Tech Giants Plead for U.S. Surveillance Reforms

Giant technology companies have been vocal about the need for more transparency with regard to the national security requests for user data they receive. But until now, they’ve stayed out of the political fight to address government surveillance, in particular by the National Security Agency...

NSA Director Alexander Denies Spying on Europeans

Intelligence officials appearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday denied collecting the phone records of citizens in France, Spain and Italy, as recently reported by media outlets in those countries. “The assertions made by Le Monde of France, El Mundo of Spa...

New Bill Would End Mass Surveillance

UPDATE: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner R-Wisc. is introducing a bill that would counteract many of the elements of the U.S. PATRIOT Act that enables the mass collection of data belonging to U.S. citizens. Sensenbrenner’s bill is called the USA FREEDOM Act, a quasi-acronym for Uniting and Strengthening...

EFF: Congress Has Opportunity to Stop Mass Surveillance

Since the leaks of NSA surveillance methods began in June, there has been a flurry of activity in Congress, with members scurrying to line up on either side of the issue, either defending the agency’s methods or condemning them. That mad scramble also has included the introduction of a number of...

Snapchat Complies with Govt., Sends Images to Law Enforcement

Snapchat cleared up any doubts users may have had about the privacy surrounding images sent back and forth on its photo messaging service when the company confirmed this week that it has shared some images with law enforcement. Snapchat, started in 2011, has gained popularity over the last year –...

NSA Director Alexander Asked About Cell Location Collection

Did we hear the next shoe to drop in the NSA surveillance saga? Yesterday before a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, asked some pointed questions of NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander regarding whether the agency collects cell tower location data in addition t...

Dropbox Requests National Security Letter Transparency

Dropbox, as LinkedIn did a week ago, filed an amicus brief yesterday with the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISC requesting permission to publish the number of National Security Letter requests the cloud storage company receives. Dropbox followed LinkedIn’s lead, arguing i...

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...

GlobalSign Commits to Certificate Transparency Framework

If you were going to try and determine who has had a worse go of it recently, the NSA or certificate authorities, you’d likely have to just flip a coin. And the coin would probably end up balanced on its edge. While the National Security Agency is scrambling to respond to and recover from the...

Google, Facebook, Yahoo File NSL Transparency Motions

Google, Yahoo and Facebook filed amended requests today with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court FISC reiterating their desire to publish numbers on requests for user data related to national security. Google, meanwhile, went a step further asking for an open, public hearing with the...

Yahoo Transparency Report Reveals More Than 12K U.S. Government Data Requests

Following the lead of Google, Twitter and other major Internet companies, Yahoo has issued its first transparency report, revealing that it received more than 12,000 requests for user data from the U.S. government in the first half of 2013. The company disclosed user content in nearly a third of...

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso Discuss the NYT Attack, News of the Week

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso discuss the big stories of the last couple of weeks, including the Syrian Electronic Army’s attacks against the registrar for the New York Times and Twitter, and the release of Facebook’s first transparency report. Download: digitalunderground124 Subscribe to the...

Facebook Complied with 79 Percent of Requests for User Data

Facebook, a holdout among major technology companies in divulging figures on the numbers of government requests for its users’ data, today delivered its first semblance of a transparency report. The Global Government Requests Report quantifies the number of data requests against how many accounts...

Encrypted Email Service 'Lavabit' abruptly shut down under U.S. Government Pressure

Texas-based Encrypted Email Service 'Lavabit' abruptly shut down for reasons linked to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Feds want to Lavabit demanding access to Ed Snowden's email. Lavabit refused! Snowden was using the Lavabit service while holed-up in the Moscow airpor...

Encrypted Email Service 'Lavabit' abruptly shut down under U.S. Government Pressure

Texas-based Encrypted Email Service 'Lavabit' abruptly shut down for reasons linked to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Feds want to Lavabit demanding access to Ed Snowden's email. Lavabit refused! Snowden was using the Lavabit service while holed-up in the Moscow airpor...

Announcing the 2013 MSRC Progress Report featuring MAPP expansions

Over the years, our customers have come to expect a certain regularity and transparency in both our security updates and the guidance that goes with them. One regular piece of communication about our work is a yearly progress report, which provides a look into the program updates and bulletin...

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...

Google Adds Phishing, Malware Info to Transparency Report

Google divulged new statistics today about its Safe Browsing program, a service it uses to flag websites it suspects of peddling malware and phishing. According to the numbers, most of the “unsafe website” warnings it pushes to users on Google Search and in browsers, stem from malware and not...

Google Asks FISA Court to Allow it to Publish Data on Government Requests

Saying that inaccurate media reports about the PRISM program have damaged the company’s reputation, Google has asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to publish the number of requests the company gets for user data under various parts of the Foreign Intelligence...

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...