally see that dick pic you just sent or received. Lacan, the site explains “cares about security and privacy and the freedom for everyone to send dick pictures as long as the recipient is cool with it.”
Read more @ http://magazine.good.is/articles/well-can-they
Law360, Washington (April 16, 2015, 5:44 PM ET) -- Groups representing Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other major technology companies said surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act have hurt the reputations of American companies abroad, in a Wednesday letter addressed to congressional leaders. The letter from The Internet Association, the Information Technology Industry Council and several others said Hill leadership should take steps to end bulk data collection by the National Security Agency and to increase government transparency and accountability surrounding the programs under the act. The letter was posted on posted on BSA The Software Alliance’s website. “U.S. technology providers continue to face concerns from global customers regarding the safety and security of their offerings,” the letter said. “In fact, foreign competitors and foreign governments regularly seize on this opportunity to challenge U.S. technological leadership by raising questions about our nation’s surveillance regime.” International competitors have seized on the revelations of U.S. spying by whistleblower Edward Snowden to question the security and privacy of U.S. products, according to the letter. To stop a slide in America’s technological advantages, the groups said Congress should revise the provision that allows for bulk data collection, Section 215, which is set to expire in June.
Read more @ http://www.law360.com/aerospace/articles/644130/patriot-act-spying-hurts-int-l-trade-tech-groups-say
Apr 22 15 6:36 AM
New Barbie Sends Kids' Private Thoughts To The Cloud
Unveiled last month, Hello Barbie is a clever toy with a little bit of an oversharing problem. With a microphone, Hello Barbie can listen to what children tell it. With a computer and a Wi-Fi connection, Hello Barbie can take those words, encrypt them, and then send them over the internet to a cloud server where voice recognition software listens to the recording and then picks a reply for Hello Barbie to send back. Only there's a minor hitch: it might be illegal to record children and then store that information elsewhere. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which became law in April 2000, sets out strict rules for obtaining information from minors online. These rules prohibit the collection of information from children under the age of 13 unless there is parental consent, plus a way for the parents to find out what information was collected and then obtain that information, or unless the information is used to respond to the child as a one-off and isn't stored in a retrievable way. Oren Jacob is the CEO of ToyTalk, the company that partnered with Mattel to create Hello Barbie. He says: All of ToyTalk's products in market have been designed to meet or exceed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and have also been independently verified as such by KidSAFE+. While the underlying technology of our products works much like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana, ToyTalk products never search the open web for answers. Responses are carefully crafted by our own writing team, and conversations recorded through our products are never used to advertise or market to children or anyone. Hello Barbie isn't the only device that wants to store your thoughts in the cloud. Eavesdropping done by Samsung SmartTVs made news, but it's hardly alone, and plenty of devices, ranging from voice search to Xbox Kinect also record voices and translate them into information without public outcry or accusations of criminal intent.
Unveiled last month, Hello Barbie is a clever toy with a little bit of an oversharing problem. With a microphone, Hello Barbie can listen to what children tell it. With a computer and a Wi-Fi connection, Hello Barbie can take those words, encrypt them, and then send them over the internet to a cloud server where voice recognition software listens to the recording and then picks a reply for Hello Barbie to send back. Only there's a minor hitch: it might be illegal to record children and then store that information elsewhere.
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which became law in April 2000, sets out strict rules for obtaining information from minors online. These rules prohibit the collection of information from children under the age of 13 unless there is parental consent, plus a way for the parents to find out what information was collected and then obtain that information, or unless the information is used to respond to the child as a one-off and isn't stored in a retrievable way. Oren Jacob is the CEO of ToyTalk, the company that partnered with Mattel to create Hello Barbie. He says:
All of ToyTalk's products in market have been designed to meet or exceed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and have also been independently verified as such by KidSAFE+. While the underlying technology of our products works much like Siri, Google Now, and Cortana, ToyTalk products never search the open web for answers. Responses are carefully crafted by our own writing team, and conversations recorded through our products are never used to advertise or market to children or anyone.
Hello Barbie isn't the only device that wants to store your thoughts in the cloud. Eavesdropping done by Samsung SmartTVs made news, but it's hardly alone, and plenty of devices, ranging from voice search to Xbox Kinect also record voices and translate them into information without public outcry or accusations of criminal intent.
MY EARLIEST Google search — the earliest one Google remembers, at least — was for “tetanus shot.” My most recent was for “Tracy Morgan.” In between, there are 52,493 searches, and Google remembers them all. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. I know Google knows essentially everything there is to know about me — and you probably do, too. With its algorithms and analytics tools, it probably knows more about me than I know about myself (statistically, I most frequently search Google at 10 AM on Tuesdays in March). But presented in its totality, it’s still a bit creepy to look at a history of every single Google search you’ve ever done.The company has now made it possible for you to export that history and download it from its servers. In one ZIP file, you can have a timestamped history of every random bit of trivia or thought you’ve ever had; of every restaurant you’ve ever cared to Yelp; of the times you looked up whether that movie you wanted to see was actually any good.
MY EARLIEST Google search — the earliest one Google remembers, at least — was for “tetanus shot.” My most recent was for “Tracy Morgan.” In between, there are 52,493 searches, and Google remembers them all.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. I know Google knows essentially everything there is to know about me — and you probably do, too. With its algorithms and analytics tools, it probably knows more about me than I know about myself (statistically, I most frequently search Google at 10 AM on Tuesdays in March). But presented in its totality, it’s still a bit creepy to look at a history of every single Google search you’ve ever done.
The company has now made it possible for you to export that history and download it from its servers. In one ZIP file, you can have a timestamped history of every random bit of trivia or thought you’ve ever had; of every restaurant you’ve ever cared to Yelp; of the times you looked up whether that movie you wanted to see was actually any good.
Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/google-knows-everything-youve-ever-searched-for-in-case-you-forgot/story-fnjwnhzf-1227313716221
Apr 24 15 10:04 PM
Like I said right at the beginning of the Snowden revelations….. the rich people behind the politicians, and all those politicians are rich too, want the edge on everyone….. to spend literally trillions of dollars on all the spying apparatuses around the world long before Islamic terrorists came along, they are not going to end it….. The only way I can see to foil all the spying is for tech companies.... not one or two, but all of them, do something about it.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in a radio interview on Tuesday that he supports President Obama's decision to continue the National Security Agency's metadata collection program. The presumed presidential candidate appeared on "The Michael Medved Show," a nationally-syndicated radio program, while visiting Seattle for a fundraiser for his PAC, Right to Rise. Asked by Medved what he thinks is the biggest accomplishment of the Obama administration, Bush gave the president credit for sticking with the NSA's bulk collection of phone call times and other "metadata," a move that he said has led to the agency "being enhanced." "Advancing this -- even though he never defends it, even though he never openly admits it -- there has been a continuation of a very important service, which is the first obligation I think of our national government, is to keep us safe," he said. "And the technologies that now can be applied to make that so, while protecting civil liberties, are there. He's not abandoned them even though there was some indication that he might."
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in a radio interview on Tuesday that he supports President Obama's decision to continue the National Security Agency's metadata collection program.
The presumed presidential candidate appeared on "The Michael Medved Show," a nationally-syndicated radio program, while visiting Seattle for a fundraiser for his PAC, Right to Rise.
Asked by Medved what he thinks is the biggest accomplishment of the Obama administration, Bush gave the president credit for sticking with the NSA's bulk collection of phone call times and other "metadata," a move that he said has led to the agency "being enhanced."
"Advancing this -- even though he never defends it, even though he never openly admits it -- there has been a continuation of a very important service, which is the first obligation I think of our national government, is to keep us safe," he said. "And the technologies that now can be applied to make that so, while protecting civil liberties, are there. He's not abandoned them even though there was some indication that he might."
Read more @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/04/21/bush-credits-obama-for-continuing-nsas-metadata-program/
In a move likely to re-ignite public debate in America over electronic spying, Republicans have introduced a bill in the Senate to extend a controversial law empowering the government’s bulk collection of U.S. telephone records. President Barack Obama and many in Congress want to retain the mass data-collection program as a national security tool but want substantial changes in the program, which was secret until disclosed two years ago by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is sponsoring a bill to extend until Dec. 31, 2020, a provision of the USA Patriot Act that the National Security Agency used to collect and store vast quantities of “metadata” charting telephone calls made by Americans. The law is due to expire on June 1. Republicans said they would expedite Senate consideration of McConnell’s bill, which was submitted late on Tuesday, by sending it directly to the Senate floor rather than considering it first in committee. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, acknowledged that prospects for the bill’s passage were uncertain but said it would establish the parameters for debate. The NSA program to collect and analyze telephone metadata was authorized by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In a move likely to re-ignite public debate in America over electronic spying, Republicans have introduced a bill in the Senate to extend a controversial law empowering the government’s bulk collection of U.S. telephone records.
President Barack Obama and many in Congress want to retain the mass data-collection program as a national security tool but want substantial changes in the program, which was secret until disclosed two years ago by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is sponsoring a bill to extend until Dec. 31, 2020, a provision of the USA Patriot Act that the National Security Agency used to collect and store vast quantities of “metadata” charting telephone calls made by Americans. The law is due to expire on June 1.
Republicans said they would expedite Senate consideration of McConnell’s bill, which was submitted late on Tuesday, by sending it directly to the Senate floor rather than considering it first in committee.
Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, acknowledged that prospects for the bill’s passage were uncertain but said it would establish the parameters for debate.
The NSA program to collect and analyze telephone metadata was authorized by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Read more @ http://recode.net/2015/04/22/senate-republicans-move-to-extend-nsa-power-to-collect-phone-data/
MUNICH – Decix, the largest internet traffic exchange point (IXP) worldwide, has had it with the snoops. Today (23 April), the Frankfurt company confirmed a report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that it will file a complaint at the German Federal Administrative Court against the obligation to grant broad access to the German Intelligence Service (BND) to the traffic transiting its large switches. Decix management thinks the constitutionality of the activities is highly questionable and the G10 legislation (allowing for preventive surveillance under certain conditions) is not adapted to an international IP communication network. New revelations today that the US National Security Administration (NSA) used the data collected by the BND to spy on politicians and companies in Germany and the EU companies like EADS, Eurocopter and French authorities fired the renewed debate in Berlin. Around 650 large and small network providers from all over the world exchange their IP traffic at the Decix. The amount of data exchanged via the so-called switches in the 18 data centers around Frankfurt are stunning: 3.9 terabit/second during peak times. The exchange point is prepared to allow for as much as 13 terabit/second in the future. With all that data flowing through the Frankfurt Switches, it is an attractive point to tap for intelligence services and the company has to provide facilities for legal interception.
MUNICH – Decix, the largest internet traffic exchange point (IXP) worldwide, has had it with the snoops. Today (23 April), the Frankfurt company confirmed a report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that it will file a complaint at the German Federal Administrative Court against the obligation to grant broad access to the German Intelligence Service (BND) to the traffic transiting its large switches. Decix management thinks the constitutionality of the activities is highly questionable and the G10 legislation (allowing for preventive surveillance under certain conditions) is not adapted to an international IP communication network. New revelations today that the US National Security Administration (NSA) used the data collected by the BND to spy on politicians and companies in Germany and the EU companies like EADS, Eurocopter and French authorities fired the renewed debate in Berlin.
Around 650 large and small network providers from all over the world exchange their IP traffic at the Decix. The amount of data exchanged via the so-called switches in the 18 data centers around Frankfurt are stunning: 3.9 terabit/second during peak times. The exchange point is prepared to allow for as much as 13 terabit/second in the future. With all that data flowing through the Frankfurt Switches, it is an attractive point to tap for intelligence services and the company has to provide facilities for legal interception.
Read more @ http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/04/24/largest-internet-exchange-point-announces-complaint-against-snooping/
Google (GOOGL) Chairman Eric Schmidt boasted on Wednesday about how improving the encryption of Google's products has successfully shut out warrantless surveillance by the NSA and other law enforcement. Schmidt talked about the encryption advances, and how former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks prompted them, at BoxDev, a yearly developers conference for Box. "When the Snowden revelations came out, we were very, very upset," Schmidt told Aaron Levie, CEO of Box. "They never said anything to us. So we embarked upon a program to fully encrypt the information that our customers entrusted to us." Encryption makes it very difficult or impossible for information passed electronically to be deciphered, either by the NSA or even by the company doing the encryption. Snowden's leaks showed how the NSA uses warrantless mass surveillance of metadata, which Schmidt argued went beyond proper use of the Patriot Act. He and other tech company leaders started boosting their encryption to keep the security agencies from being able to read any email or communication without a warrant. Now encryption is not just a Google project, and it appears to be working. "Apple and others did the same," Schmidt said. "And we know our program works, because all the people doing the snooping are complaining about it." He's right about that. FBI Director James Comey told Congress that they should ban phone encryption because of how it helps criminals get away with their crimes. The surveillance is party of what the tech and Internet industry wants to see changed in the Patriot Act and why they are hoping it won't be renewed in its present form.
Google (GOOGL) Chairman Eric Schmidt boasted on Wednesday about how improving the encryption of Google's products has successfully shut out warrantless surveillance by the NSA and other law enforcement. Schmidt talked about the encryption advances, and how former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks prompted them, at BoxDev, a yearly developers conference for Box.
"When the Snowden revelations came out, we were very, very upset," Schmidt told Aaron Levie, CEO of Box. "They never said anything to us. So we embarked upon a program to fully encrypt the information that our customers entrusted to us."
Encryption makes it very difficult or impossible for information passed electronically to be deciphered, either by the NSA or even by the company doing the encryption. Snowden's leaks showed how the NSA uses warrantless mass surveillance of metadata, which Schmidt argued went beyond proper use of the Patriot Act. He and other tech company leaders started boosting their encryption to keep the security agencies from being able to read any email or communication without a warrant. Now encryption is not just a Google project, and it appears to be working.
"Apple and others did the same," Schmidt said. "And we know our program works, because all the people doing the snooping are complaining about it."
He's right about that. FBI Director James Comey told Congress that they should ban phone encryption because of how it helps criminals get away with their crimes. The surveillance is party of what the tech and Internet industry wants to see changed in the Patriot Act and why they are hoping it won't be renewed in its present form.
Read more @ http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2015/04/22/how-google-googl-keeps-the-nsa-out-of-your-data/
Crowds gathered Thursday at the University of the District of Columbia law school for a lecture given by Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Wizner also represents NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden. Wizner has litigated cases involving post-9/11 civil liberties abuses as well as challenging airport security policies, watch lists, torture, and extraordinary rendition. He began the evening discussing how he never intended to work with the ACLU, as when he was in law school, he never dreamed the abuses he's currently fighting would be happening in the United States. "…and then 9-11 happened and Cheney was the president for 8 years and our civil liberties became very important again," he stated. He discussed how he took on the case of a German citizen, Khaled El-Masri, who was mistakenly handed over to the CIA after a mix up regarding his name. “If you ask someone ‘what rights should terrorists have?’ most people would say none, but if you present a mistake that was made [regarding] a clearly innocent man, then the conversation can be different.” Wizner also discussed the case of Jose Padilla, an American citizen arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, who was taken into custody and held as a material witness after the September 11 attacks.Former CIA Director Petraeus Gets Two Years Probation for Leaking State Secrets Upon realizing that there was no evidence to hold him, Wizner said, the authorities transferred Padilla to military prison as an “enemy combatant,” where he was tortured until he was nearly catatonic. “The court today held that Donald Rumsfeld is above the law and Jose Padilla is beneath it. But if the law does not protect Jose Padilla, it protects none of us, and the executive branch can simply label citizens enemies of the state and strip them of all rights — including the absolute right not to be tortured. If Jose Padilla is not allowed his day in court, nothing will prevent future administrations from engaging in similar abuses,” Wizner said it a statement regarding the case after the judge ruled in the government’s favor.
Read more @ http://en.cihan.com.tr/news/Snowdens-Lawyer-I-dont-hesitate-to-say-hes-a-hero_3039-CHMTc2MzAzOQ==
WASHINGTON -- All eyes are on Congress as the June 1 expiration date looms for the National Security Agency program that sweeps up massive dragnets of Americans' phone data. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is charging forward with a full reauthorization of the Patriot Act program, the first serious push to say anything about the NSA this year. But no one in Congress seems exactly sure who's primarily responsible for addressing the pending expiration of the NSA program, though most agree that someone, somewhere should do something. On Tuesday night, McConnell and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced a bill that would entirely reauthorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision that allows the NSA to collect the communications metadata of Americans. The fast-approaching expiration date is forcing Congress to wrestle with the program’s constitutionality for the first time since former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden publicly revealed the program in 2013.
WASHINGTON -- All eyes are on Congress as the June 1 expiration date looms for the National Security Agency program that sweeps up massive dragnets of Americans' phone data. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is charging forward with a full reauthorization of the Patriot Act program, the first serious push to say anything about the NSA this year.
But no one in Congress seems exactly sure who's primarily responsible for addressing the pending expiration of the NSA program, though most agree that someone, somewhere should do something.
On Tuesday night, McConnell and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced a bill that would entirely reauthorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the provision that allows the NSA to collect the communications metadata of Americans. The fast-approaching expiration date is forcing Congress to wrestle with the program’s constitutionality for the first time since former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden publicly revealed the program in 2013.
Read more @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/22/nsa-reform-congress_n_7121876.html
Germans by and large are wary of surveillance in all its forms, and nowhere is that more apparent than at the Big Brother Awards, which awards “prizes” to organizations and individuals around the world making especially egregious use of Germans’ private personal data. Organized by advocacy nonprofit Digitalcourage, the 15th annual BBAs were announced Friday night in Bielefeld, Germany, a northwestern city of about 330,000. The tech prize was awarded to Hello Barbie, a “smart” version of the toymaker Mattel’s iconic doll, that records everything its owner says and allows parents to review the sound clips. Probably the most timely award was in the category of Newspeak (as inspired by 1984’s totalitarian language): Digitale Spurensicherung—roughly, digital evidence security. Just days before, German justice minister Heiko Maas had proposed requiring all telecoms (link in German) to keep user metadata for up to 10 weeks under the guise of national security, and altogether, three Big Brother Awards awards went to the German federal government:
Germans by and large are wary of surveillance in all its forms, and nowhere is that more apparent than at the Big Brother Awards, which awards “prizes” to organizations and individuals around the world making especially egregious use of Germans’ private personal data.
Organized by advocacy nonprofit Digitalcourage, the 15th annual BBAs were announced Friday night in Bielefeld, Germany, a northwestern city of about 330,000. The tech prize was awarded to Hello Barbie, a “smart” version of the toymaker Mattel’s iconic doll, that records everything its owner says and allows parents to review the sound clips.
Probably the most timely award was in the category of Newspeak (as inspired by 1984’s totalitarian language): Digitale Spurensicherung—roughly, digital evidence security. Just days before, German justice minister Heiko Maas had proposed requiring all telecoms (link in German) to keep user metadata for up to 10 weeks under the guise of national security, and altogether, three Big Brother Awards awards went to the German federal government:
Read more @ http://qz.com/387613/hello-barbie-the-nsa-win-big-in-germanys-big-brother-awards-for-privacy-abuses/
The anti-terrorism bill includes everything from tapping phones and email accounts without a judge's approval to collecting metadata from mobile phones. Privacy is highly prized in France, and its politicians were among the loudest complaining when the NSA's widespread data collection came to light two years ago – despite accusations that France had a similar history of espionage. Now, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January, the French government seems intent on imitating the US intelligence-gathering even more closely. A new bill that would empower French intelligence agencies has stirred a heated national debate over how to balance protection of privacy against the threat of extremist attacks – like the one allegedly foiled this weekend in Paris.
Privacy is highly prized in France, and its politicians were among the loudest complaining when the NSA's widespread data collection came to light two years ago – despite accusations that France had a similar history of espionage.
Now, in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January, the French government seems intent on imitating the US intelligence-gathering even more closely. A new bill that would empower French intelligence agencies has stirred a heated national debate over how to balance protection of privacy against the threat of extremist attacks – like the one allegedly foiled this weekend in Paris.
Read more @ http://news.yahoo.com/does-frances-proposed-surveillance-law-too-far-195858738.html
On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one groundbreaking opinion in two cases regarding cellphone searches incident to arrest. In a unanimous opinion, the court held that under the Fourth Amendment, police must obtain a warrant prior to searching the cellphone of an arrestee. The court found that the “immense storage capacity” of cellphones and their aggregation of data differentiated them from other items found on an arrestee’s person. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that cellphones “could just as easily be called cameras, video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers.”1 This commentary situates the Riley decision in the broader context of technology search cases and analyzes its potential implications for companies faced with a government request to turn over customer data. The Supreme Court’s acknowledgments of the altered technological landscape and the sensitivity of user data signal a potential shift in its third-party guidance, and its decision is a hopeful sign for companies seeking to protect user privacy in the face of digital data requests from the government. The Third-party Doctrine: An Overview The third-party doctrine states that an individual does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any communication that is “voluntarily conveyed” to another. Whether this concerns a conversation with an informant, or transmissions to banks and telecommunications companies, the Supreme Court has generally held that if the information is made available to a third party, the government may access it without a warrant.2 In 1928 the high court held that warrantless wiretapping of telephone lines did not violate the Fourth Amendment, provided there was no physical trespass on an individual’s land. In dissent, Justice Louis D. Brandeis argued that the U.S. Constitution must be adapted to a changing world. He noted that “[s] ubtler and more far-reaching means of invading privacy have become available to the government.”3 Almost 40 years later, the court overturned that decision, holding that the warrantless wiretapping of a public telephone booth violated a defendant’s constitutional rights because the Fourth Amendment “protects people, not places.”4 As explained in Justice John Marshall Harlan II’s concurrence, the standard for Fourth Amendment protection was whether the individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one groundbreaking opinion in two cases regarding cellphone searches incident to arrest. In a unanimous opinion, the court held that under the Fourth Amendment, police must obtain a warrant prior to searching the cellphone of an arrestee. The court found that the “immense storage capacity” of cellphones and their aggregation of data differentiated them from other items found on an arrestee’s person. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that cellphones “could just as easily be called cameras, video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers.”1
This commentary situates the Riley decision in the broader context of technology search cases and analyzes its potential implications for companies faced with a government request to turn over customer data. The Supreme Court’s acknowledgments of the altered technological landscape and the sensitivity of user data signal a potential shift in its third-party guidance, and its decision is a hopeful sign for companies seeking to protect user privacy in the face of digital data requests from the government.
The Third-party Doctrine: An Overview
The third-party doctrine states that an individual does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any communication that is “voluntarily conveyed” to another. Whether this concerns a conversation with an informant, or transmissions to banks and telecommunications companies, the Supreme Court has generally held that if the information is made available to a third party, the government may access it without a warrant.2
In 1928 the high court held that warrantless wiretapping of telephone lines did not violate the Fourth Amendment, provided there was no physical trespass on an individual’s land. In dissent, Justice Louis D. Brandeis argued that the U.S. Constitution must be adapted to a changing world. He noted that “[s] ubtler and more far-reaching means of invading privacy have become available to the government.”3
Almost 40 years later, the court overturned that decision, holding that the warrantless wiretapping of a public telephone booth violated a defendant’s constitutional rights because the Fourth Amendment “protects people, not places.”4 As explained in Justice John Marshall Harlan II’s concurrence, the standard for Fourth Amendment protection was whether the individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Read more @ http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3ba8be80-f543-40c8-8d08-9b6e6dead956
PGP creator tells TechWeekEurope companies should take privacy protection seriously and argues law enforcement is living in a “golden age of surveillance” Businesses should pay just as much attention to their privacy measures as they to security, according to Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Silent Circle founder Phil Zimmermann. Zimmermann, in London for UC Expo, told TechWeekEurope that the recent Sony hack demonstrated the business case for ensuring the collective privacy of a company and that intelligence and law enforcement agencies were living in a “golden age of surveillance.”
PGP creator tells TechWeekEurope companies should take privacy protection seriously and argues law enforcement is living in a “golden age of surveillance”
Businesses should pay just as much attention to their privacy measures as they to security, according to Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Silent Circle founder Phil Zimmermann.
Zimmermann, in London for UC Expo, told TechWeekEurope that the recent Sony hack demonstrated the business case for ensuring the collective privacy of a company and that intelligence and law enforcement agencies were living in a “golden age of surveillance.”
Read more @ http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-regulation/phil-zimmermann-privacy-silent-circle-166897
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill that would extend the surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act until 2020, instead of expiring on June 1. The bill, which the Republican leader introduced Tuesday night, would extend section 215 of the Patriot Act, the controversial part of the law that the U.S. National Security Agency used to collect U.S. telephone records in bulk. Digital and civil rights groups have protested the NSA phone records collection program, saying it violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protecting the country's residents against unreasonable search and seizure. The bill, if passed, would kill efforts in Congress to rein in the NSA's telephone records collection program. In addition to phone records, Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the NSA or FBI to collect business records and "any tangible things" when the agencies have "reasonable grounds" to believe those records are relevant to an antiterrorism investigation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill that would extend the surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act until 2020, instead of expiring on June 1.
The bill, which the Republican leader introduced Tuesday night, would extend section 215 of the Patriot Act, the controversial part of the law that the U.S. National Security Agency used to collect U.S. telephone records in bulk.
The bill, if passed, would kill efforts in Congress to rein in the NSA's telephone records collection program. In addition to phone records, Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the NSA or FBI to collect business records and "any tangible things" when the agencies have "reasonable grounds" to believe those records are relevant to an antiterrorism investigation.
Read more @ http://www.computerworld.com/article/2913652/data-privacy/senate-leader-introduces-bill-to-extend-patriot-act-surveillance.html
A key provision of the Patriot Act that allows the NSA to legally spy on our phone records is set to expire soon. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a new bill that would renew it and allow the NSA to continue spying as usual. Under the bill, Section 215 of the post-9/11 Patriot Act would be extended until December 31, 2020. The core provision, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of U.S. phone records, is currently due to expire on June 1. Not all members of Congress are onboard with McConnell's bill. A bipartisan group of legislators is working on a surveillance reform bill that would limit the NSA surveillance capabilities.
A key provision of the Patriot Act that allows the NSA to legally spy on our phone records is set to expire soon. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a new bill that would renew it and allow the NSA to continue spying as usual.
Under the bill, Section 215 of the post-9/11 Patriot Act would be extended until December 31, 2020. The core provision, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of U.S. phone records, is currently due to expire on June 1.
Not all members of Congress are onboard with McConnell's bill. A bipartisan group of legislators is working on a surveillance reform bill that would limit the NSA surveillance capabilities.
Read more @ http://www.komando.com/happening-now/305402/congress-could-renew-the-biggest-threat-to-americans-privacy
Patriot Act expires June 1 as bill to extend surveillance heads to Senate floor. The legal authority enabling the National Security Agency's bulk telephone metadata collection program that Edward Snowden exposed two years ago is set to expire June 1. But not if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others have their way. The Republican from Kentucky introduced the legislation (PDF) late Tuesday that would allow the once-secret program, authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, to continue through 2020. McConnell invoked a rule that bypasses the usual committee vetting process, enabling the bill to go directly to the Senate floor, where a vote has not been scheduled. The measure, which immediately drew criticism from privacy advocates and some members of Congress, allows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to essentially rubber-stamp government requests for so-called "business records" held by just about any institution, including the phone companies. Interpreted to require the telcos to cough up millions upon millions of calling records about their customers, it requires them to provide the National Security Agency with the phone numbers of both parties in a call, calling card numbers, the length and time of the calls, and the international mobile subscriber identity (ISMI) number for mobile callers. The NSA keeps a running database of that information, saying that it runs queries solely to combat terrorism.
The legal authority enabling the National Security Agency's bulk telephone metadata collection program that Edward Snowden exposed two years ago is set to expire June 1. But not if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others have their way.
The Republican from Kentucky introduced the legislation (PDF) late Tuesday that would allow the once-secret program, authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, to continue through 2020. McConnell invoked a rule that bypasses the usual committee vetting process, enabling the bill to go directly to the Senate floor, where a vote has not been scheduled.
The measure, which immediately drew criticism from privacy advocates and some members of Congress, allows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to essentially rubber-stamp government requests for so-called "business records" held by just about any institution, including the phone companies. Interpreted to require the telcos to cough up millions upon millions of calling records about their customers, it requires them to provide the National Security Agency with the phone numbers of both parties in a call, calling card numbers, the length and time of the calls, and the international mobile subscriber identity (ISMI) number for mobile callers. The NSA keeps a running database of that information, saying that it runs queries solely to combat terrorism.
Read more @ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/congress-moves-to-renew-law-allowing-bulk-telephone-metadata-collection/
Privacy advocates seek more openness on NSA surveillance
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress considers whether to extend the life of a program that sweeps up American phone records, privacy advocates and civil liberties groups say too much about government surveillance remains secret for the public to fully evaluate its reach or effectiveness. The disclosure two years ago of the National Security Agency's surveillance efforts prodded the federal government to declassify reams of once-secret documents, including opinions from a secretive intelligence court laying out the program's origins and legal underpinnings. But critics say key language from the disclosed documents remains censored, the release of information has been selective, and the ongoing trickle of once-secret memos has raised concerns about how many other potentially illuminating records might yet remain outside the public's reach.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress considers whether to extend the life of a program that sweeps up American phone records, privacy advocates and civil liberties groups say too much about government surveillance remains secret for the public to fully evaluate its reach or effectiveness.
The disclosure two years ago of the National Security Agency's surveillance efforts prodded the federal government to declassify reams of once-secret documents, including opinions from a secretive intelligence court laying out the program's origins and legal underpinnings. But critics say key language from the disclosed documents remains censored, the release of information has been selective, and the ongoing trickle of once-secret memos has raised concerns about how many other potentially illuminating records might yet remain outside the public's reach.
Read more @ http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/26593623/article-Privacy-advocates-seek-more-openness-on-NSA-surveillance-?instance=secondary_story_bullets_left_column
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night to reauthorize a portion of the Patriot Act that allows the National Security Agency to sweep up call records on millions of Americans until 2020. McConnell began the process of placing the bill on the Senate calendar Tuesday night under Rule 14, which allows the legislation to skip committee markup. The bill, cosponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, “extend[s] authority relating to roving surveillance, access to business records, and individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and for other purposes.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night to reauthorize a portion of the Patriot Act that allows the National Security Agency to sweep up call records on millions of Americans until 2020.
