Category «Freedom of Information»

EPIC – Government Audit Finds TSA’s Behavioral Analysis Program “Ineffective”

“The Government Accountability Office issued a report to Congress finding that the Transportation Security Administration’s behavioral analysis program, known as “Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques” (SPOT), is ineffective. The GAO determined that there is no scientifically valid evidence for behavior indicators, and that TSA screeners cannot reliably interpret passenger behavior. The GAO report also notes that …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Commentary on Google’s latest transparency report – what is missing that they cannot reveal

Rebecca J. Rosen – The Atlantic: “Today brings the release of the first Transparency Report since the Snowden revelations about widespread government surveillance, and Google’s tone has changed dramatically. In contrast with the warm glow of corporate benevolence Google has tended to exude in these moments, today’s Google Blog post announcing the new Report is a touch surly, …

Subjects: Blogs, Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Patriot Act, Privacy

Google Report Shows Growing Government Demands for User Data, Highlights Need for ECPA Reform

CDT – “Today’s Transparency Report from Google, which shows a sharp increase in government demands for user data, provides the latest in a long list of reasons why Congress should act now to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), to make it clear that government officials must obtain a warrant in order to access email and other communications stored …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

FAA Releases Drone Roadmap, Privacy Not Required for Test Sites

EPIC – “In a press release, the Federal Aviation Administration announced the “roadmap” for the integration of drones into domestic airspace. After considering numerous public comments on the privacy impact of aerial drones, the FAA proposed a regulation that requires test site operators to develop privacy policies but does not require any specific baseline privacy protections. The FAA rulemaking came …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Privacy

Report – Telecoms plan shielded European Internet

Via Deutsche Welle: “Deutsche Telekom says the scandal over US and British eavesdropping has prompted German providers to contemplate an inner-German or inner-European Internet. Data would no longer be routed and stored via other continents. Germany’s state-backed Telekom confirmed on Sunday that German providers were discussing an Internet confined within Europe’s “Schengen” countries. One project code-named …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, EU Data Protection, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

Oversight Board Adopts EPIC’s Recommendations in New FOIA Rule

“In response to extensive comments submitted by EPIC, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has issued a final rule that will govern its Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and Sunshine Act practices. The Board’s initial draft of the rule allowed the agency to encourage other agencies to classify information, reserved the Board’s right to terminate public participation in Board meetings “at …

Subjects: Courts, E-Government, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Patriot Act, Privacy

UK Guardian – Google and Facebook may be our best defenders against Big Brother

The big online companies are calling for urgent reforms to protect us from having data intercepted – Jemima Kiss “Surveillance is the undercurrent in every tech conversation now, a lens for understanding our vulnerability and exposure to every part of the online world. This is not a choice between catching terrorists and what David Cameron astonishingly …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Mail, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

The challenges in obtaining non public IG reports via FOIA

WaPo – Looking for needles in a federal haystack – By Al Kamen, Published: November 7 “And now, a journey into the sometimes surreal world of the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. The law can be a powerful tool for the public and the news media to discover all manner of mal- , mis- and nonfeasance …

Subjects: Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Senate Intelligence Committee Approves FISA Improvements Act

Increases privacy protections, oversight, transparency of critical intelligence programs: The Senate Intelligence Committee [October 31, 2013] approved the FISA Improvements Act by a vote of 11-4. The bipartisan legislation increases privacy protections and public transparency of the National Security Agency call-records program in several ways, while preserving the operational effectiveness and flexibility of this vital …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

National Security Archive Posts Able Archer 83 Sourcebook

The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook: “Today marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of Able Archer 83, a NATO exercise that utilized “new nuclear weapons release procedures” to simulate the transition from conventional to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Although US officials saw Able Archer 83 as a routine exercise, it resulted in an “unprecedented Soviet …

Subjects: Defense, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

Report of National Commission for Review of Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, Unclassified Version

Report of the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the United States Intelligence Community, Unclassified Version, released November 2013 “The global spread of scientific and technical knowledge challenges U.S. national security. It threatens to erode essential capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) and the strength of the U.S. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Patriot Act, Privacy

Apple Reports to Customers on Government Information Requests

Report on Government Information Requests: “We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Patriot Act, Privacy

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