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by Jonathan Mayer, a grad student at Stanford – Co-authored with Patrick Mutchler – via the Web Policy Blog “MetaPhone is a crowdsourced study of phone metadata. If you own an Android smartphone, please consider participating. In earlier posts, we reported how automated analysis of call and text activity can reveal private relationships, as well as how phone subscribers are closely …
AVIATION SECURITY: TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities, GAO-14-158T, Nov 14, 2013 “In November 2013, GAO reported that (1) peer-reviewed, published research we reviewed did not support whether nonverbal behavioral indicators can be used to reliably identify deception, (2) methodological issues limited the usefulness of DHS’s April 2011 SPOT validation study, and (3) variation …
“More than two years into the Syrian conflict, the violence continues both on the ground and in the digital realm. Just as human rights investigators and weapons inspectors search for evidence of chemical weapons, EFF, and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab have been collecting, dissecting, and documenting malicious software deployed against the Syrian opposition. Citizen Lab security …
News release, December 21, 2013: “Yesterday, the Director of National Intelligence (“DNI”) announced the declassification of the existence of collection activities authorized by President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Starting on October 4, 2001, President Bush authorized the Secretary of Defense to employ the capabilities of the Department of Defense, …
“Consumers are conducting more and more of their daily business online and through their mobile devices. They use the Internet and their smart phones and tablets to make purchases, research medical conditions, plan vacations, interact with friends and relatives, do their jobs, map travel routes, and otherwise pursue their interests. With these activities, consumers are …
Reuters: “The UN General Assembly has unanimously called on a curb of supernormal surveillance of communications. The resolution drafted by Brazil and Germany was in response to revelations over the eavesdropping conducted by the US on a global scale. All 193 UN member states agreed “to respect and protect the right to privacy, including in the context …
“We launched the Transparency Report in 2010 to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online. Today, for the eighth time, we’re releasing new numbers showing requests from governments to remove content from our services. From January to June 2013, we received 3,846 government requests to remove 24,737 pieces of content—a 68 percent increase over the …
Now 72% say it is greater threat than big business or big labor, by Jeffrey M. Jones: “Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for …
Transmittal Letter from Richard A. Clarke; Michael J. Morell; Geoffrey R. Stone; Cass R. Sunstein; Peter Swire – “Dear Mr. President: We are honored to present you with the Final Report of the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies – Liberty and Security in a Changing World. Consistent with your memorandum of August 27, 2013, our recommendations …
CRS – Women in the United States Congress: Historical Overview, Tables, and Discussion, Jennifer E. Manning, Information Research Specialist; Colleen J. Shogan, Deputy Director CRS; Ida A. Brudnick, Specialist on the Congress. December 16, 2013. “A record 102 women currently serve in the 113th Congress: 82 in the House (63 Democrats and 19 Republicans) and 20 in the Senate (16 Democrats …
Politico: A federal judge ruled Monday, December 16, 2013 that the National Security Agency program which collects information on nearly all telephone calls made to, from or within the United States is likely unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon found that the program appears to violate the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. …
How the NSA Piggy-Backs on Third-Party Trackers by Edward Felten and Jonathan Mayer “Snooping on the Internet is tricky. The network is diffuse, global, and packed with potential targets. There’s no central system for identifying or locating individuals, so it’s hard to keep track of who is online and what they’re up to. What’s a spy agency to …