McConnell began the process of placing the bill on the Senate calendar Tuesday night under Rule 14, which allows the legislation to skip committee markup.
The bill, cosponsored by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, “extend[s] authority relating to roving surveillance, access to business records, and individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and for other purposes.”
Read more @ http://benswann.com/mcconnell-fast-tracks-bill-to-reauthorize-patriot-act-until-2020/
They have got to him??? Threatened him???
Rand Paul hates the Patriot Act and NSA mass surveillance. Just don't ask him what he thinks of fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell's plan to keep both alive. April 23, 2015 If Rand Paul is upset by Mitch McConnell's fast-track push to extend the Patriot Act and preserve government mass surveillance, he's not saying so. The Republican presidential candidate loves to bash the National Security Agency's spying powers. He has pledged to end the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. call data "on day one" if voters send him to the White House. He's even sued the Obama administration on grounds that mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment rights of every American. But Paul has so far refused to weigh in on a measure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced late Tuesday that would extend unchanged the soon-to-expire provisions of the Patriot Act until 2020, thereby keeping the NSA call-records program intact. Paul has not yet issued any statement about the McConnell bill, and his office repeatedly said the senator had no comment at this time.
April 23, 2015 If Rand Paul is upset by Mitch McConnell's fast-track push to extend the Patriot Act and preserve government mass surveillance, he's not saying so.
The Republican presidential candidate loves to bash the National Security Agency's spying powers. He has pledged to end the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. call data "on day one" if voters send him to the White House. He's even sued the Obama administration on grounds that mass surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment rights of every American.
But Paul has so far refused to weigh in on a measure Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced late Tuesday that would extend unchanged the soon-to-expire provisions of the Patriot Act until 2020, thereby keeping the NSA call-records program intact.
Paul has not yet issued any statement about the McConnell bill, and his office repeatedly said the senator had no comment at this time.
Read more @ http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/rand-paul-is-suddenly-quiet-about-his-favorite-topics-20150423
The future of the Patriot Act grew uncertain Wednesday as an effort to restrain the government’s surveillance powers encountered resistance on both sides of the Capitol. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) upended the debate late Tuesday evening by offering a surprise bill that would extend the Patriot Act for five years without changes. In the House, meanwhile, a bipartisan plan to reauthorize the law while also making major reforms to the National Security Agency (NSA) hit a snag amid opposition from some hawkish Republicans. Now, a bill that backers had hoped would be introduced and passed through committee by the end of the week is up in the air.
The future of the Patriot Act grew uncertain Wednesday as an effort to restrain the government’s surveillance powers encountered resistance on both sides of the Capitol.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) upended the debate late Tuesday evening by offering a surprise bill that would extend the Patriot Act for five years without changes.
In the House, meanwhile, a bipartisan plan to reauthorize the law while also making major reforms to the National Security Agency (NSA) hit a snag amid opposition from some hawkish Republicans. Now, a bill that backers had hoped would be introduced and passed through committee by the end of the week is up in the air.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/239712-mcconnell-upends-patriot-act-fight
The Channel Seven reporter, her police officer boyfriend and the disgraced footy star: Cop charged with leaking confidential files on Ben Cousins so his girlfriend could get the scoop on his arrest
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3051722/The-TV-reporter-police-officer-boyfriend-fallen-footy-star-Cop-charged-leaking-confidential-information-Ben-Cousins-allow-girlfriend-scoop-arrest.html
Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/disgraced-former-cia-director-general-david-petraeus-sentenced-in-court/story-fnh81jut-1227318102562
Apr 27 15 10:42 AM
White House Takes Cybersecurity Pitch to Silicon Valley
SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama’s newly installed defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, toured Silicon Valley last week to announce a new military strategy for computer conflict, starting the latest Pentagon effort to invest in promising start-ups and to meet with engineers whose talent he declared the Pentagon desperately needed in fending off the nation’s adversaries. Mr. Carter immediately acknowledged, though, the need to rebuild trust with Silicon Valley, whose mainstays — like Apple, Google and Facebook (whose new headquarters he toured) have spent two years demonstrating to customers around the world that they are rolling out encryption technologies to defeat surveillance. That, of course, includes blocking the National Security Agency, a critical member of the military-intelligence community. “I think that people and companies need to be convinced that everything we do in the cyber domain is lawful and appropriate and necessary,” Mr. Carter told students and faculty at Stanford. He urged the next generation of software pioneers and entrepreneurs to take a break from developing killer apps and consider a tour of service fending off Chinese, Russian and North Korean hackers, even as he acknowledged that the documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor, “showed there was a difference in view between what we were doing and what people perceived us as doing.” Mr. Carter’s careful appeal was part of a campaign last week by government officials trying to undo the damage of Mr. Snowden’s revelations. While Mr. Carter got a respectful hearing, Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, and a group of other government officials ran into a buzz saw of skepticism at the world’s largest conference of computer security professionals, just 30 miles to the north. Those officials argued for some kind of technical compromise to allow greater security of electronic communications while enabling the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies to decode the emails and track the web activities of suspected terrorists or criminals. Yet many among the computer security professionals at the conference argued that no such compromise was possible, saying that such a system would give Russians and Chinese a pathway in, too, and that Washington might abuse such a portal. Not long after Mr. Johnson declared that “encryption is making it harder for your government to find criminal activity and potential terrorist activity,” large numbers of entrepreneurs and engineers crammed into the first of several seminars, called “Post-Snowden Cryptography.” There, they took notes as the world’s best code makers mocked the Obama administration’s drive for a “technical compromise” that would ensure the government some continued access.
SAN FRANCISCO — President Obama’s newly installed defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, toured Silicon Valley last week to announce a new military strategy for computer conflict, starting the latest Pentagon effort to invest in promising start-ups and to meet with engineers whose talent he declared the Pentagon desperately needed in fending off the nation’s adversaries.
Mr. Carter immediately acknowledged, though, the need to rebuild trust with Silicon Valley, whose mainstays — like Apple, Google and Facebook (whose new headquarters he toured) have spent two years demonstrating to customers around the world that they are rolling out encryption technologies to defeat surveillance. That, of course, includes blocking the National Security Agency, a critical member of the military-intelligence community.
“I think that people and companies need to be convinced that everything we do in the cyber domain is lawful and appropriate and necessary,” Mr. Carter told students and faculty at Stanford.
He urged the next generation of software pioneers and entrepreneurs to take a break from developing killer apps and consider a tour of service fending off Chinese, Russian and North Korean hackers, even as he acknowledged that the documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence contractor, “showed there was a difference in view between what we were doing and what people perceived us as doing.”
Mr. Carter’s careful appeal was part of a campaign last week by government officials trying to undo the damage of Mr. Snowden’s revelations. While Mr. Carter got a respectful hearing, Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, and a group of other government officials ran into a buzz saw of skepticism at the world’s largest conference of computer security professionals, just 30 miles to the north.
Those officials argued for some kind of technical compromise to allow greater security of electronic communications while enabling the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies to decode the emails and track the web activities of suspected terrorists or criminals. Yet many among the computer security professionals at the conference argued that no such compromise was possible, saying that such a system would give Russians and Chinese a pathway in, too, and that Washington might abuse such a portal.
Not long after Mr. Johnson declared that “encryption is making it harder for your government to find criminal activity and potential terrorist activity,” large numbers of entrepreneurs and engineers crammed into the first of several seminars, called “Post-Snowden Cryptography.” There, they took notes as the world’s best code makers mocked the Obama administration’s drive for a “technical compromise” that would ensure the government some continued access.
Read more @ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/us/white-house-takes-cybersecurity-pitch-to-silicon-valley.html?mabReward=A1
Exclusive: New modifications to USA Freedom Act permit agency to warrantlessly monitor foreign targets in US and track certain domestic targets Modifications made on behalf of the National Security Agency have paved the way for the return of a major piece of surveillance reform legislation, the Guardian has learned. According to congressional sources, the architects of the USA Freedom Act, a bill that seeks to stop the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, have agreed to grant the surveillance giant temporary abilities to continue monitoring foreign targets who enter the US while agents seek domestic warrants; and to permit the agency to do the same for domestic targets for whom it has a probable-cause warrant who subsequently travel overseas. Both additions, discussed for weeks but intensified in the past several days, were described as measures to gain support from pro-surveillance legislators on the House intelligence committee. Another such gesture included in the bill, unrelated to surveillance, would increase the maximum penalty for people lending material support to terrorism from 15 years to 20. The concessions were said to have come on behalf of the NSA, rather than from the NSA itself.
Exclusive: New modifications to USA Freedom Act permit agency to warrantlessly monitor foreign targets in US and track certain domestic targets
Modifications made on behalf of the National Security Agency have paved the way for the return of a major piece of surveillance reform legislation, the Guardian has learned.
According to congressional sources, the architects of the USA Freedom Act, a bill that seeks to stop the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, have agreed to grant the surveillance giant temporary abilities to continue monitoring foreign targets who enter the US while agents seek domestic warrants; and to permit the agency to do the same for domestic targets for whom it has a probable-cause warrant who subsequently travel overseas.
Both additions, discussed for weeks but intensified in the past several days, were described as measures to gain support from pro-surveillance legislators on the House intelligence committee. Another such gesture included in the bill, unrelated to surveillance, would increase the maximum penalty for people lending material support to terrorism from 15 years to 20. The concessions were said to have come on behalf of the NSA, rather than from the NSA itself.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/23/usa-freedom-act-revised-senate-bill-nsa
At the RSA Conference, retired Gen. Keith Alexander, a former NSA director, had a message for Edward Snowden and a plan for a new security startup. SAN FRANCISCO—Retired Gen. Keith Alexander is best known as the man at the center of the National Security Agency (NSA) metadata collection program, revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Speaking at the RSA Conference here on April 24, Alexander talked about his life after retiring from the NSA in 2014. Alexander (pictured) was onstage with Ted Schlein, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who asked the former director of the NSA how he became a four-star general. It was all due to a hack, Alexander said.
At the RSA Conference, retired Gen. Keith Alexander, a former NSA director, had a message for Edward Snowden and a plan for a new security startup.
SAN FRANCISCO—Retired Gen. Keith Alexander is best known as the man at the center of the National Security Agency (NSA) metadata collection program, revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Speaking at the RSA Conference here on April 24, Alexander talked about his life after retiring from the NSA in 2014.
Alexander (pictured) was onstage with Ted Schlein, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who asked the former director of the NSA how he became a four-star general. It was all due to a hack, Alexander said.
Read more @ http://www.eweek.com/security/it-started-with-a-hack-how-an-nsa-director-became-a-four-star-general.html
The West lacks a shield against formidable foes and is losing the battle against Jihadi terrorism as chaos spreads across the Middle East The West is losing the worldwide fight against jihadist terrorism and faces mounting risks of a systemic cyber-assault by extremely capable enemies, the former chief of the National Security Agency has warned. "The greatest risk is a catastrophic attack on the energy infrastructure. We are not prepared for that," said General Keith Alexander, who has led the US battle against cyber-threats for much of the last decade. Gen Alexander said the "doomsday" scenario for the West is a hi-tech blitz on refineries, power stations, and the electric grid, perhaps accompanied by a paralysing blow to the payments nexus of the major banks.
The West lacks a shield against formidable foes and is losing the battle against Jihadi terrorism as chaos spreads across the Middle East
The West is losing the worldwide fight against jihadist terrorism and faces mounting risks of a systemic cyber-assault by extremely capable enemies, the former chief of the National Security Agency has warned.
"The greatest risk is a catastrophic attack on the energy infrastructure. We are not prepared for that," said General Keith Alexander, who has led the US battle against cyber-threats for much of the last decade.
Gen Alexander said the "doomsday" scenario for the West is a hi-tech blitz on refineries, power stations, and the electric grid, perhaps accompanied by a paralysing blow to the payments nexus of the major banks.
Read more @ https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/nsa-veteran-chief-fears-crippling-202910565.html
British intel expert joins Abbott review
Agencies hack foreign states. Xi’s Pakistan deal. Kudos for NZ Anzacs. While not flinching from giving his advice to Europe on how to “stop the boats” crossing the Mediterranean with sometimes tragic outcomes − that is, adopting the Australian formula so delicately summed up by a Murdoch tabloid columnist as “balls of steel, can-do brains, tiny hearts and whacking great gunships” − Tony Abbott still heads to the mother country for key advice. Earlier this month his department quietly announced the appointment of Sir Iain Lobban, the recently replaced director of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, to an “independent panel of experts” advising Canberra’s review of Australian cybersecurity, due to report by midyear. As we reported earlier, Lobban stepped down in the wake of Edward Snowden’s embarrassing disclosures about GCHQ’s “Tempora” operation to collect metadata from the internet by tapping into optical-fibre trunk cables and other surveillance programs. His counterpart and deputy at the US National Security Agency (NSA) also got the heave-ho. Alongside some business and private-sector IT figures, Canberra’s independent panel also includes a local source of expertise: Telstra’s chief information security officer, Mike Burgess, who was deputy director of cybersecurity at the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) until two years ago. Burgess would presumably have been up to date with everything at GCHQ, as the two outfits have been close partners since World War II, but having a knighted British spook on the team adds tone and undoubtedly broadens the picture.
Agencies hack foreign states. Xi’s Pakistan deal. Kudos for NZ Anzacs.
While not flinching from giving his advice to Europe on how to “stop the boats” crossing the Mediterranean with sometimes tragic outcomes − that is, adopting the Australian formula so delicately summed up by a Murdoch tabloid columnist as “balls of steel, can-do brains, tiny hearts and whacking great gunships” − Tony Abbott still heads to the mother country for key advice.
Earlier this month his department quietly announced the appointment of Sir Iain Lobban, the recently replaced director of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, to an “independent panel of experts” advising Canberra’s review of Australian cybersecurity, due to report by midyear. As we reported earlier, Lobban stepped down in the wake of Edward Snowden’s embarrassing disclosures about GCHQ’s “Tempora” operation to collect metadata from the internet by tapping into optical-fibre trunk cables and other surveillance programs. His counterpart and deputy at the US National Security Agency (NSA) also got the heave-ho.
Alongside some business and private-sector IT figures, Canberra’s independent panel also includes a local source of expertise: Telstra’s chief information security officer, Mike Burgess, who was deputy director of cybersecurity at the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) until two years ago. Burgess would presumably have been up to date with everything at GCHQ, as the two outfits have been close partners since World War II, but having a knighted British spook on the team adds tone and undoubtedly broadens the picture.
Read more @ http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/world/south-and-central-asia/2015/04/25/british-intel-expert-joins-abbott-review/14298840001794
SAN FRANCISCO -- Like countless other organizations, the National Security Agency made its pitch to attendees of the world’s largest IT security conference this week. But instead of offering flashy gadgets to test or raffling off smart phones, the agency went with a subdued and sober message: come serve your country. Nearly two years after the revelations of NSA bulk-data collection by former contractor Edward Snowden, the agency was still the elephant in the room at the RSA conference in downtown San Francisco. “How do we heal their wounds? I think part of it is getting those companies the facts,” retired Gen. Keith Alexander, the former NSA director, said April 24 at the conference. “That’s a classified set of briefings and the director of national intelligence, the White House, or someone, has got to bring them in and show them the facts.”
SAN FRANCISCO -- Like countless other organizations, the National Security Agency made its pitch to attendees of the world’s largest IT security conference this week. But instead of offering flashy gadgets to test or raffling off smart phones, the agency went with a subdued and sober message: come serve your country.
Nearly two years after the revelations of NSA bulk-data collection by former contractor Edward Snowden, the agency was still the elephant in the room at the RSA conference in downtown San Francisco.
“How do we heal their wounds? I think part of it is getting those companies the facts,” retired Gen. Keith Alexander, the former NSA director, said April 24 at the conference. “That’s a classified set of briefings and the director of national intelligence, the White House, or someone, has got to bring them in and show them the facts.”
Read more @ http://fcw.com/articles/2015/04/24/nsa-outreach.aspx
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander has asked the U.S. intelligence agency to review patent filings by his company to make sure that they do not reveal any secrets or misappropriate any government work. Alexander told Reuters he took the step to head off additional controversy about IronNet Cybersecurity, a startup he announced after leaving the NSA last year. "We think it's a good idea that the government review them," Alexander said in an interview ahead of an appearance at the RSA Conference on cyber security in San Francisco. Alexander said his company had already applied for some patents, which should eventually become public record. The patent issue has drawn questions from security experts and ethicists who wondered if Alexander would be profiting from the labours of others at the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, which he had also headed. Alexander previously dropped a plan to have an NSA employee work part-time at the startup. Alexander said that the core ideas in the patents were brought to him by another employee who developed them in the private sector. An NSA spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander has asked the U.S. intelligence agency to review patent filings by his company to make sure that they do not reveal any secrets or misappropriate any government work.
Alexander told Reuters he took the step to head off additional controversy about IronNet Cybersecurity, a startup he announced after leaving the NSA last year.
"We think it's a good idea that the government review them," Alexander said in an interview ahead of an appearance at the RSA Conference on cyber security in San Francisco.
Alexander said his company had already applied for some patents, which should eventually become public record.
The patent issue has drawn questions from security experts and ethicists who wondered if Alexander would be profiting from the labours of others at the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, which he had also headed. Alexander previously dropped a plan to have an NSA employee work part-time at the startup.
Alexander said that the core ideas in the patents were brought to him by another employee who developed them in the private sector. An NSA spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
Read more @ https://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/a/27324830/former-nsa-head-alexander-asks-agency-to-review-patents/
Apr 30 15 10:28 PM
Tech Companies Line Up Behind Surveillance Reform Bill
A wide range of companies today released their support for a surveillance reform bill that would effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Reform Government Surveillance, a lobbying group representing many tech companies including AOL (they write my paychecks), came out backing the 2015 version of the FREEDOM Act. “We support the bicameral, bipartisan legislation, which ends existing bulk collection practices under the USA Patriot Act and increases transparency and accountability while also protecting U.S. national security,” Reform Government Surveillance said in a statement. “We thank Representatives Goodlatte, Sensenbrenner, Conyers and Nadler and Senators Lee, Leahy, Heller, and Franken, as well as other Members, who have worked hard over the past several months to draft a common sense bill that addresses the concerns of industry, the Intelligence Community, and civil society in a constructive and balanced manner. We look forward to working with Congress to pass this legislation by June 1st.” The bill comes as a provision of the PATRIOT Act that authorizes the most controversial of the NSA surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden is set to sunset at the end of next month. Though the bill bears the same name as the legislation Congress failed to pass last year, it appears to include concessions to lawmakers concerned about national security that make it weaker than previous proposals.
A wide range of companies today released their support for a surveillance reform bill that would effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Reform Government Surveillance, a lobbying group representing many tech companies including AOL (they write my paychecks), came out backing the 2015 version of the FREEDOM Act.
“We support the bicameral, bipartisan legislation, which ends existing bulk collection practices under the USA Patriot Act and increases transparency and accountability while also protecting U.S. national security,” Reform Government Surveillance said in a statement.
“We thank Representatives Goodlatte, Sensenbrenner, Conyers and Nadler and Senators Lee, Leahy, Heller, and Franken, as well as other Members, who have worked hard over the past several months to draft a common sense bill that addresses the concerns of industry, the Intelligence Community, and civil society in a constructive and balanced manner. We look forward to working with Congress to pass this legislation by June 1st.”
The bill comes as a provision of the PATRIOT Act that authorizes the most controversial of the NSA surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden is set to sunset at the end of next month. Though the bill bears the same name as the legislation Congress failed to pass last year, it appears to include concessions to lawmakers concerned about national security that make it weaker than previous proposals.
Read more @ http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/tech-companies-line-up-behind-surveillance-reform-bill/
What the main parties say they will do in the digital realm if they're elected. As the passage of the UK's technologically illiterate Digital Economy Act in 2010 demonstrated, many UK politicians are completely at sea when it comes to modern technology. But even they recognize that the digital world forms a crucial part of modern life, and that any political party hoping to enter government needs to have policies for issues the Internet raises. That said, the different political parties have very different views and priorities when it comes to legislating for the digital world. Ahead of the UK's General Election on May 7, Ars has put together a guide to what the manifestos say on a number of key topics: surveillance; privacy and data protection; copyright and patents; web blocking; freedom of speech; digital rights; and various forms of openness—open data, open standards and open government. The policies come from the following manifestos (in alphabetical order): Conservatives, Green Party of England and Wales, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Pirate Party, Scottish National Party, and UKIP. The Open Rights Group has usefully collected statements on these and a few other areas in the form of a single web page, organized by party. Surveillance Reflecting the continuing debate initiated by Edward Snowden's revelations of massive online surveillance conducted by the UK's GCHQ and the US' NSA, the main parties' manifestos all make statements about their views and future plans in this area. Keeping pace with technological changes is a common theme. Labour says: "We will need to update our investigative laws to keep up with changing technology, strengthening both the powers available, and the safeguards that protect people’s privacy."
As the passage of the UK's technologically illiterate Digital Economy Act in 2010 demonstrated, many UK politicians are completely at sea when it comes to modern technology. But even they recognize that the digital world forms a crucial part of modern life, and that any political party hoping to enter government needs to have policies for issues the Internet raises. That said, the different political parties have very different views and priorities when it comes to legislating for the digital world.
Ahead of the UK's General Election on May 7, Ars has put together a guide to what the manifestos say on a number of key topics: surveillance; privacy and data protection; copyright and patents; web blocking; freedom of speech; digital rights; and various forms of openness—open data, open standards and open government. The policies come from the following manifestos (in alphabetical order): Conservatives, Green Party of England and Wales, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Pirate Party, Scottish National Party, and UKIP. The Open Rights Group has usefully collected statements on these and a few other areas in the form of a single web page, organized by party.
Reflecting the continuing debate initiated by Edward Snowden's revelations of massive online surveillance conducted by the UK's GCHQ and the US' NSA, the main parties' manifestos all make statements about their views and future plans in this area. Keeping pace with technological changes is a common theme. Labour says: "We will need to update our investigative laws to keep up with changing technology, strengthening both the powers available, and the safeguards that protect people’s privacy."
Read more @ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/30/the-ars-technica-guide-to-digital-policy-in-the-uks-2015-general-election/
Whistleblowers vs. ‘Fear-Mongering’
Seven prominent national security whistleblowers Monday called for a number of wide-ranging reforms – including passage of the “Surveillance State Repeal Act,” which would repeal the USA Patriot Act – in an effort to restore the Constitutionally guaranteed 4th Amendment right to be free from government spying. Several of the whistleblowers also said that the recent lenient sentence of probation and a fine for General David Petraeus – for his providing of classified information to his mistress Paula Broadwell – underscores the double standard of justice at work in the area of classified information handling. Speakers said Petraeus’s favorable treatment should become the standard applied to defendants who are actual national security whistleblowers, such as Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Jeffrey Sterling (who has denied guilt but who nevertheless faces sentencing May 11 for an Espionage Act conviction for allegedly providing classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen).
Seven prominent national security whistleblowers Monday called for a number of wide-ranging reforms – including passage of the “Surveillance State Repeal Act,” which would repeal the USA Patriot Act – in an effort to restore the Constitutionally guaranteed 4th Amendment right to be free from government spying.
Several of the whistleblowers also said that the recent lenient sentence of probation and a fine for General David Petraeus – for his providing of classified information to his mistress Paula Broadwell – underscores the double standard of justice at work in the area of classified information handling.
Speakers said Petraeus’s favorable treatment should become the standard applied to defendants who are actual national security whistleblowers, such as Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Jeffrey Sterling (who has denied guilt but who nevertheless faces sentencing May 11 for an Espionage Act conviction for allegedly providing classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen).
Read more @ http://antiwar.com/blog/2015/04/28/whistleblowers-vs-fear-mongering/
There is no sign of an end to the erosion of Constitutional liberties that began under George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks and continues under Barack Obama, a group of seven national security whistleblowers said Monday. “The government chose in great secrecy to unchain itself,” said Thomas Drake, who was working at the National Security Agency in 2001 and said he saw lawlessness spread under the name of “exigent conditions” during the Bush presidency. Then, as part of Obama’s war on whistleblowers, prosecutors charged Drake under the Espionage Act – a law intended to brutally punish spies – for talking to a reporter. After a four-year long ordeal that the federal judge in his case called “unconscionable,” all 10 felony charges against Drake were dropped in return for his guilty plea to a single misdemeanor. Now, Drake said, he is throwing his weight behind H.R. 1466, the Surveillance State Repeal Act. The bill would completely repeal the 2001 PATRIOT Act (which the NSA cites as the legal basis for its bulk phone metadata collection), repeal the FISA Amendments Act (which ostensibly legitimizes Internet spying) and otherwise protect people’s privacy.
There is no sign of an end to the erosion of Constitutional liberties that began under George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks and continues under Barack Obama, a group of seven national security whistleblowers said Monday.
“The government chose in great secrecy to unchain itself,” said Thomas Drake, who was working at the National Security Agency in 2001 and said he saw lawlessness spread under the name of “exigent conditions” during the Bush presidency.
Then, as part of Obama’s war on whistleblowers, prosecutors charged Drake under the Espionage Act – a law intended to brutally punish spies – for talking to a reporter. After a four-year long ordeal that the federal judge in his case called “unconscionable,” all 10 felony charges against Drake were dropped in return for his guilty plea to a single misdemeanor.
Now, Drake said, he is throwing his weight behind H.R. 1466, the Surveillance State Repeal Act.
The bill would completely repeal the 2001 PATRIOT Act (which the NSA cites as the legal basis for its bulk phone metadata collection), repeal the FISA Amendments Act (which ostensibly legitimizes Internet spying) and otherwise protect people’s privacy.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/27/whistleblowers-back-surveillance-state-repeal-act/
South African citizens are the subject of electronic surveillance by state security officials who tap phones and intercept communications, two reports released this week reveal. These revelations of government's investigations into citizens mirror those of the US National Security Agency (NSA), famously exposed by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013. Although smoking-gun evidence of actual telecoms eavesdropping is difficult to find, due to its secretive nature, Right2Know (R2K) Campaign's Big Brother Exposed report – released yesterday – claims this does happen. The report alleges SA's security cluster is "becoming increasingly powerful, secretive, and involved in the political affairs of the country" and is targeting community activists for surveillance. R2K alleges the Crime Intelligence Division of the police service and the State Security Agency conduct intelligence-gathering that includes monitoring Web and social media sites, covertly monitoring phone calls, e-mails and Internet use, and attending community activist meetings. It adds, however, that "many forms of surveillance – especially electronic surveillance – are hard to detect".
South African citizens are the subject of electronic surveillance by state security officials who tap phones and intercept communications, two reports released this week reveal.
These revelations of government's investigations into citizens mirror those of the US National Security Agency (NSA), famously exposed by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013.
Although smoking-gun evidence of actual telecoms eavesdropping is difficult to find, due to its secretive nature, Right2Know (R2K) Campaign's Big Brother Exposed report – released yesterday – claims this does happen.
The report alleges SA's security cluster is "becoming increasingly powerful, secretive, and involved in the political affairs of the country" and is targeting community activists for surveillance.
R2K alleges the Crime Intelligence Division of the police service and the State Security Agency conduct intelligence-gathering that includes monitoring Web and social media sites, covertly monitoring phone calls, e-mails and Internet use, and attending community activist meetings. It adds, however, that "many forms of surveillance – especially electronic surveillance – are hard to detect".
Read more @ http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142858
Don’t look now, but much of the National Security Agency bulk metadata collection that stirred so much controversy in the wake of the Edwards Snowden revelations might — just might — be about to come to an end. While civil libertarians still worry about various aspects of the program continuing, this would be no small achievement. Yesterday a bipartisan group of Senators — led by Republican Mike Lee and Democrat Patrick Leahy — introduced the U.S.A. Freedom Act, a measure that would put an end to the NSA’s bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Things could go wrong from here on out, but it’s a possibility that something like this is going to end up becoming law soon enough — meaning the left-right alliance that has come together against bulk surveillance just might win a partial victory.
Don’t look now, but much of the National Security Agency bulk metadata collection that stirred so much controversy in the wake of the Edwards Snowden revelations might — just might — be about to come to an end. While civil libertarians still worry about various aspects of the program continuing, this would be no small achievement.
Yesterday a bipartisan group of Senators — led by Republican Mike Lee and Democrat Patrick Leahy — introduced the U.S.A. Freedom Act, a measure that would put an end to the NSA’s bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Things could go wrong from here on out, but it’s a possibility that something like this is going to end up becoming law soon enough — meaning the left-right alliance that has come together against bulk surveillance just might win a partial victory.
Read more @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/29/much-of-nsa-bulk-surveillance-as-youve-known-it-may-soon-end/
The technology industry was pleased with the introduction of bipartisan legislation to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone and Internet metadata. The USA Freedom Act reforms the government’s intelligence-gathering programs in a way that protects Americans’ privacy and national security, sponsors said. “It enhances civil liberties protections, increases transparency for both American businesses and the government, ends the bulk collection of data, and provides national security officials targeted tools to keep America safe from foreign enemies,” said a joint statement issued by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the committee’s ranking Democrat; Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
The technology industry was pleased with the introduction of bipartisan legislation to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone and Internet metadata.
The USA Freedom Act reforms the government’s intelligence-gathering programs in a way that protects Americans’ privacy and national security, sponsors said.
“It enhances civil liberties protections, increases transparency for both American businesses and the government, ends the bulk collection of data, and provides national security officials targeted tools to keep America safe from foreign enemies,” said a joint statement issued by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the committee’s ranking Democrat; Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.
The bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Read more @ http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/washingtonbureau/2015/04/tech-industry-pleased-with-bill-to-end-nsas-bulk.html
The Americans Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday quickly pulled support from a congressional bill to reform the National Security Agency. The group said the bill, which also reauthorizes portions of the Patriot Act until 2019, does not go far enough and only makes incremental changes. “Congress should let Section 215 sunset as it’s scheduled to, and then it should turn to reforming the other surveillance authorities that have been used to justify bulk collection,” said Jameel Jaffer, the group’s deputy legal director. The civil liberties group has become increasingly bullish on surveillance reform. Its executive director last week penned an op-ed arguing that letting the provisions expire would be a first step “to ensure that this unlawful and ineffective surveillance finally ends.” The bill, which will be marked up in the House Thursday, would reauthorize several expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, including one that provides the legal underpinning for the NSA's phone record collection program. The bill would end the current bulk collection program and require the government to obtain records from private phone companies using a court order. The ACLU also specifically cited concern with a provision that would increase the maximum prison sentence to 20 years for people providing material support or resources to terror organizations. The group called the provision “a significant step backwards.” The group clarified that it is not actively opposing the bill but it will not support it either.
