Two German researchers bought “anonymous” web browsing data on millions of Germans. It didn’t take long for them to identify those people by looking through their web browsing history. The Guardian reports: “What would you think,” asked Svea Eckert, “if somebody showed...
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...
Yesterday I was interviewed for an NBC Boston story about DHS funded research to build a machine that would enable the electronic searching of hundreds of people at a time. The system would work sort of like the all electronic tolling gantries...
Yesterday, Senators Wyden (D-OR) and Paul (R-KY) and Representatives Polis (D-CO), Farenthold (R-TX), Smith (D-WA), and Beyer (D-VA) introduced legislation to protect digital privacy from the prying eyes of DHS employees at US borders. The legislation would require warrants for searches of US citizens’ and...
The GOP Congress just took an ax to your internet privacy. Here’s how to get some of it back. Use Tor browser. Tor is a free browser that lets you explore the internet anonymously. The only downside with Tor is that it...
Yesterday, the Senate passed a measure to overturn Obama-era FCC rules that prevent internet service providers like Comcast and Time Warner from using or selling your internet history records without your permission. Even worse, the measure approved by the Senate in a...
Last week, President Trump tweeted that President Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 presidential campaign. That’s probably not true. Since the intelligence reforms of the 1970s, it’s been unlawful for presidents to order targeted wiretapping of Americans. Only prosecutors can do that, and...
The people of Boston just scored a major victory for privacy, civil liberties, and people power. After thousands of Bostonians took action to demand the City drop a dangerous proposal to spend as much as $1.4 million on Orwellian social media surveillance software,...
As of January 5, the Boston Police Department still hadn’t signed a contract to spend as much as $1.4 million on social media surveillance software. We know this because I’ve been filing weekly public records requests seeking the winning bid for the enormous...
Over the past couple of months, Twitter has cut off three separate social media surveillance software companies from access to its ‘firehose’ of data: Geofeedia, Snaptrends, and Media Sonar. The social media giant pulled the data plug on these companies after my...