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…
Category: Privacy
The Surveillance State: The CIA is Investing in Firms that “Mine” Your Twitter and Instagram Data
SOFT ROBOTS THAT can grasp delicate objects, computer algorithms designed to spot an “insider threat,” and artificial intelligence that will sift through large data sets — these are just a few of the technologies being pursued by companies with investment from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm, according to a document obtained by The Intercept….
The Surveillance State: NSA Wants to Share Citizen Data Mines with other Fed’s
Civil liberties and government transparency groups are rallying to oppose a new plan that would allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to share more of the information that it collects about people’s communications and activity on the Internet with other federal agencies. On Thursday, 33 advocacy groups signed on to a letter insisting the changes…
Think Before You Post: The Future of Social Media Monitoring In the United States
This may have occurred in Scotland, but it is just a dark foreshadowing of the kind of “monitoring” and “regulations” coming to Social media here in America. So For all you poor souls out there addicted to Social Media, Good Luck with all that. -SF Glasgow police are warning people not to post unnecessary things on social…
In the FBI’s Crypto War, Apps May Be The Next Target
IF THERE’S ANYTHING the world has learned from the standoff over the encrypted iPhone of San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook, it’s that the FBI doesn’t take no for an answer. And now it’s becoming clear that the government’s determination to access encrypted data doesn’t end with a single iPhone, or with Apple, or even…
Espionage Files: Watch Thy Neighbor
To prevent whistleblowing, U.S. intelligence agencies are instructing staff to spy on their colleagues. Elham Khorasani was sitting in her car at a stoplight in Northern Virginia when she got the call. It was April 16, 2013. “I’m with the FBI,” a man on the line said, “and we’re at your home executing a search…
How the Reagan-Era CIA Predicted Our Drone Dystopia
It is mind numbing how an agency with the resources and manpower like the CIA has can predict things like this but yet miss earth shaking Geo-Political events like the Soviets Invading Afghanistan in 1979 or the Soviet Union Collapse in 1991 or my favorite: being blindsided on 9/11. As a person who understands the…
“Eyes in the Sky”: Pentagon Admits Conducting Spy Flights Over U.S. Soil
The Pentagon has deployed drones to spy over U.S. soil for non-military missions over the past decade, but the flights have been rare and legal, the Pentagon inspector general says. The report, made public under a Freedom of Information Act request, said fewer than 20 flights occurred between 2006 and 2015, and all have been…
“Predictive Policing”: The Cyber Version of “Stop and Frisk”
Thanks America! How China’s Newest Software Could Track, Predict, and Crush Dissent Armed with data from spying on its citizens, Beijing could turn ‘predictive policing’ into an AI tool of repression. What if the Communist Party could have predicted Tiananmen Square? The Chinese government is deploying a new tool to keep the population from uprising. Beijing is building…
Fingerprint Spoofing: Yeah there’s An App for That
So That Thumbprint Thing on Your Phone Is Useless Now Researchers found a cheap, easy way to copy your fingerprints a few months after millions of Americans had theirs stolen by hackers. Last year, when the Office of Personnel Management notified 22 million people that their personal information was compromised in a massive data breach, one…