The Americans Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday quickly pulled support from a congressional bill to reform the National Security Agency.
The group said the bill, which also reauthorizes portions of the Patriot Act until 2019, does not go far enough and only makes incremental changes.
“Congress should let Section 215 sunset as it’s scheduled to, and then it should turn to reforming the other surveillance authorities that have been used to justify bulk collection,” said Jameel Jaffer, the group’s deputy legal director.
The civil liberties group has become increasingly bullish on surveillance reform. Its executive director last week penned an op-ed arguing that letting the provisions expire would be a first step “to ensure that this unlawful and ineffective surveillance finally ends.”
The bill, which will be marked up in the House Thursday, would reauthorize several expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, including one that provides the legal underpinning for the NSA's phone record collection program.
The bill would end the current bulk collection program and require the government to obtain records from private phone companies using a court order.
The ACLU also specifically cited concern with a provision that would increase the maximum prison sentence to 20 years for people providing material support or resources to terror organizations. The group called the provision “a significant step backwards.”
The group clarified that it is not actively opposing the bill but it will not support it either.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/240318-aclu-quickly-opposes-nsa-bill
The White House on Wednesday stopped short of issuing a veto threat against a Republican bill that would extend controversial surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act. But President Obama is seeking changes that would end Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the National Security Agency has used to carry out its bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. “The president has been quite definitive about the need to make those kinds of reforms a top priority,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday. That could set up a high-stakes confrontation between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the nation’s spying capabilities with portions of the Patriot Act set to expire June 1. McConnell and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) are co-sponsoring a renewal of the Patriot Act without making changes. The Senate leader is fast-tracking the legislation, meaning it will bypass committee review and go directly onto the Senate calendar. The measure has attracted support from national security hawks in the GOP. Intelligence officials say the data collection powers are critical to tracking terrorist threats. But Earnest applauded a bipartisan measure introduced this week in the House and Senate that would end the NSA’s existing phone-records collection program. Instead, it would require the agency to obtain a court order before collecting records from phone companies.
The White House on Wednesday stopped short of issuing a veto threat against a Republican bill that would extend controversial surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act.
But President Obama is seeking changes that would end Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the National Security Agency has used to carry out its bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
“The president has been quite definitive about the need to make those kinds of reforms a top priority,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.
That could set up a high-stakes confrontation between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the nation’s spying capabilities with portions of the Patriot Act set to expire June 1.
McConnell and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) are co-sponsoring a renewal of the Patriot Act without making changes. The Senate leader is fast-tracking the legislation, meaning it will bypass committee review and go directly onto the Senate calendar.
The measure has attracted support from national security hawks in the GOP. Intelligence officials say the data collection powers are critical to tracking terrorist threats.
But Earnest applauded a bipartisan measure introduced this week in the House and Senate that would end the NSA’s existing phone-records collection program. Instead, it would require the agency to obtain a court order before collecting records from phone companies.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/240528-wh-stops-short-of-veto-threat-on-clean-patriot-act-renewal
May 3 15 10:36 PM
IN 2011, Moosa Abd-Ali Ali opened Facebook Messenger on his iPhone and saw something terrifying. His account was typing a message without him doing anything, probing an activist friend of his for information.Moosa contacted the friend, changed his password and stopped using Facebook Messenger. Then he saw that someone pretending to be him was asking his female Facebook friends for sex.It was the start of an eight-month online campaign against Moosa, who had fled Bahrain for London after being tortured, raped and jailed in his home country for his activist activities.It appeared he still wasn’t safe.
IN 2011, Moosa Abd-Ali Ali opened Facebook Messenger on his iPhone and saw something terrifying.
His account was typing a message without him doing anything, probing an activist friend of his for information.
Moosa contacted the friend, changed his password and stopped using Facebook Messenger. Then he saw that someone pretending to be him was asking his female Facebook friends for sex.
It was the start of an eight-month online campaign against Moosa, who had fled Bahrain for London after being tortured, raped and jailed in his home country for his activist activities.
It appeared he still wasn’t safe.
Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/whos-using-your-facebook-the-government-spies-in-your-phone/story-fnjwnfzw-1227333138356
May 5 15 4:57 PM
Statues of whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning were unveiled in central Berlin on Friday by activists and members of Germany’s Green party. The statues of the three men are all standing in line on top of chairs in Berlin's Alexanderplatz, beside one extra empty chair. The sculptor, Italian artist Davide Dormino, has encouraged people to stand atop the fourth chair to share their own messages to the public in part of a project called "Anything to Say?" Hundreds of people were gathered at the square on Friday, a day that saw celebrations nationwide for May Day. Dormino told German paper Deutsche Welle that people were already taking the chance to share their views from the chair.
Statues of whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning were unveiled in central Berlin on Friday by activists and members of Germany’s Green party.
The statues of the three men are all standing in line on top of chairs in Berlin's Alexanderplatz, beside one extra empty chair.
The sculptor, Italian artist Davide Dormino, has encouraged people to stand atop the fourth chair to share their own messages to the public in part of a project called "Anything to Say?"
Hundreds of people were gathered at the square on Friday, a day that saw celebrations nationwide for May Day.
Dormino told German paper Deutsche Welle that people were already taking the chance to share their views from the chair.
Read more @ http://www.thelocal.de/20150502/snowden-among-statues-unveiled-in-berlin
Read more and watch the video @ http://www.tweaktown.com/news/44927/statues-assange-snowden-manning-unveiled-berlin/index.html
Statues of Snowden, Manning and Assange Unveiled in Germany Read more @ http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Statues-of-Snowden-Manning-and-Assange-Unveiled-in-Germany-20150502-0004.html
The film Citizen Four, which tells the tale of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden from his initial contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald up to his exile in Russia, won an Oscar last month and according to the CEO of F-Secure Christian Frederikson, when he saw it he said he was “not surprised” as he “thought it was mind blowing”. Speaking on a panel this week in London in conjunction with the 44CON Cyber Security conference, Frederikson commented on how very calm Snowden appeared, that he was “very Finnish or British in his behaviour”. He said: “Whatever your view is of him, you have got to admit that what he did was extremely brave. Could you do the same? It is an extremely brave thing that he did and he believes strongly in what he does.” In a Q&A panel, Frederikson was asked if he felt that privacy was dead, and he admitted that in a way it was, as privacy is dead as we know it, but he felt strongly about it. He acknowledged that it is “dead in a way”, but F-Secure and others can do all that they can and use all resources we have to fight back. He said: “Who are we to say we are better than anyone else to fight for digital freedom? I would claim a few things: we are from Finland and we are proud of our privacy, we are also a low corrupt country which matters as matters stay unpolitical, and it gives us an advantage as nobody else can claim that in our industry and I believe it brings trust. “It is in the Finnish DNA not to talk and it is easy to trust us as we are strong and care and we do the law to protect our customers.”
The film Citizen Four, which tells the tale of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden from his initial contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald up to his exile in Russia, won an Oscar last month and according to the CEO of F-Secure Christian Frederikson, when he saw it he said he was “not surprised” as he “thought it was mind blowing”.
Speaking on a panel this week in London in conjunction with the 44CON Cyber Security conference, Frederikson commented on how very calm Snowden appeared, that he was “very Finnish or British in his behaviour”.
He said: “Whatever your view is of him, you have got to admit that what he did was extremely brave. Could you do the same? It is an extremely brave thing that he did and he believes strongly in what he does.”
In a Q&A panel, Frederikson was asked if he felt that privacy was dead, and he admitted that in a way it was, as privacy is dead as we know it, but he felt strongly about it. He acknowledged that it is “dead in a way”, but F-Secure and others can do all that they can and use all resources we have to fight back.
He said: “Who are we to say we are better than anyone else to fight for digital freedom? I would claim a few things: we are from Finland and we are proud of our privacy, we are also a low corrupt country which matters as matters stay unpolitical, and it gives us an advantage as nobody else can claim that in our industry and I believe it brings trust.
“It is in the Finnish DNA not to talk and it is easy to trust us as we are strong and care and we do the law to protect our customers.”
Read more @ http://www.itproportal.com/2015/04/30/could-edward-snowden-find-a-home-in-finaland/
PRINCETON: Edward Snowden defends his decision to leak classified information
Unapologetic in appearance at university via video from Moscow Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told a Princeton University audience Saturday that mass surveillance by the government is wrong and defended his decision to leak classified information about those programs to the media. In his remarks, he was unapologetic for divulging troves of government secrets that led the Justice Department to charge him with espionage, have the government revoke his passport and see him live under asylum in Russia since 2013. He argued against mass surveillance and criticized government officials for authorizing it. “Because whether you agree with me, whether you agree with the NSA, there’s really no question that these programs are controversial,” he said appearing by video from Moscow. “There’s really no question that these programs never should have been instituted in the first place. Or we wouldn’t have the Congress right now, both Republicans and Democrats coming together to say, ‘Look, we need to stop mass surveillance.’ ” For roughly 90 minutes, Mr. Snowden took questions from Washington Post journalist Barton Gellman, one of the reporters that he leaked government secrets to, and later the audience of 250 people sitting in a lecture hall inside the Friend Center. The large number of people coming to hear him led event organizers to open up two overflow rooms for a program that also was streamed over the Internet.
Unapologetic in appearance at university via video from Moscow
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden told a Princeton University audience Saturday that mass surveillance by the government is wrong and defended his decision to leak classified information about those programs to the media.
In his remarks, he was unapologetic for divulging troves of government secrets that led the Justice Department to charge him with espionage, have the government revoke his passport and see him live under asylum in Russia since 2013. He argued against mass surveillance and criticized government officials for authorizing it.
“Because whether you agree with me, whether you agree with the NSA, there’s really no question that these programs are controversial,” he said appearing by video from Moscow. “There’s really no question that these programs never should have been instituted in the first place. Or we wouldn’t have the Congress right now, both Republicans and Democrats coming together to say, ‘Look, we need to stop mass surveillance.’ ”
For roughly 90 minutes, Mr. Snowden took questions from Washington Post journalist Barton Gellman, one of the reporters that he leaked government secrets to, and later the audience of 250 people sitting in a lecture hall inside the Friend Center. The large number of people coming to hear him led event organizers to open up two overflow rooms for a program that also was streamed over the Internet.
Read more @ http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2015/05/04/the_princeton_packet/featured/doc55458e119e668355205239.txt
Apologists for the National Security Agency (NSA) point to the arrest of David Coleman Headley as an example of how warrantless mass surveillance is necessary to catch terrorists. Headley played a major role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 166 people. While few would argue that bringing someone like Headley to justice is not a good thing, Headley’s case in no way justifies mass surveillance. For one thing, there is no “terrorist” exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our liberties. Even if the Headley case somehow justified overturning the Fourth Amendment, it still would not justify mass surveillance and bulk data collection. This is because, according to an investigation by ProPublica, NSA surveillance played an insignificant role in catching Headley. One former counter-terrorism official said when he heard that NSA surveillance was responsible for Headley’s capture he “was trying to figure out how NSA played a role.” The Headley case is not the only evidence that the PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 sacrifices of our liberty have not increased our security. For example, the NSA’s claim that its surveillance programs thwarted 54 terrorist attacks has been widely discredited. Even the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies found that mass surveillance and bulk data collection was “not essential to preventing attacks.” According to the congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 Commission, the powers granted the NSA by the PATRIOT Act would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Many intelligence experts have pointed out that, by increasing the size of the haystack government agencies must look through, mass surveillance makes it harder to find the needle of legitimate threats.
Apologists for the National Security Agency (NSA) point to the arrest of David Coleman Headley as an example of how warrantless mass surveillance is necessary to catch terrorists. Headley played a major role in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that killed 166 people.
While few would argue that bringing someone like Headley to justice is not a good thing, Headley’s case in no way justifies mass surveillance. For one thing, there is no “terrorist” exception in the Fourth Amendment. Saying a good end (capturing terrorists) justifies a bad means (mass surveillance) gives the government a blank check to violate our liberties.
Even if the Headley case somehow justified overturning the Fourth Amendment, it still would not justify mass surveillance and bulk data collection. This is because, according to an investigation by ProPublica, NSA surveillance played an insignificant role in catching Headley. One former counter-terrorism official said when he heard that NSA surveillance was responsible for Headley’s capture he “was trying to figure out how NSA played a role.”
The Headley case is not the only evidence that the PATRIOT Act and other post-9/11 sacrifices of our liberty have not increased our security. For example, the NSA’s claim that its surveillance programs thwarted 54 terrorist attacks has been widely discredited. Even the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies found that mass surveillance and bulk data collection was “not essential to preventing attacks.”
According to the congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 and the 9/11 Commission, the powers granted the NSA by the PATRIOT Act would not have prevented the 9/11 attacks. Many intelligence experts have pointed out that, by increasing the size of the haystack government agencies must look through, mass surveillance makes it harder to find the needle of legitimate threats.
Read more @ http://www.eurasiareview.com/03052015-ron-paul-usa-freedom-act-just-another-word-for-lost-liberty-oped/
A new standoff is building over the Patriot Act. Congress is in the opening rounds of a month-long battle over American spying, in what is likely to be the last best chance for civil libertarians to rein in the National Security Agency (NSA) since Edward Snowden’s leaks two years ago. With a critical deadline to renew the act looming at the end of May, lawmakers have already begun to stake out their positions in the most heated fight over intelligence powers in years. Here are five things you need to know about the coming fight: 1.) When's the deadline? On June 1, three portions of the Patriot Act — the national security law passed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001 — are set to expire. But Congress is out of session because of Memorial Day for the last week of the month, so the effective deadline is May 22. Among the expiring provisions is Section 215, the controversial measure that allows the government to collect “any tangible thing” that is “relevant” to an investigation into suspected terrorists or foreign spies. Edward Snowden’s leaks in the summer of 2013 showed how the National Security Agency has used that language to collect “metadata” about millions of Americans phone calls without warrants. Since then, civil libertarians have targeted Section 215 for reform. The phone records include information about the two numbers involved in a call, when the call took place and how long it lasted — but not the actual details of the conversation. The other expiring sections expand the ability of the government to track potential “lone wolf” attackers and also allow intelligence agencies to obtain surveillance orders that cover multiple unidentified devices, which officials say is crucial to track suspects who switch from one phone to another, for instance. 2.) What happens if Congress fails? According to the White House, the NSA’s phone records program will end completely. “If Section 215 sunsets, we will not continue the bulk telephony metadata program,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement in March. For some critics of the NSA, that would be welcome news. But the Obama administration and most lawmakers say it would handicap U.S. officials trying to stop terrorists.
A new standoff is building over the Patriot Act.
Congress is in the opening rounds of a month-long battle over American spying, in what is likely to be the last best chance for civil libertarians to rein in the National Security Agency (NSA) since Edward Snowden’s leaks two years ago.
With a critical deadline to renew the act looming at the end of May, lawmakers have already begun to stake out their positions in the most heated fight over intelligence powers in years.
Here are five things you need to know about the coming fight:
1.) When's the deadline?
On June 1, three portions of the Patriot Act — the national security law passed in the days after Sept. 11, 2001 — are set to expire. But Congress is out of session because of Memorial Day for the last week of the month, so the effective deadline is May 22.
Among the expiring provisions is Section 215, the controversial measure that allows the government to collect “any tangible thing” that is “relevant” to an investigation into suspected terrorists or foreign spies.
Edward Snowden’s leaks in the summer of 2013 showed how the National Security Agency has used that language to collect “metadata” about millions of Americans phone calls without warrants. Since then, civil libertarians have targeted Section 215 for reform.
The phone records include information about the two numbers involved in a call, when the call took place and how long it lasted — but not the actual details of the conversation.
The other expiring sections expand the ability of the government to track potential “lone wolf” attackers and also allow intelligence agencies to obtain surveillance orders that cover multiple unidentified devices, which officials say is crucial to track suspects who switch from one phone to another, for instance.
2.) What happens if Congress fails?
According to the White House, the NSA’s phone records program will end completely.
“If Section 215 sunsets, we will not continue the bulk telephony metadata program,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement in March.
For some critics of the NSA, that would be welcome news. But the Obama administration and most lawmakers say it would handicap U.S. officials trying to stop terrorists.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/240810-patriot-act-fight-5-things-to-know
Two years ago filmmaker Laura Poitras knew that international authorities wanted to snoop on her. At the time she was filming her Oscar winning documentary, “Citizenfour,” which documented NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as he fled to Hong Kong in 2013. Given the sensitivity of the subject, it quickly became apparent that global authorities were looking for any and all information relating to Snowden and his whereabouts. To protect Snowden, Poitras followed heightened communication protocols to ensure any snoopers wouldn’t know where she or Snowden were nor what they were saying to each other. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the filmmaker explained the extensive measures she took to maintain her digital anonymity.
Two years ago filmmaker Laura Poitras knew that international authorities wanted to snoop on her.
At the time she was filming her Oscar winning documentary, “Citizenfour,” which documented NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as he fled to Hong Kong in 2013. Given the sensitivity of the subject, it quickly became apparent that global authorities were looking for any and all information relating to Snowden and his whereabouts.
To protect Snowden, Poitras followed heightened communication protocols to ensure any snoopers wouldn’t know where she or Snowden were nor what they were saying to each other. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, the filmmaker explained the extensive measures she took to maintain her digital anonymity.
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-laura-poitras-avoided-being-tracked-by-government-during-citizenfour-2015-4
Film review: Citizenfour - Edward Snowden in Hong Kong
Read more @ http://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1783444/film-review-citizenfour-edward-snowden-hong-kong
By giving Charlie Hebdo an award, PEN seems to be suggesting that mass murder makes racism acceptable. PEN shouldn’t be handing a Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo on May 5. I say this while agreeing that the editors of the satirical magazine did express themselves freely, and had remarkable courage. And then they died hideously. As I look at photos of the blood smears and red-stained papers scattered on the floor of the room where the writers and editors were shot to death, I wonder if I’m wrong. But hard cases make bad law, and mass murder doesn’t make racism acceptable. Hebdo critics are accused of misunderstanding French satire. But Hebdo being misunderstood doesn’t mean it was a work of genius or even a force for good. And I’m not saying Charlie Hebdo was specifically racist. They wrote offensively about everyone (mostly Muslims and Jews). But that doesn’t change the fact that racial and religious minorities, or minorities of any sort, are a lousy target. We don’t ridicule Jews, or kids with autism, or the fat ... oh wait, we do. I hate that. The PEN protesters — novelists Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, Taiye Selasi and Francine Prose — have withdrawn from a gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York at which Hebdo’s representatives are to receive the award. Some of these are hallowed names in literature. PEN President Andrew Solomon is a brilliant writer and a kind man. Everyone in this story is well-intentioned, which is what makes the civilized disagreement interesting.
PEN shouldn’t be handing a Freedom of Expression Courage Award to Charlie Hebdo on May 5. I say this while agreeing that the editors of the satirical magazine did express themselves freely, and had remarkable courage.
And then they died hideously. As I look at photos of the blood smears and red-stained papers scattered on the floor of the room where the writers and editors were shot to death, I wonder if I’m wrong. But hard cases make bad law, and mass murder doesn’t make racism acceptable.
Hebdo critics are accused of misunderstanding French satire. But Hebdo being misunderstood doesn’t mean it was a work of genius or even a force for good.
And I’m not saying Charlie Hebdo was specifically racist. They wrote offensively about everyone (mostly Muslims and Jews). But that doesn’t change the fact that racial and religious minorities, or minorities of any sort, are a lousy target. We don’t ridicule Jews, or kids with autism, or the fat ... oh wait, we do. I hate that.
The PEN protesters — novelists Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Peter Carey, Rachel Kushner, Taiye Selasi and Francine Prose — have withdrawn from a gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York at which Hebdo’s representatives are to receive the award. Some of these are hallowed names in literature. PEN President Andrew Solomon is a brilliant writer and a kind man. Everyone in this story is well-intentioned, which is what makes the civilized disagreement interesting.
Read more @ http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/04/28/why-did-pen-choose-hebdo-over-edward-snowden-mallick.html
The future as told by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a world in which many of our current society's fears have come true. Climate change and lack of resources have forced Earth's nations into conflict, and battlefields are overrun by autonomous drones and lethal, humanoid robots. Super-soldiers fight with heightened senses and strength, gaining advantages while losing their humanity. It's a dystopian sci-fi vision we've become oddly accustomed to seeing, but in the new Call of Duty game some elements are uncomfortably familiar, like the Edward Snowden analog who seems to be central to the game's conflict.
The future as told by Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a world in which many of our current society's fears have come true. Climate change and lack of resources have forced Earth's nations into conflict, and battlefields are overrun by autonomous drones and lethal, humanoid robots. Super-soldiers fight with heightened senses and strength, gaining advantages while losing their humanity.
It's a dystopian sci-fi vision we've become oddly accustomed to seeing, but in the new Call of Duty game some elements are uncomfortably familiar, like the Edward Snowden analog who seems to be central to the game's conflict.
Read more @ http://mashable.com/2015/04/26/call-of-duty-edward-snowden/
Legendary NSA whistleblower William Binney provided Business Insider with an explanation for why he said that in June 2013, Edward Snowden was "transitioning from whistleblower to a traitor." The explanation is noteworthy on several levels. Binney provided Business Insider with a convoluted statement that included both denials and confirmations of what he said about the former NSA contractor's motives while committing largest leak of classified documents in US intelligence history. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the US intelligence community and one of the best code breakers in NSA history, is one of the primary supporters of Snowden and a central character in the documentary "Citizenfour." The mathematician told "Citizenfour" director Laura Poitras how he built a program called "Stellarwind," which served as a pervasive domestic spying apparatus after 9/11. Binney's story as a whistleblower sets the stage for footage showing Snowden's collaboration with Poitras in Hong Kong. Snowden allegedly stole up to 1.77 million NSA document while working at two consecutive jobs for US government contractors in Hawaii from March 2012 to May 2013. The 31-year-old gave an estimated 200,000 documents to American journalists Glenn Greenwald and Poitras in early June 2013. (The whereabouts of the rest of these documents are unknown.)
Legendary NSA whistleblower William Binney provided Business Insider with an explanation for why he said that in June 2013, Edward Snowden was "transitioning from whistleblower to a traitor."
The explanation is noteworthy on several levels. Binney provided Business Insider with a convoluted statement that included both denials and confirmations of what he said about the former NSA contractor's motives while committing largest leak of classified documents in US intelligence history.
Binney, a 32-year veteran of the US intelligence community and one of the best code breakers in NSA history, is one of the primary supporters of Snowden and a central character in the documentary "Citizenfour."
The mathematician told "Citizenfour" director Laura Poitras how he built a program called "Stellarwind," which served as a pervasive domestic spying apparatus after 9/11. Binney's story as a whistleblower sets the stage for footage showing Snowden's collaboration with Poitras in Hong Kong.
Snowden allegedly stole up to 1.77 million NSA document while working at two consecutive jobs for US government contractors in Hawaii from March 2012 to May 2013. The 31-year-old gave an estimated 200,000 documents to American journalists Glenn Greenwald and Poitras in early June 2013. (The whereabouts of the rest of these documents are unknown.)
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.in/Legendary-NSA-whistleblower-explains-why-he-said-Snowden-was-becoming-a-traitor/articleshow/47116358.cms
Julian Assange has launched a bitter attack on the Guardian and claimed that the newspaper is guilty of 'institutional narcissism'. In a scathing editorial for Newsweek, the WikiLeaks founder accused the newspaper of being hypocrites and leaving Edward Snowden in the lurch after getting what they wanted from him. Mr Assange also claimed that The Guardian was far more interested in cashing in after being paid £460,000 for rights to a forthcoming film about the affair, which will be directed by Oliver Stone.
Julian Assange has launched a bitter attack on the Guardian and claimed that the newspaper is guilty of 'institutional narcissism'.
In a scathing editorial for Newsweek, the WikiLeaks founder accused the newspaper of being hypocrites and leaving Edward Snowden in the lurch after getting what they wanted from him.
Mr Assange also claimed that The Guardian was far more interested in cashing in after being paid £460,000 for rights to a forthcoming film about the affair, which will be directed by Oliver Stone.
Read more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3049176/Julian-Assange-attacks-Guardian-handling-Edward-Snowden-Newsweek-editorial.html
The whistleblower is viewed negatively by 64 percent of Americans familiar with him, results say. A poll of Americans and people living in nine other Western countries has found exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden is far more popular abroad than he is at home. Snowden, a contractor who worked with the National Security Agency, ignited an intense, ongoing global policy debate about mass surveillance in June 2013 by exposing the collection of vast amounts of phone and Internet records and communications by the NSA and allied intelligence agencies. For his efforts, about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him, according to KRC Research poll results shared with U.S. News. Thirty-six percent hold a positive opinion, with just 8 percent holding a very positive opinion. The survey was commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which provides legal representation to Snowden, who received asylum in Russia after the U.S. canceled his passport.
A poll of Americans and people living in nine other Western countries has found exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden is far more popular abroad than he is at home.
Snowden, a contractor who worked with the National Security Agency, ignited an intense, ongoing global policy debate about mass surveillance in June 2013 by exposing the collection of vast amounts of phone and Internet records and communications by the NSA and allied intelligence agencies.
For his efforts, about 64 percent of Americans familiar with Snowden hold a negative opinion of him, according to KRC Research poll results shared with U.S. News. Thirty-six percent hold a positive opinion, with just 8 percent holding a very positive opinion.
The survey was commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union, which provides legal representation to Snowden, who received asylum in Russia after the U.S. canceled his passport.
Read more @ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/04/21/edward-snowden-unpopular-at-home-a-hero-abroad-poll-finds
Edward Snowden continues to have an outsized role in the global discussion around surveillance and Internet rights. CryptoRave, perhaps the largest conference on cryptology and Internet privacy in Latin America, kicked off Friday in São Paulo, Brazil. Several thousand people, including young programmers, activists, hackers and self-described “cyberpunks” of all types are expected to attend the 24-hour marathon of workshops, trainings, lectures, roundtables and, yes, some parties, all dedicated to cryptology, or the practice of using encoded digital communication to stop unwanted snooping. But much has changed since the crypto movement took off in Brazil and Latin America two years ago. Activists are still concerned with the kind of US surveillance Snowden’s leaks revealed, but increasingly, they’re also asking questions about issues closer to home. “I think it started thanks to Edward Snowden uncovering what the US is doing. And now everyone is turning to understand, ‘Oh, what is my government doing about my data in my country, where they actually have jurisdiction over me?” says Katitza Rodriguez, international rights director for the digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and one of the keynote speakers at CryptoRave. “It’s not that they don’t care about NSA spying — they care — but actually all the discussion and the debate in the US have kind of informed the activists of the traditional human rights community to dig more into the surveillance infrastructure in their own countries.” The movement around Internet privacy and security in Brazil grew dramatically in 2013 in the wake of Snowden’s leaks involving NSA spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras and government officials, including Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The story and its repercussions reverberated in Brazilian media for months. Gustavo Gus, a 28-year-old organizer of the CryptoRave festival, credits the Snowden leaks with laying the foundation for the cryptology movement in Brazil.
Edward Snowden continues to have an outsized role in the global discussion around surveillance and Internet rights.
CryptoRave, perhaps the largest conference on cryptology and Internet privacy in Latin America, kicked off Friday in São Paulo, Brazil. Several thousand people, including young programmers, activists, hackers and self-described “cyberpunks” of all types are expected to attend the 24-hour marathon of workshops, trainings, lectures, roundtables and, yes, some parties, all dedicated to cryptology, or the practice of using encoded digital communication to stop unwanted snooping.
But much has changed since the crypto movement took off in Brazil and Latin America two years ago. Activists are still concerned with the kind of US surveillance Snowden’s leaks revealed, but increasingly, they’re also asking questions about issues closer to home.
“I think it started thanks to Edward Snowden uncovering what the US is doing. And now everyone is turning to understand, ‘Oh, what is my government doing about my data in my country, where they actually have jurisdiction over me?” says Katitza Rodriguez, international rights director for the digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and one of the keynote speakers at CryptoRave. “It’s not that they don’t care about NSA spying — they care — but actually all the discussion and the debate in the US have kind of informed the activists of the traditional human rights community to dig more into the surveillance infrastructure in their own countries.”
The movement around Internet privacy and security in Brazil grew dramatically in 2013 in the wake of Snowden’s leaks involving NSA spying on Brazilian oil giant Petrobras and government officials, including Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The story and its repercussions reverberated in Brazilian media for months. Gustavo Gus, a 28-year-old organizer of the CryptoRave festival, credits the Snowden leaks with laying the foundation for the cryptology movement in Brazil.
Read more @ http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-25/edward-snowden-s-south-american-legacy-grows-brazil-s-crypto-movement-marches
Members of Congress appear ready to use a rare moment of leverage over the NSA to place modest limits on only one of the many mass surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden. The USA Freedom Act of 2015, a long-awaited compromise bill negotiated by House and Senate Judiciary Committee members, was unveiled Tuesday. The bill calls for the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency to be replaced with a more selective approach in which the agency would collect from communications companies only records that match certain terms. The bill also requires more disclosure — and a public advocate — for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. But nearly two years after Snowden gave the public a rare and extensive view into the U.S. surveillance state, Congress is doing nothing to limit NSA programs ostensibly targeted at foreigners that nonetheless collect vast amounts of American communications, nor to limit the agency’s mass surveillance of non-American communications. The limited reforms in the new bill affect only the one program explicitly aimed at Americans. Congress had leverage for once because three provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire on June 1. They include, most significantly, Section 215 of the act, which was intended to allow the government to obtain specific business records relevant to particular counterterror investigations, subject to review by a FISA court judge. Instead, the NSA used it to justify the wholesale seizure of American telephone records.
Members of Congress appear ready to use a rare moment of leverage over the NSA to place modest limits on only one of the many mass surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden.
