The many ways the government is watching us with an emphasis on digital spying
On May 7th, a Federal Appeals Court in New York ruled that the bulk metadata collection program attached to Section 215 of the Patriot Act is “‘irreconcilable with the statute’s plain text’.
Continue reading Court of Appeals Rules Bulk Metadata Collection Illegal
From Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
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Members of Congress talk a lot about improving oversight of national security, but most do not do much to make it better. Just recently, the former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller, gave a speech where he said something remarkable. He spoke about the struggle Congress had with gathering information from the CIA for a report on its use of torture. “This study is … the story of the breakdown in our system of governance…. One of the profound ways that breakdown happened was through the active subversion of meaningful congressional oversight.” Continue reading Fixing Congressional Oversight of National Security
A prisoner gag law in Philadelphia, apparently triggered by rage at a recent commencement speech at Goddard College by alumni, inmate and author Mumia Abu-Jamal, is being challenged in court as an unconstitutional abrogation of the right of speech. The legal challenge is being mounted by the Abolitionist Law Center and Prison Radio producer and former MA board member Noelle Hanrahan, who has been distributing Abu-Jamal’s commentaries for decades. Their press release below. Continue reading Muzzle Mumia Law Falls Outside the US Constitution
California governor Jerry Brown signed SB 828 into law in 2014. The final version of the bill is far weaker than what started out in the CA State Senate months ago, but is still a powerful symbol of the dis-ease Californians feel about mass blanket government surveillance of their telephone calls and Internet activity. Continue reading SB 828 – Turn The Water Off On The NSA Bill Signed by Jerry Brown
As courts release formerly classified documents, albeit heavily blacked out, the extent of surveillance overreach gets a bigger paper trail.
Enclosed is one sample document discussing in detail the FISC Court’s (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) unease with many of the NSA’s actions. Continue reading Declassified Documents
On June 5, people all over the world reset the net to take online privacy and security into their own hands and Bay Area Shame on Feinstein activists delivered thousands of petitions to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office asking her to stop undermining real surveillance reform. Activists held a press conference outside the Senator’s district office.
Continue reading Reset The Net – San Francisco
Update 3/7/2014 Oakland City Council as expected, voted on 3-5-2014 to scale back the DAC spying machine to Port of Oakland property only.
The nascent (and wildly undeveloped) privacy policy was reviewed by Media Alliance and the comments we submitted to the City of Oakland are attached. Continue reading Oakland Domain Awareness Center (DAC): Scaled Back
CREDO Mobile announced it is releasing a transparency report detailing the number of governmental requests it has received to turn over customer information. Continue reading Credo Mobile: 1st Cellular Carrier To Tell Users of Surveillance Requests
