Surveillance
697 Articles
DiFi vs CIA
More than a few folks have commented on the irony of Sen. Dianne Feinstein—perhaps the most vigorous defender of NSA’s controversial surveillance programs—flipping into…
How President Obama can fulfill his promise to end bulk collection of telephone metadata, while preserving intelligence capabilities
On January 17, President Obama promised to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of metadata on Americans’ phone calls under “section 215” (which is really…
The PCLOB Report and the Need for Executive Branch Constitutional Enforcement
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has been both praised and criticized for the conclusions of its recent report on NSA bulk metadata collection: that the program…
ACLU Takes Phone-Records Challenge to Appeals Court
The ACLU has just filed its opening brief in the Second Circuit in its challenge to the NSA’s phone-records program. The brief—the first appellate brief to be filed in any…
The Elephant in the Room: The FBI
Commissions, oversight boards, and review groups are all the rage these days. Recent weeks have seen hundreds of pages of reports evaluating American intelligence agencies, and…
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…