The USA Freedom Act of 2015, a long-awaited compromise bill negotiated by House and Senate Judiciary Committee members, was unveiled Tuesday. The bill calls for the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency to be replaced with a more selective approach in which the agency would collect from communications companies only records that match certain terms. The bill also requires more disclosure — and a public advocate — for the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
But nearly two years after Snowden gave the public a rare and extensive view into the U.S. surveillance state, Congress is doing nothing to limit NSA programs ostensibly targeted at foreigners that nonetheless collect vast amounts of American communications, nor to limit the agency’s mass surveillance of non-American communications. The limited reforms in the new bill affect only the one program explicitly aimed at Americans.
Congress had leverage for once because three provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire on June 1. They include, most significantly, Section 215 of the act, which was intended to allow the government to obtain specific business records relevant to particular counterterror investigations, subject to review by a FISA court judge. Instead, the NSA used it to justify the wholesale seizure of American telephone records.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/28/nearly-two-years-snowden-congress-poised-something-just-much/
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records across the country. Four senior members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee planned to reintroduce the USA Freedom Act late Tuesday. The House passed a watered-down version of similar legislation in last May, but the Senate failed to act on it before November’s elections. The new bill would end all bulk collection of telephone and other business records under the Patriot Act, the antiterrorism legislation passed in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing to amend and vote on the new bill this Thursday.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at ending the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone records across the country.
Four senior members of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee planned to reintroduce the USA Freedom Act late Tuesday. The House passed a watered-down version of similar legislation in last May, but the Senate failed to act on it before November’s elections.
Read more @ http://www.itworld.com/article/2916155/bill-to-rein-in-nsa-phone-data-collection-reintroduced.html
One of the first fights of the Republican presidential primary season will be over U.S. spying. Congress’s upcoming debate over reforming government surveillance and extending portions of the Patriot Act will ensnare Republicans with their eyes on the White House — drawing a clear divide between the hawkish and libertarian-leaning contenders. Ahead of a critical June 1 deadline, GOP candidates have already begun to weigh in. “Sadly, one GOP candidate thinks the NSA’s [National Security Agency] violation of your rights is ‘very important,’ ” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted over the weekend. “On day one in the Oval Office, I will END the NSA’s illegal assault on your rights.” The comment was a swipe at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who has jumped at the opportunity to defend the NSA’s collection of data about millions of people in the U.S. Not only is the program in the best interests of the nation, he has said, but it’s also “the best part of the Obama administration.” The combative rhetoric, from Paul especially, is sure to heat up in coming weeks, as lawmakers begin debating proposals to reauthorize an expiring provision in the Patriot Act that gives the NSA authority to collect phone records without a warrant. The program collects metadata from people’s phone calls, such as the numbers involved in a call and when it occurred but not the conversations. Unless Congress acts by June 1, that provision, known as Section 215, and two others would expire.
One of the first fights of the Republican presidential primary season will be over U.S. spying.
Congress’s upcoming debate over reforming government surveillance and extending portions of the Patriot Act will ensnare Republicans with their eyes on the White House — drawing a clear divide between the hawkish and libertarian-leaning contenders.
Ahead of a critical June 1 deadline, GOP candidates have already begun to weigh in.
“Sadly, one GOP candidate thinks the NSA’s [National Security Agency] violation of your rights is ‘very important,’ ” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted over the weekend. “On day one in the Oval Office, I will END the NSA’s illegal assault on your rights.”
The comment was a swipe at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who has jumped at the opportunity to defend the NSA’s collection of data about millions of people in the U.S. Not only is the program in the best interests of the nation, he has said, but it’s also “the best part of the Obama administration.”
The combative rhetoric, from Paul especially, is sure to heat up in coming weeks, as lawmakers begin debating proposals to reauthorize an expiring provision in the Patriot Act that gives the NSA authority to collect phone records without a warrant.
The program collects metadata from people’s phone calls, such as the numbers involved in a call and when it occurred but not the conversations.
Unless Congress acts by June 1, that provision, known as Section 215, and two others would expire.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/240249-patriot-act-showdown-looms-for-gops-presidential-field
A few weeks ago, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver travelled all the way to Russia to interview Edward Snowden. Snowden, of course is responsible for numerous leaks that revealed the advanced surveillance operations intelligence agencies are capable of nowadays. The interview was particularly enjoyable thanks ti the fact that Oliver’s team was able to present serious matters in very entertaining ways. One of the gems in that episode is related to password security, PopularMechanics points out, with Snowden revealing one key tip that you absolutely should consider when setting up online passwords. You of course need to configure hard-to-remember passwords that include symbols, numbers and capital letters, not to mention enough number of characters; a computer can crack eight-character passwords in less than 1 second. But Snowden takes things a step further with a simple but effective idea. You should set up pass-phrases that aren’t in password dictionaries, and which are so personal that only you could remember. These phrases would be long enough so that computers can’t brute-force their way through them as easily, and also contain the kind of characters mentioned above. 1LoveRead1ngBGREveryDay! might be one example.
A few weeks ago, Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver travelled all the way to Russia to interview Edward Snowden. Snowden, of course is responsible for numerous leaks that revealed the advanced surveillance operations intelligence agencies are capable of nowadays. The interview was particularly enjoyable thanks ti the fact that Oliver’s team was able to present serious matters in very entertaining ways. One of the gems in that episode is related to password security, PopularMechanics points out, with Snowden revealing one key tip that you absolutely should consider when setting up online passwords.
You of course need to configure hard-to-remember passwords that include symbols, numbers and capital letters, not to mention enough number of characters; a computer can crack eight-character passwords in less than 1 second. But Snowden takes things a step further with a simple but effective idea.
You should set up pass-phrases that aren’t in password dictionaries, and which are so personal that only you could remember. These phrases would be long enough so that computers can’t brute-force their way through them as easily, and also contain the kind of characters mentioned above. 1LoveRead1ngBGREveryDay! might be one example.
Read more @ http://bgr.com/2015/04/21/snowden-password-tips-pass-phrases/
Nearly two years after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency had penetrated the internal systems of Facebook, Google and other companies, tech executives still harbor hard feelings. That’s led to a strained relationship with the Pentagon. “The Snowden issue clouds things,” United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter acknowledged during a visit to WIRED’s New York offices Monday. Nevertheless, with cyberterrorism on the rise, the Pentagon has never needed tech’s know-how more. To be fair, Snowden’s explosive revelations are not the only reason Silicon Valley and the Pentagon don’t always get along. For one thing, the institutions that reside within each world operate very differently. The military moves slowly, while startups move quickly. Military personnel adhere to an immutable job hierarchy, respecting traditional career paths, while techies often skip college, change jobs frequently, and start their own companies.
Nearly two years after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the agency had penetrated the internal systems of Facebook, Google and other companies, tech executives still harbor hard feelings. That’s led to a strained relationship with the Pentagon. “The Snowden issue clouds things,” United States Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter acknowledged during a visit to WIRED’s New York offices Monday.
Nevertheless, with cyberterrorism on the rise, the Pentagon has never needed tech’s know-how more.
To be fair, Snowden’s explosive revelations are not the only reason Silicon Valley and the Pentagon don’t always get along. For one thing, the institutions that reside within each world operate very differently. The military moves slowly, while startups move quickly. Military personnel adhere to an immutable job hierarchy, respecting traditional career paths, while techies often skip college, change jobs frequently, and start their own companies.
Read more @ http://www.wired.com/2015/04/us-defense-secretary-snowden-caused-tensions-techies/
Whistleblowers are hardly a new phenomenon -- Wikipedia lists dozens of the more famous ones, going back to the 18th century. There have also been important government whistleblowers before -- people like Daniel Ellsberg, William Binney, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. Chelsea Manning's leak was on a huge scale, and garnered enormous media attention. And yet there is no doubt that it is Edward Snowden who has really changed the whistleblowing world most dramatically. Because of what he leaked, and the way he leaked it -- the fact that he has evaded arrest, and is still free, even if living a somewhat circumscribed existence in Russia -- Snowden has ignited debates at multiple levels. As well as the obvious ones about surveillance, privacy, power and democracy, there's another one around whistleblowing itself, which has already had important knock-on effects. Evidence of that comes in an interesting post by Bruce Schneier, where he tots up the likely number of leakers that have recently started to provide information about the US intelligence community. Alongside Manning and Snowden, he thinks there are probably five more:
Whistleblowers are hardly a new phenomenon -- Wikipedia lists dozens of the more famous ones, going back to the 18th century. There have also been important government whistleblowers before -- people like Daniel Ellsberg, William Binney, Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou. Chelsea Manning's leak was on a huge scale, and garnered enormous media attention. And yet there is no doubt that it is Edward Snowden who has really changed the whistleblowing world most dramatically.
Because of what he leaked, and the way he leaked it -- the fact that he has evaded arrest, and is still free, even if living a somewhat circumscribed existence in Russia -- Snowden has ignited debates at multiple levels. As well as the obvious ones about surveillance, privacy, power and democracy, there's another one around whistleblowing itself, which has already had important knock-on effects. Evidence of that comes in an interesting post by Bruce Schneier, where he tots up the likely number of leakers that have recently started to provide information about the US intelligence community. Alongside Manning and Snowden, he thinks there are probably five more:
Read more @ https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150421/09333930739/welcome-to-new-league-leakers-courtesy-edward-snowden.shtml
May 8 15 7:55 AM
NSA mass phone surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden ruled illegal
Collection of millions of Americans’ phone records is ruled unlawfulLandmark decision by appeals court clears way for full challenge against NSAThe US court of appeals has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency. A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling that the controversial surveillance practice first revealed to the US public by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 could not be subject to judicial review. But the judges also waded into the charged and ongoing debate over the reauthorization of a key Patriot Act provision currently before US legislators. That provision, which the appeals court ruled the NSA program surpassed, will expire on 1 June amid gridlock in Washington on what to do about it. The judges opted not to end the domestic bulk collection while Congress decides its fate, calling judicial inaction “a lesser intrusion” on privacy than at the time the case was initially argued. “In light of the asserted national security interests at stake, we deem it prudent to pause to allow an opportunity for debate in Congress that may (or may not) profoundly alter the legal landscape,” the judges ruled. But they also sent a tacit warning to Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate who is pushing to re-authorize the provision, known as Section 215, without modification: “There will be time then to address appellants’ constitutional issues.”
The US court of appeals has ruled that the bulk collection of telephone metadata is unlawful, in a landmark decision that clears the way for a full legal challenge against the National Security Agency.
A panel of three federal judges for the second circuit overturned an earlier ruling that the controversial surveillance practice first revealed to the US public by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 could not be subject to judicial review.
But the judges also waded into the charged and ongoing debate over the reauthorization of a key Patriot Act provision currently before US legislators. That provision, which the appeals court ruled the NSA program surpassed, will expire on 1 June amid gridlock in Washington on what to do about it.
The judges opted not to end the domestic bulk collection while Congress decides its fate, calling judicial inaction “a lesser intrusion” on privacy than at the time the case was initially argued.
“In light of the asserted national security interests at stake, we deem it prudent to pause to allow an opportunity for debate in Congress that may (or may not) profoundly alter the legal landscape,” the judges ruled.
But they also sent a tacit warning to Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate who is pushing to re-authorize the provision, known as Section 215, without modification: “There will be time then to address appellants’ constitutional issues.”
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/07/nsa-phone-records-program-illegal-court
APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN GOVERNMENT’S SPY STATE || By FITSNEWS || A week after a U.S. congressman told supporters of the American spy state to “just follow the damn Constitution,” one of the highest courts in the land has ordered them to do just that. In a resounding victory for individual liberty, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals – based in New York City – has determined the government’s Orwellian domestic surveillance program “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized.”
|| By FITSNEWS || A week after a U.S. congressman told supporters of the American spy state to “just follow the damn Constitution,” one of the highest courts in the land has ordered them to do just that.
In a resounding victory for individual liberty, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals – based in New York City – has determined the government’s Orwellian domestic surveillance program “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized.”
Read more @ http://www.fitsnews.com/2015/05/07/victory-for-liberty/
Washington (CNN)A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the telephone metadata collection program, under which the National Security Agency gathers up millions of phone records on an ongoing daily basis, is illegal under the Patriot Act. The government has argued it has the power to carry forward with the program under a section of the Patriot Act, which expires in June. Lawmakers are locked in a debate on whether or how to renew the authority, which was first passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, but has been renewed by both Presidents Bush and Obama in the intervening years. Documents confirming the program's existence were first revealed in June of 2013 with the leaks by former government contractor Edward Snowden. Judicial rebuke The decision by a three-judge panel that the phone record collection program, which was mostly secret for nearly a decade, is not supported by the current version of the law, will certainly enter into the brewing political debate over renewing it. RELATED: Why the NSA decision matters Judge Gerard E. Lynch, writing for a three judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, said the program "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized." Lynch wrote that the text of the Patriot Act "cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program."
Washington (CNN)A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the telephone metadata collection program, under which the National Security Agency gathers up millions of phone records on an ongoing daily basis, is illegal under the Patriot Act.
The government has argued it has the power to carry forward with the program under a section of the Patriot Act, which expires in June. Lawmakers are locked in a debate on whether or how to renew the authority, which was first passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, but has been renewed by both Presidents Bush and Obama in the intervening years.
Documents confirming the program's existence were first revealed in June of 2013 with the leaks by former government contractor Edward Snowden.
The decision by a three-judge panel that the phone record collection program, which was mostly secret for nearly a decade, is not supported by the current version of the law, will certainly enter into the brewing political debate over renewing it.
RELATED: Why the NSA decision matters
Judge Gerard E. Lynch, writing for a three judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, said the program "exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized."
Lynch wrote that the text of the Patriot Act "cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program."
Read more @ http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/07/politics/nsa-telephone-metadata-illegal-court/
Read more @ http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-nsa-spying-20150505-story.html
New York court’s ruling says that the NSA surveillance Snowden exposed was “illegal.” Edward Snowden hasn’t had his day in court, but he’s already finding some vindication in the U.S. judicial system. A U.S. appeals court’s ruling on Thursday that bulk collection of telephone metadata by the National Security Agency is illegal has given fresh hope to supporters of the former government contractor, who say the judgment proves he was right to reveal the program. Some argue it’s another reason the 31-year-old should be allowed to return to the United States without fear of prosecution. Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center, said the ruling not only justifies Snowden’s actions, but underscores “the importance of whistleblowing.” “Maybe someone who reveals a secret program that multiple federal judges say is ILLEGAL is a whistleblower who deserves gratitude — not prison?” tweeted Glenn Greenwald, the journalist whom Snowden turned to to help him reveal the bulk collection program. Still, it’s unlikely Snowden, who has been living in Russia for nearly two years, will decide to buy a plane ticket home anytime soon. The judicial process isn’t over, and the material he handed over to news organizations concerned many government intelligence-gathering programs, not just metadata collection dealt with in Thursday’s ruling.
New York court’s ruling says that the NSA surveillance Snowden exposed was “illegal.”
Edward Snowden hasn’t had his day in court, but he’s already finding some vindication in the U.S. judicial system.
A U.S. appeals court’s ruling on Thursday that bulk collection of telephone metadata by the National Security Agency is illegal has given fresh hope to supporters of the former government contractor, who say the judgment proves he was right to reveal the program. Some argue it’s another reason the 31-year-old should be allowed to return to the United States without fear of prosecution.
Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblowers Center, said the ruling not only justifies Snowden’s actions, but underscores “the importance of whistleblowing.”
“Maybe someone who reveals a secret program that multiple federal judges say is ILLEGAL is a whistleblower who deserves gratitude — not prison?” tweeted Glenn Greenwald, the journalist whom Snowden turned to to help him reveal the bulk collection program.
Still, it’s unlikely Snowden, who has been living in Russia for nearly two years, will decide to buy a plane ticket home anytime soon. The judicial process isn’t over, and the material he handed over to news organizations concerned many government intelligence-gathering programs, not just metadata collection dealt with in Thursday’s ruling.
Read more @ http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/edward-snowden-nsa-court-ruling-telephone-records-117733.html
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/snowden-scores-a-big-victory-2015-5
In a major vindication for Edward Snowden — and a blow for the national security policy pursued by Republicans and Democrats alike — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency's metadata collection program is unlawful. This is the most serious blow to date for the legacy of the USA Patriot Act and the surveillance overreach that followed 9/11. The central question depended on the meaning of the word "relevant": Was the government's collection relevant to an investigation when it collects all the metadata for any phone call made to or from anywhere in the U.S.? The court said no. That was the right decision — not so much because it protects privacy, as because it broke the bad precedent of secret law created by the NSA and endorsed by the secret national security court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The first striking thing about the court's opinion was how openly it relied on Snowden's revelations of classified material. The court described how the program was known — by Snowden's leaks. It also analyzed the NSA order to Verizon, leaked by Snowden, that proved the existence of the program and revealed indirectly the legal reasoning that the government relied on to authorize the metadata collection. The Second Circuit seemed supremely untroubled by the origin of the information in a violation of classification laws. At one point, it noted that the government disputed the claim that virtually all metadata are being collected — then dismissed the government's suggestion as unconvincing in the light of the evidence. Today, it would seem, the Snowden revelations are treated as judicially knowable facts, at least in this court. Then there's the legal reasoning, which was equally striking. To get to the conclusion of unlawfulness, the Second Circuit initially had to find that anyone who has had metadata collected — that is, anyone in the U.S. — has the right to sue and challenge the statute.
In a major vindication for Edward Snowden — and a blow for the national security policy pursued by Republicans and Democrats alike — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency's metadata collection program is unlawful.
This is the most serious blow to date for the legacy of the USA Patriot Act and the surveillance overreach that followed 9/11.
The central question depended on the meaning of the word "relevant": Was the government's collection relevant to an investigation when it collects all the metadata for any phone call made to or from anywhere in the U.S.?
The court said no. That was the right decision — not so much because it protects privacy, as because it broke the bad precedent of secret law created by the NSA and endorsed by the secret national security court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The first striking thing about the court's opinion was how openly it relied on Snowden's revelations of classified material. The court described how the program was known — by Snowden's leaks. It also analyzed the NSA order to Verizon, leaked by Snowden, that proved the existence of the program and revealed indirectly the legal reasoning that the government relied on to authorize the metadata collection.
The Second Circuit seemed supremely untroubled by the origin of the information in a violation of classification laws. At one point, it noted that the government disputed the claim that virtually all metadata are being collected — then dismissed the government's suggestion as unconvincing in the light of the evidence. Today, it would seem, the Snowden revelations are treated as judicially knowable facts, at least in this court.
Then there's the legal reasoning, which was equally striking. To get to the conclusion of unlawfulness, the Second Circuit initially had to find that anyone who has had metadata collected — that is, anyone in the U.S. — has the right to sue and challenge the statute.
Read more @ http://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-edward-snowden-nsa-spying-feldman-0508-20150507-story.html
With the NSA’s bulk surveillance ruled illegal, the debate on the Patriot Act should be reinvigorated – with Edward Snowden free to join in On 6 June 2013, the Guardian published a secret US court order against the phone company Verizon, ordering it on an “ongoing, daily basis” to hand over the call records of its millions of US customers to the NSA – just one of numerous orders enabling the government’s highly secret domestic mass surveillance program. Just days later the world learned the identity of the whistleblower who made the order public: Edward Snowden. Now, almost two years later, a US court has vindicated Snowden’s decision, ruling that the bulk surveillance program went beyond what the law underpinning it allowed: the US government used section 215 of the Patriot Act to justify the program. A US court of appeals has ruled the law does not allow for a program so broad. In short, one of the NSA’s most famous and controversial surveillance programs has no legal basis. Of Snowden and the NSA, only one has so far been found to have acted unlawfully – and it’s not Snowden. That surely must change the nature of the debate on civil liberties being had in America, and it should do so in a number of ways.
With the NSA’s bulk surveillance ruled illegal, the debate on the Patriot Act should be reinvigorated – with Edward Snowden free to join in
On 6 June 2013, the Guardian published a secret US court order against the phone company Verizon, ordering it on an “ongoing, daily basis” to hand over the call records of its millions of US customers to the NSA – just one of numerous orders enabling the government’s highly secret domestic mass surveillance program. Just days later the world learned the identity of the whistleblower who made the order public: Edward Snowden.
Now, almost two years later, a US court has vindicated Snowden’s decision, ruling that the bulk surveillance program went beyond what the law underpinning it allowed: the US government used section 215 of the Patriot Act to justify the program. A US court of appeals has ruled the law does not allow for a program so broad. In short, one of the NSA’s most famous and controversial surveillance programs has no legal basis.
Of Snowden and the NSA, only one has so far been found to have acted unlawfully – and it’s not Snowden. That surely must change the nature of the debate on civil liberties being had in America, and it should do so in a number of ways.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/07/edward-snowden-whistleblower-nsa-bulk-surveillance-illegal
It has been hard to avoid talk of the NSA over the past year or so -- Edward Snowden's revelations blew the lid off convert surveillance that has been carried out by the US government. It has been a hugely divisive issue, many heralding Snowden as a hero, others as a traitor and has led people to question whether everyday software might include secret backdoors. Included in the NSA's activities was the mass collection of metadata about phone calls made and receive by American citizens. Today the US court of appeals ruled that this data collection is illegal. With other countries adopting NSA-style surveillance tactics, the ruling opens up the possibility that the NSA could face further legal proceedings and probes.
It has been hard to avoid talk of the NSA over the past year or so -- Edward Snowden's revelations blew the lid off convert surveillance that has been carried out by the US government. It has been a hugely divisive issue, many heralding Snowden as a hero, others as a traitor and has led people to question whether everyday software might include secret backdoors.
Included in the NSA's activities was the mass collection of metadata about phone calls made and receive by American citizens. Today the US court of appeals ruled that this data collection is illegal. With other countries adopting NSA-style surveillance tactics, the ruling opens up the possibility that the NSA could face further legal proceedings and probes.
Read more @ http://betanews.com/2015/05/07/yes-the-nsa-did-act-illegally/
Did all the surveillance stop the Texas attack…… Nope! That is the thing with all the spying…. The spies have had 2 years to bring in laws in other countries to protect the spying…. So if one country loses the ability (to collect due to laws) there are other countries collecting for them…. My dear old mother always use to say, “never put all your eggs in one basket”… and I believe that is exactly what the spies and their backers thought of too.
Congress moves to weaken antiterror surveillance while France expands it. At least one of the gunmen who shot up a Texas free speech event on Sunday was known to the FBI as a potentially violent radical and was convicted in 2011 on a terror-related charge. The Islamic State claimed credit for this domestic attack, albeit an unproven connection. So it is strange that Congress is moving to weaken U.S. surveillance defenses against the likes of shooters Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. Two years after the leaks from Edward Snowden’s stolen dossier, a liberal-conservative coalition is close to passing a bill that would curtail the programs the National Security Agency has employed in some form for two decades. Adding to this political strangeness, France of all places is on the verge of modernizing and expanding its own surveillance capabilities for the era of burner cell phones, encrypted emails and mass online jihadist propaganda.
At least one of the gunmen who shot up a Texas free speech event on Sunday was known to the FBI as a potentially violent radical and was convicted in 2011 on a terror-related charge. The Islamic State claimed credit for this domestic attack, albeit an unproven connection. So it is strange that Congress is moving to weaken U.S. surveillance defenses against the likes of shooters Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi.
Two years after the leaks from Edward Snowden’s stolen dossier, a liberal-conservative coalition is close to passing a bill that would curtail the programs the National Security Agency has employed in some form for two decades. Adding to this political strangeness, France of all places is on the verge of modernizing and expanding its own surveillance capabilities for the era of burner cell phones, encrypted emails and mass online jihadist propaganda.
Read more @ http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-snowden-blindfold-act-1430953633
A US appeals court has ruled the Patriot Act never authorised the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records, and its opinion reveals just how unprecedented in scope that collection was. The laws that the US government used to defend its vast surveillance program “have never been interpreted to authorise anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here,” the opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stated. Ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle in 2013 on the agency’s surveillance program, which collected so-called metadata from phone calls. (Metadata includes phone numbers, duration of calls, and times of calls.) While metadata collection doesn’t monitor the content of what people say, the appeals court described the volume of the information the government was seeking as “staggering” and not authorised by Section 215 of the Patriot Act as the government argued it was. The NSA’s metadata collection was much broader in scope than other methods the government uses to collect information like search warrants and subpoenas, the appeals court said. From the opinion:
A US appeals court has ruled the Patriot Act never authorised the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records, and its opinion reveals just how unprecedented in scope that collection was.
The laws that the US government used to defend its vast surveillance program “have never been interpreted to authorise anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here,” the opinion from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stated.
Ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle in 2013 on the agency’s surveillance program, which collected so-called metadata from phone calls. (Metadata includes phone numbers, duration of calls, and times of calls.)
While metadata collection doesn’t monitor the content of what people say, the appeals court described the volume of the information the government was seeking as “staggering” and not authorised by Section 215 of the Patriot Act as the government argued it was.
The NSA’s metadata collection was much broader in scope than other methods the government uses to collect information like search warrants and subpoenas, the appeals court said. From the opinion:
Read more @ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/second-circuit-reveals-scope-of-nsa-metadata-collection-2015-5
How the NSA Converts Spoken Words Into Searchable Text Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record. But even as they increasingly use apps that understand what they say, most people don’t realize that the words they speak are not so private anymore, either. Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored. The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called “Google for Voice” nearly a decade ago. Though perfect transcription of natural conversation apparently remains the Intelligence Community’s “holy grail,” the Snowden documents describe extensive use of keyword searching as well as computer programs designed to analyze and “extract” the content of voice conversations, and even use sophisticated algorithms to flag conversations of interest. The documents include vivid examples of the use of speech recognition in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in Latin America. But they leave unclear exactly how widely the spy agency uses this ability, particularly in programs that pick up considerable amounts of conversations that include people who live in or are citizens of the United States. Spying on international telephone calls has always been a staple of NSA surveillance, but the requirement that an actual person do the listening meant it was effectively limited to a tiny percentage of the total traffic. By leveraging advances in automated speech recognition, the NSA has entered the era of bulk listening. And this has happened with no apparent public oversight, hearings or legislative action. Congress hasn’t shown signs of even knowing that it’s going on. The USA Freedom Act — the surveillance reform bill that Congress is currently debating — doesn’t address the topic at all. The bill would end an NSA program that does not collect voice content: the government’s bulk collection of domestic calling data, showing who called who and for how long. Even if becomes law, the bill would leave in place a multitude of mechanisms exposed by Snowden that scoop up vast amounts of innocent people’s text and voice communications in the U.S. and across the globe. Civil liberty experts contacted by The Intercept said the NSA’s speech-to-text capabilities are a disturbing example of the privacy invasions that are becoming possible as our analog world transitions to a digital one.
Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record.
But even as they increasingly use apps that understand what they say, most people don’t realize that the words they speak are not so private anymore, either.
Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored.
The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called “Google for Voice” nearly a decade ago.
Though perfect transcription of natural conversation apparently remains the Intelligence Community’s “holy grail,” the Snowden documents describe extensive use of keyword searching as well as computer programs designed to analyze and “extract” the content of voice conversations, and even use sophisticated algorithms to flag conversations of interest.
The documents include vivid examples of the use of speech recognition in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in Latin America. But they leave unclear exactly how widely the spy agency uses this ability, particularly in programs that pick up considerable amounts of conversations that include people who live in or are citizens of the United States.
Spying on international telephone calls has always been a staple of NSA surveillance, but the requirement that an actual person do the listening meant it was effectively limited to a tiny percentage of the total traffic. By leveraging advances in automated speech recognition, the NSA has entered the era of bulk listening.
And this has happened with no apparent public oversight, hearings or legislative action. Congress hasn’t shown signs of even knowing that it’s going on.
The USA Freedom Act — the surveillance reform bill that Congress is currently debating — doesn’t address the topic at all. The bill would end an NSA program that does not collect voice content: the government’s bulk collection of domestic calling data, showing who called who and for how long.
Even if becomes law, the bill would leave in place a multitude of mechanisms exposed by Snowden that scoop up vast amounts of innocent people’s text and voice communications in the U.S. and across the globe.
Civil liberty experts contacted by The Intercept said the NSA’s speech-to-text capabilities are a disturbing example of the privacy invasions that are becoming possible as our analog world transitions to a digital one.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/05/nsa-speech-recognition-snowden-searchable-text/
Its too much power for them to give up….. Just imagine if you had the power to spy on everyone in the world…. Your enemies; your friends; your exes; what people are saying in private conversation behind your back; on companies that can give you the inside knowledge on where to put your money; your exes; and everyone else; power to know what to say to skirt political talk ….. it gives so much power both financially and politically that anyone having it would suddenly feel very insecure and powerless if they lost it….. so would fight tooth and nail to keep it. They don’t want to lose that edge they have over everyone…. Fine for them because they are benefitting from it, but not for the people who are spied on….. it’s a sickening “one up man ship” that divides the people….. It creates “them and us”….. when in fact there is no “them and us”….. it’s all us. We cannot step off the planet…. We are all here together.
Administration will continue to work with Congress to reform surveillance laws, NSC spokesman says. The White House is evaluating a decision handed down Thursday by an U.S. appeals court holding the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk phone metadata collection program illegal. "Without commenting on the ruling today, the President has been clear that he believes we should end the … bulk telephony metadata program as it currently exists," Edward Price, assistant press secretary and director of strategic communications at the National Security Council (NSC) said in an emailed statement to Dark Reading. The goal is to create alternative mechanisms to preserve the program's essential capabilities without the government holding the bulk data, he said. "We continue to work closely with members of Congress from both parties to do just that, and we have been encouraged by good progress on bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would implement these important reforms," Price said.
Administration will continue to work with Congress to reform surveillance laws, NSC spokesman says.
The White House is evaluating a decision handed down Thursday by an U.S. appeals court holding the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk phone metadata collection program illegal.
"Without commenting on the ruling today, the President has been clear that he believes we should end the … bulk telephony metadata program as it currently exists," Edward Price, assistant press secretary and director of strategic communications at the National Security Council (NSC) said in an emailed statement to Dark Reading.
The goal is to create alternative mechanisms to preserve the program's essential capabilities without the government holding the bulk data, he said. "We continue to work closely with members of Congress from both parties to do just that, and we have been encouraged by good progress on bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would implement these important reforms," Price said.
