Spying and Surveillance
Encryption, a security measure that makes data impossible to read without a secure code or password, has become an increasingly contentious subject for government agencies and private companies. While the likes of Apple, Android, and other technology companies maintain it is vital, the federal government has forcefully resisted. On Thursday, however, NSA Director Mike Rogers expressed his support for the security feature, drawing a clear line in the sand between federal intelligence and law enforcement.
Mass surveillance has “badly shaken writers’ faith that democratic governments will respect their rights to privacy and freedom of expression,” according to a January 2015 PEN America report based on the responses of 772 writers from fifty countries. Reporting for Common Dreams, Lauren McCauley covered not only the PEN America report, but also a July 2014 report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch indicating that US journalists and lawyers increasingly avoid work on potentially controversial topics due to fear of government spying.
A bill introduced in the New Hampshire House for the 2016 session would prohibit a federal-local surveillance collaboration that the NSA’s former chief technical director called the “biggest threat since the civil war.”
Privacy as we once knew it is dead. We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology—specifically the technology employed by the government against the American citizenry. As a result, warns John W. Whitehead, we are becoming a nation where even the most virtuous citizen risks becoming an outlaw.
The US Patriot act enabled the NSA to collect metadata on all telephone calls in the country, ostensibly to catch terrorists. It was a violation of Rights and Freedoms, and has been the subject of much outcry among citizens and Congressional representatives.
Half a century ago people had to be reassured their social security card was not being used for identification. Now there are federally standardized and globally synchronized ID cards, government-sponsored online ID projects, DNA databases, and even secret databases of your newborn baby’s genetic information and nobody bats an eyelid. How did we get here, and how can we break this conditioning?
Ben Swann explains how the NSA is actually still on a continuous surveillance of the US citizens. So what role does the USA Freedom act really play?
Based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, Ryan Gallagher reported for the Intercept that the National Security Agency (NSA) has developed a “Google-like” search engine called ICREACH, which has the capacity to gather personal information. This search engine can access over 850 million personal records, including private e-mails, chats, and some phone locations.
Responding to announcements by Apple and Google that they would make customers’ smartphone and computer data more secure, in October 2014 the FBI’s director James Comey announced the Bureau was seeking to enlarge its data collection capabilities to include direct access to cell phones, tablets, and computers through an expansion of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in the interest of “public safety”
There is so much debate over how the U.S. and other nations will stop ISIS but can these leaders be trusted? Ben Swann exposes secret DOD documents that prove the U.S. wanted ISIS to emerge in Syria.
Wikipedia filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency for violating the constitutional rights of its users by performing bulk surveillance and searching.
We know from decades of history that actually it’s almost impossible for human beings to avoid abusing surveillance power. It would be shocking if they weren’t abusing it, I think is the lesson of history.
Since Estonia regained independence in 1991, its government has sought to redesign the nation’s entire information infrastructure with goals of openness, privacy, and security. The technology platform that Estonia built to serve its citizens sets an example for the rest of the world. Each citizen has one identification number to use across all systems, from paper passport to bank records to any government office or medical care. This includes giving electronic signatures, filing taxes, and voting. Estonians elect their parliament online, and get their taxes back in two days.
“Americans motivated by anti-government views and racist ideologies” will be the focus of a new Department of Justice position.
Increasingly, the world around us resembles Dick’s dystopian police state in which the police combine widespread surveillance to capture would-be criminals before they can do any damage.
