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Via Daniel Schuman at CREW – “Earlier today, the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee made a major move towards improving public access to legislative information. In layman’s terms, the committee said that by the beginning of the next Congress information about the disposition of bills—where they are in the legislative process and who authored or …
By Emily Weinrebe, ACLU National Security Project: “The public debate over our government’s surveillance programs has reached remarkable heights since the first set of NSA disclosures in June 2013 based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Since then, additional disclosures by both the press and government have illuminated our government’s vast and invasive surveillance apparatus. These …
News release: “Last week we wrote about initial news reports that Microsoft had searched and disclosed the contents of a blogger’s Hotmail account as part of an internal investigation into the alleged theft of Microsoft source code and other trade secrets. Since then, EFF has been in touch with Microsoft to discuss our objections to the company’s …
Patrick Tucker is technology editor for Defense One: “The president and congressional leaders want to end NSA bulk metadata collection, but not the use of metadata, which may even be expanded. From a technical perspective, the question of what your metadata can reveal about you, or potential enemies, remains as important as it was since the Edward Snowden …
“Formerly Withheld Documents: Please find below documents that were previously withheld under the Presidential Records Act for restrictions P2 (appointment to federal office) and/or P5 (confidential advice between the President and/or his advisors and between those advisors). For more information concerning these collections please see the collection finding aids index. The finding aids detail the scope, content, and provide a …
“Map data is key to humanitarian and development missions. MapGive helps new volunteers learn to map and get involved in online tasks. Open Mapping, or crowdsourced mapping, is when volunteers work together to create a free map of the world. These maps help play a critical role in humanitarian and development missions. Learn about all the …
John F. Kerry – Secretary of State: “As we mark the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this year, the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices highlight the continued pursuit of “free and equal dignity in human rights” in every corner of the world. Based on factual reporting from our embassies and …
News release: “Today, U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), and other members of the Committee released a bipartisan report entitled The Road to Boston: Counterterrorism Challenges & Lessons from the Marathon Bombings, detailing the timeline of the attack and recommendations for improving counterterrorism efforts in the future. Joining in …
“March 28 marks the deadline set by President Obama to end the NSA’s bulk collection of American’s telephone records. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the Justice Department is ready to meet the deadline that the President has set. After extensive meetings with leaders of the Intelligence Community, both the President’s Review Group and the Privacy and Civil Liberties …
“A building block of American democracy is the idea that as citizens, we have a right to information about how our government works and what it does in our name. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires federal agencies to promptly respond to public requests for information unless disclosure of the requested information would harm …
“You can explore the FOIA data that makes up an agency’s annual FOIA report. Search for data from a single agency or compare data from multiple agencies. Just follow these steps: At the “Select Report” column, click on a category, such as “Requests” or “Administration” to select the type of report you would like to …
“There is widespread opposition to internet censorship in emerging and developing nations. Majorities in 22 of 24 countries surveyed say it is important that people have access to the internet without government censorship. In 12 nations, at least seven-in-ten hold this view. Support for internet freedom is especially strong in countries where a large percentage of …
