New Bill Proposes NSA Surveillance Reforms

A newly-introduced bill is proposing sweeping privacy reforms to a controversial government surveillance program, which has been previously used by the National Security Agency NSA to vacuum up the call records of millions of Americans. The “Safeguarding Americans’ Private Records Act” was...

Sunset of Section 215 Means All Eyes on USA FREEDOM Act

The sun may have set at midnight on Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, putting a temporary halt to the NSA’s bulk collection of phone call metadata, but privacy champions and legal experts point to May 7 as the day the lights dimmed on that facet of the government’s surveillance efforts. On that...

US House Votes to End NSA Phone Records Collection

The U.S. House of Representatives’ resounding vote on Wednesday to end the National Security Agency’s collection of phone metadata and business records shifts the Senate focus squarely onto the shoulders of Kentucky Republican Senator, Mitch McConnell. McConnell is a staunch defender of the...

New Coalition Launches Fight Against Patriot Act Section 215

A broad group of civil-rights, technology and political groups from across the spectrum has developed a new initiative to advocate for the repeal of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the part that provides the authority for the bulk collection of phone metadata and other information. The new...

Lame Duck Senate to Vote on NSA Reforming USA FREEDOM Act

The United States Senate will move to vote on the USA FREEDOM Act before the current congressional session closes at the end of the year, a move that pleases digital rights groups. In its current form, the bill would ban the bulk collection of Americans’ private records while granting the...

AOL Releases Transparency Report Lobbies for USA FREEDOM Act

Noting that Saturday was the 13th anniversary of the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Web giant AOL this week released its latest transparency report, detailing estimations of how many Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA orders and National Security Letters NSLs it’s received in the las...

NSA threatened Yahoo with $250,000 Daily Fine For Opposing Surveillance Request

Yahoo! has broke its silence and explained why it handed over its users’ data to United States federal officials, thereby promising to expose those court documents which ordered the snooping. The US government threatened Internet giant with a $250,000 fine per day several years ago if it failed t...

Judiciary Committee Approves Bill Limiting NSA Surveillance

The House Judiciary Committee met yesterday in a hearing to discuss, amend and approve the USA FREEDOM Act, which aims to rein in the National Security Agency’s surveillance powers and place new limits on authority granted under the USA PATRIOT Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act...

NSA Monitors Google PREF Cookie to Spy

The National Security Agency is monitoring a certain type of cookie – deployed by the search giant Google – as yet another tool in their increasingly public surveillance apparatus. This, according to slides from an April 2013 NSA presentation acquired by the Washington Post, is the latest...

FISC Court renews the Permission to collect Telephony Metadata again

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has once again has renewed the permission to the U.S. government for a controversial program to collect the telephony metadata from American phone companies. The News that the NSA collects bulk phone call metadata including phone numbers, call times and...

FISC Court renews the Permission to collect Telephony Metadata again

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has once again has renewed the permission to the U.S. government for a controversial program to collect the telephony metadata from American phone companies. The News that the NSA collects bulk phone call metadata including phone numbers, call times and...

Law Enforcement Requests Report: No Skype Data Turned Over

Microsoft’s report on compliance with law enforcement requests for data demonstrates a status quo for the software giant from the last reporting period. While the number of requests from law enforcement dropped worldwide in the first six months of 2013, Microsoft complied with 79 percent of...

LinkedIn Asks for Transparency on National Security Letters

LinkedIn on Tuesday joined the fray of Internet companies requesting permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to publish data on the number of National Security Letters it receives. Unlike Google, Microsoft and others that have petitioned the FISA court to lift its ban on the...

FISA Court renews NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISA gave the green light to the Obama administration by renewing the government's authority Friday to continue the collection of millions of Americans' telephone records. The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place...

FISA Court renews NSA surveillance programs exposed by Snowden

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISA gave the green light to the Obama administration by renewing the government's authority Friday to continue the collection of millions of Americans' telephone records. The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place...

FAQ: The NSA Metadata and PRISM Programs

The details of extensive government surveillance of U.S. citizens through collection of cell phone metadata, and email and Internet activities through the PRISM program has raised a lot of questions and caused quite a bit of confusion about what’s actually happening. To help users sort through th...

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 ...

Handling of Encryption, Tor Exposed in Leaked NSA Documents

New top-secret NSA documents released by the Guardian UK newspaper reveal that the United States’ top spy agency can retain encrypted communications for as long as it takes analysts to decrypt the secret messages—even if they’re collected by chance and without a warrant. In addition, the document...

Clappers Says NSA Programs Fully Authorized and Necessary

The top U.S. intelligence official addressed the recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s covert cell-phone and email data collection surveillance programs on Thursday, saying that the programs have been ongoing for years, are fully authorized under U.S. law and that the leaks...