A program that allows drug agents to obtain a pool of billions of call records from AT&T is “still active,” according to a watchdog report. The report, published Thursday by the Justice Department inspector general, confirmed the program — named in the report only as Project C — continues to provide access to “billions” of […]
View More DEA says AT&T still provides access to billions of phone recordsCategory: mass surveillance
ICE has a huge license plate database targeting immigrants, documents reveal
Newly released documents reveal Immigration and Customs Enforcement is tracking and targeting immigrants through a massive license plate reader database supplied with data from local police departments — in some cases violating sanctuary laws. The documents, obtained by a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and released Tuesday, reveal the […]
View More ICE has a huge license plate database targeting immigrants, documents revealEurope’s highest human rights court to hear challenge to UK’s bulk surveillance regime
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has agreed to hear a legal challenge to the use of bulk data collection surveillance powers by UK intelligence agencies. Last September a lower chamber of the ECHR ruled that UK surveillance practices violated human rights law but did not find bulk collection itself […]
View More Europe’s highest human rights court to hear challenge to UK’s bulk surveillance regimeIn revamped transparency report, Apple reveals uptick in demands for user data
Apple’s transparency report just got a lot more — well, transparent. For years, the technology giant released a twice-a-year report on the number of government demands it received. It wasn’t much to look at in the beginning; a seven-page document with only two tables of data. Once in a while, Apple would tack on a […]
View More In revamped transparency report, Apple reveals uptick in demands for user dataUS tech giants decry Australia’s ‘deeply flawed’ new anti-encryption law
A group of U.S. tech giants, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, have collectively denounced the new so-called “anti-encryption” law passed by the Australian parliament last week. The bill was passed less than a day after the ruling coalition government secured the votes from opposition Labor lawmakers, despite strong objection from tech companies and telcos. “The […]
View More US tech giants decry Australia’s ‘deeply flawed’ new anti-encryption lawIn a court filing, Edward Snowden says a report critical to an NSA lawsuit is authentic
An unexpected declaration by whistleblower Edward Snowden filed in court this week adds a new twist in a long-running lawsuit against the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. The case, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation a decade ago, seeks to challenge the government’s alleged illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of Americans, who are largely covered under […]
View More In a court filing, Edward Snowden says a report critical to an NSA lawsuit is authenticKhashoggi’s fate shows the flip side of the surveillance state
It’s been over five years since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden lifted the lid on government mass surveillance programs, revealing, in unprecedented detail, quite how deep the rabbit hole goes thanks to the spread of commercial software and connectivity enabling a bottomless intelligence-gathering philosophy of ‘bag it all’. Yet technology’s onward march has hardly broken its stride. […]
View More Khashoggi’s fate shows the flip side of the surveillance stateUK’s mass surveillance regime violated human rights law, finds ECHR
In another blow to the UK government’s record on bulk data handling for intelligence purposes the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that state surveillance practices violated human rights law. Arguments against the UK intelligence agencies’ bulk collection and data sharing practices were heard by the court in November last year. In today’s […]
View More UK’s mass surveillance regime violated human rights law, finds ECHREurope to push for one-hour takedown law for terrorist content
The European Union’s executive body is doubling down on its push for platforms to pre-filter the Internet, publishing a proposal today for all websites to monitor uploads in order to be able to quickly remove terrorist uploads. The Commission handed platforms an informal one-hour rule for removing terrorist content back in March. It’s now proposing turning […]
View More Europe to push for one-hour takedown law for terrorist contentPrivacy groups ask senators to confirm US surveillance oversight nominees
A coalition of privacy groups are calling on lawmakers to fill the vacant positions on the government’s surveillance oversight board, which hasn’t fully functioned in almost two years. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, known as PCLOB, is a little-known but important group that helps to ensure that intelligence agencies and executive branch policies […]
View More Privacy groups ask senators to confirm US surveillance oversight nomineesFacebook gets leave to appeal to Ireland’s Supreme Court after failing to block data transfer referral to CJEU
Facebook has been given the go ahead to appeal to Ireland’s Supreme Court against an earlier High Court decision to refer key questions relating to the validity of EU-US data flows to Europe’s top court, the Irish Times reports. The eventual outcome of what is already years of legal to-ing and fro-ing — in a […]
View More Facebook gets leave to appeal to Ireland’s Supreme Court after failing to block data transfer referral to CJEUCalifornia malls are sharing license plate tracking data with ICE
A chain of California shopping centers is sharing its license plate reader data with a well-known U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contractor, giving that agency the ability to track license plate numbers it captures in near real-time. A report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed that real estate group Irvine Company shares that data […]
View More California malls are sharing license plate tracking data with ICE