By Ryan Devereaux, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras: The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas. According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a top-secret system – code-named SOMALGET – that was implemented without the knowledge or consent of… Continue Reading
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WaPo – Surveillance court rejected Verizon challenge to NSA calls program
Ellen Nakashima’s article [snipped] – Verizon in January filed a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s program that collects billions of Americans’ call-detail records, but a surveillance court rejected it, according to newly declassified documents and individuals with knowledge of the matter. In denying the phone company’s petition in March, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court… Continue Reading
Coalition Urges White House to Recognize EU Opinion; End NSA Telephone Records Program
“In a letter to the White House, a coalition of US organizations urged the Administration to recognize the recent opinion by the Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe, that ended a European data retention mandate. The European law required telephone and internet companies to retain metadata on customers for national security purposes. The European Court of Justice… Continue Reading
Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Activities and Recent Developments
CRS – Overview of Constitutional Challenges to NSA Collection Activities and Recent Developments. Edward C. Liu , Legislative Attorney; Andrew Nolan, Legislative Attorney; Richard M. Thompson II; Legislative Attorney, April 1, 2014 “Beginning in the summer of 2013, media reports of foreign intelligence activities conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) have been published and are apparently based on unauthorized disclosures of… Continue Reading
Politico – Judge orders NSA to preserve call data
Josh Gerstein: “A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the National Security Agency to preserve all metadata from its monitoring of U.S. phone traffic, setting up a potential clash with the Washington-based surveillance court which oversees the NSA-run counter-terrorism program. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White issued the order Monday afternoon California time in response to requests… Continue Reading
EPIC – New Limits on NSA Telephone Record Program Established, Authority Expires March 28
“The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has granted the government’s motion to limit access by the NSA to the bulk telephone records provided by US telephone companies. Under the new rules, the government cannot “query” the telephone metadata until after the court finds that there is a “reasonable, articulable suspicion that the selection term is associated with” a… Continue Reading
CDT – President Supports End to NSA Bulk Collection; Fails to Provide Clear Path Forward
News release: “Far more needs to be done to restore the faith of the American people and repair the damage done globally to the U.S. reputation as a defender of human rights on the Internet. We certainly welcome judicial review of metadata queries, the support for more transparency about surveillance, a voice for civil liberties… Continue Reading
Guardian – NSA collects millions of text messages daily in ‘untargeted’ global sweep
James Ball – UK Guardian: “The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents. The untargeted collection and storage of SMS messages – including their contacts – is revealed in a… Continue Reading
Judge Grants Motion to Dismiss in NSA Surveillance Case
ACLU: “A federal court issued an opinion and order in ACLU v. Clapper [American Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper, 13-cv-03994, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)], the ACLU’s challenge to the constitutionality of the NSA’s mass call-tracking program, ruling that the government’s bulk collection of phone records is lawful under Section 215 of the Patriot Act and under… Continue Reading
Research – MetaPhone: The NSA’s Got Your Number
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… Continue Reading
Commentary – How the NSA Piggy-Backs on Third-Party Trackers
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… Continue Reading
American Library Association gathering support to protect user metadata and privacy
The Hill, Kate Tummarello: “…You need to have some freedom to learn about what you think is important without worrying about whether it ends up in some FBI file,” said Alan Inouye, director of the Office for Information Technology Policy at the American Library Association (ALA). Government snooping of libraries has a long history. Under the Patriot… Continue Reading
