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
- Our Site Search Increases Our Editorial and Informational Independence
- Implementing our search facility is a long-term investment
- Corruption is a Reality, It's Not a Dirty or a Strong Word
- Corruption is a topic some newspapers shy away from
- Rosanna Yuen & GNOME community triple tricked
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- IBM Layoffs Not Done, Terminations of Staff in India, Brazil, and Mexico Reported
- This hopefully answers questions such as, "do the layoffs only impact US and Canada?"
-
- Links 08/11/2025: Climate Talk Unfruitful, OldVersion.com Archive Facing Shutdown
- Links for the day
- IBM is Eliminating Red Hat Like It Eliminated Tivoli and Eliminated Cognos
- Be wary of IBM
- Quitting One's Job Isn't Forbidden, Right?
- it's important to remind people that leaving one's job is perfectly OK
- Being Absent/Missing From Social Control Media is Not a Sign of Weakness
- Broadly speaking, social control media is for losers
- Empathy Online
- I recently learned from someone that running his Web site might hurt some feelings, even if the writings are truthful
- Advocates of GNU/Linux and the Uphill Battles Behind Us
- GNU/Linux felt like "activism" 20 years ago. Now it's mainstream.
- Cybersecurity Means Real Security, Not Back Doors
- Standing our ground on technology and cybersecurity is an uncompromisable stance
- Links 08/11/2025: Disinformation Crisis, Denmark Recognises Threats Associated With Social Control Media
- Links for the day
- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is Besieged for the Times It Does the Right Things
- As that upsets rich people's interests (and they were, at times, sponsors)
- Links 08/11/2025: Technical and Financial GAFAM Woes and Arrests of Journalists by Despots
- Links for the day
- Like SUSE, IBM Red Hat Seems to be Using LLM Slop to Write Fake (Bot-Generated) Blog Posts
- IBM Red Hat keeps promoting slop
- How German Media Covered Cocainegate at The European Patent Office (EPO)
- At some point we'll ask that same press to revisit the issue and this time comment on the EPO connection
- Our Launch of Techrights Search Has Been Successful (So Far)
- There are about 50,000 articles indexed there, going 19+ years back
- Daniel Pocock Explains Social Engineering in Debian and Other Communities Increasingly Controlled by "Barons"
- Communities are not corporations
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 07, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, November 07, 2025
- Adrian & Diana von Bidder-Senn, Debian: detailed history of a death
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Crypto AG tricked ETH Zurich student internship
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- An Old Story of Fraud at the EPO in the Netherlands (and How the Dutch Government Facilitated It)
- We've already mentioned several other scandals where the the Dutch government engaged in fraud and passive corruption
- Voicing Concerns About European Patent Office (EPO) in Rijswijk
- The report is dated yesterday
- Gemini Links 08/11/2025: KeePassRX and Pluribus
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli Targets "Linux" With LLMs, Google News Helps Blame "Linux" for Amazon WorkSpaces Flaws
- Tonight's slopfest
- Gemini Links 07/11/2025: Switzerland, k3s, and Privacy
- Links for the day
- Links 07/11/2025: Software Patents Squashed, Stock Markets Wobble Over Slop Uncertainties
- Links for the day
- A 19th Anniversary and High-Impact Exclusives
- The end of 2025 will be very difficult for EPO management
- The Register MS, Payroll First
- GNU/Linux is a growing platform
- Links 07/11/2025: US Government Shutdown Imperils Critical Functions, Slop in "AI" Clothing Debunked Some More, Bubble's Implosion Ongoing/Imminent According to Experts
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 07/11/2025: No Goodbyes, Homelab, Mouse Keys / Pointer Keys
- Links for the day
- 12 Years for Justice is Far Too Slow (and More People, Especially Women, Are Hurt)
- Why do police departments and legal systems fail to protect women?
- Before Freenode Collapsed Its Staff (the People Who Now Run Libera.Chat) Were Censoring/Silencing Some Free Software Supporters
- We still have this issue in the Free software community
- Freenode and irc.com Are Still Around
- It emulates retro terminals
- We Don't Compete, We Analyse and Report
- Principles are so much better than money and they're something money can never acquire
- Red Hat is Also Laying Off Staff in India
- Red Hat is a dishonest company
- All We Want to See is Any Form of Accountability in Europe's Largest Institutions
- Because people at the top of institutions should never be above the law!
