NSA Watch: New Faces, Same Policy, Obama Defends Clapper
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-31 22:55:06 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-31 22:55:06 UTC
Summary: Today's news about privacy and the NSA in particular
-
La Quadrature du Net launches a crowd-funding campaign to support the making of the upcoming animation movie about privacy, mass surveillance, and the urgency to rethink our relationship with technology. Help us finance this project!
-
Demonstrators protesting Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych suspected their cellphone location data was being tracked since at least last week, when people in the vicinity of a clash between riot police and protesters received a chilling text message. It read: "Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance."
-
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that relations with Germany have gone through a "rough patch" recently because of revelations about NSA spying, but insisted that the two countries can put the episode behind them.
-
Leaders from several countries, including Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, have reacted angrily to revelations that the US spied on their governments at the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, according to a media report.
-
Leaders from several countries, including Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, have reacted angrily to revelations that the US spied on their governments at the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, according to a media report.
-
German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere at the Munich Security Conference Friday said the US is not doing enough to restore trust after the NSA scandal: "The information we are being provided with is not satisfactory and the political damage [of the NSA's work] is greater than the security benefit."
-
US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged Friday that relations with Germany had gone through a "rough period" of late over NSA snooping but that shared security priorities would keep the countries close.
-
Those of you following the steady stream of news stories on the National Security Agency's insatiable appetite for information already know that the spy agency has figured out how to snatch data from mobile apps. Since 2007, The NSA and its partner Britain's Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) have siphoned from apps address books, buddy lists, phone logs and geographic data.
-
NSA also wishes to develop the technology so that it is capable of breaking modern Internet security.
-
German operator group Deutsche Telekom has hailed last year’s revelations that the US spy agency NSA and the UK’s GCHQ had been monitoring ordinary citizens’ browsing and messaging habits as an “opportunity” for operators to provide data privacy and data security services.
-
Alessandro Acquisti in his TED talk tells us why privacy matters in a world in which it is vanishing. "Privacy is not about having something negative to hide," he says.
Indeed, the privacy of all Americans is a matter of principle, enshrined in the Constitution. It used to be we had control of what we wanted people to know about us, good and bad. But not anymore.
As troubling as this assault on privacy is, the Edward Snowden revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance show that something even more dangerous is afoot. And it's about what the NSA can do with this information they are collecting on us.
-
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden show NSA kept US negotiators abreast of their rivals' positions at 2009 summitfree
-
Developing countries have reacted angrily to revelations that the United States spied on other governments at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.
-
Vice-admiral Michael Rogers, the commander of the US navy’s tenth fleet and its Fleet Cyber Command, will take over from NSA Director Keith Alexander, who reluctantly became a global figure in the wake of the Snowden revelations.
-
any of us are still quite disappointed that James Clapper has kept his job as Director of National Intelligence after flat out lying to Congress over whether or not the NSA spied on Americans. There have been increasing calls from within Congress to have Clapper investigated and possibly prosecuted for the felony of lying to Congress, but there appears to be no movement there at all. Not only does the Obama administration seem to want to protect one of their own, but it's also made it clear that something like that would make it look like Ed Snowden "won" and they can't allow that sort of thing.
-
As the NSA leaks have expanded to detail spying activities in other countries, those governments affected have had a variety of reactions. In some cases, legitimately questionable tactics were exposed (potential economic espionage in Brazil, tapping German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone) and the responses were genuinely outraged. In other cases, the outrage was temporary and somewhat muted, suggesting these countries were allowing the NSA to take the heat for their own questionable surveillance programs aimed at their citizens.
-
We thought we won the Crypto Wars, the fight to make strong encryption accessible to all, in the 1990s.1 We were wrong. Last month, Reuters broke news about a deal struck between the popular computer security firm RSA and the National Security Agency. RSA reportedly accepted $10 million from NSA to make Dual_EC_DRBG—an intentionally weakened random number generator—the default in its widely used BSAFE encryption toolkit.
