Appropriations Amendment Threatens to Cut Funding for NSA Collection Program

A small group of Congressmen is trying to cut off the funding for the NSA’s widespread collection of phone and Internet records under the “business records” collection provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The provision in FISA that enables law enforcement agencies to get access...

EFF, Eclectic Group of Organizations Sue NSA Over Data Collection

If politics makes strange bedfellows, as the saying goes, wholesale government surveillance takes that to an entirely new level. The clearest evidence yet of the broad and diverse set of groups opposed to the NSA’s domestic spying programs came Tuesday when the EFF said that is representing a...

Google, Microsoft Seek Help in Lifting FISA Gag Order

Google and Microsoft have locked arms with a number of civil liberties advocates in filing a brief with the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court hoping to lift a gag order preventing the two tech giants from releasing information on their role in the NSA’s surveillance activities. To...

Stellar Wind Surveillance program under Obama administration

According to secret documents obtained by the Guardian, Obama administration permitted the National Security Agency to surveillance the Emails and Internet metadata of all Americans. This secret warrant less surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA code name Stellar Wind, was launched ...

Stellar Wind Surveillance program under Obama administration

According to secret documents obtained by the Guardian, Obama administration permitted the National Security Agency to surveillance the Emails and Internet metadata of all Americans. This secret warrant less surveillance program, collectively known by the NSA code name Stellar Wind, was launched ...

New Bill Would Declassify FISC Opinions

A group of eight senators from both parties have introduced a new bill that would require the attorney general to declassify as many of the rulings of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as possible as a way of bringing into the sunlight much of the law and opinion that guides the...

Suit Filed Against NSA, Obama Over Surveillance Program

A group of people, including a former federal prosecutor and the parents of a Navy SEAL sniper killed in action, have filed a class-action law suit against the National Security Agency, Verizon and President Obama over the NSA’s collection of cell phone data. The suit says the order that enabled...

DHS: Border Device Search Policy Does Not Violate Fourth Amendment

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties CLCR has determined that the DHS’s warrantless, and often suspicion-less, search and seizure of electronics devices at U.S. borders does not violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search or...

Court: Government Need Not Justify Warrantless Data Requests

A Virginia appeals court on Friday denied a right-to-access order filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir and computer security researchers Jacob Appelbaum and Rop Gonggrijp. The denial confirms ...

BASTARDS!!

Last month, those assholes in the California State Assembly passed a resolution urging state educational institutions to more aggressively crack down on criticism of the State of Israel on campuses, which the resolution defines as "anti-Semitism." The anti-democratic resolution is the latest step...

Senator Seeks More Info On DOJ Location Tracking Practices

Senator Al Franken D-MN is demanding answers to questions about the U.S. Department of Justice DOJ practice of gathering data from wireless providers in order to monitor individuals’ movements using mobile phone location data. Franken released a copy of a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on...

Wired: Courts Back Government After Tech Company Challenges National Security Letter Gag Rule

Wired’s ThreatLevel blog is digging into the story of technology companies pushing back against the government’s use of super-secret National Security Letters NSLs to collect information on “persons of interest” to the FBI earlier this year. According to the Wired account, an unnamed company – ve...

Feds Sidestep Controversy By Circumventing Device Encryption

A Colorado District Court Ruling to force the suspect in a fraud case to surrender the encryption key to her laptop was deemed unnecessary after federal authorities managed to circumvent the device’s encryption, Ars Technica reports. The development effectively ends what has been a controversial...

Court Ruling: Forced Decryption Violates the Fifth, Sometimes

The Eleventh Circuit of the US Court of Appeals recently handed down a landmark ruling, establishing a precedent under which the contents of an encrypted hard-drive are protected by the Fifth Amendment’s ban on self-incrimination. Briefly, the facts of the case are these: John Doe is suspected of...

Court: Forced Hard Drive Decryption Doesn't Violate Fifth Amendment

In what may become a precedent setting digital rights ruling, Judge Robert Blackburn of the United States District Court of Colorado ruled that compelling an individual to provide access to the encrypted contents of a device does not violate the US Constitution’s prohibition of self incrimination...

US Supreme Court Ends Warrantless GPS Tracking

In a decision that was closeley watched by civil liberties group and the technology industry, the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that GPS tracking devices constitute a “search” and that authorities must obtain a warrant before placing one on a suspect’s vehicle. In a rare 9-0 vote, the Court...

#SOPA - The Hacker News say "NO WAY"

SOPA - The Hacker News say "NO WAY" Get mad and take action as you read how your internet privacy and freedoms are about to be taken away in our editor Patti Galle's article on SOPA…….coming to your personal rights soon. The Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA, or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced...

Slideshow: Ten Tips For Protecting Your Devices From Seizure By U.S. Customs

VIEW SLIDESHOW Ten Tips For Protecting Your Devices From Seizure By U.S. Customs Fourth amendment be damned. With U.S. Customs agents increasingly interested in the contents of digital devices like iPhones, iPads and laptops, The Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued guidance for getting your...

Fourth Amendment be damned

With U.S. Customs agents increasingly interested in the contents of digital devices like iPhones, iPads and laptops, The Electronic Frontier Foundation has issued guidance for getting your mobile device across the border safely and protecting the data on it should it get seized. The Fourth...

EFF Argues Forced Decryption Violates Fifth Amendment

Digital civil liberties organization, the Electric Frontier Foundation EFF, appealed to the U.S. District Court of Colorado arguing that encrypted personal data is covered by the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self incrimination. The group submitted a brief of Amicus Curaie .PDF last week o...