American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

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'Privacy Killer' CISPA Is Coming Back, Whether You Like It Or Not

Zack Whittaker | ZDNet | February 8, 2013

Dubbed a "privacy killer" by online activists, love it or hate it, the cyber-security CISPA bill will likely be brought into law—whether it's from the reintroduction of the bill by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, or President Obama issuing (yet another) executive order. Read More »

A Perspective of Resilience as Pertains to the Risks Posed by Relying on Digital Platforms

Over the past few months, we have witnessed the "Pushmi-Pullyu" of Big Tech controls and their political influence/power of digital platforms, legislative hearings on their control, public outrage, alternative platforming, censorship, etc. etc...I should say now: this is not a political commentary. It is however a perspective of resilience as pertains to the risks of digital platform reliance. It would seem easy to write about this right now after high profile platforms have made history-making decisions over the past few days. BUT the recognition of their broad authorities and critical capabilities has been a recognized risk for many years; this is not new.

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Amy Gehrt: Is Internet Censorship Coming To America?

Amy Gehrt | Fall River/Wicked Local | August 8, 2014

The idea of Internet censorship often brings to mind countries such as China or Cuba. However, a key Federal Communications Commission ruling could allow telecom companies to essentially censor what their customers can see ... effectively ending the free and open Internet system on which we rely...

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Appeals Court Skeptical Of Obama Secrecy Around Drone Killings

David Ingram | Chicago Tribune News | September 20, 2012

A U.S. appeals court responded skeptically on Thursday to Obama administration assertions the government can withhold documents about a program that uses aerial drones for targeted killings overseas. Read More »

DEA: Medical Records Sent To Pharmacies Have No Protected Privacy

Kristen Butler | United Press International (UPI) | September 24, 2013

In response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Drug Enforcement Administration argues that the "third-party doctrine" revokes privacy protections from citizens' prescription medical records. Read More »

DOJ Says Public Has No Right To Know About The Secret Laws The Feds Use To Spy On Us

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | July 8, 2013

So, we were just discussing the insanity of the FISA court (FISC) basically acting as a shadow Supreme Court, making broad rulings in total secrecy that have created a secret body of law that the public is not allowed to know about. Read More »

FISA Passes: Warrantless Wiretapping Will Live On

Alexander Abad-Santos | The Atlantic Wire | December 28, 2012

In a move sure to upset privacy advocates across the country, and perhaps spark action from the Supreme Court, the Senate on Friday morning passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by a vote of 73-23 and will send it to President Obama's desk for signature. [...] Read More »

How The FISA Amendments Act Allows For Warrantless Wiretapping, As Described By Supreme Court Justices

Trevor Timm | Electronic Frontier Foundation | October 30, 2012

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Clapper v. Amnesty, an important case that will decide if the ACLU’s challenge to the FISA Amendments Act—the law passed in the wake of the NSA warrantless wiretapping scandal—can go forward. Read More »

How The NSA Undermines Cybersecurity

Brendan Sasso | Nextgov.com | April 30, 2014

...Officials have warned for years that a sophisticated cyberattack could cripple critical infrastructure or allow thieves to make off with the financial information of millions of Americans. President Obama pushed Congress to enact cybersecurity legislation, and when it didn’t, he issued his own executive order in 2013...

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Inside Big Pharma's Fight to Block Recreational Marijuana

Alfonso Serrano | The Guardian | October 10, 2016

Marijuana legalization will unleash misery on Arizona, according to a wave of television ads that started rolling out across the state last month. Replete with ominous music, the advertisements feature lawmakers and teachers who paint a bleak future for Arizona’s children if voters approve Proposition 205, a measure that would allow people aged 21 and over to possess an ounce of pot and grow up to six plants for recreational use. “Colorado schools were promised millions in new revenues” when the state approved recreational pot use, says the voiceover in one ad. Instead, schoolchildren were plagued by “marijuana edibles that look like candy”...

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Lawmakers Re-Introduce GPS Protection Bill Against Government Spying

Cyrus Farivar | Ars Technica | March 21, 2013

Just two days after new legislative reform on e-mail privacy was re-introduced in Congress, another privacy bill was brought back from years past. Read More »

NSA Surveillance Program Reaches ‘Into The Past’ To Retrieve, Replay Phone Calls

Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani | The Washington Post | March 18, 2014

The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording “100 percent” of a foreign country’s telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden.

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Police Around The Country Are Distributing Software That Makes It Easier To Hack Your Computer

Dustin Volz | Nextgov.com | October 1, 2014

ComputerCOP's makers have long promised their program will protect children from online predators, and that promise has been enough to persuade local police forces nationwide to hand it out free to concerned parents.  But according to a new report from an Internet freedom group, the police have been had—and the parents using the program are actually putting their families' privacy at risk...

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Revealed: The NSA’s Secret Campaign to Crack, Undermine Internet Security

Jeff Larson, Nicole Perlroth, Scott Shane | ProPublica, New York Times | September 5, 2013

Newly revealed documents show that the NSA has circumvented or cracked much of the encryption that automatically secures the emails, Web searches, Internet chats and phone calls of Americans and others around the world. The project, referred to internally by the codename Bullrun, also includes efforts to weaken the encryption standards adopted by software developers. Read More »

The Internet's Anti-NSA Revolt Starts Tuesday

Dustin Volz | Nextgov | February 6, 2014

Thousands of civil-liberty and online-freedom groups and websites will take to the digital streets next week to wage a coordinated war against the National Security Agency's spying powers, a battle strike reminiscent of a virtual protest that two years ago killed an online piracy bill. Read More »