Read more @ http://www.darkreading.com/cloud/white-house-evaluating-new-court-ruling-declaring-nsa-data-collection-program-illegal/d/d-id/1320332
Read more @ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/05/07/court_rejects_spying_program_but_mcconnell_backs_it__126518.html
Republicans and the Patriot Act
The presidential candidates are taking sides. So far the Republican campaign for president has been fairly restrained, with the ever-growing field aiming most of their attacks at Hillary Clinton and President Obama. But the upcoming vote in Congress on reauthorizing the Patriot Act could open the first real fissures in the GOP field.
Read more @ http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2015/05/republicans-may-offer-short-term-extension-patriot-act/112027/
Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/241160-right-left-unite-to-blast-mcconnell-over-patriot-act-move
Read more @ http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/the-first-real-gop-debate-of-2016-is-about-the-patriot-act#.tkNZEYbZz
Read more @ https://news.vice.com/article/a-new-standoff-has-emerged-as-the-future-of-patriot-act-is-in-flux
Read more @ http://www.govexec.com/management/2015/05/mcconnell-refuses-budge-patriot-act-after-court-ruling-imperils-nsa-spying/112195/
Read more @ http://www.sltrib.com/news/2488321-155/white-house-urges-passage-of-lees
A US federal appeals court—essentially, the second-highest in the land—has ruled that the bulk collection of US telephone records by the National Security Agency isn’t permitted by laws passed after the 9/11 attacks to increase intelligence collection. You can read the entire decision here (pdf). The challenge was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, along with the heads of the NSA, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense. (Of the five officials named in the suit when it was filed in January 2014, only Clapper remains in the same role.)
A US federal appeals court—essentially, the second-highest in the land—has ruled that the bulk collection of US telephone records by the National Security Agency isn’t permitted by laws passed after the 9/11 attacks to increase intelligence collection. You can read the entire decision here (pdf).
The challenge was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, along with the heads of the NSA, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense. (Of the five officials named in the suit when it was filed in January 2014, only Clapper remains in the same role.)
Read more @ http://qz.com/400165/forget-unconstitutional-americas-mass-surveillance-program-is-just-plain-illegal/
BERLIN: Germany’s secret service has severely restricted cooperation with its U.S. partner the NSA in response to a scandal over their alleged joint spying on European officials and companies, media reported Thursday. The foreign intelligence agency BND this week stopped sharing Internet surveillance data with the U.S. National Security Agency, passing on only fax and phone intercepts, the reports said. Berlin now demands that the NSA provide a justification for each online surveillance request, reported the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, public broadcasters NDR and WDR, and national news agency DPA. The NSA had been unable to meet the new request at short notice, the reports said. However, such a rule had long been in place for fax and phone surveillance conducted by the BND for the NSA. “This is definitely a dramatic step,” said Greens party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, who serves on a parliamentary panel investigating the NSA’s surveillance activities. “I think they’ve pulled the emergency brake because, even in 2015, they still can’t control the search terms for Internet traffic,” he said, charging that the government was unable “to protect German and European interests.”
BERLIN: Germany’s secret service has severely restricted cooperation with its U.S. partner the NSA in response to a scandal over their alleged joint spying on European officials and companies, media reported Thursday.
The foreign intelligence agency BND this week stopped sharing Internet surveillance data with the U.S. National Security Agency, passing on only fax and phone intercepts, the reports said.
Berlin now demands that the NSA provide a justification for each online surveillance request, reported the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, public broadcasters NDR and WDR, and national news agency DPA.
The NSA had been unable to meet the new request at short notice, the reports said. However, such a rule had long been in place for fax and phone surveillance conducted by the BND for the NSA.
“This is definitely a dramatic step,” said Greens party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, who serves on a parliamentary panel investigating the NSA’s surveillance activities.
“I think they’ve pulled the emergency brake because, even in 2015, they still can’t control the search terms for Internet traffic,” he said, charging that the government was unable “to protect German and European interests.”
Read more @ https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2015/May-08/297195-germany-restricts-spy-cooperation-with-nsa-reports.ashx
BERLIN: Germany’s secret service has severely restricted cooperation with its U.S. partner the NSA in response to a scandal over their alleged joint spying on European officials and companies, media reported Thursday. The foreign intelligence agency BND this week stopped sharing Internet surveillance data with the U.S. National Security Agency, passing on only fax and phone intercepts, the reports said. Berlin now demands that the NSA provide a justification for each online surveillance request, reported the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, public broadcasters NDR and WDR, and national news agency DPA. The NSA had been unable to meet the new request at short notice, the reports said. However, such a rule had long been in place for fax and phone surveillance conducted by the BND for the NSA. “This is definitely a dramatic step,” said Greens party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, who serves on a parliamentary panel investigating the NSA’s surveillance activities.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel first outlined the extent of the BND's partnership with the NSA last week. But details are continuing to emerge, suggesting that more than metadata was shared.
Read more @ http://www.dw.de/report-bnd-nsa-collaboration-deeper-than-thought/a-18425290
Whistleblower Edward Snowden to speak at Victorian forum
Whistleblower Edward Snowden will appear by video link at a major conference in Melbourne on Friday. Snowden will join a host of identities, who will gather at Melbourne Town Hall for the three-day forum Progress 2015, which will focus on big ideas for Australia's future. The former NSA contractor and The Guardian's Person of the Year 2013 will speak at 5pm about the federal government's controversial mandatory data retention laws.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden will appear by video link at a major conference in Melbourne on Friday.
Snowden will join a host of identities, who will gather at Melbourne Town Hall for the three-day forum Progress 2015, which will focus on big ideas for Australia's future.
The former NSA contractor and The Guardian's Person of the Year 2013 will speak at 5pm about the federal government's controversial mandatory data retention laws.
NEW DELHI: A hoax tweet claiming that US whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had been found dead had Twitter in a tizzy on Wednesday. The tweet came from the handle @RussiaIntMinist, bearing the name of the Russian minister for internal affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev. "Former NSA contractor Edward J Snowden was found died (sic) few minutes ago in his home. No details," read the tweet, while another one even announced a press conference featuring Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena later in the day. About an hour and a half later the same account tweeted: "This account is hoax created by Italian journalist Tommasso Debenedetti." Later in the day, the official verified account of the Russian ministry of internal affairs @mvd_official confirmed that both the story and the account were fake. Debenedetti has been in the news before for creating fake accounts of individuals such as the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, German foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, and former Italian PM Mario Monti. The Italian "journalist" is also known for his hoax interviews conducted for several news papers. This wasn't the first time he impersonated Kolokoltsev.
NEW DELHI: A hoax tweet claiming that US whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden had been found dead had Twitter in a tizzy on Wednesday. The tweet came from the handle @RussiaIntMinist, bearing the name of the Russian minister for internal affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev. "Former NSA contractor Edward J Snowden was found died (sic) few minutes ago in his home. No details," read the tweet, while another one even announced a press conference featuring Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena later in the day. About an hour and a half later the same account tweeted: "This account is hoax created by Italian journalist Tommasso Debenedetti." Later in the day, the official verified account of the Russian ministry of internal affairs @mvd_official confirmed that both the story and the account were fake.
Debenedetti has been in the news before for creating fake accounts of individuals such as the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, German foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, and former Italian PM Mario Monti. The Italian "journalist" is also known for his hoax interviews conducted for several news papers. This wasn't the first time he impersonated Kolokoltsev.
Read more @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social/Snowden-death-hoax-rocks-Twitter/articleshow/47184319.cms
Everyday people are transforming the way police officers behave thanks to the power of camera-enabled smartphones. Now, the advocacy group Transparency Toolkit wants to transform the way the national security state behaves using other common tech tools: Google and LinkedIn. The spooks who store our calling metadata and online activity in a vast warehouse in Utah may seem, well, spooky. But at the end of the day those carrying out state-sponsored surveillance are just people, and people need jobs. We tend to think of intelligence professionals as lifetime government employees, but there are many people who are employed by private defense contractors. Edward Snowden, for example, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton when he obtained all the files he eventually shared with journalists. All about the resume “When you need a job, you need to post about what you can do, and in the intelligence community the necessary skills are things like intercepting communications, using secret surveillance databases, and analytics tools,” M.C. Grath, Transparency Toolkit founder, said during the re:publica conference in Berlin on Wednesday. Believe it or not, LinkedIn is filled with people advertising their surveillance skills including proficiency with National Security Agency programs like XKeyScore or Dishfire. This online resume building allowed Transparency Toolkit to search public LinkedIn profiles for keywords relating to NSA activity and then build a public database with all this information. Called ICWatch, the database features more than 27,000 resumes of people working in the intelligence community. (At this writing, however, ICWatch was offline.) Deciding on keywords must have been relatively easy since so many surveillance programs have surfaced via leaks from Edward Snowden and others. However, the searches also led Transparency Toolkit to discover previously unknown intelligence-related keywords and in some cases even conclude what those new keywords meant. Why this matters: Transparency Toolkit argues that collecting all this LinkedIn data allows the public to “better understand mass surveillance programs and research trends in the intelligence community.” ICWatch may certainly do that using what McGrath calls a “sousveillance state.” Instead of depending on leakers and journalists, scanning LinkedIn can employ NSA-style metadata analysis to get an idea of what the “watchers” are watching. But ICWatch may end up stonewalled in the future should the intelligence community enforce rules that prevent people from listing intelligence programs on their LinkedIn profiles.
Everyday people are transforming the way police officers behave thanks to the power of camera-enabled smartphones. Now, the advocacy group Transparency Toolkit wants to transform the way the national security state behaves using other common tech tools: Google and LinkedIn.
The spooks who store our calling metadata and online activity in a vast warehouse in Utah may seem, well, spooky. But at the end of the day those carrying out state-sponsored surveillance are just people, and people need jobs. We tend to think of intelligence professionals as lifetime government employees, but there are many people who are employed by private defense contractors. Edward Snowden, for example, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton when he obtained all the files he eventually shared with journalists.
“When you need a job, you need to post about what you can do, and in the intelligence community the necessary skills are things like intercepting communications, using secret surveillance databases, and analytics tools,” M.C. Grath, Transparency Toolkit founder, said during the re:publica conference in Berlin on Wednesday.
Believe it or not, LinkedIn is filled with people advertising their surveillance skills including proficiency with National Security Agency programs like XKeyScore or Dishfire.
This online resume building allowed Transparency Toolkit to search public LinkedIn profiles for keywords relating to NSA activity and then build a public database with all this information. Called ICWatch, the database features more than 27,000 resumes of people working in the intelligence community. (At this writing, however, ICWatch was offline.)
Deciding on keywords must have been relatively easy since so many surveillance programs have surfaced via leaks from Edward Snowden and others. However, the searches also led Transparency Toolkit to discover previously unknown intelligence-related keywords and in some cases even conclude what those new keywords meant.
Why this matters: Transparency Toolkit argues that collecting all this LinkedIn data allows the public to “better understand mass surveillance programs and research trends in the intelligence community.” ICWatch may certainly do that using what McGrath calls a “sousveillance state.” Instead of depending on leakers and journalists, scanning LinkedIn can employ NSA-style metadata analysis to get an idea of what the “watchers” are watching. But ICWatch may end up stonewalled in the future should the intelligence community enforce rules that prevent people from listing intelligence programs on their LinkedIn profiles.
Read more @ http://www.pcworld.com/article/2919975/new-database-taps-linkedin-to-watch-the-nsa-watchers.html
Today, a federal appeals court ruled that the bulk phone metadata collection program run by the National Security Agency that was brought to light thanks to the leaks of former contractor Edward Snowden was illegal, and not covered by Section 215 of the Patriot Act. But the ruling went further than that; it said, essentially, that anyone whose data was collected as part of the program, called PRISM, may be allowed to sue the NSA for harvesting their data.
Read more @ http://fusion.net/story/131854/if-you-have-a-verizon-phone-you-may-be-able-to-sue-the-nsa/
We should all be more worried about our metadata and who can access it, argues Ross Coulthart in his keynote address at the Press Freedom Dinner on Friday night. There are probably more than a few journalists – and I used to be one of them – who scoff at the idea that they have to do any more than they're currently doing to protect their sources. In fact I think for a lot of us metadata sounds like a bit of a bore. I think we all reassure ourselves that our police and intelligence services have a lot more important things to worry about than who is leaking to Ross Coulthart or any other journalist. But I am here to disabuse you of that notion. For at least 36 years, since 1979, police, government departments and a plethora of other bodies, have been allowed to request – without a judicial warrant – the telecommunications records of journalists to chase the sources of leaked government information that has appeared in their stories. Those records, known as metadata, include phone bills, the phone numbers called and the numbers that are calling us, it includes the name and address of every subscriber behind those numbers, even location data – where the phone is located. It includes the email addresses and whoever we've been exchanging texts or messages with. What metadata doesn't include is the content of any communication. But it is the digital trail between you and any person you're communicating with. And it's an incredibly powerful weapon to hunt down whistleblowers who leak information.
We should all be more worried about our metadata and who can access it, argues Ross Coulthart in his keynote address at the Press Freedom Dinner on Friday night.
There are probably more than a few journalists – and I used to be one of them – who scoff at the idea that they have to do any more than they're currently doing to protect their sources. In fact I think for a lot of us metadata sounds like a bit of a bore. I think we all reassure ourselves that our police and intelligence services have a lot more important things to worry about than who is leaking to Ross Coulthart or any other journalist. But I am here to disabuse you of that notion.
For at least 36 years, since 1979, police, government departments and a plethora of other bodies, have been allowed to request – without a judicial warrant – the telecommunications records of journalists to chase the sources of leaked government information that has appeared in their stories. Those records, known as metadata, include phone bills, the phone numbers called and the numbers that are calling us, it includes the name and address of every subscriber behind those numbers, even location data – where the phone is located. It includes the email addresses and whoever we've been exchanging texts or messages with. What metadata doesn't include is the content of any communication. But it is the digital trail between you and any person you're communicating with. And it's an incredibly powerful weapon to hunt down whistleblowers who leak information.
Read more @ http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/metadata-access-is-putting-whistleblowers-journalists-and-democracy-at-risk-20150504-1mzfi0.html
May 10 15 5:29 PM
Why The Appeals Court Ruling Against NSA Domestic Spying Programs Comes At a Key Moment for Patriot Act
The tide seems to be turning against the U.S. National Security Agency's domestic surveillance programs, two years after Edward Snowden leaked controversial details on the agency's digital spying practices. This week, ahead of various attempts in the U.S. Congress to either reauthorize, reform, or completely abolish the legal underpinnings of the NSA's digital surveillance programs, a federal appeals court dealt a big blow to the agency's domestic spying activities. Appeals Court: Patriot Act 'Does Not Authorize' Metadata Collection On Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that NSA's bulk metadata (phone records) collection program -- one of the less controversial aspects of the NSA's domestic surveillance initiatives -- is illegal under the current law.
The tide seems to be turning against the U.S. National Security Agency's domestic surveillance programs, two years after Edward Snowden leaked controversial details on the agency's digital spying practices.
This week, ahead of various attempts in the U.S. Congress to either reauthorize, reform, or completely abolish the legal underpinnings of the NSA's digital surveillance programs, a federal appeals court dealt a big blow to the agency's domestic spying activities.
Appeals Court: Patriot Act 'Does Not Authorize' Metadata Collection
On Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that NSA's bulk metadata (phone records) collection program -- one of the less controversial aspects of the NSA's domestic surveillance initiatives -- is illegal under the current law.
Read more @ http://www.latinpost.com/articles/52155/20150509/appeals-court-rules-against-nsa-domestic-spying-programs-weeks-before-patriot-act-sunset.htm
Republican senators eyeing the presidency split over the renewal of the USA Patriot Act surveillance law, with civil libertarians at odds with traditional defense hawks who back tough spying powers in the fight against terrorism. The political divide will be on stark display this month as Congress debates reauthorization of the post-Sept. 11 law ahead of a June 1 deadline. The broader question of privacy rights has gained attention since a former National Security Agency systems administrator, Edward Snowden, disclosed in 2013 that the NSA had been collecting and storing data on nearly every American's phone calls for years.
Republican senators eyeing the presidency split over the renewal of the USA Patriot Act surveillance law, with civil libertarians at odds with traditional defense hawks who back tough spying powers in the fight against terrorism.
The political divide will be on stark display this month as Congress debates reauthorization of the post-Sept. 11 law ahead of a June 1 deadline. The broader question of privacy rights has gained attention since a former National Security Agency systems administrator, Edward Snowden, disclosed in 2013 that the NSA had been collecting and storing data on nearly every American's phone calls for years.
Read more @ http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article20572374.html
It would constrain some of the worst excesses of the Patriot Act, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. UPDATE—Thursday, May 7: The day after we posted this article, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York declared the NSA’s domestic phone metadata program illegal, on the ground that the USA Patriot Act provision on which the NSA program had rested did not in fact authorize bulk collection of every American’s phone records. In other words, the NSA’s domestic phone-records program was illegal from the outset, and never should have been created. The court’s unanimous and well-reasoned decision, noting the profound privacy interests we all have in our phone records, and the unprecedented scope of the NSA program, should inform the upcoming legislative debate on the USA Freedom Act. It underscores the crying need for NSA reform. But as the article below argues, passing the USA Freedom Act will only be a first step on that path.
It would constrain some of the worst excesses of the Patriot Act, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
UPDATE—Thursday, May 7: The day after we posted this article, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York declared the NSA’s domestic phone metadata program illegal, on the ground that the USA Patriot Act provision on which the NSA program had rested did not in fact authorize bulk collection of every American’s phone records. In other words, the NSA’s domestic phone-records program was illegal from the outset, and never should have been created. The court’s unanimous and well-reasoned decision, noting the profound privacy interests we all have in our phone records, and the unprecedented scope of the NSA program, should inform the upcoming legislative debate on the USA Freedom Act. It underscores the crying need for NSA reform. But as the article below argues, passing the USA Freedom Act will only be a first step on that path.
Read more @ http://www.thenation.com/article/206497/heres-whats-wrong-usa-freedom-act
I cannot see how a program with such sweeping power to collect all info could be forgotten….No way!
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper didn't lie when he told a Senate committee that the government doesn't "wittingly" sweep up Americans' personal information, an agency attorney said Friday: He forgot that the program even existed. Robert Litt, who serves as DNI general counsel, told of the memory lapse while speaking at a panel discussion Friday being held by the Advisory Committee on Transparency and aired on C-SPAN. The error came in an exchange several months before former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked materials about the NSA's spy program, said Litt. "It was perfectly clear that he had absolutely forgotten the existence of the 215 program," Litt said Friday. "This is not an untruth or falsehood; this was a mistake on his part. We all make mistakes."
Read more @ http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/clapper-nsa-forgot-about/2015/05/09/id/643687/
In June 2013, The Guardian published a classified document leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden detailing how the NSA is vacuuming up call data from the Verizon phone network under the auspices of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Within days, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to defend Americans' rights to privacy, due process, and free speech. EFF is separately litigating multiple cases over NSA spying, but EFF has also filed amici briefs to support the ACLU's lawsuit. At the district court level, EFF represented Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, one of the original authors of the Patriot Act, who told the court that the NSA's mass telephone records collection program was not what Congress intended when it passed the legislation. At the appellate level, EFF represented 17 computer scientists and professors, who explained that telephone call metadata can reveal behavioral patterns of innocent Americans, including their political and religious affiliations. On May 7, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the ACLU, finding that "the telephone metadata program exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized and therefore violates [Section 215]."
In June 2013, The Guardian published a classified document leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden detailing how the NSA is vacuuming up call data from the Verizon phone network under the auspices of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Within days, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to defend Americans' rights to privacy, due process, and free speech.
EFF is separately litigating multiple cases over NSA spying, but EFF has also filed amici briefs to support the ACLU's lawsuit. At the district court level, EFF represented Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, one of the original authors of the Patriot Act, who told the court that the NSA's mass telephone records collection program was not what Congress intended when it passed the legislation. At the appellate level, EFF represented 17 computer scientists and professors, who explained that telephone call metadata can reveal behavioral patterns of innocent Americans, including their political and religious affiliations.
On May 7, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the ACLU, finding that "the telephone metadata program exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized and therefore violates [Section 215]."
Read more @ https://www.eff.org/cases/aclu-v-clapper
Washington • The White House on Thursday urged passage of legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee that would prohibit collection of Americans' phone records without cause, a move that comes hours after a federal appellate court ruled such action unconstitutional. The USA Freedom Act, sponsored by Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would end bulk collection of Americans' telephone metadata while also providing more oversight, transparency and accountability, according to the senators. Thursday's ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government had stretched the legal authority under the Patriot Act to gather such data domestically. It was the first appellate court to weigh in on the metadata collection, which had been approved by a secret court and made public only through leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Washington • The White House on Thursday urged passage of legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee that would prohibit collection of Americans' phone records without cause, a move that comes hours after a federal appellate court ruled such action unconstitutional.
The USA Freedom Act, sponsored by Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would end bulk collection of Americans' telephone metadata while also providing more oversight, transparency and accountability, according to the senators.
Thursday's ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government had stretched the legal authority under the Patriot Act to gather such data domestically. It was the first appellate court to weigh in on the metadata collection, which had been approved by a secret court and made public only through leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Sen. Mike Lee is raising money off his opposition to the National Security Agency's surveillance programs. And he's hoping the NSA will spy on him and find out all about it. The Utah Republican, who is up for re-election next year, is asking supporters to donate to his campaign and sign a petition backing his legislative efforts to end the NSA's collection and storage of Americans' phone records. "Eavesdropping or not, let's send the NSA a message they can't HELP but hear!" Lee wrote in the email Thursday night. "We may not be able to duplicate the NSA's complex spider web, but we can get the honest, hardworking people of America to join us in the cause of ending government-sanctioned spying on its citizens." "And as for this email, the NSA can read it all they want. we WANT them to see this one!" Lee added.
Sen. Mike Lee is raising money off his opposition to the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.
And he's hoping the NSA will spy on him and find out all about it.
The Utah Republican, who is up for re-election next year, is asking supporters to donate to his campaign and sign a petition backing his legislative efforts to end the NSA's collection and storage of Americans' phone records.
"Eavesdropping or not, let's send the NSA a message they can't HELP but hear!" Lee wrote in the email Thursday night. "We may not be able to duplicate the NSA's complex spider web, but we can get the honest, hardworking people of America to join us in the cause of ending government-sanctioned spying on its citizens."
"And as for this email, the NSA can read it all they want. we WANT them to see this one!" Lee added.
Read more @ http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article20537643.html
Mitch McConnell and his cohort of security hawks are stopping at nothing to renew the spy agency’s phone dragnet. But how fair is their defense? May 8, 2015 One by one, several powerful Republican senators took to the floor Thursday morning to offer one of the most full-throated defenses of the National Security Agency's bulk collection of billions of U.S. phone records since Edward Snowden exposed the program nearly two years ago. The crux of their argument is unmistakable: The NSA's expansive surveillance powers need to remain intact and unchanged to keep Americans safe from potential terrorist threats—and if these powers existed before Sept. 11, 2001, they may have assisted in preventing the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But some of the talking points used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies appear to rely heavily on assertions that are either dubious in their veracity or elide important contextual details. Here is a review of some of their declarations: Claim: "Not only have these tools kept us safe, there has not been a single incident, not one, of intentional abuse of them."—McConnell McConnell may have been referring specifically to the phone records program here, but the NSA does not, as he implies, have a spotless record. According to a 2013 inspector general report, NSA analysts intentionally misused foreign surveillance authorities at least a dozen times in the past decade, sometimes for the purpose of spying on their romantic interests. So-called "loveint"—short for "love intelligence"—was revealed by the inspector general in response to a letter sent from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who this year renewed a call for the Justice Department to provide an update on how it was handling its investigation into the alleged willful abuses and to "appropriate accountability for those few who violate the trust placed in them." Additionally, a 2012 internal audit obtained by The Washington Post found that the NSA has violated privacy restrictions set in place for its surveillance programs thousands of times each year since 2008. The audit found that most—though not all—infractions were unintended.
May 8, 2015 One by one, several powerful Republican senators took to the floor Thursday morning to offer one of the most full-throated defenses of the National Security Agency's bulk collection of billions of U.S. phone records since Edward Snowden exposed the program nearly two years ago.
The crux of their argument is unmistakable: The NSA's expansive surveillance powers need to remain intact and unchanged to keep Americans safe from potential terrorist threats—and if these powers existed before Sept. 11, 2001, they may have assisted in preventing the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But some of the talking points used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies appear to rely heavily on assertions that are either dubious in their veracity or elide important contextual details.
Here is a review of some of their declarations:
Claim: "Not only have these tools kept us safe, there has not been a single incident, not one, of intentional abuse of them."—McConnell
McConnell may have been referring specifically to the phone records program here, but the NSA does not, as he implies, have a spotless record.
According to a 2013 inspector general report, NSA analysts intentionally misused foreign surveillance authorities at least a dozen times in the past decade, sometimes for the purpose of spying on their romantic interests. So-called "loveint"—short for "love intelligence"—was revealed by the inspector general in response to a letter sent from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who this year renewed a call for the Justice Department to provide an update on how it was handling its investigation into the alleged willful abuses and to "appropriate accountability for those few who violate the trust placed in them."
Additionally, a 2012 internal audit obtained by The Washington Post found that the NSA has violated privacy restrictions set in place for its surveillance programs thousands of times each year since 2008. The audit found that most—though not all—infractions were unintended.
Read more @ http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/republicans-make-dubious-claims-in-defense-of-nsa-surveillance-20150508
For years the NSA has used the incentive of paid tuition to lure talented teens into employment with the agency. But in light of the Snowden leaks, students are organizing against what they see as just another invasion of their privacy rights Excerpt: The campaign included the publication of a formal letter, endorsed by the above organizations. “While ASU’s relationship with the NSA provides a certain level of prestige and brings in valuable funding,” write the students, “we do not believe we should trade our civil liberties for institutional advantages.” The students’ cause was then championed by a Republican state senator, Kelli Ward, who introduced a bill that would ban the NSA from recruiting at state university campuses in Arizona. Contrary to the anti-CIA and ROTC campaigns of the 1960s, the most organized resistance to the NSA on campuses comes from rightwing and libertarian student organizers. Many of these students want reform, and for the NSA to stop overstepping what they believe to be its constitutional bounds. Many of the students and faculty who have published letters in protest of the NSA say that since the Snowden revelations, they now realize the agency’s principles are antithetical to those of their universities: freedom of speech and discovery, civic engagement and learning. A strong nationalist thread runs through most of the rhetoric, as the NSA’s practices are also perceived as at odds with some of America’s founding tenets. For example, a letter published in May 2014 by Purdue University Students and Faculty Against Mass Surveillance reads: “Since our country’s inception, Americans have fought and sacrificed to ensure our basic civil liberties and freedoms … But recently that freedom has come under threat. Mass warrantless surveillance by the NSA has restricted our ability to freely think, act, research, innovate, and share ideas in a multitude of ways.” Foster himself says that the NSA’s place in a functioning democracy is vastly overstated and the agency should be reformed, but not done away with. The resistance doesn’t end here. In July 2013, two recruiters visited the University of Wisconsin campus to sell the NSA employee lifestyle to language students. During the Q&A session that followed the presentation, Madiha Tahir, a Columbia PhD student who, at the time, was enrolled in a language program at Wisconsin, began asking questions about certain NSA policies and Orwellian word choice that the recruiters found challenging to answer. Tahir’s line of questioning inspired other students to publicly call out the recruiters on their easy manipulation of the truth. Audio of the incident was recorded, posted online and shared widely.
For years the NSA has used the incentive of paid tuition to lure talented teens into employment with the agency. But in light of the Snowden leaks, students are organizing against what they see as just another invasion of their privacy rights
Excerpt:
The campaign included the publication of a formal letter, endorsed by the above organizations. “While ASU’s relationship with the NSA provides a certain level of prestige and brings in valuable funding,” write the students, “we do not believe we should trade our civil liberties for institutional advantages.”
The students’ cause was then championed by a Republican state senator, Kelli Ward, who introduced a bill that would ban the NSA from recruiting at state university campuses in Arizona.
Contrary to the anti-CIA and ROTC campaigns of the 1960s, the most organized resistance to the NSA on campuses comes from rightwing and libertarian student organizers. Many of these students want reform, and for the NSA to stop overstepping what they believe to be its constitutional bounds.
Many of the students and faculty who have published letters in protest of the NSA say that since the Snowden revelations, they now realize the agency’s principles are antithetical to those of their universities: freedom of speech and discovery, civic engagement and learning.
A strong nationalist thread runs through most of the rhetoric, as the NSA’s practices are also perceived as at odds with some of America’s founding tenets. For example, a letter published in May 2014 by Purdue University Students and Faculty Against Mass Surveillance reads:
“Since our country’s inception, Americans have fought and sacrificed to ensure our basic civil liberties and freedoms … But recently that freedom has come under threat. Mass warrantless surveillance by the NSA has restricted our ability to freely think, act, research, innovate, and share ideas in a multitude of ways.”
Foster himself says that the NSA’s place in a functioning democracy is vastly overstated and the agency should be reformed, but not done away with.
The resistance doesn’t end here. In July 2013, two recruiters visited the University of Wisconsin campus to sell the NSA employee lifestyle to language students. During the Q&A session that followed the presentation, Madiha Tahir, a Columbia PhD student who, at the time, was enrolled in a language program at Wisconsin, began asking questions about certain NSA policies and Orwellian word choice that the recruiters found challenging to answer. Tahir’s line of questioning inspired other students to publicly call out the recruiters on their easy manipulation of the truth. Audio of the incident was recorded, posted online and shared widely.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/01/nsa-recruitment-college-campuses-student-privacy
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan was suspected by US authorities of being a member of al-Qaeda US authorities placed an Al Jazeera journalist on a watch list of suspected terrorists, linking him to al-Qaeda, a report said Friday, citing documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The online news site The Intercept said Al Jazeera's Islamabad bureau chief, Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, was on a terror watch list, and was described in the National Security Agency documents as "a member" of both Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. Zaidan told The Intercept he "absolutely" denied being part of the organisations, while noting that he had through his work conducted interviews with senior al-Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden. Responding to the report, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "deeply troubled" by the allegations. "Coloring the legitimate newsgathering activities of a respected journalist as evidence of international terrorism risks chilling the vital work of the media, especially in Pakistan where journalists routinely interview Taliban and other militant groups as part of their coverage," said Bob Dietz, the committee's Asia program coordinator.
