Surveillance
680 Articles

Sting Operations and Counterterrorism: What’s Really at Stake?
Attorney General Eric Holder was in Europe last week, touting the virtues of American-style counter-terrorism, including the prominent use of stings operations against would-be…

The PCLOB Report and Eight Questions About Section 702
Note: The views expressed below are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of PCLOB or its other Board members. On July 2, Professor Jennifer Granick posed the question:…

The Illusion of Justice report and the Use of “Radicalization Theories” in Counterterrorism Sting Operations
[Tarek Z. Ismail is co-author of Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions, a report co-published by Human Rights Watch and the Columbia Law School…

U.K. Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014: Sticking Plaster or Solution?
Earlier this week, I summarized the British Government’s “fast-track” surveillance legislation proposals: the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill. A mere four days…

Would the USA Freedom Act End All Authorities for Bulk Collection?
When the House passed the USA Freedom Act (H.R. 3361) in May, both Members and the administration announced that it would end bulk collection of metadata about Americans’…

DOJ Files Opening Brief in Klayman Appeal
It’s been some time since we’ve discussed developments related to the Section 215 telephony metadata program. More attention of late has been focused on Section 702…

Hearing Begins in New Surveillance Litigation against UK Security Services
The claim brought by Liberty, the British civil liberties’ organisation, against Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Security Intelligence Services and the…

Nine to One, Baby, One in Nine: Surveillance by the Numbers
There’s a great deal of interesting material in this weekend’s big Washington Post story on collection of Internet communications under §702 of the FISA Amendments…

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An unfortunate story on the non-review of U.S. surveillance authority in Section 702
Federal oversight agency punts on international human rights, while findings the programs lawful and constitutional The President’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (“PCLOB”)…

Did PCLOB Answer My Eight Questions About Section 702?
TL;DR: A little bit, but not enough. Yesterday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) issued a massive report about the legally and technologically complicated…

Cloud City: A Fourth Amendment Thought Experiment
Reading the Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s rather tepid report on NSA surveillance under §702 of the FISA Amendments Act last night, I found myself thinking…

A Response to General Dunlap
First a caveat—I have worked with many honorable national security law experts who do exceptional scholarship and whose perspective I find extremely valuable, just as I have…