Researcher Chrisopher Soghoian began filing public records requests to federal law enforcement agencies in 2009, seeking records showing how much the agencies have paid in retreival fees to telecommunications companies. He's hoping to find some answers to the question: how often do these agencies ask AT&T and other telecoms for the personal data of consumers?
And it can! Scary news from the DARPA crates is making the rounds on the internet, radio and television news. Check it out here.
In her address to the Brennan Center in New York earlier this week, DHS director Janet Napolitano admitted that up to 80 percent of terror cases have been interrupted due to either citizen vigilance or to community policing. She said:
That's the conclusion reached by an independent UN investigator charged with looking into the practice of banning people from the internet after "three strikes" of copyright infringement. The practice is law in the UK and France.
What do you think? Should the government be allowed to prevent people from accessing the internet if they are repeat copyright infringers? The US government doesn't think so.
Read more at ArsTechnica.
Wyden's bill would require that law enforcement get a warrant in order to access your GPS data from telecommunications companies. Right now all they need is a subpoena, which a judge has never seen. He has support from Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who ArsTechnica reports said:
"I take the Fourth Amendment very seriously. The law enforcement community is going too far..I happen to think that's wrong."
G.W. Schultz of the Center for Investigative Reporting cites the National Priorities Project. They say, yes. That's the number.
Read more.
Shane Harris' book "The Watchers: The Rise of the Surveillance State" was awarded the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award For Excellence in Journalism on Tuesday night. Harris' book charts the contours development of the surveillance society over the past 30 years.
According to the Washington Business Journal, the DHS has contracted with General Dynamics for as much as $876 million dollars to build-out its new headquarters at St. Elizabeth's Hospital on Alabama Ave in metro DC:
In the wake of massive data privacy breaches at major corporations, and scattered attempts at legislative fixes to fill the gaps between technology and the law, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will review electronic privacy legislation in-depth. The committee aims to make recommendations for policies that would protect consumer privacy without harming corporate profits online. TMT Law Watch reports: