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15 posts tagged privacy

humanformat:

occupyallstreets:

Gayane Chichakyan of RT interviews Thomas Andrews Drake. Drake was a senior executive of one of America’s biggest intelligence agencies at the beginning of the 2000’s.

He was an expert on electronic eavesdropping and had top secret security clearance. He was also a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, computer software expert, linguist, management and leadership specialist. Then Mr Drake essentially sacrificed his career to blow the whistle on his agency’s wrongdoings, as he saw them.

He was then charged under the Espionage Act, and only last year the charges were dropped.

In 2010, the U.S. government alleged that he ‘mishandled’ documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. His defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) award.

On June 9, 2011, all 10 original charges against him were dropped. He rejected several deals because he refused to “plea bargain with the truth”. He eventually pleaded to one misdemeanor count for exceeding authorized use of a computer; Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, who helped represent him, called it an act of “Civil Disobedience.” The interview makes for very interesting listening, as they discuss the fact that the NSA (National Security Agency had a secret deal with the White House after 9/11, that made the NSA responsible for a secret surveillance program. They also discuss the current situation with whistleblowers and also with the Flame and Stuxnet viruses, created by the U.S. government.

“You go after the messenger because the last thing you want to do is deal with the message. You’re talking about all the activities, the secret surveillance, the warrantless wiretapping, torture, rendition, drone strikes, and a whole host of other measures that I would assert are extra-constitutional. Not only do they violate our own law, but they also violate a number of international laws.

Go after the messenger and not the message because to actually discuss or address the message becomes very uncomfortable. Essentially, what’s happened is that law—and we’re a nation of law—if we start to part (which we have in a very significant way), moving away from being a nation of laws and simply leaving it up to policy as a substitute, we’re going down a very slippery slope in the United States of America.”

(via queerencia-deactivated20130103)

Source occupyallstreets

Reblogged from Ⓐnarcho Queer

occupyallstreets: U.S. Military Using Bug-Sized Drones A micro-aviary of drones that look—and fly—like ladybugs, dragonflies, and other insects. Since 2008, George Huang, professor of engineering at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, has managed to produce a butterfly model with a 5-inch wingspan. “We haven’t done a final version where we declare victory,” Huang says. “I’ll be happy once it’s fly-sized.” Darpa and the Air Force have already invested in similarly tiny craft, though with no firm time horizon for deployment. Regardless, micro-drones’ potential goes beyond the military. “Police could use them to fly into a drug trafficker’s house,” Huang says. “Or in a nuclear or mining accident, you can send a fly inside to find victims.” This isn’t the first time hearing about bug-sized drones. In October of 2007, the Washington Post published an article about ‘insect spy’ found on U.S. streets.   No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones but just a few months later the army announced that it gave the massive defense contractor, BAE Systems, $36 million to create micro-drones. The project was completed by 2010.

occupyallstreets:

U.S. Military Using Bug-Sized Drones

A micro-aviary of drones that look—and fly—like ladybugs, dragonflies, and other insects. Since 2008, George Huang, professor of engineering at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, has managed to produce a butterfly model with a 5-inch wingspan. “We haven’t done a final version where we declare victory,” Huang says. “I’ll be happy once it’s fly-sized.”

Darpa and the Air Force have already invested in similarly tiny craft, though with no firm time horizon for deployment. Regardless, micro-drones’ potential goes beyond the military. “Police could use them to fly into a drug trafficker’s house,” Huang says. “Or in a nuclear or mining accident, you can send a fly inside to find victims.”

This isn’t the first time hearing about bug-sized drones. In October of 2007, the Washington Post published an article about ‘insect spy’ found on U.S. streets.  

No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones but just a few months later the army announced that it gave the massive defense contractor, BAE Systems, $36 million to create micro-drones. The project was completed by 2010.

(via anarcho-queer)

Reblogged from Ⓐnarcho Queer

“When we want something to be secure, we tend to lock it up - and that’s what encryption is, a lock and key for your private life, ensuring that your recent credit card purchases, vacation photos, web browsing history or chat conversations aren’t going to be on the front page of tomorrow’s newspapers…or the topic of family conversation at Thanksgiving. It’s not enough to decide that you’ll try and protect this photograph, or that e-Mail, if you want true security and privacy, you must…ENCRYPT EVERYTHING!

As the past decade has taught Canadians and Americans, it isn’t about Left versus Right; it’s about them versus you. Governments and corporations are going to continue trying to harvest information about your private life, believing they can control and market you better if they know the details of every kiss you’ve ever shared, every book you’ve read, every letter you’ve written, every dirty thought you’ve indulged and every film you’ve watched. They are working tirelessly to try and ensure that they will be able to watch you, monitor you, record you, every moment of your life.”

