FBI pressures Internet providers to install surveillance softwareCNET has learned the FBI has developed custom “port reader” software to intercept Internet metadata in real time. And, in some cases, it wants to force Internet providers to use the software. (Credit: Getty Images) The U.S. government is quietly pressuring telecommunications providers to install eavesdropping technology deep inside companies’ internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts.
Clerk who helped inmate exonerate himself with DNA evidence firedThanks to new DNA evidence a Kansas City man was released from prison three decades after a wrongful rape conviction, though the 70-year-old clerk instrumental in his release was fired for insubordination.
U.S. May Move Against Bank Over Jumbo Loan SecuritiesBank of America disclosed on Thursday that the Justice Department was weighing whether to bring a civil complaint against it over claims that the bank had improperly handled securities backed by jumbo loans.
The Mind Your Own Business ActPetition: “I don’t want the Government looking at my e-mails, my telephone records, my website records, or my GPS records. I cherish my freedom and my privacy. I am not a terrorist, and I won’t let my government treat me like one.
The Government Lied About Being Able To Read Your Email Without A WarrantRep. Mike Rogers, the NSA can in fact get into your email with just an account name. New revelations via the Guardian detail precisely how it works. You have no digital privacy. This is simply another chapter of the NSA scandal in which the government attempted through false narrative to confuse t..
MIT in Aaron Swartz Case: Not Neutral, Not Leading, Not Standing Up for TechnologistsIn January, our friend Aaron Swartz killed himself. Aaron was unable to carry on against an overzealous government prosecution enforcing a grossly unfair and outdated law. We, and millions of others around the world, were saddened beyond words.
Student receives more than $4 mln after being ‘forgotten’ in jail for five daysA University of California student spent five days forgotten in a windowless jail cell without food and water, and was forced to drink his own urine to survive. Now, the US government is voluntarily paying the young man $4.1 million to avoid a lawsuit.
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the internet.
Manning deserves Nobel Peace Prize: Opposing viewSupporters of Bradley Manning protest Friday, on the final day of closing arguments in his military trial. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images) Story Highlights Manning “helped end the Iraq War, and may have helped prevent further conflicts elsewhere.” Consent of the governed is meaningful only to the extent that it is informed consent.
The Bradley Manning Verdict and the Dangerous “Hacker Madness” Prosecution StrategyBradley Manning was convicted (PDF) on 19 counts today, including charges under the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for leaking approximately 700,000 government documents to WikiLeaks. While it was a relief that he was not convicted of the worst charge “aiding the enemy,” the verdict remains deeply troubling and could potentially result in a sentence of life in prison.
Warrantless Cellphone Tracking Is UpheldIn a significant victory for law enforcement, a federal appeals court on Tuesday said that government authorities could extract historical location data directly from telecommunications carriers without a search warrant. The closely watched case, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, is the first ruling that squarely addresses the constitutionality of warrantless searches of historical location data stored by cellphone service providers.
MIT denies targeting Aaron SwartzThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology has released a report claiming that administrators never targeted information activist Aaron Swartz and committed no wrongdoings. The university claims it remained neutral throughout the case. In a 180-page document released on Tuesday, MIT revealed long-awaited information about its involvement in the prosecution of Swartz, a 26-year-old computer programmer who hanged himself last January.
FISA court judge: No company has ever challenged Patriot Act sharingNSA leaks View all… According to one of the 11 judges that sits on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), no corporation ever served with a “business record” court order under the Patriot Act has ever challenged one, even though the law provides them a means to do so.
Local Anti-Drone Activism Begins: ‘If They Fly in Town, We Will Shoot Them Down’Charles Krauthammer once predicted that the first American to shoot down a domestic drone would be a folk hero. Phillip Steele, a resident of Deer Trail, Colorado, wants to enable that hero.
European Parliamentarians call on President Obama to free Bradley ManningJuly 29, 2013. Seventeen MEPs have written a letter calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to free WikiLeaks whistle-blower Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. The MEPs laud Manning for exposing “evidence of human rights abuses and apparent war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan” in accordance with international law.
Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacyNumerous polls taken since our reporting on previously secret NSA activities first began have strongly suggested major public opinion shifts in how NSA surveillance and privacy are viewed. But a new comprehensive poll released over the weekend weekend by Pew Research provides the most compelling evidence yet of how stark the shift is.
FBI sued for keeping secret their file on journalist Michael HastingsTwo investigative journalists are suing the FBI after the government failed to respond on time to a pair of Freedom of Information Act requests filed for details on the death of reporter Michael Hastings. Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro filed a joint suit on Friday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation neglected to respond to their FOIA requests within the 20-working day period required by law.