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“Over the course of 2011’s momentous Arab Spring uprisings, young women in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen used social media and cyberactivism to carve out central roles in the revolutionary struggles under way in their countries, according to a new study commissioned by Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy. The study, Unveiling the …
“Today the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) release From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities and Beyond. The paper outlines the current state of U.S. government collection of biometric information and the problems that could arise from these growing databases of records. It also points out …
“The Senate Committee on the Judiciary has approved President Obama’s five nominees for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The Board is an independent entity charged with ensuring that fundamental rights are protected in the implementation of government programs, including cybersecurity. Originally convened in 2004, the five seats on the Board have remained vacant …
EPIC: “The Federal Aviation Administration has announced new procedures for government agencies that operate drones in the United States. The procedures will streamline the process through which government agencies, including local law enforcement, receive drone licenses. However, the FAA has so far failed to establish privacy safeguards for drone use. On February 24, 2012, EPIC, …
Racial Profiling: Legal and Constitutional Issues, Jody Feder – Legislative Attorney, April 16, 2012 “Racial profiling is the practice of targeting individuals for police or security detention based on their race or ethnicity in the belief that certain minority groups are more likely to engage in unlawful behavior. Examples of racial profiling by federal, state, …
Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood: “In 2011, the US Government submitted 1,745 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for authorization to conduct electronic surveillance or physical searches under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), according to a new annual report to Congress. Of these, 1,676 included requests for authority for perform electronic surveillance, the report …
War Crimes in Northern Idlib during Peace Plan Negotiations, April 2012 “This report documents dozens of extrajudicial executions, killings of civilians, and destruction of civilian property that qualify as war crimes, as well as arbitrary detention and torture. The report is based on a field investigation conducted by Human Rights Watch in the towns of …
States of punishment – Mapping the death penalty in America: “From 2000 to 2011 there were, on average, five death-row exonerations a year in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. North Carolina alone saw three exonerations in six months in 2008. The following year the state legislature passed the Racial Justice …
Human Trafficking: The Governments Strategy – HM Government, April 2012 “Human trafficking is international organised crime, with the exploitation of human beings for profit at its heart. It is an abuse of basic rights, with organised criminals preying on vulnerable people to make money. In most cases, victims are brought to the UK from abroad, …
Human Rights and Technology Sales: How Corporations Can Avoid Assisting Repressive Regimes, By Cindy Cohn, Trevor Timm, & Jillian C. York – April 2012 “The Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that it’s time for technology companies, especially those selling surveillance and filtering equipment, to step up and ensure that they arent assisting foreign governments in committing …
Follow up to posting on SOPAs Evil Twin Sister CISPA, via Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cybersecurity Bill FAQ: The Disturbing Privacy Dangers in CISPA and How To Stop It, by Trevor Timm This week, EFFalong with a host of other civil liberties groupsare protesting the dangerous new cybersecurity bill known as CISPA that will be …
“This 120-page report is based on 58 interviews conducted in three prisons and three juvenile detention facilities with women and girls accused of moral crimes. Almost all girls in juvenile detention in Afghanistan had been arrested for moral crimes, while about half of women in Afghan prisons were arrested on these charges. These crimes usually …
