Privacy

Three Steps You Can Take to Protect Yourself From Online Spying

The recent PRISM scandal has validated both the general public’s growing unease with federal law enforcement agencies, and many of the fringe element’s accusations about Big Brother’s online behavior. Whether or not it’s legal under the PATRIOT Act, just knowing that the government can rummage through your online life doesn’t sit well with many folks.…

British Spy Agency Is Saving Everyone’s Email and Calls Too

Thanks to more classified documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, The Guardian is now reporting that a British spy agency has tapped into trans-Atlantic fiber optic cables, allowing them access to everything from email and Facebook messages to internet search histories and phone calls. Which they gather indiscriminately. Oh, and they’re sharing it with…

Of Course the NSA Can Keep Inadvertently Acquired Data on US Citizens

The Guardian has obtained a series of documents which reveal that, while the NSA is expected to “minimize” collection of data suspected to belong to US citizens, any “inadvertently acquired” domestic communications can still be kept and used without a warrant. US officials have been at pains to insist that the NSA is only supposed…

Yahoo has responded to claims that recycled email accounts could pose a security problem, claiming it’s “going to extraordinary lengths” to protect users. Obviously.

Why Congress Must Investigate NSA’s Unconstitutional Spying

In the past couple of weeks, the NSA has, unsurprisingly, responded with a series of secret briefings to Congress that have left the public in the dark and vulnerable to misstatements and word games. Congress has many options at its disposal, but for true accountability any response must start with a special investigative committee. A…

You Should Stop Using Your iOS-Generated Hotspot Password Right Now

The ability to turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot is a fantastically useful little tool in and of itself. But Apple, being the generous overlord that it is, goes so far as to automatically generate a network key, keeping even the most absent-minded of Wi-Fi-beggared safe and sound. Or so we thought. According to…

Reclaim Your Privacy With Glowing Glasses That Foil Facial Recognition

In a time when it seems like the privacy we all enjoyed was just a smokescreen, it’s nice to know there’s at least one way to fight back against all the systems designed to keep track of our comings and goings. Developed by Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, these glasses include eleven LEDs that blast…

Ten international privacy authorities—spanning Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Israel and more—have sent a letter to Google asking for it to address privacy concerns over Glass. A letter; yeah, that’ll work.

Remember When Big Brother’s Only Weapon Was CCTV?

When I was a kid, there was no image more closely associated with surveillance than the CCTV camera. Big Brother is watching, we were warned. The government is keeping tabs on you with video cameras on every street corner. Soon they may even install cameras in your home, they insisted. Honestly, that may have been…

Confirmed: Court “Oversight” of NSA Surveillance Is a Total Joke

Although there’s been some debate on the legality of the mounds of data collected by NSA analysts during the PRISM program, House Intelligence Committee officials have confirmed that they’re totally free to rifle through your data without a court order. As long as they think they might have a reason to be suspicious—any reason will…

Yahoo’s revealed that it received a staggering 12,000 US government data requests between December 1st 2012 and May 31st 2013—way more than Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and co.

The Rise of the Surveillance State (As Predicted in 1967)

Uncle Sam might soon be spying on you with a vast, computerized network. At least that was the eerie prophecy of The Atlantic in 1967. In an article by Arthur Miller (a law professor at the University of Michigan, not the playwright) readers were introduced to the rise of centralized data collection, and how a…

The Massive Facial Recognition Database That’s Hiding in Plain Sight

It’s only natural to be a little skeeved out by the idea that the government is slurping up your private data behind the scenes, but there’s a very public piece of your data being collected as well: the look on your face. There’s already a national database of over 120 million faces, and the Washington…

Apple Details What the NSA Took–And How Much of It

The impact of the NSA’s secret surveillance through PRISM and other means has sent reverberations through out the tech industry and the world at large. The latest ripple: Apple’s full accounting of its interactions with government spies in the past year or so. Here’s what went down. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 In an open letter entitled Apple’s Commitment…

Facebook, Microsoft Disclose How Many People Were Spied by the NSA

According to Facebook, government agencies had access to between 18,000 and 19,000 user accounts in six months. The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft admitted 6,000 to 7,000 user data requests by the NSA and other law enforcement organizations during the same six-month period.

Microsoft just released data on its government requests (including FISA) too. For the last six months last year, Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 government requests affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts. [Microsoft]

Facebook Is Finally Releasing Its Data on Government Requests

Facebook is finally going to come clean. Or well, as clean as the government will allow it to. Like Google’s Transparency Report and like similar reports given by Microsoft and Twitter, Facebook is releasing its data on the amount of government requests it receives. Of course, the numbers are completely unspecific but that’s not exactly…

Yahoo Tried Real Hard–But Failed–to Avoid Joining PRISM

While everyone’s skeptical about how and why so many tech companies are involved with PRISM, the New York Times has run a heartening piece which describes how Yahoo fought hard—but ultimately failed—to avoid joining the initiative. https://gizmodo.com/the-tech-companies-in-prism-arent-telling-the-complete-512052926 A document dating back to 2008 shows that a company now identified to be Yahoo petitioned the secret…

Bloomberg: Tech Companies Got Access to Classified Info in PRISM Deal

Bloomberg is reporting that the recent NSA Prism scandal is just a tiny scratch on the privacy surface. Citing “four people familiar with the process”, the agency claims that in fact thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies work with US national security agencies. In return for providing “sensitive information”, Bloomberg claims these companies receive…

Edward Snowden Used a Thumb Drive to Smuggle Thousands of PRISM Files

The highly-classified, confidential documents that revealed the NSA’s massive data-mining operation, PRISM, were leaked from the NSA’s facilities on none other than a simple, innocuous thumb drive. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 Any sort of portable digital device is understandably barred by the highly secretive branch of government, but whistleblower Edward Snowden somehow managed to download thousands of files—of…