The Latest Push to Extend Key US Spy Powers Is Still a Mess

A US surveillance program that lets the FBI view Americans’ communications without a warrant is up for renewal. A new bill aims to address mounting lawmaker concerns—with smoke and mirrors...

Using a VPN May Subject You to NSA Spying

US lawmakers are pressing Tulsi Gabbard to reveal whether using a VPN can strip Americans of their constitutional protections against warrantless surveillance...

Are Automatic License Plate Scanners Constitutional?

An advocacy groups is filing a Fourth Amendment challenge against automatic license plate readers. "The City of Norfolk, Virginia, has installed a network of cameras that make it functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked, photographed, and stored ...

Top FBI Official Urges Agents to Use Warrantless Wiretaps on US Soil

An internal email from FBI deputy director Paul Abbate, obtained by WIRED, tells employees to search for “US persons” in a controversial spy program's database that investigators have repeatedly misused...

US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying

A closed-door presentation for House lawmakers late last year portrayed American anti-war protesters as having possible ties to Hamas in an effort to kill privacy reforms to a major US spy program...

Section 702 Surveillance Fight Pits the White House Opposite Reproductive Rights

Prominent advocates for the rights of pregnant people are urging members of Congress to support legislation that would ban warrantless access to sensitive data as the White House fights against it...

Secret White House Warrantless Surveillance Program

There seems to be no end to warrantless surveillance: According to the letter, a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services DAS has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone record...

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

The Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 pulls from past privacy bills to overhaul how police and the feds access Americans’ data and communications...

The US Post Office Is Spying on the Mail. Senators Want to Stop It

The USPS carries out warrantless surveillance on thousands of parcels every year. Lawmakers want it to end—right now...

Bulk Surveillance of Money Transfers

Just another obscure warrantless surveillance program. US law enforcement can access details of money transfers without a warrant through an obscure surveillance program the Arizona attorney generals office created in 2014. A database stored at a nonprofit, the Transaction Record Analysis Center...

FBI Conducted 3.4 Million Warrantless Searches of Americans' Data

Plus: Trump backers breach election systems, Microsoft tracks Russia's war prep, a new Facebook leak reveals a mess, and Bored Ape Yacht Club gets hacked...

January 12, 2017 – Morning Cyber Coffee Headlines – “Martin Luther King Jr.” Edition

Good morning! Sit with Carbon Black this morning over a cup of coffee or tea and browse a few industry headlines to get the day started. We’ve got just enough information below to get you through that first cup…enjoy! January 12, 2018 - Headlines Carbon Black in the News: Intel CEO releases...

House Votes to Reauthorize Controversial Spy Provision, Section 702

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to renew the National Security Agency’s spy powers to collect internet communications under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008. The vote 256-to-164 in favor of the legislation ends a yearlong debate over...

New Rules Announced for Border Inspection of Electronic Devices

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced new restrictions on when agents can copy data from digital devices at border crossing points. Agents now need “reasonable suspicion” in advance of searches of phones, computers, tablets, cameras or any other digital device belonging to people entering ...

New Snowden Documents Outline Govt. Memos on Expanded Spying

A new set of memos uncovered by Edward Snowden and shared with the New York Times and ProPublica this week reveal how the Obama administration narrowed its search for hackers and expanded its warrantless surveillance program. The two memos, which date back to May and July 2012, enabled the Nation...

Documents in Long-Running Yahoo FISC Challenge Case Published

During a long-running secret dispute between Yahoo and government officials over the constitutionality of orders from the federal government to turn over data belonging to Yahoo users, the company was facing fines of $250,000 for refusing to comply with the order. The revelation is contained in a...

House Amendment Limits Funding for NSA Surveillance

The House of Representatives last night overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act that would cut funding for two programs that grant intelligence agencies access to the private data and communications of U.S. citizens. The amendment shows that Congress is...

Clapper: NSA Queries Databases for Information on U.S. Persons

UPDATE–The NSA searches the data it collects incidentally on Americans, including phone calls and emails, during the course of terrorism investigations. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, confirmed the searches in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, the first time that such actions hav...

Microsoft Reads User Email without Warrant

Late last week it emerged that Microsoft had searched through the contents of a French blogger’s Hotmail account in order to track down the source of a leak of proprietary information from the Redmond, Wash., tech giant. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and transparency advocates have expressed...

Senate Reauthorizes FISA, Rejects Proposed Privacy Amendments

UPDATE – The Senate today rejected the inclusion of four privacy-friendly amendments before voting to reauthorize the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA that grants the federal government the authority to clandestinely monitor electronic communications involving foreign...