FBI wants to keep secret who’s stored in its massive biometric database The FBI said it would retain the data to “aid in establishing patterns of activity” to help discover new criminals when they arise. The FBI is proposing keeping information that it stores as part of a massive biometric database private — even to…
Category: Communications
Surveillance State: Everything We Know About How the FBI Hacks People
RECENT HEADLINES WARN that the government now has greater authority to hack your computers, in and outside the US. Changes to federal criminal court procedures known as Rule 41 are to blame; they vastly expand how and whom the FBI can legally hack. But just like the NSA’s hacking operations, FBI hacking isn’t new. In…
Book Review: Playing to the Edge, American Intelligence in the Age of Terror
by Michael V. Hayden Penguin, 448 pp When Michael Hayden was a young air force officer in the 1980s, the military stationed him as an intelligence attaché in Bulgaria. There, the man who would rise to the top of the American intelligence community in the post–September 11 era lived under constant surveillance: he and his…
The Surveillance State: Twitter and Data Mining
Twitter has barred Dataminr, a service that analyzes tweets from across the globe to inform users about news events, from providing its information to US intelligence agencies, according to the Wall Street Journal. The social network has not confirmed that it cut the agencies off from the service, which claims to have informed clients about the…
Examining Terrorist Tactics: Jihad On the Fly? ISIS Using Homing Pigeons To Communicate
Jordan intercepts bird carrying messages between terror operatives as group attempts to bypass Western intel gathering its channels of communication are increasingly monitored by coalition forces, the Islamic State is reportedly turning to low-tech solutions in its efforts to avoid detection. The Telegraph reported that homing pigeons bearing messages between IS operatives were recently captured…
The Surveillance State: Twitter Lawsuit and FISC Court Updates
A federal judge delivered a blow Monday to Twitter’s drive to release more details on surveillance orders it receives, but the tech firm won a chance to try to reformulate its case. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Rogers said the government has the power to prohibit the release of classified information, barring claims Twitter made…
The Surveillance State: Phone Database Security Called into Question
As if Illegal Mass Surveillance does not have enough downside, now it has also become a National Security risk??? -SF Federal officials fear that national security may have been jeopardized when the company building a sensitive phone-number database violated a federal requirement that only U.S. citizens work on the project. The database is significant because…
The Surveillance State: Spy Chief Might Reveal Number of “Accidentally Surveilled”” Americans
“U.S. Persons Caught INCIDENTALLY in Internet Surveillance…” HA!! Where have we heard that before? -SF Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Monday his office is considering options to obtain and publicly disclose an estimate of the number of U.S. persons caught incidentally in Internet surveillance intended for foreign targets. “We are looking at…
The Surveillance State: Police are Creating Fake Social Media Accounts To Monitor You
Police Create Fake Profiles on Facebook and Attempt to Build Relationships Along With Monitor Your Friends and Events Kristan T. Harris | American Intelligence Report Police departments around the nation have taken predictive crime prevention to a new level by building fake user accounts, as well as posing as genuine people to gather information about local events, Tech.Mic reports….
The Surveillance State: FISC Court Rejects Challenge to Warrantless Email Searches
In a just-released court opinion, a federal court judge overseeing government surveillance programs said he was “extremely concerned” about a series of incidents in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency deviated from court-approved limits on their snooping activities. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Thomas Hogan sharply criticized the two agencies over…