Tag Archives: privacy

The Washington Post reveals today that the Maryland state police considered the LGBT activism group Equality Maryland to be terrorists. Equality Maryland, the state’s largest gay rights group, was among the peaceful protest groups to be classified as terrorists in a Maryland State Police database. The group was designated a “security threat” by the Homeland Security and Intelligence Division, which …

Via Wired: NSA whistleblower Russell Tice was back on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC program Thursday evening to expand on his Wednesday revelations that the National Security Agency spied on individual U.S. journalists, entire U.S. news agencies as well as “tens of thousands” of other Americans. Tice said on Wednesday that the NSA had vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, …

Room Eight, a blog about NYC politics co-founded by popular Politico.com columnist Ben Smith, has been quietly fighting a subpoena from Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson’s office. The subpoena demanded to know the identity of the Room Eight anonymous blogger “Republican Dissident” who had criticized Johnson’s office. The subpoena carried a warning in capital letters that disclosing its very existence …

Yesterday Dubya signed away another piece of democracy when he gleefully scratched his name in blood onto the FISA bill. George W. Bush Thursday signed a law expanding legal authority for wiretaps by spy agencies which he hailed as vital for America’s security, after a fierce Congress battle. “This law will play a critical role in helping to prevent another …

Thanks to today’s Senate vote to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, warrantless wiretapping, arguably the most intrusive violation of Americans’ right to privacy, will become legal. Oh, and everybody who’s already done it is now immunized against lawsuits. A list of how each Senator voted is here. The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the …

In a case that has privacy advocates outraged, a federal court has ordered Google to give Viacom the list of videos viewed by every YouTube visitor. Last year Viacom sued YouTube for over $1B, charging them with “massive intentional copyright infringement”. A US judge has ordered Google to expose to Viacom the video-viewing habits of everyone who has ever used …

Barack Obama has had his right-turn blinker on for several days. More backlash: Senator Barack Obama’s decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters. Thousands of them are now using the same grass-roots organizing …

Barack Obama’s passport information was breached by three State Department employees. Two contract employees of the State Department were fired and a third person was disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s passport file. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the department itself detected the instances of “imprudent curiosity,” which occurred separately on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and …

The Minority Report is coming true. The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people’s physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI wants to use eye scans, combined with other data, to help identify suspects. But it’s an issue that raises major privacy concerns — …

In his seventh annual State Of The City address today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg revealed his plan to ask Albany for the power to gather DNA from anybody arrested in New York City, innocent or guilty, for any crime, including simple misdemeanors such as participating in civil disobedience. Why this? Why NOW? We already live in the safest (by FAR) large …

From the New Yorker, via Raw Story: National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a “walk in the park,” according to an interview published in the New Yorker‘s print edition today. Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the …

The ACLU has filed a friend of the the court brief in support of Sen. Larry Craig’s bid to overturn his disorderly conduct conviction, arguing that according that people who have sex in public restrooms have an expectation of privacy. From the brief: “The government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to …

Poor Ann Coulter is so upset by her hate mail that she has had her address removed from the public record in Palm Beach County, Florida. People who petition the county can have their homes removed from the property appraisers’ rolls if they can demonstrate they are the victims of stalking or harassment. Coulter, 45, has called Democratic presidential candidate …

You may recall back in September when I passed along an alert from the NGLTF regarding the expansion of the 2257 Regulations, which would have required internet social networking and hook-up sites like Facebook and Manhunt to maintain your photo ID on file, information many would be loathe to put in the hands of such parties. Fear no more. On …

A couple of weeks I mentioned that today would be the last day to object to Section 2257, the government’s plan to require that social networking/hookup sites have your driver’s license on file. If you have not yet done so, please go the the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s site for an easy to copy protest letter.

“When those private lives are in direct conflict with the public policy that these officials espouse, I think it’s fair game that their private lives be brought into this. And I have to blog to do that with. Here’s the question: What community is expected to protect its own enemies? Don’t beat up the gay community, and then expect us …

In a precedent-setting decision, a New York judge has ruled that the city can fire a 21-year employee of the school system after GPS-tracking secretly installed on his city-issued cellphone revealed that he had left the job early on 83 occasions and may have falsified his timecards to cover his tracks. Although the secret tracking also revealed that the employee …

Attention Manhunters, Facebookers, and DudesNudies: the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force has issued an alert regarding pending new regulations that may kill social networking sites, rules ostensibily meant to fight child pornography. The federal government is proposing regulations that would effectively kill adult social-networking sites. This is being done under the guise of fighting child pornography. You have until …