Police departments across the country have gone to great lengths to keep secret information about cell phone tracking and wiretapping devices known as “stingrays.” These devices, technically called cell site simulators or IMSI catchers, trick cell phones into communicating with the cops,...
Tonight the non-profit advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) hosts a national security themed town hall featuring presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, moderated by NBC’s Matt Lauer. Here are some basic facts you probably won’t hear from...
Can the FBI keep secret the number of chairs it has in its Boston office? How about the number of investigations its local Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) conducted in the year 2014, or how many parking spaces it reserves for its...
The FBI has published a request for information (RFI) for a “Tactical Mesh/mobile ad hoc network (MANET) solution… to improve bandwidth utilization, provide higher quality surveillance data transmissions, and mitigate potential security threats.” The mesh network will serve as an alternative to commercial...
The FBI is seeking bids for a smartphone app to enable agents to covertly record audio, store the data locally, automatically send the data to FBI headquarters, livestream recordings to other FBI agents, and display the GPS location of the agent recording...
In June, the Government Accountability Office released a report criticizing the FBI’s facial recognition programs as privacy invasive, untested, and secretive. The GAO report got a decent amount of coverage, particularly in the independent and tech press. Included in the report was a map...
In conversations about civil liberties reform, we often come face to face with the inescapable fact that our world and our issues are interconnected. It’s not possible to fully address systemic racism in the criminal system without also addressing economic injustice. Drug...
Mea culpa: I’ve been on vacation; that’s why no recent posts. Here is some news I missed while I was partying and relaxing. It is extremely easy for the FBI to spy on journalists, without warrants As Freedom of the Press Foundation’s...
Last week, the General Accountability Office (GAO) released a report describing the FBI’s facial recognition systems and powers. The report revealed that the FBI has agreements with 16 states to grant the FBI’s Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation (FACE) Services Unit access to driver’s...
Thanks to FBI meddling, a straightforward electronic communications privacy reform with bipartisan support and barely any opposition is now stalled, and is dangerously close to dying this session. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) became law in 1986, and hasn’t been updated...