US authorities placed an Al Jazeera journalist on a watch list of suspected terrorists, linking him to al-Qaeda, a report said Friday, citing documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The online news site The Intercept said Al Jazeera's Islamabad bureau chief, Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, was on a terror watch list, and was described in the National Security Agency documents as "a member" of both Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Zaidan told The Intercept he "absolutely" denied being part of the organisations, while noting that he had through his work conducted interviews with senior al-Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden.
Responding to the report, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "deeply troubled" by the allegations.
"Coloring the legitimate newsgathering activities of a respected journalist as evidence of international terrorism risks chilling the vital work of the media, especially in Pakistan where journalists routinely interview Taliban and other militant groups as part of their coverage," said Bob Dietz, the committee's Asia program coordinator.
Read more @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/11594186/US-put-Al-Jazeeras-Pakistan-bureau-chief-on-terror-list.html
The US government has marked Ahmad Zaidan, an influential journalist and Al Jazeera's longtime Islamabad bureau chief, as a member of Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, according to NSA documents unearthed by whistleblower Edward Snowden (via The Intercept). Zaidan has been embedded in Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout his career, and he's had unique access to top Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership, including Osama bin Laden. In 2011, Zaidan and Al Jazeera released a documentary about bin Laden, including interviews with Taliban fighters, government workers and journalists who knew him. Zaidan has, in the course of his job, regularly traveled across the Middle East and communicated with Al Qaeda officials -- which is why the US government's SKYNET program marked him as a member of Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. Zaidan's file was singled out as an example of the power of SKYNET, the US program that attempts to find suspicious patterns within location and communication information gathered from bulk call records. SKYNET recognized Zaidan as a likely Al Qaeda courier, though it appears the NSA had an existing file on the journalist, The Intercept reports.
The US government has marked Ahmad Zaidan, an influential journalist and Al Jazeera's longtime Islamabad bureau chief, as a member of Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, according to NSA documents unearthed by whistleblower Edward Snowden (via The Intercept). Zaidan has been embedded in Afghanistan and Pakistan throughout his career, and he's had unique access to top Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership, including Osama bin Laden. In 2011, Zaidan and Al Jazeera released a documentary about bin Laden, including interviews with Taliban fighters, government workers and journalists who knew him. Zaidan has, in the course of his job, regularly traveled across the Middle East and communicated with Al Qaeda officials -- which is why the US government's SKYNET program marked him as a member of Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Zaidan's file was singled out as an example of the power of SKYNET, the US program that attempts to find suspicious patterns within location and communication information gathered from bulk call records. SKYNET recognized Zaidan as a likely Al Qaeda courier, though it appears the NSA had an existing file on the journalist, The Intercept reports.
Read more @ http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/08/skynet-nsa-journalist-terrorist/?ncid=rss_truncated
Summary:China has included a "sovereignty" clause in a new wave of policies designed to tighten IT management. China has proposed a fresh wave of cybersecurity legislation to tighten its grip on the county's information technology structure and further localise the use of tech products. China has included cybersecurity as an important element of a draft national security law, as reported by Reuters. The document, posted online this week, proposes tighter controls on the country's information technology structure in response to US intelligence agency surveillance. Last year, former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA's spying activities, which included bulk metadata collection on domestic and foreign targets, wiretapping and the creation of backdoors within US tech products used to spy on foreign targets. As part of a fresh wave of changes in response to these revelations, China's National People's Congress (NPC) have begun to review the draft legislation, which includes a "sovereignty" clause to make cybersecurity an official national interest -- one to be controlled and protected. The document says: "The state establishes national internet and information security safeguard systems [..] and protects national internet space sovereignty, security and development interests." The country must also "achieve security and control in internet and information core technology, key infrastructure, and important data and information systems," as well as punish Internet assaults and strengthen Internet management -- potentially going beyond China's Great Firewall and Great Cannon censorship tools.
Summary:China has included a "sovereignty" clause in a new wave of policies designed to tighten IT management.
China has proposed a fresh wave of cybersecurity legislation to tighten its grip on the county's information technology structure and further localise the use of tech products.
China has included cybersecurity as an important element of a draft national security law, as reported by Reuters. The document, posted online this week, proposes tighter controls on the country's information technology structure in response to US intelligence agency surveillance.
Last year, former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the NSA's spying activities, which included bulk metadata collection on domestic and foreign targets, wiretapping and the creation of backdoors within US tech products used to spy on foreign targets.
As part of a fresh wave of changes in response to these revelations, China's National People's Congress (NPC) have begun to review the draft legislation, which includes a "sovereignty" clause to make cybersecurity an official national interest -- one to be controlled and protected. The document says:
"The state establishes national internet and information security safeguard systems [..] and protects national internet space sovereignty, security and development interests."
The country must also "achieve security and control in internet and information core technology, key infrastructure, and important data and information systems," as well as punish Internet assaults and strengthen Internet management -- potentially going beyond China's Great Firewall and Great Cannon censorship tools.
Read more @ http://www.zdnet.com/article/china-tightens-cybersecurity-controls-to-limit-foreign-spying/
Read more @ http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/08/us-china-security-idUSKBN0NT0E620150508
Read more @ http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/asia-pacific/china-tightens-national-security-in-wake-of-snowden-revelations-1.2205576
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has criticised the Australian Government's data retention laws, labelling them 'dangerous'. US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden has criticised the Australian Government's data retention laws which passed in March. Speaking at the Progress 2015 conference in Melbourne - from Moscow where he has sought asylum, Mr Snowden labelled the metadata collection laws as dangerous. "What this means is they are watching everybody all the time. They're collecting information and they're just putting it in buckets that they can then search through not only locally, not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign intelligences services," Mr Snowden said on Friday. "Whether or not you're doing anything wrong, you're being watched." Mr Snowden also weighed in on the additional protections for journalists, saying they are minimal. "Under these mandatory metadata laws you can immediately see who journalists are contacting, from which you can derive who their sources are."
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has criticised the Australian Government's data retention laws, labelling them 'dangerous'.
US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden has criticised the Australian Government's data retention laws which passed in March.
Speaking at the Progress 2015 conference in Melbourne - from Moscow where he has sought asylum, Mr Snowden labelled the metadata collection laws as dangerous.
"What this means is they are watching everybody all the time. They're collecting information and they're just putting it in buckets that they can then search through not only locally, not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign intelligences services," Mr Snowden said on Friday.
"Whether or not you're doing anything wrong, you're being watched."
Mr Snowden also weighed in on the additional protections for journalists, saying they are minimal.
"Under these mandatory metadata laws you can immediately see who journalists are contacting, from which you can derive who their sources are."
Read more @ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/09/snowden-australian-mass-surveillance-citizens-wont-prevent-terrorism
NSA WHISTLEBLOWER Edward Snowden has lashed out at the Australian Government’s data retention laws during a conference in Melbourne. Mr Snowden joined the Progress 2015 conference via video link from Moscow, where he sought asylum.During his address, Mr Snowden said the Federal Government’s data retention laws passed in March breach the privacy of Australians.“This is dangerous,” he said.“This is not things that governments have ever traditionally been empowered to claim for themselves as authorities.Mr Snowden said the laws were a radical departure from the operation of traditional liberal societies around the world.“What this means is they are watching everybody all the time,” he said. “They’re collecting information and they’re just putting it in buckets that they can then search through not only locally, not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign intelligences services.“They can trawl through this information in the same way. Whether or not you’re doing anything wrong you’re being watched.”
NSA WHISTLEBLOWER Edward Snowden has lashed out at the Australian Government’s data retention laws during a conference in Melbourne.
Mr Snowden joined the Progress 2015 conference via video link from Moscow, where he sought asylum.
During his address, Mr Snowden said the Federal Government’s data retention laws passed in March breach the privacy of Australians.
“This is dangerous,” he said.
“This is not things that governments have ever traditionally been empowered to claim for themselves as authorities.
Mr Snowden said the laws were a radical departure from the operation of traditional liberal societies around the world.
“What this means is they are watching everybody all the time,” he said.
“They’re collecting information and they’re just putting it in buckets that they can then search through not only locally, not only in Australia, but they can then share this with foreign intelligences services.
“They can trawl through this information in the same way. Whether or not you’re doing anything wrong you’re being watched.”
Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/snowden-slams-australias-data-retention-laws-during-melbourne-confrence/story-fnjwnfzw-1227349253141
May 12 15 11:40 AM
Cars // A man in Fairfax, Virginia is suing the local police department for indiscriminately scanning citizens' license plates and storing that information in massive databases. Neal Harrison, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, says his car's license plate was unlawfully scanned twice in 2014. The Fairfax County police department (FCPD) database “can be used to discover the location of thousands of vehicles at a particular date and time,” said the ACLU's Rebecca Glenberg in a statement. “It is an unacceptable invasion of privacy.” A growing number of law enforcement agencies and repo men rely on scanners that collect license plate numbers and the date, time and location of the scan. The technology uses cameras mounted on police cars and street signs to snap photos of passing license plates. The scans are untargeted, so your car could get scanned whether you're a criminal suspect or not. The photos are then uploaded and stored in searchable databases.
A man in Fairfax, Virginia is suing the local police department for indiscriminately scanning citizens' license plates and storing that information in massive databases. Neal Harrison, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, says his car's license plate was unlawfully scanned twice in 2014.
The Fairfax County police department (FCPD) database “can be used to discover the location of thousands of vehicles at a particular date and time,” said the ACLU's Rebecca Glenberg in a statement. “It is an unacceptable invasion of privacy.”
A growing number of law enforcement agencies and repo men rely on scanners that collect license plate numbers and the date, time and location of the scan. The technology uses cameras mounted on police cars and street signs to snap photos of passing license plates. The scans are untargeted, so your car could get scanned whether you're a criminal suspect or not. The photos are then uploaded and stored in searchable databases.
Read more @ http://www.popsci.com.au/tech/cars/a-legal-challenge-to-robotracking-of-license-plates,403748
May 13 15 10:59 PM
A federal appeals court ruled last week that Section 215 of the Patriot Act does not authorize the National Security Agency’s telephone metadata surveillance program. Since Edward Snowden disclosed it in June 2013, the NSA program has been so controversial that its fate has taken on historic significance. The decision in American Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper arrived as Congress must decide whether to reform the program, continue it by reauthorizing Section 215 or let Section 215 expire on its June 1 sunset date. The judgment provided the program’s defenders and critics with ammunition in this debate. Moreover, the court, through its decision, seems to be sending the political branches explicit constitutional messages about what should happen next.
A federal appeals court ruled last week that Section 215 of the Patriot Act does not authorize the National Security Agency’s telephone metadata surveillance program. Since Edward Snowden disclosed it in June 2013, the NSA program has been so controversial that its fate has taken on historic significance.
The decision in American Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper arrived as Congress must decide whether to reform the program, continue it by reauthorizing Section 215 or let Section 215 expire on its June 1 sunset date.
The judgment provided the program’s defenders and critics with ammunition in this debate. Moreover, the court, through its decision, seems to be sending the political branches explicit constitutional messages about what should happen next.
Read more @ http://www.newsweek.com/what-court-ruling-nsa-metadata-snooping-means-331116
The debate over the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records has reached a critical point after a federal appeals court last week ruled the practice illegal, dramatically raising the stakes for pending Congressional legislation that would fully or partially reinstate the program. An army of pundits promptly took to television screens, with many of them brushing off concerns about the surveillance. The talking heads have been backstopping the NSA’s mass surveillance more or less continuously since it was revealed. They spoke out to support the agency when NSA contractor Edward Snowden released details of its programs in 2013, and they’ve kept up their advocacy ever since — on television news shows, newspaper op-ed pages, online and at Congressional hearings. But it’s often unclear just how financially cozy these pundits are with the surveillance state they defend, since they’re typically identified with titles that give no clues about their conflicts of interest. Such conflicts have become particularly important, and worth pointing out, now that the debate about NSA surveillance has shifted from simple outrage to politically prominent legislative debates. As one example of the opaque link between NSA money and punditry, take the words of Stewart Baker, who was general counsel to the NSA from 1992 through 1994. During a Senate committee hearing last summer on one of the reform bills now before Congress, the USA FREEDOM Act, which would partially limit mass surveillance of telephone metadata, Baker essentially said the bill would aid terrorists. “First, I do not believe we should end the bulk collection program,” he told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “It will put us at risk. It will, as Senator King strongly suggested, slow our responses to serious terrorist incidents. And it is a leap into the dark with respect to this data.” Previously, in December 2013, Baker wrote in The New York Times that “Snowden has already lost the broader debate he claims to want, and the leaks are slowly losing their international impact as well.” He made similar comments in multiple news outlets, and testified before Congress to defend virtually every program revealed by the Snowden documents. Baker at one point told intelligence committee lawmakers that The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald was simply on a campaign to “cause the greatest possible diplomatic damage to the United States and its intelligence capabilities.” Baker has identified himself at various points as a former government official with the NSA and Department of Homeland Security and as a Washington, D.C. attorney. But the law firm at which Baker is a partner, Steptoe & Johnson, maintains a distinct role in the world of NSA contracting. At the time of his pro-NSA advocacy in 2013 and 2014, the company was registered to lobby on behalf of companies which have served as major NSA contractors, including Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Leidos and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Asked about his law firm’s lobby work for NSA contractors, Baker responded, “If you’re looking for someone with a ‘financial stake in the surveillance debate’ you should start with your boss, Glenn Greenwald, who has a $250 million stake in continuing to present the debate as ‘Snowden good. NSA evil.’ And, of course, there’s you. You’ve got a ‘financial stake’ in keeping your job. Which means that you won’t have the balls to publish my reply.” (Pierre Omidyar made a $50 million contribution and $250 million commitment to First Look Media. Glenn Greenwald is the co-founding editor of the First Look publication The Intercept, not the holder of a $250 million stake.) Due to the secretive nature of the agency’s work, NSA contracts are often shielded from public disclosure, and identifying financial links between pundits and the agency’s web of partners is tricky. But the work of journalists and whistleblowers such as James Bamford, who was assigned to an NSA unit while serving in the Navy, gives us a sense of which companies work for U.S. intelligence agencies. Drawing largely from these disclosures, The Intercept has identified several former government and military officials whose voices have shaped the public discourse around government spying and surveillance issues but whose financial ties to NSA contractors have received little attention. These pundits have played a key role in the public debate as the White House and the agency itself have struggled to defend the most controversial spying programs revealed by Snowden’s documents. Retired general says “what the NSA has been doing has been right,” cashes big checks from NSA contractor Fox News Military Analyst Jack Keane appears regularly on the network to opine on national security issues. His credentials are strong. Keane served as a four star general, as vice chief of staff of the Army, and is currently the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War. Keane has appeared on Fox News to discuss surveillance issues multiple times, coming down squarely in support of the NSA. Last year, as President Obama was developing reform proposals mirroring key provisions in the FREEDOM Act, including limits on the collection of phone records, he dismissed concerns about civil liberties. “Well, I believe what the NSA has been doing has been right on the mark,” Keane told Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs. Backing down from any of the NSA programs, Keane said, would make America “less secure and more vulnerable.” In another appearance on Fox, Keane called the bulk collection of American phone records “vital for national security.” Since 2004, Keane has served as board member to General Dynamics, a firm that contracts with the NSA — as occasionally disclosed publicly, as in October 2014, in 2010, and in 2009. For his service as a board member, Keane has earned about a quarter of a million dollars a year in cash and stock awards. According to a December 2010 Boston Globe article, Keane has also worked as a consultant to other military contractors, pushing government officials to hire his clients for government work, but failed to register his activities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act because he said his lobby activity fell below the statutory requirement for registration. A spokesman for Keane said he “appears on TV news as much as 30 times per month, covering multiple topics at each appearance as a military analyst. He does not recall making comments on the topic you have mentioned.” Ex-CIA chief imagined Snowden “hanged by his neck” while earning money from funder of NSA contractors In June of 2013, following the first Snowden disclosures, retired General Wesley Clark and former Central Intelligence Agency Chief James Woolsey cast aspersions on the whistleblower who brought the NSA’s privacy violations to light. “The American people,” Clark said confidently during an interview on CNN, “are solidly behind the PRISM program and all that’s going on.” Appearing on Fox News, Woolsey referred to Snowden’s disclosure of documents as “damaging because it gives terrorists an idea of how we collect and what we might know.” Woolsey would later comment that Snowden “should be hanged by his neck” if convicted for treason. The men are, and were at the time, advisors to Paladin Capital Group, an investment advisor and private equity firm whose Homeland Security Fund was set up about three months after the September 11 attacks to focus on defense and intelligence-related startups. Woolsey confirmed he is paid by Paladin Capital; Clark did not respond to a request for comment. In 2014, Paladin’s portfolio was valued at more than $587 million. At the time of Woolsey and Clark’s anti-Snowden statements, it included a stake in Endgame Systems, a computer network security company that had worked with the NSA, having reportedly counted the agency among its largest customers. Paladin was also invested in CyberCore, which had provided technological work to the NSA. Later, in 2014, Paladin invested in Shadow Networks, formerly known as ZanttzZ, which also provided tech work to the NSA. RNC chair called Snowden a “traitor” — and took $1 million from NSA contractor In March 2014, former Republican National Committee Chair Jim Gilmore took to the pages of the Washington Times to write that, “Mr. Snowden’s traitorous act is a perfect example of the dual threat we face from state and non-state actors.” He also promoted his view that conservatives should not embrace Snowden’s disclosures about mass surveillance during a testy debate with libertarians at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year. At CPAC, Gilmore touted his credentials on the issue of homeland security as “the governor of Virginia during the 9/11 attack” and chairman of an advisory board on homeland security issues. But since 2009, Gilmore has also worked for a major NSA contractor as member of the board of CACI International, for which he has been compensated with more than $1 million in cash and stock awards. CACI, the firm whose contractors were behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, has steadily increased its stake in the cyberintelligence business, acquiring the firm Six3 Systems, an NSA contractor, for $820 million two years ago.
The debate over the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records has reached a critical point after a federal appeals court last week ruled the practice illegal, dramatically raising the stakes for pending Congressional legislation that would fully or partially reinstate the program. An army of pundits promptly took to television screens, with many of them brushing off concerns about the surveillance.
The talking heads have been backstopping the NSA’s mass surveillance more or less continuously since it was revealed. They spoke out to support the agency when NSA contractor Edward Snowden released details of its programs in 2013, and they’ve kept up their advocacy ever since — on television news shows, newspaper op-ed pages, online and at Congressional hearings. But it’s often unclear just how financially cozy these pundits are with the surveillance state they defend, since they’re typically identified with titles that give no clues about their conflicts of interest. Such conflicts have become particularly important, and worth pointing out, now that the debate about NSA surveillance has shifted from simple outrage to politically prominent legislative debates.
As one example of the opaque link between NSA money and punditry, take the words of Stewart Baker, who was general counsel to the NSA from 1992 through 1994. During a Senate committee hearing last summer on one of the reform bills now before Congress, the USA FREEDOM Act, which would partially limit mass surveillance of telephone metadata, Baker essentially said the bill would aid terrorists.
“First, I do not believe we should end the bulk collection program,” he told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “It will put us at risk. It will, as Senator King strongly suggested, slow our responses to serious terrorist incidents. And it is a leap into the dark with respect to this data.”
Previously, in December 2013, Baker wrote in The New York Times that “Snowden has already lost the broader debate he claims to want, and the leaks are slowly losing their international impact as well.” He made similar comments in multiple news outlets, and testified before Congress to defend virtually every program revealed by the Snowden documents. Baker at one point told intelligence committee lawmakers that The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald was simply on a campaign to “cause the greatest possible diplomatic damage to the United States and its intelligence capabilities.”
Baker has identified himself at various points as a former government official with the NSA and Department of Homeland Security and as a Washington, D.C. attorney. But the law firm at which Baker is a partner, Steptoe & Johnson, maintains a distinct role in the world of NSA contracting. At the time of his pro-NSA advocacy in 2013 and 2014, the company was registered to lobby on behalf of companies which have served as major NSA contractors, including Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Leidos and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).
Asked about his law firm’s lobby work for NSA contractors, Baker responded, “If you’re looking for someone with a ‘financial stake in the surveillance debate’ you should start with your boss, Glenn Greenwald, who has a $250 million stake in continuing to present the debate as ‘Snowden good. NSA evil.’ And, of course, there’s you. You’ve got a ‘financial stake’ in keeping your job. Which means that you won’t have the balls to publish my reply.” (Pierre Omidyar made a $50 million contribution and $250 million commitment to First Look Media. Glenn Greenwald is the co-founding editor of the First Look publication The Intercept, not the holder of a $250 million stake.)
Due to the secretive nature of the agency’s work, NSA contracts are often shielded from public disclosure, and identifying financial links between pundits and the agency’s web of partners is tricky. But the work of journalists and whistleblowers such as James Bamford, who was assigned to an NSA unit while serving in the Navy, gives us a sense of which companies work for U.S. intelligence agencies. Drawing largely from these disclosures, The Intercept has identified several former government and military officials whose voices have shaped the public discourse around government spying and surveillance issues but whose financial ties to NSA contractors have received little attention. These pundits have played a key role in the public debate as the White House and the agency itself have struggled to defend the most controversial spying programs revealed by Snowden’s documents.
Fox News Military Analyst Jack Keane appears regularly on the network to opine on national security issues. His credentials are strong. Keane served as a four star general, as vice chief of staff of the Army, and is currently the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War.
Keane has appeared on Fox News to discuss surveillance issues multiple times, coming down squarely in support of the NSA. Last year, as President Obama was developing reform proposals mirroring key provisions in the FREEDOM Act, including limits on the collection of phone records, he dismissed concerns about civil liberties.
“Well, I believe what the NSA has been doing has been right on the mark,” Keane told Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs. Backing down from any of the NSA programs, Keane said, would make America “less secure and more vulnerable.” In another appearance on Fox, Keane called the bulk collection of American phone records “vital for national security.”
Since 2004, Keane has served as board member to General Dynamics, a firm that contracts with the NSA — as occasionally disclosed publicly, as in October 2014, in 2010, and in 2009. For his service as a board member, Keane has earned about a quarter of a million dollars a year in cash and stock awards. According to a December 2010 Boston Globe article, Keane has also worked as a consultant to other military contractors, pushing government officials to hire his clients for government work, but failed to register his activities under the Lobbying Disclosure Act because he said his lobby activity fell below the statutory requirement for registration.
A spokesman for Keane said he “appears on TV news as much as 30 times per month, covering multiple topics at each appearance as a military analyst. He does not recall making comments on the topic you have mentioned.”
In June of 2013, following the first Snowden disclosures, retired General Wesley Clark and former Central Intelligence Agency Chief James Woolsey cast aspersions on the whistleblower who brought the NSA’s privacy violations to light.
“The American people,” Clark said confidently during an interview on CNN, “are solidly behind the PRISM program and all that’s going on.” Appearing on Fox News, Woolsey referred to Snowden’s disclosure of documents as “damaging because it gives terrorists an idea of how we collect and what we might know.” Woolsey would later comment that Snowden “should be hanged by his neck” if convicted for treason.
The men are, and were at the time, advisors to Paladin Capital Group, an investment advisor and private equity firm whose Homeland Security Fund was set up about three months after the September 11 attacks to focus on defense and intelligence-related startups. Woolsey confirmed he is paid by Paladin Capital; Clark did not respond to a request for comment. In 2014, Paladin’s portfolio was valued at more than $587 million. At the time of Woolsey and Clark’s anti-Snowden statements, it included a stake in Endgame Systems, a computer network security company that had worked with the NSA, having reportedly counted the agency among its largest customers. Paladin was also invested in CyberCore, which had provided technological work to the NSA. Later, in 2014, Paladin invested in Shadow Networks, formerly known as ZanttzZ, which also provided tech work to the NSA.
In March 2014, former Republican National Committee Chair Jim Gilmore took to the pages of the Washington Times to write that, “Mr. Snowden’s traitorous act is a perfect example of the dual threat we face from state and non-state actors.” He also promoted his view that conservatives should not embrace Snowden’s disclosures about mass surveillance during a testy debate with libertarians at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year.
At CPAC, Gilmore touted his credentials on the issue of homeland security as “the governor of Virginia during the 9/11 attack” and chairman of an advisory board on homeland security issues. But since 2009, Gilmore has also worked for a major NSA contractor as member of the board of CACI International, for which he has been compensated with more than $1 million in cash and stock awards. CACI, the firm whose contractors were behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, has steadily increased its stake in the cyberintelligence business, acquiring the firm Six3 Systems, an NSA contractor, for $820 million two years ago.
Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/12/intelligence-industry-cash-flows-media-echo-chamber-defending-nsa-surveillance/
Whatever your opinion of Edward Snowden, the shockwaves from his leaks of classified material continue to roil all three branches of the federal government. The latest wave broke last week when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in ACLU v. Clapper that the National Security Agency’s mass telephone metadata collection program, which has been in place for a decade or more, is not authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and is therefore illegal. Public awareness of that program came to light in June 2013, and only when the newspaper The Guardian published a leaked order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC”) requiring Verizon to produce to the NSA “on an ongoing daily basis . . . all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’ created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.” It has since become clear that such FISC orders have been issued to virtually all major telephone carriers in the United States. This is arguably the most significant ruling to date on the various surveillance programs revealed by Snowden, and the only appellate court ruling on Section 215, which is currently set to expire on June 1, 2015. In recent months, lawmakers have intensely debated whether the program should be continued as is, modified, or ended. Some members of Congress, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other republican lawmakers, are still pushing for a clean reauthorization, even though extending the program without modification would appear to run contrary to the court’s ruling. Meanwhile, the bipartisan-backed USA Freedom Act in the House and the Senate’s USA FREEDOM ACT of 2015 would curb bulk data collection and introduce additional reforms, but consumer advocates argue that the reforms do not go far enough, and are urging Congress to simply let the provisions expire. While the Obama Administration has defended the program, it has also called for the end of bulk collection, advancing an alternative mechanism that would require the carriers themselves to maintain the data, until the government requests it. Votes on such reforms are expected soon in both the House and the Senate, with some Senators already threatening a filibuster.
Whatever your opinion of Edward Snowden, the shockwaves from his leaks of classified material continue to roil all three branches of the federal government.
The latest wave broke last week when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in ACLU v. Clapper that the National Security Agency’s mass telephone metadata collection program, which has been in place for a decade or more, is not authorized by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, and is therefore illegal. Public awareness of that program came to light in June 2013, and only when the newspaper The Guardian published a leaked order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC”) requiring Verizon to produce to the NSA “on an ongoing daily basis . . . all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’ created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.” It has since become clear that such FISC orders have been issued to virtually all major telephone carriers in the United States.
This is arguably the most significant ruling to date on the various surveillance programs revealed by Snowden, and the only appellate court ruling on Section 215, which is currently set to expire on June 1, 2015. In recent months, lawmakers have intensely debated whether the program should be continued as is, modified, or ended. Some members of Congress, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other republican lawmakers, are still pushing for a clean reauthorization, even though extending the program without modification would appear to run contrary to the court’s ruling. Meanwhile, the bipartisan-backed USA Freedom Act in the House and the Senate’s USA FREEDOM ACT of 2015 would curb bulk data collection and introduce additional reforms, but consumer advocates argue that the reforms do not go far enough, and are urging Congress to simply let the provisions expire. While the Obama Administration has defended the program, it has also called for the end of bulk collection, advancing an alternative mechanism that would require the carriers themselves to maintain the data, until the government requests it. Votes on such reforms are expected soon in both the House and the Senate, with some Senators already threatening a filibuster.
Read more @ http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=1c57b24a-4e40-49b1-bb2a-cba051131b23
Yesterday, the White House named Ed Felten, a Princeton computer science professor, as a deputy chief technology officer. The current tech advisors staffing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy came from big tech companies: Megan Smith, chief technology officer, was a vice president at Google, while Alexander Macgillivray, deputy chief technology officer, was a general counsel at Twitter. Felten, in contrast, brings an academic perspective to policy discussions. Over the course of his career, Felten has dug deep into a range of technical—and often controversial—problems. He is a privacy and security expert, with a particular interest in how these issues play out in the media. In 2001, for instance, as Napster was being shut down, he wrote about the weaknesses in music security systems. This earned him the wrath of music organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America, who feared that his findings would only spur more music-stealing behavior.
Yesterday, the White House named Ed Felten, a Princeton computer science professor, as a deputy chief technology officer.
The current tech advisors staffing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy came from big tech companies: Megan Smith, chief technology officer, was a vice president at Google, while Alexander Macgillivray, deputy chief technology officer, was a general counsel at Twitter.
Felten, in contrast, brings an academic perspective to policy discussions. Over the course of his career, Felten has dug deep into a range of technical—and often controversial—problems. He is a privacy and security expert, with a particular interest in how these issues play out in the media. In 2001, for instance, as Napster was being shut down, he wrote about the weaknesses in music security systems. This earned him the wrath of music organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America, who feared that his findings would only spur more music-stealing behavior.
Read more @ http://www.fastcompany.com/3046185/fast-feed/obama-brings-on-nsa-bashing-hacker-professor-as-his-new-tech-advisor
Before 9/11, there was an individual by the name of Khalid al-Mihdhar, who came to be one of the principal hijackers. He was being tracked by the intelligence agencies in the Far East. They lost track of him. At the same time, the intelligence agencies had identified an al-Qaeda safehouse in Yemen. They understood that that al-Qaeda safehouse had a telephone number, but they could not know who was calling into that particular safehouse. We came to find out afterwards that the person who had called into that safehouse was al-Mihdhar, who was in the United States in San Diego. If we had had this program in place at the time, we would have been able to identify that particular telephone number in San Diego….[T]he opportunity was not there. If we had had this program that opportunity would have been there. -- former FBI Director Robert Mueller, testifying before Congress in June 2013 (PDF). Al-Mihdhar and the Justification for NSA Bulk Collection The al-Mihdhar example has haunted the debate over the NSA’s call records program since the program’s disclosure in June 2013. As the story goes, had the program been in place before 9/11, the NSA would have known al-Mihdhar was calling the Yemeni safehouse from inside the U.S. and, potentially, could have stopped the attacks on September 11th from happening. As former NSA Director Keith Alexander, also in testimony before Congress, described the problem, the intelligence community “couldn’t connect the dots [before 9/11] because we didn’t have the dots.” (PDF). There’s only one problem: that's just not true. The fact is, U.S. intelligence agencies knew of al-Mihdhar long before 9/11 and had the ability find him. In the years, months, and days before 9/11, the NSA already had access to a massive database of Americans’ call records. Analysts—at NSA or CIA—could have easily searched the database for calls made from the U.S. to the safehouse in Yemen. They simply didn't. Others have already questioned the government's claims about al-Mihdhar. They argued that missed opportunities and the failure of agencies to share critical information in the run-up to 9/11, not the absence of a massive metadata repository, resulted in the failure to stop the plot. However, disclosures over the past year have undermined government officials' claims about the call records program even more deeply: the surveillance tool that al-Mihdhar supposedly justifies was already in use before 9/11. And it did nothing to enhance our nation’s security.
