Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
New York Governor Wants State to Take DNA Samples from More People Convicted of Crimes
January 5th, 2012Via: AFP: New York’s governor on Wednesday proposed making the state the first in the country to take mandatory DNA samples from anyone convicted of a crime, including relatively lesser offenses. Governor Andrew Cuomo, in an annual “State of the State” speech to the New York legislature, said currently DNA was collected in less than […]
Belarus: Browsing Foreign Websites a Misdemeanor
January 3rd, 2012Via: Library of Congress: As stated in an explanatory note published together with the Law, this act was issued to implement the Decree of the Belarusian President of February 1, 2010, on Improvements to the Usage of the National Segment of the Internet. The newly published Law imposes restrictions on visiting and/or using foreign websites […]
Progressives and the Ron Paul Fallacies
January 1st, 2012Via: Salon: The thing I loathe most about election season is reflected in the central fallacy that drives progressive discussion the minute “Ron Paul” is mentioned. As soon as his candidacy is discussed, progressives will reflexively point to a slew of positions he holds that are anathema to liberalism and odious in their own right […]
The Coming War on General Purpose Computation
January 1st, 2012Via: Cory Doctorow at Chaos Computer Club: The last 20 years of Internet policy have been dominated by the copyright war, but the war turns out only to have been a skirmish. The coming century will be dominated by war against the general purpose computer, and the stakes are the freedom, fortune and privacy of […]
Civilian Contractors in the Kill Chain
January 1st, 2012The absurdity is reaching Strangelovian proportions: “Our No. 1 manning problem in the Air Force is manning our unmanned platforms,” said Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, Air Force vice chief of staff. Via: Los Angeles Times: After a U.S. airstrike mistakenly killed at least 15 Afghans in 2010, the Army officer investigating the accident was surprised […]
U.S. Court Upholds Telecom Immunity for Surveillance of Americans
December 30th, 2011Searching for Mark Klein on Cryptogon will bring up several references to the NSA’s mass surveillance operations. Via: Reuters: A U.S. appeals panel on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of a federal law that grants immunity to telecommunications companies that assist the U.S. government in conducting surveillance of American citizens. … Several lawsuits filed in the […]
TSA Got Everything It Wanted for Christmas
December 30th, 2011Via: Slashdot: “It looks like Congress’ recent jabs at TSA were just posturing after all. Last Friday, President Obama signed a spending act passed by both houses of Congress. The act gives TSA a $7.85 billion budget increase for 2012 and includes funding for 12 additional multi-modal Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams and […]
Department of Homeland Security Using Fake Facebook and Twitter Accounts to Monitor Posts Containing Certain Keywords
December 28th, 2011Via: Electronic Privacy Information Center: EPIC has filed a Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of the details of the agency’s social network monitoring program. In news reports and a Federal Register notice, the DHS has stated that it will routinely monitor the public postings of users […]
New Video Surveillance System Tags, Tracks and Follows
December 27th, 2011Via: Reuters: Software developed for closed-circuit television systems can identify individuals and track them across entire networks of cameras. Joel Flynn reports. Related: Coming Soon: Retroactive Surveillance on Anyone
Who Is Behind Mystery Spy Devices Dropped Over Syria?
December 26th, 2011Via: intelnews.org: On December 14, residents of a small town in northern Syria reported seeing unidentified aircraft circling overhead, and dropping several small items attached to mini-parachutes. Two days ago, one local resident, Adnan Mustafa, posted on Facebook several photographs of some of these items, which were found scattered around the area. The gadgets, pictured […]