-
In the motion filed in federal court in Denver on Wednesday with help from the American Civil Liberties Union, Jamshid Muhtorov also requested that prosecutors disclose more about how surveillance law was used in his case. Muhtorov denies the terror charges he faces.
-
There is so much missing or purposefully obfuscated in the debate about NSA/Five Eyes spying, US Government illegality, CIA collusion with al-Qaeda, Guantanamo, 9/11, torture, drones, Afghanistan, Iraq and everything that millions of people have been outraged about for over a decade, but the most striking is that almost no one is proposing closing these organizations down and few are talking about prosecuting those responsible.
-
The NSA has finally found an officer for its civil liberties and privacy office. A new member of the NSA team will have to provide expert advice as well as develop measures for strengthening the NSA's privacy protection. The appointed officer seems to be a good choice for the NSA whose reputation has been tarnished, but at the same time this raises some experts' doubts.
-
Documents from Edward Snowden reveal that Canada's foreign signals intelligence agency picked up metadata on airport travellers from free Wi-Fi available at a major Canadian airport.
-
Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday he believes the British public has largely shrugged off the espionage disclosures of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, telling lawmakers that people seem to be satisfied that U.K. spies are doing their jobs.
-
When the National Security Agency’s surveillance program PRISM was disclosed in early June, the immediate question wasn’t if the program would harm the U.S. tech industry but how badly. Six months and many more disclosures later, it’s clear NSA surveillance is an economic millstone that threatens to drag down the U.S. tech industry.
-
Two decades ago, the National Security Agency (NSA) sought legislation requiring a "back door" in all public encryption technologies, enabling the agency to monitor electronic communications even when the parties sought to shield them from prying eyes. That push failed. The NSA then embarked on an effort to accomplish essentially the same goal in secret.
-
The US relationship with the Saudis appears to be changing and even though several decades ago Saudi agreed to sell the US oil at $10 a barrel in perpetuity, the love affair appears to be over. According to former MI5 officer and whistleblower David Shayler there may be plans to change the official story of 9/11 and the US start pointing the finger at Saudi Arabia. Mr. Shayler believes the way to stop all of the illegality being committed by agencies such as CIA, NSA, MI6 and GCHQ is to simply stop funding them.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- In Central African Republic Windows Has Pretty Much Fallen to Zero
- We need to focus on Software Freedom
- Microsoft Windows Down to 8.5% in South Africa
- South Africa and Egypt are strategic in Africa
- New Series: A Deep Dive Into the Severe Corruption of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Nowadays a Front Group and Lobbyist of Microsoft
- There's a lot to show
- Doing Free Software for a Living in an Era or a Time of Abundance of Code (and Fast Internet to Pass It Around Freely) or Writing When the Web is Attacked by LLM Slop
- Tailoring code to needs is the key
- The UEFI hype and Microsoft's lies
- By Sami Tikkanen
-
- Gemini Links 03/03/2025: Copyrights, GrapheneOS, and SpaceBeans
- Links for the day
- Links 03/03/2025: Europe Rallies Behind Ukraine, Measles Flourishes in US Again
- Links for the day
- After Fund-raising Campaign the Free Software Foundation Still Raises About $13,000 Per Week (Without Campaigning for New Donors/Members)
- Richard Stallman in the Board is not a liability
- Links 03/03/2025: 'Monetisation' Myth' and Microsoft's LLMs Helping Criminals
- Links for the day
- The New Series About the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and the Microsoft Entryism in OSI is Closely Related to the SLAPP Against Techrights
- Also based on the leading publication that they want removed
- Links 03/03/2025: Mass Layoffs in IBM China, Intel Still in Trouble
- Links for the day
- 3 Out of 4 in Cuba Use Linux to Access the Web
- Maybe change does come about...
