Civil Liberties
1,361 Articles
IBM’s Terrorist-Hunting Software Raises Troubling Questions
Last week, Defense One published an article about a new use that IBM is pioneering for its data-crunching software: identifying potential terrorists in the stream of refugees entering…
Cryptopanic and James Comey’s Xanatos Gambit
For the past year or so I’ve been part of a cybersecurity working group at Harvard’s Berkman Center that on Monday released its first public report, Don’t Panic: Making Progress…
Moving Beyond the “Going Dark” Frame
For more than a year now, this site has posted dozens of articles critiquing the US government’s claims that it needs a method of accessing encrypted digital communications…
Democracy in Peril in Poland
The collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe unleashed one of the most remarkable political transformations of modern times, paving the way for millions of Europeans…
America’s Muddled Approach to Fighting ISIS
Last month, the Los Angeles Times ran a story that helped highlight one facet of the muddled thinking afflicting the US government’s campaign against ISIS: While the military…
The Way Forward for Surveillance Reform Can Balance Human Rights and Government Needs
The fall of 2015 was marked by two key developments in the debate about laws on communications surveillance and the right to privacy. First, on October 6, the EU Court of Justice…
The European Court of Human Rights Constrains Mass Surveillance (Again)
In a decision that may someday be considered the penultimate nail in the coffin that European courts have been building for mass surveillance, the European Court of Human Rights…
National Security Letters and Leak Investigations
Journalists were reminded again last week of how little legal protection actually exists when the federal government decides to investigate national security leaks. In an ongoing…
“Ideating” on ISIS and Silicon Valley
In a lot of Silicon Valley meetings, participants “iterate,” “ideate,” and “sync,” and do other buzzwordy things. Every once in a while something innovative and impactful…
USA Freedom: The Rubber Meets the Road
The National Security Agency has released its Transparency Report on the implementation of the USA Freedom Act — as well as the minimization procedures to be used for the new…
James Comey’s Default-Encryption Bogeyman
FBI Director James Comey recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee that encryption routinely poses a problem for law enforcement. He stated that encryption has “moved from…
Fixing Pre-Publication Review: What Should Be Done?
Jack Goldsmith and Oona Hathaway called attention in several recent columns to the pre-publication review process (here, here, here, and here) that many current and former national…