Encrypt Everything (a guide to privacy)

Reblogged from Blogging as Praxis

“

Congress passed, and Bush signed into law, the FISA Amendments Act, which re-wrote the nation’s surveillance laws to give the NSA a much freer hand to wiretap American infrastructure wholesale. Court challenges to the program, brought by the EFF and the ACLU, attempted to argue that even allowing the NSA to harvest Americans’ communications alongside foreigners into giant databases violated American law and the US Constitution.


However, those challenges have never survived the Bush and Obama administration’s invocation of the “state secrets” privilege to have them thrown out of court. Which is another way of saying that Americans have no idea what’s going on. Given the choice between an administration official saying nothing is going on and a respected reporter with inside sources saying something wicked this way comes, I know where my trust would lie.

”

NSA Chief Denies, Denies, Denies Wired’s Domestic Spying Story | Threat Level | Wired.com (via infoneer-pulse)

(via infoneer-pulse)

Reblogged from infoneer pulse

Justice Dept, FBI Say Interest in Online Privacy an ‘Indicator’ of Terrorism

A new flyer released by the Department of Justice and the FBI, emblazoned with the logos of each agency and being circulated to Internet cafes and other businesses, warns of “potential indicators of terrorist activities.”

In particular, the flyer cautions businesses to be on the lookout for “content of extreme/radical nature” as well as people who visit an Internet cafe even though there is evidence they have Internet access at home. It also urges people to watch for anyone using “anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address,” or who seems “overly concerned about privacy.”


(via rockyanderson2012)

Reblogged from Rocky Anderson 2012

Rep. Lamar Smith, author of SOPA, is at it again with “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act” or PCIP. The PCIP Act would require Internet providers to retain archives of everyone’s online activity for up to 18 months, including phone records, websites visited and bank-account data.

abaldwin360:

A controversial bill regarding retention of Internet records passed through committee and was approved for consideration by Congress in December.

The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 would require Internet providers to retain archives of every subscriber’s online activity for up to 18 months, including phone records, credit-card numbers, websites visited and bank-account data.

Max Ayalla, a senior from Kansas City, Kan., who works at Information Technology, said he’s worried about the information’s security.

“If someone hacks into the data, it would be disastrous,” he said.

Another issue is the measure’s effectiveness and legality. Under U.S. Code Title 18 Chapter 121, to obtain the records from Internet providers, no probable cause is needed; the government would only have to request a warrant or find a judge who is willing to give them one. Subscribers with no criminal record are also subject to requests.

Supporters of the bill argue that law enforcement is unable to track child pornographers under current laws.

read more

I love it.

See, with a name like this, they can say anyone opposing the bill must be on the side of child pornographers. 

Our fucking government is so hell bent on taking our freedom and privacy away.

Reblogged from Activate the Mechanism!

“At oral argument last term, the justices speculated that a state might simply attach a GPS device to every license plate it issues. And if law enforcement agents are free to attach GPS devices to people’s cars, why not to their parkas or raincoats? After all, these garments are “knowingly expose[d] to the public” much of the time. Several years ago, law professor Jack Balkin described a new form of governance that relies on pervasive information gathering and data mining as the “National Surveillance State.” The Jones case marks the Supreme Court’s first confrontation with the issues that will arise in such a state.”

From “Big Brother Buys a GPS” by Pam Karlan (via bostonreview)

Reblogged from BOSTON REVIEW

Private company hoarding license-plate data on U.S. drivers

centerforinvestigativereporting:

Capitalizing on one of the fastest-growing trends in law enforcement, a private California-based company has compiled a database bulging with more than 550 million license-plate records on both innocent and criminal drivers that can be searched by police.

The technology has raised alarms among civil libertarians, who say it threatens the privacy of drivers. It’s also evidence that 21st-century technology may be evolving too quickly for the courts and public opinion to keep up. The U.S. Supreme Court is only now addressing whether investigators can secretly attach a GPS monitoring device to cars without a warrant.

A ruling in that case has yet to be handed down, but a telling exchange occurred during oral arguments. Chief Justice John Roberts asked lawyers for the government if even he and other members of the court could feasibly be tracked by GPS without a warrant. Yes, came the answer. 

Meanwhile, police around the country have been affixing high-tech scanners to the exterior of their patrol cars, snapping a picture of every passing license plate and automatically comparing them to databases of outstanding warrants, stolen cars and wanted bank robbers. Read more.

Photo Courtesy of Steve Reed: Security guards at the Arden Fair mall in Sacramento see this visual interface after digitally scanning a license plate.

Reblogged from Center for Investigative Reporting