   Surveillance ArchiveJuly 11, 2006New Law Proposed to Bring CALEA to the Net
All routers to include law enforcement backdoors in bill rumored to be proposed by FBI and put forward by Senator DeWine.
San Francisco's Mayor Backs Investigation of NSA AT&T Link
Asks City Attorney to conduct fact-finding on the company.
July 05, 2006Did AT&T's Assistance With Domestic Wiretaps Precede 9/11?
Bloomberg reports on claims the NSA asked AT&T Inc. to set up a domestic call monitoring site in June 2000.
ISPs to Scan all Mail, Match Attachments with Hash DatabaseJune 26, 2006Is the NSA spying on U.S. Internet traffic?
Salon investigates rumors of NSA taps at the heart of the domestic Net.
June 19, 2006John W. Dean on "State Secrets Privilege" and the NSA
The Nixon counsel on why cases against the illegal wiretapping program should not be blocked.
June 13, 2006Skype and CALEA
Tim Lee wonders if Skype's free US phone call plan isn't a pre-emptive defence against overbroad CALEA requirements.
May 29, 2006FCC Says Telco Wiretapping Too Secret to Investigate
The FCC Chief, Kevin Martin, says classified nature of project makes it impossible for FCC to look into AT&T and other telcos' complicity.
Adbusters v. AT&TMay 18, 2006Another Way to Register Gun Owners?Baltimore Sun: NSA Had a Privacy-Preserving Alternative
NSA reportedly has a system that would have data-mined while better preserving citizen's privacy. They just didn't use it.
May 16, 2006Senator Sununu Questions NSA Program
Conservative figures grow more skeptical of extent of the Administration's domestic surveillance program.
EFF Suit Hits the Front Page
San Francisco Chronicle summarizes the challenges to the AT&T case.
May 15, 2006NSA Sweep "Waste of Time"
Worth it for the second image linking Al Qaeda to Kevin Bacon.
EFF Lawyer Explains to Newsweek why Phone Records Matter
Kurt Opsahl answers the frequently asked questions about the case -- the ones that we can answer, that is.
May 09, 2006The NSA v. The Law
The American Bar Association peers into the legality of warrantless wiretaps.
Key Congressman Endorses Data Retention
ISPs take another step toward being the government's record keepers.
May 04, 2006Wiretapping: Your Billing Breakdown
Susan Crawford reports from the FCC open meeting that decided to let ISPs and universities pay for their own wiretapping.
ISPs Reluctant to Turn Themselves Into Date Honeypots
Diana DeGette, the Democrat demanding that ISPs hoard subscriber data for the government, says she is "horrified" that ISPs aren't supporting her plans.
May 03, 2006FCC to ISPs: Pay For our Wiretaps, Please
ISPs will have to cover the cost of a mandatory wiretapping infrastructure.
April 14, 2006Wiretapping on the Increase in EuropeMarch 17, 2006Wiretapping Vulnerabilities
EFF's Seth Schoen reports on wiretapping: how it works, and how a simple touch-tone chord can disable it.
February 21, 2006Text Messages, the Net, and Chinese Freedoms
The Washington Post runs a series on the Great Firewall of China.
Lawsuit Filed Against Verizon for NSA WiretapsFebruary 16, 2006Why Google Took the Wrong Course Over China
EFF's Brad Templeton on making a statement by your absence.
February 07, 2006Senate Hearings Into NSA Wiretap Program - the Transcripts
That's the public transcripts, rather than monitored transcripts of the phone calls the senators made beforehand....
February 02, 2006Eavesdropping 101: What Can The NSA Do?January 31, 2006Spies, Lies and Wiretaps
New York Times efficiently presents the obvious flaws in the Administration's wiretap non-answers.
News From the Evil Parallel Universe EFF Chair
Brad Templeton--or rather his evil twin--explains how CALEA wiretapping regulations will be a boon to incumbent telcos, and a marvelous disaster for new entrants into world of telephony.
January 27, 2006Fact-Checking and the Fourth
Glenn Greenwald spots that in June 2002, the Administration declined to accept from Congress the powers that they now claim they have, worrying that it might be unconstitutional.
January 20, 2006Schoolchildren Recruited as Copyright Spies in Hong Kong
Some 200,000 are encouraged to monitor and report on "suspect" web sites.
January 10, 2006Calls for House, Criminal Investigation
Representatives look for a House panel and a DOJ investigation into the constitutionality of the NSA wiretaps.
January 06, 2006NSA Watch
The ACLU relaunches their informational surveillance network mini-site.
December 22, 2005The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power
A great Bruce Schneier summary piece on the unauthorized wiretap scandal.