Before 9/11, there was an individual by the name of Khalid al-Mihdhar, who came to be one of the principal hijackers. He was being tracked by the intelligence agencies in the Far East. They lost track of him. At the same time, the intelligence agencies had identified an al-Qaeda safehouse in Yemen. They understood that that al-Qaeda safehouse had a telephone number, but they could not know who was calling into that particular safehouse.
We came to find out afterwards that the person who had called into that safehouse was al-Mihdhar, who was in the United States in San Diego. If we had had this program in place at the time, we would have been able to identify that particular telephone number in San Diego….[T]he opportunity was not there. If we had had this program that opportunity would have been there.
-- former FBI Director Robert Mueller, testifying before Congress in June 2013 (PDF).
Al-Mihdhar and the Justification for NSA Bulk Collection
The al-Mihdhar example has haunted the debate over the NSA’s call records program since the program’s disclosure in June 2013. As the story goes, had the program been in place before 9/11, the NSA would have known al-Mihdhar was calling the Yemeni safehouse from inside the U.S. and, potentially, could have stopped the attacks on September 11th from happening. As former NSA Director Keith Alexander, also in testimony before Congress, described the problem, the intelligence community “couldn’t connect the dots [before 9/11] because we didn’t have the dots.” (PDF).
There’s only one problem: that's just not true.
The fact is, U.S. intelligence agencies knew of al-Mihdhar long before 9/11 and had the ability find him. In the years, months, and days before 9/11, the NSA already had access to a massive database of Americans’ call records. Analysts—at NSA or CIA—could have easily searched the database for calls made from the U.S. to the safehouse in Yemen. They simply didn't.
Others have already questioned the government's claims about al-Mihdhar. They argued that missed opportunities and the failure of agencies to share critical information in the run-up to 9/11, not the absence of a massive metadata repository, resulted in the failure to stop the plot. However, disclosures over the past year have undermined government officials' claims about the call records program even more deeply: the surveillance tool that al-Mihdhar supposedly justifies was already in use before 9/11. And it did nothing to enhance our nation’s security.
Read more @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/nsas-call-record-program-911-hijacker-and-failure-bulk-collection
Read more @ http://www.themillions.com/2015/05/the-technological-panopticon-on-catie-disabatos-the-ghost-network.html
Read more @ http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/05/progressive-approach#
Read more @ http://patriotpost.us/posts/35150
Our View: Americans need to guard individual rights -- or the terrorists win The threat of terrorism remains as real as the hatred of extremists who mean us harm. Yet Americans' way of life — the life terrorists want to destroy — thrives on personal freedom and individual liberty. Our government can't forget that or the terrorists will win without detonating another bomb. Two court decisions reiterate the need to take a hard look at the balance between privacy and an over-intrusive government. One is about searches at the border; the other is about your phone calls. Last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the National Security Agency's massive collection of Americans' phone data is illegal. The court sidestepped the issue of whether the surveillance is unconstitutional, focusing instead on what's permissible under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. This court said sweeping up and storing phone data "exceeds the scope" of that law. "The statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here," Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel. "The sheer volume of information sought is staggering."
The threat of terrorism remains as real as the hatred of extremists who mean us harm.
Yet Americans' way of life — the life terrorists want to destroy — thrives on personal freedom and individual liberty. Our government can't forget that or the terrorists will win without detonating another bomb.
Two court decisions reiterate the need to take a hard look at the balance between privacy and an over-intrusive government. One is about searches at the border; the other is about your phone calls.
Last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the National Security Agency's massive collection of Americans' phone data is illegal. The court sidestepped the issue of whether the surveillance is unconstitutional, focusing instead on what's permissible under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.
This court said sweeping up and storing phone data "exceeds the scope" of that law.
"The statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here," Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel. "The sheer volume of information sought is staggering."
Read more @ http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/05/11/privacy-cant-be-collateral-damage-in-war-on-terrorism/27149675/
On May 8, Edward Snowden spoke to the audience at the Nordic Media Festival in Bergen, Norway about surveillance and digital security. The session was moderated by journalist Ole Torp, who started by asking me how Snowden and I first met. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of my interview with Snowden. All of the questions were submitted by Norwegian journalists in the days leading up to the session. You can find a video recording of the session here. Runa Sandvik Ed and I first met about six months before the leaks came out where we organized a CryptoParty in Hawaii. A CryptoParty is a type of event where people can come and learn about encryption, about security, about how to protect themselves online. Edward Snowden It was really an amazing experience when we look at it in hindsight. This was before anyone knew who I was. Runa was associated with The Tor Project, which works to help protect people’s anonymity online. I, at the time, was working for the NSA through a contractor, and sort of moonlighting also helping people protect their privacy, something the NSA might not have been too happy about. But the extraordinary thing about this, that we can draw as a lesson from it, is that these word of mouth efforts to teach people how to improve their security actually work. Because the same kind of methods that I used to teach people, ordinary citizens have used to protect themselves online. These methods also protected me against one of the largest manhunts in recent history.
On May 8, Edward Snowden spoke to the audience at the Nordic Media Festival in Bergen, Norway about surveillance and digital security. The session was moderated by journalist Ole Torp, who started by asking me how Snowden and I first met. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of my interview with Snowden. All of the questions were submitted by Norwegian journalists in the days leading up to the session. You can find a video recording of the session here.
Runa Sandvik Ed and I first met about six months before the leaks came out where we organized a CryptoParty in Hawaii. A CryptoParty is a type of event where people can come and learn about encryption, about security, about how to protect themselves online.
Edward Snowden It was really an amazing experience when we look at it in hindsight. This was before anyone knew who I was. Runa was associated with The Tor Project, which works to help protect people’s anonymity online. I, at the time, was working for the NSA through a contractor, and sort of moonlighting also helping people protect their privacy, something the NSA might not have been too happy about. But the extraordinary thing about this, that we can draw as a lesson from it, is that these word of mouth efforts to teach people how to improve their security actually work. Because the same kind of methods that I used to teach people, ordinary citizens have used to protect themselves online. These methods also protected me against one of the largest manhunts in recent history.
Read more @ http://www.forbes.com/sites/runasandvik/2015/05/10/what-edward-snowden-said-at-the-nordic-media-festival/
We’ve suspected it all along—that Skynet, the massive program that brings about world destruction in the Terminator movies, was just a fictionalization of a real program in the hands of the US government. And now it’s confirmed—at least in name. As The Intercept reports today, the NSA does have a program called Skynet. But unlike the autonomous, self-aware computerized defense system in Terminator that goes rogue and launches a nuclear attack that destroys most of humanity, this one is a surveillance program that uses phone metadata to track the location and call activities of suspected terrorists. A journalist for Al Jazeera reportedly became one of its targets after he was placed on a terrorist watch list. Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, bureau chief for Al Jazeera’s Islamabad office, got tracked by Skynet after he was identified by US intelligence as a possible Al Qaeda member and assigned a watch list number. A Syrian national, Zaidan has scored a number of exclusive interviews with senior Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden himself. Skynet uses phone location and call metadata from bulk phone call records to detect suspicious patterns in the physical movements of suspects and their communication habits, according to a 2012 government presentation The Intercept obtained from Edward Snowden.
We’ve suspected it all along—that Skynet, the massive program that brings about world destruction in the Terminator movies, was just a fictionalization of a real program in the hands of the US government. And now it’s confirmed—at least in name.
As The Intercept reports today, the NSA does have a program called Skynet. But unlike the autonomous, self-aware computerized defense system in Terminator that goes rogue and launches a nuclear attack that destroys most of humanity, this one is a surveillance program that uses phone metadata to track the location and call activities of suspected terrorists. A journalist for Al Jazeera reportedly became one of its targets after he was placed on a terrorist watch list.
Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, bureau chief for Al Jazeera’s Islamabad office, got tracked by Skynet after he was identified by US intelligence as a possible Al Qaeda member and assigned a watch list number. A Syrian national, Zaidan has scored a number of exclusive interviews with senior Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden himself.
Skynet uses phone location and call metadata from bulk phone call records to detect suspicious patterns in the physical movements of suspects and their communication habits, according to a 2012 government presentation The Intercept obtained from Edward Snowden.
Read more @ http://www.wired.com/2015/05/nsa-actual-skynet-program/
Recently, a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection program is not authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. This court ruling confirms what we’ve been saying all along: bulk collection of data is not authorized under the law and is not accepted by the American people. It also reaffirms that a straight reauthorization of the bulk collection program, as some have proposed, is not a choice for Congress. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we reform our nation’s intelligence-gathering programs so they protect both national security and Americans’ privacy. For more than a year, we have worked to craft a bill that does just that. The result is the USA Freedom Act, which contains the most sweeping set of reforms to government surveillance practices in nearly 40 years. And this week, the House will vote on this bipartisan legislation. Last year, the USA Freedom Act passed the House 303-121. It narrowly failed to advance in the Senate, garnering 58 votes in its favor but falling 2 votes short of reaching the 60 required for cloture. That could have been the end of the reform effort, but we believed it was important to keep tackling this issue, because core American values are at stake. Consequently, we have worked since January on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to update the USA Freedom Act. The result is an even stronger bill that achieves greater reforms, unequivocally ends bulk collection of data, protects Americans’ civil liberties and increases the transparency and oversight of our intelligence community, while also protecting national security and specifically including targeted enhancements to combat foreign terrorists like members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Recently, a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection program is not authorized under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. This court ruling confirms what we’ve been saying all along: bulk collection of data is not authorized under the law and is not accepted by the American people.
It also reaffirms that a straight reauthorization of the bulk collection program, as some have proposed, is not a choice for Congress. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we reform our nation’s intelligence-gathering programs so they protect both national security and Americans’ privacy.
For more than a year, we have worked to craft a bill that does just that. The result is the USA Freedom Act, which contains the most sweeping set of reforms to government surveillance practices in nearly 40 years. And this week, the House will vote on this bipartisan legislation.
Last year, the USA Freedom Act passed the House 303-121. It narrowly failed to advance in the Senate, garnering 58 votes in its favor but falling 2 votes short of reaching the 60 required for cloture. That could have been the end of the reform effort, but we believed it was important to keep tackling this issue, because core American values are at stake.
Consequently, we have worked since January on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to update the USA Freedom Act. The result is an even stronger bill that achieves greater reforms, unequivocally ends bulk collection of data, protects Americans’ civil liberties and increases the transparency and oversight of our intelligence community, while also protecting national security and specifically including targeted enhancements to combat foreign terrorists like members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Read more @ http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/241683-pass-freedom-act-now
In March 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sat before the Senate Intelligence Committee when Sen. Ron Wyden asked him if the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper’s unequivocal response: “No, sir.” It was a lie; but it was not until months later that Clapper finally offered a tepid apology for what he claimed was a “mistake.” His excuse -- delivered with all the sincerity he could muster and still keep a straight face -- was that he “simply didn’t think about Section 215 of the Patriot Act” when he delivered his earlier, unqualified denial. Clapper moved on to other endeavors, as did the Senate; and his bald-faced lie largely faded away. Thankfully, just last week, a federal Appeals Court panel in New York showed it was not so willing to “let bygones be bygones.” In an opinion that was unusually blistering in its tone and wording, the Court stated that the manner in which the National Security Agency (NSA) has been using Section 215 to scoop up so-called “metadata” on virtually all cell phone and other electronic communications, is simply illegal.
In March 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sat before the Senate Intelligence Committee when Sen. Ron Wyden asked him if the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper’s unequivocal response: “No, sir.” It was a lie; but it was not until months later that Clapper finally offered a tepid apology for what he claimed was a “mistake.” His excuse -- delivered with all the sincerity he could muster and still keep a straight face -- was that he “simply didn’t think about Section 215 of the Patriot Act” when he delivered his earlier, unqualified denial.
Clapper moved on to other endeavors, as did the Senate; and his bald-faced lie largely faded away. Thankfully, just last week, a federal Appeals Court panel in New York showed it was not so willing to “let bygones be bygones.” In an opinion that was unusually blistering in its tone and wording, the Court stated that the manner in which the National Security Agency (NSA) has been using Section 215 to scoop up so-called “metadata” on virtually all cell phone and other electronic communications, is simply illegal.
Read more @ http://townhall.com/columnists/bobbarr/2015/05/13/court-declares-nsa-spy-program-illegal--senate-gop-leaders-respond-so-what-n1997978
The appeals-court ruling on surveillance will have damaging consequences if Obama doesn’t appeal. Usually, the only relevant objections to a judicial opinion concern errors of law and fact. Not so with a federal appeals court ruling on May 7 invalidating the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata under the USA Patriot Act. Not that the ruling by the three-judge panel of the Second Circuit in New York lacks for errors of law and fact. The panel found that when the Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of 9/11, permitted the government to subpoena business records “relevant” to an authorized investigation, the statute couldn’t have meant bulk telephone metadata—consisting of every calling number, called number, and the date and length of every call.
Usually, the only relevant objections to a judicial opinion concern errors of law and fact. Not so with a federal appeals court ruling on May 7 invalidating the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata under the USA Patriot Act.
Not that the ruling by the three-judge panel of the Second Circuit in New York lacks for errors of law and fact. The panel found that when the Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of 9/11, permitted the government to subpoena business records “relevant” to an authorized investigation, the statute couldn’t have meant bulk telephone metadata—consisting of every calling number, called number, and the date and length of every call.
Read more @ http://www.wsj.com/articles/impeding-the-fight-against-terror-1431471515
Practice revealed by Edward Snowden – collection of metadata of all US phone calls – being debated Less than a week after a US appeals court delivered a stinging legal rebuke to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of US phone data, the House of Representatives is set to vote on the most domestically controversial of Edward Snowden’s revelations.
Practice revealed by Edward Snowden – collection of metadata of all US phone calls – being debated
Less than a week after a US appeals court delivered a stinging legal rebuke to the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of US phone data, the House of Representatives is set to vote on the most domestically controversial of Edward Snowden’s revelations.
Read more @ http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/13/bill-banning-nsa-from-bulk-collecting-phone-calls-goes-to-vote
Mitch McConnell's surreal quest to preserve the NSA's illegal surveillance
The USA Freedom Act, a modest but significant surveillance reform bill, is set to pass the House of Representatives by a large margin today. Yet the law still faces an uphill battle in the Senate, thanks largely to the intransigence of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is plowing ahead with a plan to reauthorize controversial provisions of the Patriot Act — including the authority behind NSA’s massive telephone records database. And in the wake of a recent federal appeals court decision holding that program unlawful, McConnell’s stubborn opposition to reform has gone from misguided to downright illogical, even on McConnell’s own terms. When former NSA contractor Edward Snowden first revealed, nearly two years ago, that the spy agency had been indiscriminately vacuuming up the telephone records of millions of Americans, legal experts were stunned at the audacious legal justification the government offered for the program.
The USA Freedom Act, a modest but significant surveillance reform bill, is set to pass the House of Representatives by a large margin today. Yet the law still faces an uphill battle in the Senate, thanks largely to the intransigence of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is plowing ahead with a plan to reauthorize controversial provisions of the Patriot Act — including the authority behind NSA’s massive telephone records database. And in the wake of a recent federal appeals court decision holding that program unlawful, McConnell’s stubborn opposition to reform has gone from misguided to downright illogical, even on McConnell’s own terms.
When former NSA contractor Edward Snowden first revealed, nearly two years ago, that the spy agency had been indiscriminately vacuuming up the telephone records of millions of Americans, legal experts were stunned at the audacious legal justification the government offered for the program.
Read more @ http://theweek.com/articles/554665/mitch-mcconnells-surreal-quest-preserve-nsas-illegal-surveillance
Last night, before arriving for a short and busy visit to New Hampshire, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul published an op-ed in Manchester's conservative Union Leader newspaper. "As President of the United States, I will immediately end the NSA’s illegal bulk data collection and domestic spying programs," said Paul. "I will take my responsibilities seriously and protect the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans. I believe the overreaching NSA spying program represents the worst of the 'Washington Machine.'" He'd touched on some of the same themes Saturday, on a visit to San Francisco. Paul, having been accused of a light touch when drone strikes and police brutality were forced into the news cycle, was taking the opposite approach to the NSA. He would talk about it whenever he could, and focus on the June battle over whether to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act.
Last night, before arriving for a short and busy visit to New Hampshire, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul published an op-ed in Manchester's conservative Union Leader newspaper.
"As President of the United States, I will immediately end the NSA’s illegal bulk data collection and domestic spying programs," said Paul. "I will take my responsibilities seriously and protect the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans. I believe the overreaching NSA spying program represents the worst of the 'Washington Machine.'"
He'd touched on some of the same themes Saturday, on a visit to San Francisco. Paul, having been accused of a light touch when drone strikes and police brutality were forced into the news cycle, was taking the opposite approach to the NSA. He would talk about it whenever he could, and focus on the June battle over whether to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act.
Read more @ http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-11/rand-paul-battles-the-patriot-act-and-fellow-senators-who-miss-votes-
IN A major vindication for Edward Snowden - and a blow for the national security policy pursued by Republicans and Democrats alike - the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled last Thursday that the National Security Agency's (NSA) metadata collection programme is unlawful. This is the most serious blow to date for the legacy of the Patriot Act and the surveillance overreach that followed 9/11. The central question depended on the meaning of the word "relevant": Was the government's collection relevant to an investigation when it collects all the metadata for any phone call made to or from anywhere in the United States? The court said no. That was the right decision - not so much because it protects privacy, as because it broke the bad precedent of secret law created by the NSA and endorsed by the secret national security court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
IN A major vindication for Edward Snowden - and a blow for the national security policy pursued by Republicans and Democrats alike - the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled last Thursday that the National Security Agency's (NSA) metadata collection programme is unlawful.
This is the most serious blow to date for the legacy of the Patriot Act and the surveillance overreach that followed 9/11.
The central question depended on the meaning of the word "relevant": Was the government's collection relevant to an investigation when it collects all the metadata for any phone call made to or from anywhere in the United States?
The court said no. That was the right decision - not so much because it protects privacy, as because it broke the bad precedent of secret law created by the NSA and endorsed by the secret national security court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Read more @ http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/courts-no-secret-laws-vindicates-snowden-20150511
May 15 15 12:28 PM
LAST week a federal appeals court panel ruled that the NSA's indiscriminate hoovering of phone-call metadata, first revealed by the leaks of Edward Snowden, is not authorised by the Patriot Act. The pertinent section of the anti-terror bill, Section 215, is set to expire on June 1st, so the 2nd Circuit's ruling comes at a opportune time for congressional opponents of the NSA's bulk data-collection programme. "How can you reauthorise something that’s illegal?” asked Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. "You can’t. You shouldn’t". On May 13th the House overwhelmingly approved legislation to end the government’s bulk collection of phone records. The Senate will soon debate the matter. This development also clarifies the stances of several GOP presidential hopefuls, and the stakes of the primaries. Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, and Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, hawkishly favour just the sort of reauthorisation of the Patriot Act's current provisions that Mr Reid opposes. Jeb Bush, formerly the governor of Florida, is on the record as an enthusiast of the NSA's phone metadata sweeps, and presumably wants them to continue. Meanwhile Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, seeks to burnish his civil-libertarian credentials with a promise to filibuster any attempt at clean reauthorisation. Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, has staked out a middle ground by co-sponsoring the "USA Freedom Act", which would end the bulk collection of phone records while extending other parts of the bill cherished by the security establishment. More important than campaign-trail jockeying, however, is the substance of the decision. It would seem to vindicate Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor whose controversial leaks brought the formerly secret programme to light. According to the court, not only does the "staggering" quantity of information harvested by the NSA exceed the Patriot Act's statutory ambit, but the government's argument in defence of bulk-collection "defies any limiting principle". Moreover, the court says, the programme could not have been "legislatively ratified", given the fact that only a few members of congress, and none of the public, were even aware of its existence prior to Mr Snowden's leaks, much less the details concerning its "staggering" scope.
LAST week a federal appeals court panel ruled that the NSA's indiscriminate hoovering of phone-call metadata, first revealed by the leaks of Edward Snowden, is not authorised by the Patriot Act. The pertinent section of the anti-terror bill, Section 215, is set to expire on June 1st, so the 2nd Circuit's ruling comes at a opportune time for congressional opponents of the NSA's bulk data-collection programme. "How can you reauthorise something that’s illegal?” asked Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. "You can’t. You shouldn’t". On May 13th the House overwhelmingly approved legislation to end the government’s bulk collection of phone records. The Senate will soon debate the matter.
This development also clarifies the stances of several GOP presidential hopefuls, and the stakes of the primaries. Marco Rubio, a Florida senator, and Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, hawkishly favour just the sort of reauthorisation of the Patriot Act's current provisions that Mr Reid opposes. Jeb Bush, formerly the governor of Florida, is on the record as an enthusiast of the NSA's phone metadata sweeps, and presumably wants them to continue. Meanwhile Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator, seeks to burnish his civil-libertarian credentials with a promise to filibuster any attempt at clean reauthorisation. Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas, has staked out a middle ground by co-sponsoring the "USA Freedom Act", which would end the bulk collection of phone records while extending other parts of the bill cherished by the security establishment.
More important than campaign-trail jockeying, however, is the substance of the decision. It would seem to vindicate Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor whose controversial leaks brought the formerly secret programme to light. According to the court, not only does the "staggering" quantity of information harvested by the NSA exceed the Patriot Act's statutory ambit, but the government's argument in defence of bulk-collection "defies any limiting principle". Moreover, the court says, the programme could not have been "legislatively ratified", given the fact that only a few members of congress, and none of the public, were even aware of its existence prior to Mr Snowden's leaks, much less the details concerning its "staggering" scope.
Read more @ http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/05/nsa-and-courts
The House voted by a wide margin Wednesday to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records and replace it with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis. The 338-to-88 vote set the stage for a Senate showdown just weeks before the Patriot Act provisions authorizing the program are due to expire. If the House bill becomes law, it will represent one of the most significant changes stemming from the unauthorized disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. But many Senate Republicans don't like the measure, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a separate version that would keep the program as is. Yet, he also faces opposition from within his party and has said he is open to compromise. President Barack Obama supports the House legislation, known as the USA Freedom Act, which is in line with a proposal he made last March. The House passed a similar bill last year, but it failed in the Senate. Most House members would rather see the Patriot Act provisions expire altogether than re-authorize NSA bulk collection, said Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee. "I think the Senate is ultimately going to pass something like the USA Freedom Act," he said. The issue, which exploded into public view two years ago, has implications for the 2016 presidential contest, with Republican candidates staking out different positions.
The House voted by a wide margin Wednesday to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records and replace it with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis.
The 338-to-88 vote set the stage for a Senate showdown just weeks before the Patriot Act provisions authorizing the program are due to expire.
If the House bill becomes law, it will represent one of the most significant changes stemming from the unauthorized disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. But many Senate Republicans don't like the measure, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a separate version that would keep the program as is. Yet, he also faces opposition from within his party and has said he is open to compromise.
President Barack Obama supports the House legislation, known as the USA Freedom Act, which is in line with a proposal he made last March. The House passed a similar bill last year, but it failed in the Senate.
Most House members would rather see the Patriot Act provisions expire altogether than re-authorize NSA bulk collection, said Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee. "I think the Senate is ultimately going to pass something like the USA Freedom Act," he said.
The issue, which exploded into public view two years ago, has implications for the 2016 presidential contest, with Republican candidates staking out different positions.
Read more @ http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/house-vote-ending-bulk-collection-us-phone-records-31020828
WASHINGTON (AP) — After the House's lopsided bipartisan vote to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records, the Senate is under considerable pressure to pass a similar measure. If it doesn't, lawmakers risk letting the authority to collect the records expire June 1, along with other important counterterrorism provisions. The House bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, would replace bulk collection with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis. It passed 338-88. In the Senate, however, the legislation faces a 60-vote hurdle to begin debate. A similar bill failed to do so last year after passing the House by a wide margin. And the Senate majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, has expressed his opposition to the current House bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After the House's lopsided bipartisan vote to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records, the Senate is under considerable pressure to pass a similar measure. If it doesn't, lawmakers risk letting the authority to collect the records expire June 1, along with other important counterterrorism provisions.
The House bill, known as the USA Freedom Act, would replace bulk collection with a system to search the data held by telephone companies on a case-by-case basis. It passed 338-88.
In the Senate, however, the legislation faces a 60-vote hurdle to begin debate. A similar bill failed to do so last year after passing the House by a wide margin. And the Senate majority leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, has expressed his opposition to the current House bill.
Read more @ http://www.postbulletin.com/news/politics/senate-under-pressure-after-house-votes-to-end-nsa-program/article_6618be17-1fb5-5b26-b165-b94696546889.html
Democrats and Republicans in the House linked arms Wednesday and voted to cancel the NSA’s phone-snooping program and end all bulk data collection, approving a rewrite of the Patriot Act just weeks before the law’s key provisions are due to expire. The 338-88 vote sends the bill to the Senate, where the issue is far more divisive, and where Republican leaders are defending the existing Patriot Act, trying to create an all-or-nothing choice that could force a full extension ahead of the June 1 deadline. In the House, however, bipartisanship reigned as lawmakers said it was time to dismantle some of the surveillance programs run by both the Bush and Obama administrations — and the National Security Agency’s phone-snooping program in particular.
Democrats and Republicans in the House linked arms Wednesday and voted to cancel the NSA’s phone-snooping program and end all bulk data collection, approving a rewrite of the Patriot Act just weeks before the law’s key provisions are due to expire.
The 338-88 vote sends the bill to the Senate, where the issue is far more divisive, and where Republican leaders are defending the existing Patriot Act, trying to create an all-or-nothing choice that could force a full extension ahead of the June 1 deadline.
In the House, however, bipartisanship reigned as lawmakers said it was time to dismantle some of the surveillance programs run by both the Bush and Obama administrations — and the National Security Agency’s phone-snooping program in particular.
Read more @ http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/13/nsa-phone-snooping-rejected-house-patriot-act-rewr/
Read more @ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/14/us-votes-end-mass-data-collection
Read more @ http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/14/usa-nsa-legislation-idINKBN0NZ23U20150514
It was supposed to be the declawing of America’s biggest spy service. But “what no one wants to say out loud is that this is a big win for the NSA,” one former top spook says. Civil libertarians and privacy advocates were applauding yesterday after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to stop the National Security Agency from collecting Americans’ phone records. But they’d best not break out the bubbly. The really big winner here is the NSA. Over at its headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., intelligence officials are high-fiving, because they know things could have turned out much worse. “What no one wants to say out loud is that this is a big win for the NSA, and a huge nothing burger for the privacy community,” said a former senior intelligence official, one of half a dozen who have spoken to The Daily Beast about the phone records program and efforts to change it. Here’s the dirty little secret that many spooks are loathe to utter publicly, but have been admitting in private for the past two years: The program, which was exposed in documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013, is more trouble than it’s worth.
It was supposed to be the declawing of America’s biggest spy service. But “what no one wants to say out loud is that this is a big win for the NSA,” one former top spook says.
Civil libertarians and privacy advocates were applauding yesterday after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to stop the National Security Agency from collecting Americans’ phone records. But they’d best not break out the bubbly.
The really big winner here is the NSA. Over at its headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., intelligence officials are high-fiving, because they know things could have turned out much worse.
“What no one wants to say out loud is that this is a big win for the NSA, and a huge nothing burger for the privacy community,” said a former senior intelligence official, one of half a dozen who have spoken to The Daily Beast about the phone records program and efforts to change it.
Here’s the dirty little secret that many spooks are loathe to utter publicly, but have been admitting in private for the past two years: The program, which was exposed in documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013, is more trouble than it’s worth.
Read more @ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/14/nsa-loves-the-nothing-burger-spying-reform-bill.html
Read more @ http://www.itpro.co.uk/public-sector/24609/us-house-votes-to-stop-nsa-s-mass-surveillance
A week after a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program was unconstitutional, the Obama administration is urging Congress to approve legislation that would put new limitations on the agency's power to track the private phone calls and emails of millions of Americans. The USA Freedom Act, a version of which passed the House on Wednesday and which the Senate is expected to vote on soon, would rein in some of the most serious abuses of the massive government spying program while continuing to allow the agency to target the communications of suspected terrorist networks. We urge senators to approve the legislation. The vote comes as lawmakers face a June 1 deadline for reauthorizing the Patriot Act, which Congress initially passed in 2001 following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The NSA, with the blessing of a secret intelligence court, used the law to authorize the collection of information about virtually all the electronic messages Americans send or receive in order to uncover suspicious patterns of activity that might be related to terrorism. It wasn't until 2013, when former NSA contract worker Edward Snowden leaked a trove of classified documents to the press, that the full extent of the agency's intrusion into the private lives of ordinary Americans was revealed. The USA Freedom Act being considered by Congress would change a key provision of the current law, Section 215, which authorizes the NSA to collect the so-called "metadata" — times, duration and location — of phone and email messages anywhere in the world if it deems them "relevant" to a terrorism investigation. This month a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York rejected that standard, ruling that if it accepted the NSA's broad interpretation of "relevancy" literally everything could be viewed as related to the war on terror in some fashion and thus the right to privacy would be meaningless.
A week after a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program was unconstitutional, the Obama administration is urging Congress to approve legislation that would put new limitations on the agency's power to track the private phone calls and emails of millions of Americans. The USA Freedom Act, a version of which passed the House on Wednesday and which the Senate is expected to vote on soon, would rein in some of the most serious abuses of the massive government spying program while continuing to allow the agency to target the communications of suspected terrorist networks. We urge senators to approve the legislation.
The USA Freedom Act being considered by Congress would change a key provision of the current law, Section 215, which authorizes the NSA to collect the so-called "metadata" — times, duration and location — of phone and email messages anywhere in the world if it deems them "relevant" to a terrorism investigation. This month a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York rejected that standard, ruling that if it accepted the NSA's broad interpretation of "relevancy" literally everything could be viewed as related to the war on terror in some fashion and thus the right to privacy would be meaningless.