- Links 02/03/2025: Day Off, POWER9, Console Challenge
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 02, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 02, 2025
- Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low in Thailand
- We're seeing many all-time records like these so far in 2025
- Gemini Links 02/03/2025: Snowdrop Flower and Hostile Leaders
- Links for the day
- Links 02/03/2025: Microsoft Outlook Goes Offline, Foreign-Owned Social Control Media Interfering With Fair Elections
- Links for the day
- According to statCounter, Windows Falls Off a Cliff in Maharlika, GNU/Linux Surges to 5%
- But mobile is king
- New Video Clip of Richard Stallman's Latest Visit to and Talks in Italy
- Richard Stallman or RMS giving his latest talk last week
- Windows Used by Only One in Six Asians to Access the Web, According to statCounter
- maybe more governments in Asia should move away from Microsoft
- GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Brazil, an All-Time High According to statCounter
- There are hundreds of millions of people in that country
- Google Already Dominates the Global South (via Android/Linux)
- If one puts aside Russia and east Europe, not many countries exist that still connect to the Web from Windows more than from Android
- GNU/Linux Widespread in Finland, Sweden, and Norway
- Sweden has many Chromebooks in schools3 nations
- Germany's Incoming Leader Said He'd Seek More Independence from the US, GNU/Linux Soars to 6%
- Last month it was 5%
- For the First Time GNU/Linux is Measured at Over 4% in Europe (Not Counting ChromeOS/Chromebooks)
- Europe, on average, is now estimated to have GNU/Linux on 1 in 25 Web-connected laptops/desktops
- Over 2 Years of LLM Hype and Nothing to Show for It
- People still use search, not chatbots
- Apple's iOS Almost Bigger Than Windows Now (Internationally), Windows Falls to 22% According to statCounter
- Without Windows domination, there's not much left going for Microsoft
- Putin's Loyal DOGE
- We hereby crown Arvind Krishna "Putin's DOGE"
- The Media Barely Reported This (Late Friday): IBM Lays Off About 2,000 More Workers, Effective Hours Ago
- Maybe some diversity programs can help IBM recruit slaves or grossly-underpaid staff
- Microsoft Money Being Spent to Bully Techrights Only Legitimises Techrights
- The longer it goes on for, the greater the Streisand Effect
- Suing One's Way Out of Real Trouble Won't Work (It Merely Increases the Trouble)
- "Guns for hire" in London can only issue "legal" threats
- Microsoft Writing Articles About Microsoft, Using Microsoft LLMs
- Right now there are many articles about Microsoft Outlook being down completely
- Gemini Links 02/03/2025: OFFLFIRSOCH 2025 and Programming
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 01, 2025
- Another Day and Another LLM Slopfest From Madame Day at the Slopfarm LinuxSecurity.com
- Can't take a break, can she?
- Sucking Up to Fascists (Like IBM's Watson Sucked Up to Adolf Hitler in the 1930s) Did Not Help IBM
- IBM could stick to better principles, but instead it treats the Free software community and even its own staff like trash
- Links 01/03/2025: GB News Loses Over 100 Million Pounds, Zelensky Wins World's Sympathy
- Links for the day
- Getting Serial Sloppers to Knock the Habit of Plagiarism by LLM Slop
- All in all, the fewer the slop objects, the better
- As Prices Soar and Services Shut Down (Even YouTube Starts Demanding Money for the Original or a Tolerable Experience) It's Time to Explore the Real Alternatives
- https://inv.nadeko.net is the most viable instance of Invidious these days
- Gemini Links 01/03/2025: Amends and GNU/Linux
- Links for the day
- Links 01/03/2025: Scam Altman's Latest Excuse, Google Price Hikes
- Links for the day
- Justice Will Find Its Way at the End
- We deserve an award, not SLAPP, for what we've done
- March Already, Rumours of IBM Layoffs in Brazil
- Red Hat might be impacted too
- Links 01/03/2025: Squashing Software Patents, USPTO Facing Additional Cuts
- Links for the day
- Links 01/03/2025: UNM Gopher and Getting One's Pages on gemini://
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 28, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, February 28, 2025