Privacy Matters | Privacy SOS

New documents show Massachusetts prosecutors conduct sweeping warrantless surveillance

07/20/2017 - Freedom of Speech, Internet Freedom, Law Reform

Your phone records, showing whom you’ve called and texted, when, and how long the calls lasted. Your IP logs, showing where you access websites from—whether it’s home, work, a friend’s house, or on the go via your mobile phone. Your banking and credit...
Report: Sevenfold increase in federal warrantless surveillance demands in DC area

07/20/2017 - Law Reform

According to summary data provided to journalist and FOIA ninja Jason Leopold, federal prosecutors’ warrantless surveillance of phone location and internet records grew sevenfold in just the past three years in the District of Columbia. The demands, called “d orders,” were made under...
Take action today to save the internet

07/12/2017 - Censorship, Freedom of Speech, Internet Freedom

Imagine the following scenario: Your favorite pizza delivery place is a mom and pop local joint, but you have a really hard time ordering pizza from them. That’s because your phone company has an exclusive deal with Pizza Hut. Under the terms...
Masha Gessen in Harpers: The emergency is the permanent state of emergency, not Trump

06/28/2017 - Censorship, Dissent, Freedom of Speech, Mass Surveillance, Terror Wars

Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen has a must-read essay in the latest Harpers Magazine. Her final paragraph sums up our predicament nicely, and points us in the direction we need to go. The problems that are now impossible to ignore didn’t begin with...
ACLU sues over secret warrantless surveillance documents related to Occupy Boston

06/28/2017 - Dissent, Freedom of Speech, Internet Freedom, Law Reform, Secrecy

Yesterday the ACLU of Massachusetts and attorney Jeffrey Pyle of Prince Lobel Tye LLP filed a complaint in Suffolk Superior Court seeking access to court records that have been under seal for over five years. The secret court documents pertain to a...
Boston Police intel policy puts immigrants and dissidents in harm’s way

06/21/2017 - DHS, Dissent, Immigration, New COINTELPRO, Security Theater, Terror Wars

Mayor Marty Walsh and Police Commissioner Bill Evans have spoken out in defense of Boston’s immigrant community, pushing back against the xenophobic and racist rhetoric coming from our nation’s highest political office. Boston, our leaders want the world to know, is a...
Massachusetts newspapers to state legislature: Regulate police drones

06/07/2017 - Drones, Law Reform

The Salem News and Gloucester Times want state lawmakers to pass a law to regulate the government’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. In an editorial published in both papers, the editors write: The possibilities for surveillance are endless with this...
Massachusetts proposal to regulate law enforcement use of drones heard before legislature

05/31/2017 - Drones, Freedom of Speech, Law Reform

This morning the Massachusetts state legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security heard testimony in support of bipartisan proposals to regulate the government’s use of surveillance drones. The Vice Chair of the committee, Senator Michael Moore, introduced one of the measures,...
State legislatures across the nation are considering consumer internet privacy laws

05/24/2017 - Corporate Spying, Data Mining, Internet Freedom, Law Reform

In early April 2017, the Trump administration killed Obama-era FCC regulations that would have prevented internet service providers like Comcast from selling sensitive customer information without explicit opt-in consent. In response, legislators in states across the country have introduced bills to fill...
New poll shows Massachusetts voters support ending mandatory minimums. Here’s why it matters.

05/11/2017 - Drug Wars, Law Reform, Mass Incarceration

A MassINC poll out today confirms that two-thirds of Massachusetts residents support treating substance use as a public health—not criminal justice—problem. An even larger margin supports ending mandatory minimum sentencing; only 8% of people polled said they preferred mandatory minimums to other...