December 05, 2005China has Their Number
Chinese mobile phone owners will have to register their phone with the authorities, citing "illegal text messaging practices." Oh yes, and "improper political commentary."
October 18, 2005Surveillance by the NumbersSeptember 26, 2005Cop to Suspect: Your DNA Is *Mine*
The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of a bill that would let the FBI extract and archive DNA samples from any suspect.
September 12, 2005Your Call May Be Decrypted to Improve Our Government Service
Dan Gillmor wonders if eBay, which happily hands over customer data to law enforcement, will also put gleefully put backdoors in Skype.
September 07, 2005UK Pushes Data Retention
"The longer, the better," says the country's justice minister, remarking that human rights should recognize the "circumstances in the modern world." After all, now we've completely cured tyranny and the use of violence, who needs 'em?
July 18, 2005No Chmod a+r /dev/audio for You
A federal appeals court rules that a Las Vegas judge erred when he ordered a company to help the FBI eavesdrop on conversations in a suspect's vehicle using the car's "OnStar" cellphone audio.
July 06, 2005Martha Stewart: Freedom To Tinker
MS experiments with circumventing the protections on her ankle monitor: "You can figure out how to get it off," she is quoted as saying. "It's on the Internet. I looked it up."
April 07, 2005Renter Got a Fast Car
A Connecticut court has ruled that GPS tracking devices in rental cars cannot be used to track and fine speeding renters.
March 07, 2005Michigan Takes the Blue Pill
State law enforcement officials announced that they'll be dropping out of "Matrix," a controversial interstate crime-fighting initiatives with serious privacy problems.
March 02, 2005Gonzalez Urges PATRIOT Act Renewal in 1st Speech as AG
Not much of a surprise, but a disappointment, nonetheless.
February 17, 2005A Thousand National ID Proposals Bloom
Legislation in the US and abroad is aimed at creating de facto and explict national ID systems - a terrible idea in any form.
February 02, 2005The Search Engine That Knew Too Much
Did you know that Google tracks every search and the IP address from which it was made? The company may not be evil, but privacy advocates worry that the data could be abused by virtue-challenged government agencies.
January 26, 2005Aussie Nat'l ID Comes Under FireJanuary 11, 20058th Circuit: VoIP Can't Be Regulated as Phone Service
This trend may help infant services like Vonage and Skype compete with monster telcos.
January 04, 2005LAPD's New Digital Facebook
The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking to expand its biometric facial recognition system, but privacy advocates want them to turn the other cheek.
October 26, 2004What's in Echelon's Gadget Bag?
This article examines the technology behind Echelon, the world's largest surveillance project.
October 20, 2004EU Pushes Semi-Permanent Records
A new draft anti-terrorism plan requires data about telephone calls and emails to be retained for at least 12 months. You know, "just in case."
September 29, 2004ACLU Wins Huge PATRIOT Act Victory!
Great news - a federal judge sided with the ACLU and found some powers under the PATRIOT Act unconstitutional!
September 24, 2004"PATRIOT II" On Deck
The GOP hopes to revive the controversial bill by attaching it to the coattails of the 9/11 Commission Report.
September 15, 2004Chicago Residents Wave Hello to Big Brother
The city recently installed 2,000 surveillance cameras throughout the city.
September 09, 2004Republicans Oppose National ID
From the official 2004 Republican Party Platform: "As tagging and tracking citizens is inconsistent with American freedom, we oppose the creation of a national identification card or system." We couldn't agree more.
September 08, 2004Gag-Happy Government Wants ACLU to Shut Up
The USA PATRIOT Act allows the government to issue "National Security Letters," which carry a gag-order for the recipient that prevents the disclosure that one has been received. But the DoJ has interpreted this to mean that the ACLU, in its work to examine how the letters are being (ab)used, can't publicly quote from published Supreme Court opinions or refer even vaguely to the circumstances of its case.
August 29, 2004Uncle Sam Goes Shopping for Big Brother
The Department of Homeland Security has given notice that it's interested in any commercially available data-mining software.
August 12, 2004More Grassroots Opposition to the PATRIOT Act
The NY Times on "the 330 communities and 4 states that have condemned or expressed worry about the act."
August 11, 2004Oh Surveillance, You're So Complex
The ACLU recently launched a project on the privatization and buildup of our nation's "surveillance-industrial complex."
August 04, 2004FBI Wants More Ways to Tap the Net
The Bureau is pushing to ensure that CALEA, a 1994 telecom surveillance bill, applies to broadband-over-fiber.
July 26, 2004Libraries Invest in the Future of Surveillance
Salon explores the benefits and risks of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in library books.