Read more @ http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-obama-nsa-20150514-story.html
Germany's BND intelligence agency sends enormous amounts of phone and text data to the US National Security Agency (NSA) each month, Die Zeit Online reported, adding yet another layer to the spy scandal embroiling the German government. About a fifth of all metadata gathered by the BND each month, or some 1.3 billion pieces go to the NSA, the website reported on Tuesday, citing confidential German intelligence files it obtained. German media earlier revealed that BND was collecting 220 million metadata pieces per day, which amounted to an estimated 6.6 billion a month. The metadata of phone calls and text messages includes contact details and times of activity, but not the actual content. According to the leaked BND files, the metadata, which was sent to the NSA, was mostly that of foreign communication taking place in crisis regions. "It is questionable as to whether this practice is covered by German laws," Die Zeit wrote, citing a BND official responsible for data protection. Reuters said that a BND spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. Last week, German intelligence sources said the agency has now halted its internet surveillance for the NSA. The spying cooperation between the two agencies has rattled the German government, with critics accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel's staff of green-lighting the BND to help the NSA spy on European officials and firms.
Germany's BND intelligence agency sends enormous amounts of phone and text data to the US National Security Agency (NSA) each month, Die Zeit Online reported, adding yet another layer to the spy scandal embroiling the German government.
About a fifth of all metadata gathered by the BND each month, or some 1.3 billion pieces go to the NSA, the website reported on Tuesday, citing confidential German intelligence files it obtained.
German media earlier revealed that BND was collecting 220 million metadata pieces per day, which amounted to an estimated 6.6 billion a month.
The metadata of phone calls and text messages includes contact details and times of activity, but not the actual content. According to the leaked BND files, the metadata, which was sent to the NSA, was mostly that of foreign communication taking place in crisis regions.
"It is questionable as to whether this practice is covered by German laws," Die Zeit wrote, citing a BND official responsible for data protection.
Reuters said that a BND spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. Last week, German intelligence sources said the agency has now halted its internet surveillance for the NSA.
The spying cooperation between the two agencies has rattled the German government, with critics accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel's staff of green-lighting the BND to help the NSA spy on European officials and firms.
Reddit may be looking to turn its AMAs into a video series, but the good-old text versions can still yield a lot of information. Two Google executives took to the platform today, answering questions about Google’s approach to cybersecurity in light of the recent federal rulings against the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone metadata. Richard Salgado is Google’s director for law enforcement and information security, while David Lieber is Google’s senior privacy policy counsel. Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the legal recourse the NSA used to justify its metadata surveillance, is set to expire on June 1, so the duo took to the platform to support a new bill – the USA Freedom Act – that would limit surveillance to case-by-case situations. The Q&A resulted in some interesting tidbits about Google and cybersecurity. Notably, Salgado flat-out denied that any backdoors had been built into Google service, or any sort of “surveillance portals” government officials could access.
Reddit may be looking to turn its AMAs into a video series, but the good-old text versions can still yield a lot of information.
Two Google executives took to the platform today, answering questions about Google’s approach to cybersecurity in light of the recent federal rulings against the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone metadata. Richard Salgado is Google’s director for law enforcement and information security, while David Lieber is Google’s senior privacy policy counsel.
Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the legal recourse the NSA used to justify its metadata surveillance, is set to expire on June 1, so the duo took to the platform to support a new bill – the USA Freedom Act – that would limit surveillance to case-by-case situations.
The Q&A resulted in some interesting tidbits about Google and cybersecurity. Notably, Salgado flat-out denied that any backdoors had been built into Google service, or any sort of “surveillance portals” government officials could access.
Congress is about to decide the future of surveillance, and the US government's bulk data collection program is on the line. The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would end the National Security Agency's mass data collection, which is currently allowed under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Rather than allowing the government to simply hold such records on its own, the bill would have them request needed information from private phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate. Michael Morrell, the CIA's acting director from 2012 to 2013, said in an interview that the shift is an important check against potential abuse. (Questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity and space.) Michael Morrell: The government should be required to get a court order every time they want to query the data. That's what I think is the good compromise here. There haven't been any privacy or civil liberty abuses by the NSA in this program, but the government holding this data holds the potential for abuse, and there's been plenty of times in our history when the government has abused its power. So that's what led us to say let's keep the program going but let's take the data out of the hands of the government and force a little bit more oversight in terms of allowing the government to query the data. Marco Werman: There's the case in San Francisco where plaintiffs sued the Justice Department for taking their metadata from AT&T — not to mention people who check in on former girlfriends. So isn't that abuse?
Congress is about to decide the future of surveillance, and the US government's bulk data collection program is on the line.
The House of Representatives has approved a bill that would end the National Security Agency's mass data collection, which is currently allowed under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Rather than allowing the government to simply hold such records on its own, the bill would have them request needed information from private phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate.
Michael Morrell, the CIA's acting director from 2012 to 2013, said in an interview that the shift is an important check against potential abuse. (Questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity and space.)
Michael Morrell: The government should be required to get a court order every time they want to query the data. That's what I think is the good compromise here. There haven't been any privacy or civil liberty abuses by the NSA in this program, but the government holding this data holds the potential for abuse, and there's been plenty of times in our history when the government has abused its power. So that's what led us to say let's keep the program going but let's take the data out of the hands of the government and force a little bit more oversight in terms of allowing the government to query the data.
Marco Werman: There's the case in San Francisco where plaintiffs sued the Justice Department for taking their metadata from AT&T — not to mention people who check in on former girlfriends. So isn't that abuse?
Ever since former NSA analyst Edward Snowden detailed a massive government system to harvest American’s phone records, a showdown has been expected in the courts and in Congress over the issue.
Power Play - Critics of the country's spy agencies are hopeful a review of the agencies will lead to change. They are particularly pleased that the review will look at whether the definition of 'private communication' in the legislation governing the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is satisfactory. Under the current definition, communications are not deemed private if people have an expectation their personal communications might be monitored. Ironically, after the disclosures by American whistleblower Edward Snowden, most people might now expect their electronic communications are intercepted. Under the definition in the law, critics argue that opens the way for the GCSB to do exactly what people expect it is doing. This is despite denials it is engaging in mass surveillance. But again there is no clear definition of what mass surveillance means, and Prime Minister John Key has always been careful to say he is advised the GCSB acts within the law. Acting within the law then goes back to the definition of private communication, and a debate over whether it leaves room for the bureau to lawfully monitor what most people would reasonably deem private communications.
Power Play - Critics of the country's spy agencies are hopeful a review of the agencies will lead to change.
They are particularly pleased that the review will look at whether the definition of 'private communication' in the legislation governing the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is satisfactory.
Under the current definition, communications are not deemed private if people have an expectation their personal communications might be monitored.
Ironically, after the disclosures by American whistleblower Edward Snowden, most people might now expect their electronic communications are intercepted. Under the definition in the law, critics argue that opens the way for the GCSB to do exactly what people expect it is doing.
This is despite denials it is engaging in mass surveillance.
But again there is no clear definition of what mass surveillance means, and Prime Minister John Key has always been careful to say he is advised the GCSB acts within the law.
Acting within the law then goes back to the definition of private communication, and a debate over whether it leaves room for the bureau to lawfully monitor what most people would reasonably deem private communications.
Sen. Bob Corker says he was 'shocked' to learn at a classified briefing Tuesday how little data the NSA is actually collecting. That revelation could be a game changer in the Senate, he says. A bill that reforms the federal government’s controversial surveillance program that collects Americans’ phone records is expected to comfortably pass the House on Wednesday. But a “potential game changer” that would increase Senate opposition to the bill may have just been triggered, said Sen. Bob Corker (R) of Tennessee, at a Monitor breakfast on Wednesday.
Press Freedom Groups Denounce NSA Spying On Al Jazeera Bureau Chief
“This is the reality under which we live. Government agencies are relatively autonomous and attempts to control them are ludicrous." NEW YORK – Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan doesn’t deny that he’s had contact with terrorist groups. In fact, it would have been rather difficult to do his job otherwise. But the fact that Zaidan is a respected investigative journalist and the Islamabad bureau chief for Al Jazeera didn’t seem to faze the U.S. National Security Agency, which not only spied on him, but went as far as to brand him a likely member of Al Qaeda and put him on a watch list. The revelations emerged late last week as part of the thousands of classified documents leaked by former NSA employee Edward Snowden. “Given that Pakistan has been consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, the news of Zaidan’s surveillance further adds to the fear, restricting press freedom,” said Furhan Hussain, manager of the Digital Rights and Freedom of Expression programme at Bytes for All, a Pakistani human rights group. “Equally alarming, in this case, is the fact that by compromising the information of respected journalists, such spying also weakens the safety of their sources and media networks,” he told IPS. “Zaidan’s communications intercept took place through the invasive gathering and analysis of his metadata, a technique which has been frequently responsible for drone-led non-transparent persecution of hundreds of people. “While it is often claimed that the state of Pakistan has failed to effectively protest against these violations, it may also be important to raise questions about the possible role of the state in facilitating the NSA to access vast amounts of data of those residing within its borders, in the context of its third-party SIGINT partnership.” Other press freedom groups said the case was just one more in a long-running pattern of civil liberties abuses.
“This is the reality under which we live. Government agencies are relatively autonomous and attempts to control them are ludicrous."
NEW YORK – Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan doesn’t deny that he’s had contact with terrorist groups. In fact, it would have been rather difficult to do his job otherwise.
But the fact that Zaidan is a respected investigative journalist and the Islamabad bureau chief for Al Jazeera didn’t seem to faze the U.S. National Security Agency, which not only spied on him, but went as far as to brand him a likely member of Al Qaeda and put him on a watch list.
The revelations emerged late last week as part of the thousands of classified documents leaked by former NSA employee Edward Snowden.
“Given that Pakistan has been consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists, the news of Zaidan’s surveillance further adds to the fear, restricting press freedom,” said Furhan Hussain, manager of the Digital Rights and Freedom of Expression programme at Bytes for All, a Pakistani human rights group.
“Equally alarming, in this case, is the fact that by compromising the information of respected journalists, such spying also weakens the safety of their sources and media networks,” he told IPS. “Zaidan’s communications intercept took place through the invasive gathering and analysis of his metadata, a technique which has been frequently responsible for drone-led non-transparent persecution of hundreds of people.
“While it is often claimed that the state of Pakistan has failed to effectively protest against these violations, it may also be important to raise questions about the possible role of the state in facilitating the NSA to access vast amounts of data of those residing within its borders, in the context of its third-party SIGINT partnership.”
Other press freedom groups said the case was just one more in a long-running pattern of civil liberties abuses.
The verdict is in. Edward Snowden is a hero. And no, not in that hyper-nationalist, everyone-in-uniform, pandering sort of way. U.S. Sen Dick Durbin joined two colleagues Tuesday and sponsored legislation to finally end the National Security Agency's eavesdrop-on-everyone campaign, a response to this past week's damning appellate court ruling. Many observers say the USA Freedom Act, which would instead require cell phone carriers to maintain metadata for a while, doesn't go far enough to protect Americans from the dragnet. But Durbin's bill is at least a stride toward ending more than a decade of paranoia-fueled erosion of basic liberty. It's only happening thanks to a man who gave up a six-figure job, downloaded millions of documents and skipped the country. He took the stolen property to The Guardian, which published story after story about just how far the U.S. government was taking surveillance of its own citizens. The pro-snooping hawks labeled him a traitor destined for the firing squad. They were wrong. The court ruling and Washington's reaction have vindicated Snowden. So why is he still trapped in some faux exile in Russia? It's curious that Senate sponsors Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Durbin aren't screaming from the rooftops for Snowden's victorious return, complete with a parade usually reserved for champion athletes.
The verdict is in. Edward Snowden is a hero. And no, not in that hyper-nationalist, everyone-in-uniform, pandering sort of way.
U.S. Sen Dick Durbin joined two colleagues Tuesday and sponsored legislation to finally end the National Security Agency's eavesdrop-on-everyone campaign, a response to this past week's damning appellate court ruling. Many observers say the USA Freedom Act, which would instead require cell phone carriers to maintain metadata for a while, doesn't go far enough to protect Americans from the dragnet. But Durbin's bill is at least a stride toward ending more than a decade of paranoia-fueled erosion of basic liberty.
It's only happening thanks to a man who gave up a six-figure job, downloaded millions of documents and skipped the country. He took the stolen property to The Guardian, which published story after story about just how far the U.S. government was taking surveillance of its own citizens. The pro-snooping hawks labeled him a traitor destined for the firing squad. They were wrong.
The court ruling and Washington's reaction have vindicated Snowden. So why is he still trapped in some faux exile in Russia?
It's curious that Senate sponsors Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Durbin aren't screaming from the rooftops for Snowden's victorious return, complete with a parade usually reserved for champion athletes.
Just as Congress was debating whether to reauthorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the government has used to collect data on every telephone call we make, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck it down in ACLU v. Clapper. Congress has four days left in its current session to decide whether to reauthorize Section 215, amend it or let it die a natural death on June 1, 2015 (the date on which it will sunset if not reauthorized). Section 215 of the Patriot Act The controversial section authorizes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to issue orders mandating phone companies, internet service providers, banks, credit card companies etc. to provide their records to the government if the FISC finds "there are reasonable grounds to believe" the records "sought are relevant to an authorized investigation" aimed at protecting the country "against international terrorism." Thanks to Edward Snowden, we know that the FISC used Section 215 to issue an order mandating Verizon to provide "on an ongoing daily basis ... all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' ... for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls." The National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting metadata on our phone communications, including the identities of the caller and the person called, the phone numbers of both parties, as well as the date, time, duration and unique identifiers of the communication.
Just as Congress was debating whether to reauthorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the government has used to collect data on every telephone call we make, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck it down in ACLU v. Clapper. Congress has four days left in its current session to decide whether to reauthorize Section 215, amend it or let it die a natural death on June 1, 2015 (the date on which it will sunset if not reauthorized).
Section 215 of the Patriot Act
The controversial section authorizes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to issue orders mandating phone companies, internet service providers, banks, credit card companies etc. to provide their records to the government if the FISC finds "there are reasonable grounds to believe" the records "sought are relevant to an authorized investigation" aimed at protecting the country "against international terrorism."
Thanks to Edward Snowden, we know that the FISC used Section 215 to issue an order mandating Verizon to provide "on an ongoing daily basis ... all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' ... for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls." The National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting metadata on our phone communications, including the identities of the caller and the person called, the phone numbers of both parties, as well as the date, time, duration and unique identifiers of the communication.
Edward Snowden, the indicted government whistleblower, says the National Security Agency (NSA) should no longer be authorized to continue its mass collection of phone metadata kept by telecommunication companies under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Snowden, who could be seen on a large screen video, spoke at an event co-sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Policy, the Program in Law and Public Affairs and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Snowden was charged on two accounts of violating the Espionage Act and is currently under temporary asylum in Russia.
Edward Snowden, the indicted government whistleblower, says the National Security Agency (NSA) should no longer be authorized to continue its mass collection of phone metadata kept by telecommunication companies under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
Snowden, who could be seen on a large screen video, spoke at an event co-sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Policy, the Program in Law and Public Affairs and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Snowden was charged on two accounts of violating the Espionage Act and is currently under temporary asylum in Russia.
The right to privacy is firmly ingrained in our national consciousness. To Americans, it's as fundamental to our Constitution and way of life as freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the right to have "your burger, your way." Revelations about the government's use of spying technology has eroded Americans' belief that their privacy rights are being protected, however. Specifically, disclosures from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed that the U.S. government has been engaging in widespread surveillance of the public, including reading Americans' email, monitoring our Internet use, and recording our phone calls despite first assuring us that it was only "for quality and training purposes." Fallout from these revelations has been swift, including calls for the repeal of the Patriot Act, demands for increased government transparency and an end to warrantless surveillance of American citizens. Or, failing that, maybe just that the NSA use all that data to retrieve our mistakenly deleted email, sift through our photos to find that cute one of the kids with their cousins at the beach last summer, or tell us where the hell our car keys disappeared to. Government representatives have defended the NSA's bulk data collection program, arguing that widespread surveillance has helped thwart numerous terrorist plots here in the U.S. When asked how, precisely, all the spying has prevented alleged attacks, federal officials have typically hemmed and hawed before offering up the standard, "That information is classified," and then adding, "Although, come to think of it, that is just the type of question a terrorist would ask ..." The great irony in the whole privacy debate is that the government brought the attention and criticism on itself so unnecessarily. The truth is, the American people are more than happy to share all sorts of private information as long as we get to do so while wasting time on the Internet.
The right to privacy is firmly ingrained in our national consciousness. To Americans, it's as fundamental to our Constitution and way of life as freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and the right to have "your burger, your way."
Revelations about the government's use of spying technology has eroded Americans' belief that their privacy rights are being protected, however. Specifically, disclosures from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed that the U.S. government has been engaging in widespread surveillance of the public, including reading Americans' email, monitoring our Internet use, and recording our phone calls despite first assuring us that it was only "for quality and training purposes."
Fallout from these revelations has been swift, including calls for the repeal of the Patriot Act, demands for increased government transparency and an end to warrantless surveillance of American citizens. Or, failing that, maybe just that the NSA use all that data to retrieve our mistakenly deleted email, sift through our photos to find that cute one of the kids with their cousins at the beach last summer, or tell us where the hell our car keys disappeared to.
Government representatives have defended the NSA's bulk data collection program, arguing that widespread surveillance has helped thwart numerous terrorist plots here in the U.S. When asked how, precisely, all the spying has prevented alleged attacks, federal officials have typically hemmed and hawed before offering up the standard, "That information is classified," and then adding, "Although, come to think of it, that is just the type of question a terrorist would ask ..."
The great irony in the whole privacy debate is that the government brought the attention and criticism on itself so unnecessarily. The truth is, the American people are more than happy to share all sorts of private information as long as we get to do so while wasting time on the Internet.
May 17 15 10:44 AM
http://www.paranormics.com/the-n-s-a-lost-all-of-their-ufo-files/
May 17 15 10:37 PM
All the spying never stopped terrorism before Snowden made his revelations…. So how can it be harder now, if they never caught anyone with it before?
DHS Secretary: Snowden Spiked Encryption Demand, Made Terrorism Fight Harder
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said this morning that Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks have made it harder for the agency to fight terrorism. Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance, he said, was “one of the drivers toward the demands for more and more encryption in the marketplace.” “That has made it harder for us to detect crime and it has made it harder for us to detect potential terrorist activity. And this is not just a federal matter. I hear from district attorneys about their inability to track criminal activity now because of encryption,” Johnson said. ‘And so we have to find a solution to this and we’re thinking about this actively right now.” ISIS, for example, has been encouraging followers to switch to Tor browsers to block their browsing habits and location.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said this morning that Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks have made it harder for the agency to fight terrorism.
Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance, he said, was “one of the drivers toward the demands for more and more encryption in the marketplace.”
“That has made it harder for us to detect crime and it has made it harder for us to detect potential terrorist activity. And this is not just a federal matter. I hear from district attorneys about their inability to track criminal activity now because of encryption,” Johnson said. ‘And so we have to find a solution to this and we’re thinking about this actively right now.”
ISIS, for example, has been encouraging followers to switch to Tor browsers to block their browsing habits and location.
Read more @ http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/05/15/dhs-secretary-snowden-spiked-encryption-demand-made-terrorism-fight-harder/
Salon did an article last year on who is collecting big money from the NSA spying. The article is in another thread. Its not the same people in this article either…. So goodness knows how many have their hands in the cookie jar.
NSA’s Loudest Defenders Have Financial Ties to NSA Contractors
The Intercept has identified several former government and military officials whose voices have shaped the public discourse around government spying and surveillance issues but whose financial ties to NSA contractors have received little attention. These pundits have played a key role in the public debate as the White House and the agency itself have struggled to defend the most controversial spying programs revealed by Snowden’s documents.
Read more @ http://www.mintpressnews.com/nsas-loudest-defenders-have-financial-ties-to-nsa-contractors/205690/
A bipartisan bill passed by the House on Wednesday would end the NSA’s bulk-data-collection program Fourteen years after the Patriot Act gave sweeping spy powers to the government in its war against terrorism, a consensus is finally emerging in Congress that the government needs to be reined in—at least a bit. The next two weeks could determine whether that consensus will yield a new law. In a bipartisan vote of 338-88, the House on Wednesday afternoon passed the USA Freedom Act, which seeks to restrain the nation’s surveillance state while extending other key parts of the 2001 Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the month. At its core, the House measure ends the NSA’s bulk collection program first exposed two years ago by Edward Snowden, and requires the government to be more transparent about the data it seeks from citizens. The vote comes just a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the Patriot Act’s controversial Section 215 did not authorize the bulk collection program, which allowed the NSA to access domestic telephone metadata. The ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t end the program, which the Freedom Act would.
A bipartisan bill passed by the House on Wednesday would end the NSA’s bulk-data-collection program
Fourteen years after the Patriot Act gave sweeping spy powers to the government in its war against terrorism, a consensus is finally emerging in Congress that the government needs to be reined in—at least a bit. The next two weeks could determine whether that consensus will yield a new law.
In a bipartisan vote of 338-88, the House on Wednesday afternoon passed the USA Freedom Act, which seeks to restrain the nation’s surveillance state while extending other key parts of the 2001 Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the month. At its core, the House measure ends the NSA’s bulk collection program first exposed two years ago by Edward Snowden, and requires the government to be more transparent about the data it seeks from citizens. The vote comes just a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the Patriot Act’s controversial Section 215 did not authorize the bulk collection program, which allowed the NSA to access domestic telephone metadata. The ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t end the program, which the Freedom Act would.
Read more @ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/a-long-awaited-reform-to-the-usa-patriot-act/393197/
Section 215 of the Patriot Act will not survive another month. The most controversial piece of the post-9/11 law that broadly expanded the federal government’s surveillance powers is set to expire June 1, and the House of Representatives on Wednesday gave its overwhelming approval to a far less sweeping replacement. On a 338-to-88 vote, Republicans and Democrats registered broad support for the USA Freedom Act, which will end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of “metadata” from millions of Americans’ phone records. The legislation faces some opposition in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to extend the Patriot Act with no changes. That won’t happen. Other Republican senators, including at least two who are running for president, want Section 215 scrapped or curtailed, and the political tides are with them. Some ardent civil libertarians opposed the Patriot Act from the outset, insisting, somewhat wildly, that it would leave the Bill of Rights in tatters and turn the president into a dictator. Most Americans knew better. Following the terrorist attacks, it seemed prudent to expand the government’s counterintelligence capabilities, and to change rules that had prevented investigators from “connecting the dots” that could have alerted them to the jihadists’ plans. The hysterical alarums about dissenters being rounded up and America turning into a fascist police state gained little traction. For all the controversy they fueled, the law’s key provisions — including Section 215 — were extended in 2005, 2010, and 2011.
Section 215 of the Patriot Act will not survive another month. The most controversial piece of the post-9/11 law that broadly expanded the federal government’s surveillance powers is set to expire June 1, and the House of Representatives on Wednesday gave its overwhelming approval to a far less sweeping replacement. On a 338-to-88 vote, Republicans and Democrats registered broad support for the USA Freedom Act, which will end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of “metadata” from millions of Americans’ phone records.
The legislation faces some opposition in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to extend the Patriot Act with no changes. That won’t happen. Other Republican senators, including at least two who are running for president, want Section 215 scrapped or curtailed, and the political tides are with them.
Some ardent civil libertarians opposed the Patriot Act from the outset, insisting, somewhat wildly, that it would leave the Bill of Rights in tatters and turn the president into a dictator. Most Americans knew better. Following the terrorist attacks, it seemed prudent to expand the government’s counterintelligence capabilities, and to change rules that had prevented investigators from “connecting the dots” that could have alerted them to the jihadists’ plans. The hysterical alarums about dissenters being rounded up and America turning into a fascist police state gained little traction. For all the controversy they fueled, the law’s key provisions — including Section 215 — were extended in 2005, 2010, and 2011.
Read more @ http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/05/17/patriot-act-most-controversial-section-fades-black/0I2HYMkUHx67d4s4KMSmJJ/story.html
The U.S. House of Representatives this week voted overwhelmingly to reign in the National Security Agency’s dragnet collection of Americans’ phone data—a measure that received full support from Long Island’s Congressional delegation. All five of LI’s Representatives backed the so-called USA Freedom Act, including staunch NSA defender Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford). Joining King was lone local congressional colleague from the same party, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), as well as Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington). “It was the strongest NSA legislation that can pass the House,” King said in a statement. “Also, as a practical matter, the NSA should still be at least 90 percent as effective under the Freedom Act as it is under current law.” King has been steadfast in his support of the surveillance agency ever since the disclosures from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden sparked debate over the program nearly two years ago.
The U.S. House of Representatives this week voted overwhelmingly to reign in the National Security Agency’s dragnet collection of Americans’ phone data—a measure that received full support from Long Island’s Congressional delegation.
All five of LI’s Representatives backed the so-called USA Freedom Act, including staunch NSA defender Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford). Joining King was lone local congressional colleague from the same party, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), as well as Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) and Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington).
“It was the strongest NSA legislation that can pass the House,” King said in a statement. “Also, as a practical matter, the NSA should still be at least 90 percent as effective under the Freedom Act as it is under current law.”
King has been steadfast in his support of the surveillance agency ever since the disclosures from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden sparked debate over the program nearly two years ago.
Read more @ http://www.longislandpress.com/2015/05/16/long-island-reps-back-bill-to-end-nsa-bulk-collection/
Congress is trying to decide whether to change the way spy agencies collect bulk phone data on Americans. Earlier this week, the House decided to end government collection of our phone records. We wondered, what if you did a cost-benefit analysis of all that metadata? Is it worth all the trouble? We’re talking about huge amounts of data here. The National Security Agency stores phone company billing information for calls made and received in the U.S. — which numbers called other numbers and when. So what does that cost? Well, let’s just say in this case, talk is not cheap. John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State and the libertarian Cato Institute, says it's in excess of $100 million a year. Mueller got that number by estimating what the phone companies spend to gather and store their billing records, and adding in some extra for the cost of NSA analysis. That’s really hard to measure, though, because it’s classified. “You get sort of a range," Mueller says. "It’s not trillions of dollars, by any means, and so you have fairly substantial money being spent on it." OK, now the benefit part of our cost-benefit analysis. A presidential commission has looked into that. “There’s no benefit,” says Richard Clarke, who worked as a counter-terrorism adviser in the White House and was on the commission. He says all the phone record metadata wasn’t instrumental in preventing any terrorist attacks.
Congress is trying to decide whether to change the way spy agencies collect bulk phone data on Americans. Earlier this week, the House decided to end government collection of our phone records.
We wondered, what if you did a cost-benefit analysis of all that metadata? Is it worth all the trouble? We’re talking about huge amounts of data here.
The National Security Agency stores phone company billing information for calls made and received in the U.S. — which numbers called other numbers and when. So what does that cost? Well, let’s just say in this case, talk is not cheap.
John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State and the libertarian Cato Institute, says it's in excess of $100 million a year.
Mueller got that number by estimating what the phone companies spend to gather and store their billing records, and adding in some extra for the cost of NSA analysis.
That’s really hard to measure, though, because it’s classified.
“You get sort of a range," Mueller says. "It’s not trillions of dollars, by any means, and so you have fairly substantial money being spent on it."
OK, now the benefit part of our cost-benefit analysis. A presidential commission has looked into that.
“There’s no benefit,” says Richard Clarke, who worked as a counter-terrorism adviser in the White House and was on the commission. He says all the phone record metadata wasn’t instrumental in preventing any terrorist attacks.
Read more @ http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/whats-hang-collecting-phone-data
The identification of potential terrorists by the examination of metadata regarding their movements and contacts can be dangerously imprecise — as has been discovered by the bureau chief of an international TV station who is based in Islamabad. Metadata is the word used to describe a collation of small elements to build a big picture. This will include location (of the subject), who they phone and who phones them, the timing and length of calls and the content of text messages. All of this is within the capacity of the American National Security Agency (NSA). According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the aforementioned bureau chief was identified as a member of al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, which earned the journalist a place on the American terrorist watch list with all the implications that go with that. It is worth pointing out here that many drone strikes are carried out on the basis of metadata rather than human intelligence and much metadata analysis is done by computer software rather than by people, a reality that opens any number of chilling prospects.
Read more @ http://tribune.com.pk/story/887073/dangerous-labels/
The U.S. National Security Agency placed an Al Jazeera journalist on a terrorist watch list on the basis of contacts he made with sources, according to an Intercept report published last week. The story should alarm the public about government threats to journalists and misuses of raw intelligence data. Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al Jazeera’s Islamabad bureau chief, was identified as a member of both Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood by an NSA software program called Skynet that analyzes communication metadata such as phone contacts and location. On the basis of whom Zaidan telephoned, who called him and where the calls took place, Skynet labeled him a member of both organizations. The Intercept reported these findings on May 8 based on analysis of one of the numerous documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. One of those documents, an NSA PowerPoint slide listing Zaidan’s imagined affiliations, would be ridiculous if it weren’t so serious. This is how America’s intelligence apparatus with its massive funding, cutting-edge computers and armies of big-brained analysts identifies enemies of the state? Is it any wonder that so many civilians have been accidentally killed in drone attacks?
The U.S. National Security Agency placed an Al Jazeera journalist on a terrorist watch list on the basis of contacts he made with sources, according to an Intercept report published last week. The story should alarm the public about government threats to journalists and misuses of raw intelligence data.
Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al Jazeera’s Islamabad bureau chief, was identified as a member of both Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood by an NSA software program called Skynet that analyzes communication metadata such as phone contacts and location. On the basis of whom Zaidan telephoned, who called him and where the calls took place, Skynet labeled him a member of both organizations. The Intercept reported these findings on May 8 based on analysis of one of the numerous documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
One of those documents, an NSA PowerPoint slide listing Zaidan’s imagined affiliations, would be ridiculous if it weren’t so serious. This is how America’s intelligence apparatus with its massive funding, cutting-edge computers and armies of big-brained analysts identifies enemies of the state? Is it any wonder that so many civilians have been accidentally killed in drone attacks?
Read more @ http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/5/journalists-are-not-terrorists.html