- Finding Recent Talks of Richard Stallman
- We already have many pages, documents, and media files. Organising them and helping people find them is the next Big Task.
- Richard Stallman First Speaker at Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress the Weekend After This Coming Weekend
- He'll be speaking over the Net
- Diversity at Red Hat
- Remember to judge corporations by their actions, not some Web pages with words in them
- First the Python Software Foundation (PSF) Attacked Its Most Productive Volunteers. Now It Attacks Its Funding Sources.
- The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) rejected by PSF
- News of Substance About the EPO's Substance Abuse (Cocaine)
- EPO Cocaine Chronicles - link to archived BILD article and photos
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, November 06, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, November 06, 2025
- On Midlife Crises
- Focus on the sabotage, not politics
- Hallmark of Fake News: "Single-digit" (Percentage) and 1% Isn't the Same Thing
- apparently "rebalancing" is the new layoffs euphemism
- Links 07/11/2025: Patent Trolls Target Germany, Celebrities Visit Ukraine
- Links for the day
- Misinformation/Disinformation Disguised as Information About GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL) Usage
- GPL-type licences (reciprocal obligations) remain dominant
- Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Google News Boosting WebProNews (All Slopfarms)
- Those slopfarms just saturate the Web with misinformation and mindless chaff
- Techrights and Tux Machines at Over 40
- 19 years of Techrights and 21+ years of Tux Machines
- IBM Mass Layoffs This Week Not Limited to North America, Red Hat Staff Terminated
- Do not relocate for a company that sees you as nothing but a number or a "human resource"
- Coming Soon: More Proof of Cocaine Use at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
- Stay tuned
- Entering Our 20th Year
- ...and still looking for answers
- Mailing lists vs Discourse forums: open source communities or commodities?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 06/11/2025: "Component Abuse Challenge", Google Play Store Deemed Too Monopolistic
- Links for the day
- Microsoft and Microsoft GitHub (and Rust @ Microsoft GitHub) the Future of Ubuntu, They Want the Same for Debian
- Ubuntu is not the place to find freedom
- Richard Stallman Was Right About LLM-based Chatbots
- the passing fad, LLM-based chatbots
- IBM Has Not Been Good for IBM's Red Hat (Which Microsoft Also Attempted to Buy)
- GAFAM or GIAFAM are not a force for good
- Taking Back Control Over Technology We Purchase (Study, Modify, Enhance, and More)
- "The war on general-purpose computing continues
- Links 06/11/2025: EFF Wants New Executive Director, Microsoft's Azure Falls Over Again
- Links for the day
- All Set for Tomorrow
- Techrights waves
- The Corporate Media Carries on With Patently Phony and Misleading Narrative About IBM's Mass Layoffs
- Instead of rightly alleging business failure or commercial (leadership's) weakness it is offloading blame to some mindless buzzwords
- IBM Isn't Hiring Based on Age Groups. It Still Hires Based on Salary Expectations.
- It is not about the skills available, it's about the expected cost of labour
- Estimating the Scale of IBM's Mass Layoffs This Week
- there is no denying that the IBM layoffs are vast
- Telling Our Story as Victims of Online Abuse
- This post will not mention any names
- Claim That EPO Quotas Brought Corruption and Mischief to Europe's Second-Largest Institution
- Nowadays corruption is the norm at the EPO and there is even rampant substance abuse among the people who run the Office
- Rust's "Memory Safety" Talking Point Ought to be Discarded in Light of Fil-C
- new memory-safe C/C++ compiler
- Claim That IBM Has Another 8 Days to Lay Off 'Expensive' Staff
- The consensus in comments we see is, IBM is a terrible place to work in, treatment of its workers is appalling, it's utterly foolish to relocate in an effort to retain a job at IBM, and it's foolish to join the company in the first place
- Science Demands Facts, Not Dogma
- Saying that restricted hardware is not secure hardware should be common sense
- Site Anniversary is Tomorrow
- The celebrations might delay our EPO series somewhat
- Launching Techrights Search
- New search interface and locally hosted back end
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, November 05, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, November 05, 2025