July 15, 2004CAPPS II Cancelled
Gargantuan news. From USA Today: Asked Wednesday whether the program could be considered dead, Ridge jokingly gestured as if he were driving a stake through its heart and said, "Yes."
July 14, 2004Breaking Down Councilman
Orin Kerr has a wonderful post on why the decision is such bad news for privacy.
July 09, 2004House Fails to Limit PATRIOT Powers
The latest attempt to reform the USA PATRIOT Act - this time regarding government access to library records and reading habits - was foiled after a round of voting chicanery.
July 07, 2004More on the Law v. Email Privacy
Wired on the Councilman case, Gmail, and email privacy.
The Law v. Email Privacy
The New York Times weighs in on recent court ruling demonstrating the vulnerability of email privacy.
June 14, 2004PATRIOT Progeny Gains Ground on Capitol Hill
The Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act of 2003, or HR 3179, would strengthen many of USA PATRIOT's controversial provisions.
High Schools Learn About P2P Blocking
Network-monitoring companies like Audible Magic are now peddling their wares in high schools.
May 31, 2004Thinking Through the National ID
Pressure for a U.S. national ID is increasing, but so are questions about the efficacy of the systems that are supposed to enable the card to provide enhanced security.
Sony Signs Audible Magic for Anti-Piracy Post
The Japanese giant will use Audible Magic in a range of enforcement efforts.
May 25, 2004Northern Flights: Alaskans Fight CAPPS II
Four Alaskans are challenging the controversial data-mining program in federal court.
May 20, 2004Common Sense Spotted in UK Discussion of National IDs
Forgery, biometrics and the problems with both in this article from the Register.
May 18, 2004Good Idea Alert: Warrants for Data Mining
A panel convened by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is recommending a sweeping policy overhaul to protect people from privacy abuses.
May 14, 2004ACLU Forced to Redact Press Release in National Security Letter Case
The redacted portions included a description of the law in question and a briefing schedule.
May 04, 2004Japan Rethinks Webcams in Class
Officials are nervous because parents are using the images to back up complaints against schools.
May 03, 2004Secret Warrants Topped Criminal Warrants in 2003
Warrants authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act exceeded conventional warrants for the first time last year. Nobody knows how they're being used or if they're being abused.
April 28, 2004Another Reason to Order Chinese
Collection agencies are data-mining pizza delivery databases to track down debtors.
Never Lose Your Child in LEGOLAND Again!
Thanks to the new Kidspotter, absent-minded parents can keep track of their offspring by slapping on a brightly colored RFID tracking device. Too bad it only works in the park, eh?
April 19, 2004Bush Stumps for the PATRIOT Act
The Prez doesn't want PATRIOT's civil liberties-withering sunset provisions to expire next year.
April 16, 2004Bad IDea
Bruce Schneier tells us why national ID cards are bad for security.
April 11, 2004American Airlines: 1.2 Million Passengers Served to Gov't Contractors
AA is the third airline to admit to secretly turning over passenger data for government surveillance research - this time to four companies competing for a CAPPS II contract. No matter where you stand on passenger profiling, this shouldn't be happening in secret and neither the airlines nor the government should be lying about it. Ask Congress to hold hearings by clicking here.
Musing About the Coming Panopticon
Jamais Cascio's "scenarios and anticipations" for a world in which we surveil ourselves.
April 08, 2004Broad Coalition Asks FCC to Leave VoIP Alone
The group focused on economic arguments, opting not to comment on the FBI's request for surveillance access in VoIP services.
Unfriendly Skies: ACLU to File Suit Over No-Fly Lists
The class-action suit will challenge the lists that keep supposedly dangerous people - and those with similar names - permanently grounded.
April 05, 2004Lee Tien's Talk @ the Yale Cybercrime ConferenceMarch 29, 2004Wal-Mart to Miss RFID Deadline
Citing expense and RFID's technological immaturity, the world's largest retailer will miss its April 1st deadline to have RFID chips in many of the products it carries.
March 22, 2004Airlines Request Privacy Protections Before CAPPS II is Cleared for Takeoff
The list of seven "privacy principles" includes the ability for travelers to see and correct their data.
March 19, 2004RFIDs Play SXSW
SXSW's music-and-hipness festival will use RFIDs in its wristbands.
March 15, 2004States Take the Red Pill, Exit MATRIX
The multi-state surveillance program lost over two-thirds of its members after repeated attacks by civil liberties organizations.
TIA Hurts Privacy Even in "Death"
Two projects from Terrorism Information Awareness actually included privacy protections. Too bad they're the only ones that are still dead.
FBI Wants VoIP on Tap
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