AJ+ made this short, informative video explaining how cell-site simulators (also known as “IMSI catchers” and “stingrays”) work. Share it with your friends and family, and make sure you tell them to download Signal onto their smartphones. The free, easy to use,...
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...
There are two overarching goals in the fight for digital civil liberties: first, to establish privacy-protective legal rulings and statutes; and second, to make sure law enforcement and judges apply those standards throughout the criminal justice system. Oftentimes conversation about law reform...
The Village Voice has published the results of an investigation into New York City’s ambitious new wifi system, called LinkNYC. Ultimately, there will be as many as 7,500 kiosks throughout New York’s five boroughs, providing passersby and residents with super fast wifi,...
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...
If the FBI were to obtain broad powers enabling its agents to hack into thousands of computers all around the world, you’d expect congress to debate and authorize those new powers, right? You might assume congress would seek input from technical experts, and...
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...
A new Vice documentary explores the current state of surveillance with whistleblower Edward Snowden. Watch. Please note that by playing this clip YouTube and Google will place a long-term cookie on your computer.
In recent months, the FBI has taken to the press and to congress to complain about how the increasingly widespread adoption of end-to-end encryption in commercial technologies like the iPhone and Whatsapp is resulting in an intelligence blackout, a process the feds...
In response to the FBI’s public relations blitz against encryption technology and recent proposals in Congress to undermine the security of digital information, the ACLU of Massachusetts today sent a letter to the Massachusetts Congressional delegation calling on them to reject any...