Tag Archives: privacy

The Intercept reports: Edward Snowden isn’t just a hashtag anymore. The NSA whistleblower joined Twitter on Tuesday, using the @snowden Twitter handle. Snowden, who has lived in Russia since turning over a trove of top-secret documents to reporters more than two years ago, has remained in the public eye thanks to frequent appearances and interviews using video links and sometimes …

NPR reports: The Senate has approved the USA Freedom Act, which will alter the way U.S. agencies conduct surveillance and gather data. A final vote on the bill came late Tuesday afternoon, after amendments to the bill failed. President Obama can now sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches him, after an expedited enrollment process. Sen. Rand …

Sen. Rand Paul is claiming victory over last night’s expiration of several major portions of the Patriot Act, but he may be merely grandstanding as the Senate is expected to quickly reauthorize the expired laws. The Senate entered a debate period late Sunday on the Patriot Act that pushed beyond the midnight deadline. With the debate ongoing, that effectively ends …

Via The Hill: Thousands of websites are blocking Congress’s access to their sites in a show of force to protest the Patriot Act. Led by the online activist group Fight for the Future, more than 10,000 sites have added code that redirects any visitors from Internet protocol (IP) addresses from Congress away from their site and towards a protest page. …

Sen. Rand Paul said yesterday that he plans to filibuster against the impending reauthorization vote for the Patriot Act. “I’m going to lead the charge in the next couple of weeks as the Patriot Act comes forward,” he said in a one-on-one interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader. “We will be filibustering. We will be trying to stop it. …

Two years ago I reported that residents of a luxury Tribeca building were furious about an art gallery’s exhibition of photos taken through their windows from an apartment across the street. A lawsuit shortly followed, of course, and this week a panel of  judges made their decision: Want privacy? Buy shades. That was the message sent by a panel of …

CNET says Google is working on it: Google has a patent pending for a contact lens with a micro camera and sensors embedded on the surface controlled by blinking, which would enable you to take hands-free pictures and could help the blind navigate the everyday obstacles of the world. Although still apparently hypothetical, the patent combines ideas from Google Glass …

Via Mashable: The NSA knew about the Internet security bug Heartbleed and regularly used it to gather intelligence for at least two years, anonymous sources told Bloomberg. If the report is true — both the White House and the NSA say it’s not (see below) — the NSA could have collected information like passwords and private communications from hundreds of …

Gay journalist Glenn Greenwald returned to the United States today for the first time since breaking the Edward Snowden story. Some have called for his arrest as Snowden’s alleged co-conspirator. Greenwald himself said he expected to be detained at once, but he exited JFK airport without incident. TIME reports on the reason for today’s visit: Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, …

Celebrities and journalists endorsing the rally include Wil Wheaton, Glenn Greenwald, Anil Dash, and Daniel Ellsberg. Details are here. (Tipped by JMG reader Win)

Politico reports: David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, was carrying 58,000 classified intelligence documents when he was detained by British authorities earlier this month, according to a new UK national security report. Miranda was detained for nine hours at London’s Heathrow airport, a move that Greenwald called “a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process.” …

Speaking on his weekly radio address, yesterday New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested fingerprinting the city’s public housing tenants. “What we really should have is fingerprinting to get in. And of course there’s an allegation that some of these apartments aren’t occupied by the people who originally have the lease,” said Mr. Bloomberg during his weekly radio sit-down with …

Back in the spring, I mentioned that residents of a luxury Tribeca building were seething about an art gallery’s exhibition of photos taken of them with a telephoto lens from an apartment across the street.  Yesterday a state judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by the building’s tenants, two of whom claimed that their children’s faces were identifiable in the photos. …

Greece’s new minister of health has reinstated a measure that allows the police to detain and test any person for HIV. Health organisations say the decree stigmatises drug users, sex workers and undocumented migrants in particular. The text also states that any occupants of housing which “may cause danger to public health” should be evicted from their homes, without any …

Fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden yesterday accused Germany of working with the United States government in spying on private citizens. America’s National Security Agency works closely with Germany and other Western states on a ‘no questions asked’-basis, former NSA employee Edward Snowden said in comments that undermine Chancellor Angela Merkel’s indignant talk of “Cold War” tactics. “They are in bed …

NSA leaker Edward Snowden has applied for asylum in Russia. Foreign ministry consul Kim Shevchenko said the request was made on Sunday night. The Kremlin has made no comment. The 30-year-old former CIA analyst is believed to be holed up in a Moscow airport hotel. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Mr Snowden was welcome to stay as long as …

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was heckled and booed at this weekend’s Netroots Nation convention when she said that Edward Snowden broke the law. Via Politico: As Pelosi was saying the country needs a “balance” between security and privacy, Marc Perkel, a 57-year-old activist from Gilroy, Calif., started shouting at Pelosi during her answer and was escorted out of the …

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has helped NSA leaker Edward Snowden get out of Hong Kong.  But he apparently won’t be in Moscow for very long: Edward Snowden left for Moscow on Sunday and his final destination may be Cuba, Ecuador, Iceland or Venezuela, according to various reports. The move is bound to infuriate Washington, wherever he ends up. “It’s a …

The federal government has formally charged NSA leaker Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government documents. Snowden has been charged with three violations: theft of government property and two offenses under the espionage statutes, specifically giving national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified information about “communications intelligence.” Each of the charges carries a maximum …