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Archive | Privacy
Google to give FBI access to mail stored overseas
A Philadelphia judge has ruled that Google must comply with FBI search warrants for Gmail messages stored outside the US, if the requests are issued as part of a domestic fraud investigation.
The Independent: Google ordered to share Gmail messages from non-US users with FBI »
Trump, CIA, NSA, Palantir, Facebook & the common denominator
By HAX on February 22, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Data, Big Government, Civil rights, Democracy, Facebook, Intelligence, NSA, Police state, Privacy, Snowden
In the demo, Palantir engineers showed how their software could be used to identify Wikipedia users who belonged to a fictional radical religious sect and graph their social relationships. In Palantir’s pitch, its approach to the VAST Challenge involved using software to enable “many analysts working together [to] truly leverage their collective mind.” The fake scenario’s target, a cartoonishly sinister religious sect called “the Paraiso Movement,” was suspected of a terrorist bombing, but the unmentioned and obvious subtext of the experiment was the fact that such techniques could be applied to de-anonymize and track members of any political or ideological group.
The Intercept describes the (partly CIA financed) Palantir mass surveillance analysis software.
As if the above is not chilling enough, consider that Palantir owner Peter Thiel has become an advisor to President Trump and is on the board of directors at Facebook.
The Intercept: How Peter Thiel’s Palantir helped the NSA spy on the whole world »
/ HAX
US Senator challenging border search of devices
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden called for accountability around reports that U.S. Customs and Border agents are obtaining the passwords to locked devices that belong to detainees at the border. Invoking the Fourth Amendment, Wyden dismissed such practices as extralegal, lacking probable cause and a warrant required for such searches.
Techcrunch » Legislation to stop U.S. border agents from demanding passwords and logins is on the way »
Encryption vs. Law Enforcement
By HAX on February 20, 2017 in Big Brother, Cryptography, IT security, Law enforcement, Privacy, surveillance
CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) has just released its report on encryption and it comes to the same conclusions many other reports have: encryption is good for everyone and law enforcement fears are overstated and mostly-unrealized.
“Big Brother in the U.K.”
By HAX on February 19, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Government, Data Protection, Privacy, surveillance, UK
The United Kingdom’s Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority is not part of an agency tasked with fighting terrorism. It’s a licensing body that “regulates businesses who provide workers to the fresh produce supply chain and horticulture industry, to make sure they meet the employment standards required by law,” according to its mission statement.
Nevertheless, under a new mass surveillance law, high-ranking officials in this agency will have as much access to the private internet information of British citizens as agencies that actually do fight terrorism. So will officials in the U.K.’s Department of Health, its Food Standards Agency, and its Gambling Commission, along with dozens of other government bodies.
Reason: Big Brother in the U.K. »
“What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border?”
By HAX on February 15, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, Data Protection, IT security, Police state, Privacy, Rule of law, US
Ars spoke with several legal experts, and contacted CBP itself (which did not provide anything beyond previously-published policies). The short answer is: your device probably will be seized (or “detained” in CBP parlance), and you might be kept in physical detention—although no one seems to be sure exactly for how long.
Ars Technica: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border? »
Edward Snowden building safe communication tools for reporters
By HAX on February 14, 2017 in Anonymity, Cryptography, Free Information, Freedom of the Press, Hacktivism, Privacy, Snowden
Since early last year, Snowden has quietly served as president of a small San Francisco–based nonprofit called the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Its mission: to equip the media to do its job at a time when state-sponsored hackers and government surveillance threaten investigative reporting in ways Woodward and Bernstein never imagined. “Newsrooms don’t have the budget, the sophistication, or the skills to defend themselves in the current environment,” says Snowden, who spoke to WIRED via encrypted video-chat from his home in Moscow. “We’re trying to provide a few niche tools to make the game a little more fair.”
Wired » Edward Snowden’s New Job: Protecting Reporters From Spies »
The US digital border
Two weeks ago, Sidd Bikkannavar flew back into the United States after spending a few weeks abroad in South America. An employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Bikkannavar had been on a personal trip, pursuing his hobby of racing solar-powered cars. He had recently joined a Chilean team, and spent the last weeks of January at a race in Patagonia. (…)
Bikkannavar says he was detained by US Customs and Border Patrol and pressured to give the CBP agents his phone and access PIN. Since the phone was issued by NASA, it may have contained sensitive material that wasn’t supposed to be shared. Bikkannavar’s phone was returned to him after it was searched by CBP, but he doesn’t know exactly what information officials might have taken from the device.
The Verge: A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone »
Ars Technica: NASA scientist detained at US border until he unlocked his phone »
Your password or your freedom
By HAX on February 12, 2017 in Civil rights, Cryptography, Data Protection, Privacy, Rule of law, US
Francis Rawls, a former Philadelphia police sergeant, has been in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center for more than 16 months. His crime: the fired police officer has been found in contempt of court for refusing a judge’s order to unlock two hard drives the authorities believe contain child pornography. Theoretically, Rawls can remain jailed indefinitely until he complies. (…)
He’s not charged with a crime. Judge demands he help prosecutors build their case.
Ars Technica: Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to decrypt hard drives »