Surveillance
680 Articles
The Myth of NSA Omnipotence
The world’s foremost software engineers and cryptographers are gearing up to take on the National Security Agency (NSA), hoping to develop and implement technological solutions…
Who Watches the Watchers?–A Rejoinder to Steve Vladeck
I am grateful for Steve’s careful response to my post, “Democratic Platitudes,” which examined his original post, “Does Espionage Porn Make Us Stronger?” Having benefited…
Optic Nerve – A Digital Mugbook & the Questions It Raises
“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic,…
Chris Sprigman and Barry Friedman on ReplyAll Discussing Chris’ Just Security Post
On Monday of this week, Chris Sprigman had an excellent guest post on Just Security regarding compliance and lawfulness at the NSA. Today, Chris and Barry Friedman, other frequent…
RightsCon, March 3-5, San Francisco
Further to all our coverage of the use and abuse of digital technologies, I commend RightsCon to our readers—a gathering of the Silicon Valley (and beyond) tech community, digital…
Bart Gellman’s NSL
Politico has published a short piece based on an interview with Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, who says he’s been told that at some point his telephone records…
“Tweet Roll”: Reactions to Glenn Greenwald’s article on “How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet”
As reported in this morning’s Daily News Roundup, Glenn Greenwald’s latest piece for The Intercept takes a look at how western intelligence agencies “are attempting…
The NSA’s Culture of “Legal Compliance” Still Breaks the Law
Lately the NSA has been on a public relations offensive that has two principal aims. First, the agency is trying to convince the public that a lot of the NSA’s bad press is based…
Espionage Porn and Democratic Platitudes: A Response to Rahul Sagar
I don’t have much to say in reply to Rahul Sagar’s thoughtful response to my January 23 post, “Does Espionage Porn Make Us Stronger?” Much of that is because,…
Democratic Platitudes
[Editor’s Note: Stay tuned later today for a post from Steve Vladeck responding to this guest post by Rahul Sagar.] In a recent post “Does Espionage Porn Make Us Stronger?”…
Information Cascades and Intelligence Oversight
Sen. Blumenthal opened a recent surveillance oversight hearing by hammering an important point from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s thorough report on the…
Why Does Microsoft Want a Global Convention on Government Access to Data?
Last month, Brad Smith, the General Counsel of Microsoft, called for an international convention on government access to consumer data (he was at Davos, so presumably he uploaded…