Category «Privacy»

Disconnect Search Lets Users Search Privately on Google, Bing, and Yahoo

News release: “Disconnect, a leading developer of popular consumer privacy and security software, today launched its newest service: Disconnect Search (https://www.disconnect.me/search). Developed by an ex-NSA engineer and three ex-Google engineers over the last year, Disconnect Search allows users to easily keep searches private without having to change their behavior. Unlike other private search solutions, Disconnect …

Subjects: Privacy, Search Engines

Freedom on the Net 2013

“Freedom on the Net 2013 is the fourth report in a series of comprehensive studies of internet freedom around the globe and covers developments in 60 countries that occurred between May 2012 and April 2013. Over 60 researchers, nearly all based in the countries they analyzed, contributed to the project by researching laws and practices …

Subjects: Blogs, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy, Wireless Web

Study – The temporal relationship between drug supply indicators

The temporal relationship between drug supply indicators: an audit of international government surveillance systems – Dan Werb; Thomas Kerr; Bohdan Nosyk2; Steffanie Strathdee; Julio Montaner; Evan Wood. BMJ Open 2013;3:e003077 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003077 “Objectives: Illegal drug use continues to be a major threat to community health and safety. We used international drug surveillance databases to assess the relationship between multiple long-term estimates of illegal drug price …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Privacy

Guardian – NSA, GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users

One technique developed by the agency targeted the Firefox web browser used with Tor, giving the agency full control over targets’ computers by James Ball, Bruce Schneier and Glenn Greenwald “The National Security Agency has made repeated attempts to develop attacks against people using Tor, a popular tool designed to protect online anonymity, despite the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, Government Documents, Internet, Patriot Act, PC Security, Privacy

Cyberattack on Adobe includes information on 2.9 million customers

Adobe Blog – “Cyber attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today. Given the profile and widespread use of many of our products, Adobe has attracted increasing attention from cyber attackers. Very recently, Adobe’s security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving the illegal access of customer information as well as …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Internet, PC Security, Privacy

Committee Inquiry on Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens – Sixth Hearing

LIBE Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. 07-10-2013: LIBE Committee Inquiry on Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens – Sixth Hearing – Programme “Session I focuses on the impact of mass surveillance programmes on the rights of EU citizens to data protection, either these programmes are implemented by third countries or by EU Member States. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, EU Data Protection, Government Documents, Internet, Legislation, Privacy

Excerpt from forthcoming report – The Obama Administration and the Press

“Leonard Downie, a former executive editor of The Washington Post, is the Weil family professor of journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. This article is based on his report The Obama Administration and the Press, forthcoming Thursday from the Committee to Protect Journalists. “With the passage of the Patriot …

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

NYT – Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers

Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers – by Claire Cain Miller and Somini Sengupta,  October 5, 2013 “Now, smartphones know everything — where people go, what they search for, what they buy, what they do for fun and when they go to bed. That is why advertisers, and tech companies like Google and Facebook, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, Government Documents, Internet, Marketing, Patriot Act, PC Security, Privacy, Search Engines, Wireless Web

47 Prominent Technologists to NSA Review Panel: We Need Better Technical Oversight

EFF – “A group of prominent technologists submitted a letter today to the NSA Review Group, a body charged with conducting a review of NSA activities that does not currently have a technologist as a member. The letter urges the Review Group to seek assistance from independent technologists in order to conduct a thorough review, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Internet, Patriot Act, Privacy

EPIC FOIA – FBI Says 20% Error Rate Okay for Facial Recognition

“EPIC’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit has produced new documents about “Next Generation Identification” and the FBI’s plans for facial recognition. According to the document obtained by EPIC, “NGI shall return an incorrect candidate a maximum of 20% of the time.” That number is much greater than expected. Earlier this year, EPIC received documents from …

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

Report Analyzes Government Secrecy

[October 1, 2013] “release of the 2013 Secrecy Report, the 9th annual review and analysis of indicators of secrecy in the federal government by OpenTheGovernment.org, comes amid shocking revelations that cast doubt on the accuracy and the meaningfulness of the government’s statistics about surveillance. As is highlighted in the introduction to this report and in …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Privacy

UK Guardian faces financial hurdles in taking investigations global

A British newspaper wants to take its aggressive investigations global, but money is running out. by Ken Auletta, New Yorker, October 7, 2013. “Since June 5th, the Guardian had been publishing top-secret digital files provided by Edward Snowden, a former contract employee of the National Security Agency. In a series of articles, the paper revealed …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Patriot Act, Privacy