Blogging for the 5th of July Foundation on Security, Privacy and Liberty
Iran’s hardline former president Mahmud Ahmadinejad became the latest leader to join Twitter on Sunday, despite having been instrumental in getting it banned from the country.
News18.com: Iran’s Ahmadinejad Joins Twitter Despite Being the One to Ban it »
Should we register all international travel by air, train, and bus? Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld doesn’t think so. And she has got a point.
At the end of 2014 Swedish police confiscated dozens of servers which many believed to belong to The Pirate Bay. The authorities later confirmed that an investigation involving copyright crimes was ongoing, but not much progress has been reported since. According to the prosecutor, the case isn’t getting any stronger, as the statute of limitations for several key crimes is expiring.
Torrentfreak: Pirate Bay Prosecution In Trouble, Time Runs Out For Investigators »
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 »
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
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 »
Last week’s landmark ruling compelling a Swedish ISP to block The Pirate Bay won’t spread quickly, despite copyright holders’ wishes. Telecoms giant Telia says that the ruling does not apply to them, so connectivity to the site will continue unless a court orders otherwise. Copyright holders are assessing their options.
Torrentfreak » “We Won’t Block Pirate Bay,” Swedish Telecoms Giant Says »
A new study from Sweden has found that just over half of all young people admit to obtaining movies and TV shows from the Internet without paying, a figure that rockets to 70% among young men. With The Pirate Bay about to be blocked by one ISP with more to follow, can piracy rates be controlled?
TorrentFreak » Study: 70% of Young Swedish Men Are Video Pirates »