CryptoPhone use increases

Ethical Privacy Choices

Here’s a lit€­tle rant I post€­ed to an IETF mail€­ing list thread on whether the IETF should move its public-facing ser€­vices to private-by-default mod€­e. Some€­one post€­ed a re€­ply sug€­gest€­ing that “the us€­er gets to choose the de€­gree of se€­cu€­ri€­ty that they con€­sid€­er appropriate”.

Yahoo fixes Flickr invitation bug that leaked real names and email addresses

Privacy flaw on photo sharing website initially dismissed as ‘working as designed’ and not making sensitive data available

Massive New NSA Facility in Utah Ordered to Reveal Its Secrets…About Water Use

US Defense Secretary seeks to convince Chinese of American integrity in cyber-space

Does nationality still matter in tech buys today?

It does apparently to the U.S. government, which reportedly will be scrutinizing Lenovo's move to buy IBM's server business to ensure it doesn't lead to a backdoor access to U.S. national secrets and infrastructure.

How Many Watch Lists Fit on the Head of a Pin?

Rahinah Ibrahim is a slight Malaysian woman who attended Stanford University on a U.S. student visa, majoring in architecture. She was not a political person. Despite this, as part of a post-9/11 sweep directed against Muslims, she was investigated by the FBI. In 2004, while she was still in the U.S. but unbeknownst to her, the FBI sent her name to the no-fly list.

‘US annexed the whole world through global spying' – Assange

The media has been overwhelmed by talk of Crimea joining Russia, but all are ignoring the fact that the 'Five Eyes' intelligence alliance, principally the US, has annexed the whole world through their spying, said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Speaking at the WHD.global conference on Wednesday, Assange – who has been living under asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012 – pointed out that there is a need for independent internet infrastructure for countries to maintain sovereignty to resist US control over the majority of communications. The annual conference is dedicated to global surveillance and privacy matters.

GCHQ, NSA ‘infiltrate’ social media to spread disinformation – report

American and British intelligence hope to take advantage of social media platforms, like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, in an effort to spread disinformation and propaganda, as well as potentially foment public protests, recent Snowden leaks claim.

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

Brazil: Not the Web We Want

Brazil's internet bill of rights is more concerned with advancing national interests than internet freedom.

Sparks fly over US plan to shift Internet role

But it comes amid growing international pressure for Washington to step back from what some countries claim is a dominant role in the Internet.

Tensions have been exacerbated by the outcry over leaked documents showing the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance capabilities, feeding concern that the US manipulates the Internet for its own purposes.

Merkel Ally Says US Assurances on NSA Spying ‘Insufficient’

'US assurances on NSA spying insufficient'

Reports last October - based on disclosures by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden - that Washington had monitored Merkel's mobile phone caused outrage in Germany, which is particularly sensitive about surveillance because of abuses under the East German Stasi secret police and the Nazis.

US Criticises European Anti-Spying Internet Proposals

A difficult breakup between US, internet

It could be a difficult breakup between the US government and the internet.

A plan unveiled last month would see the US relinquish its key oversight role for the internet, handing that over to "the global multistakeholder community".

US officials say the move is part of a longstanding effort to privatise the technical oversight of the internet.

US claims EU plans to build ring-fenced network may 'break global trade rules'

European Union plans to build a separate communications network to prevent data from passing over US networks is being opposed by the US, which claims that it would breach international trade laws.

The opposition of the US to the plans comes at a delicate stage of negotiation between the US and EU over a trade treaty that would give more power to multinational organisations - including communications companies - to sue national governments over claimed breaches of trade rules.

Snowden, Poitras honored with Ridenhour truth-telling award

Edward Snowden and filmmaker Laura Poitras receive Ridenour Prize for truth-telling

Edward Snowden and filmmaker Laura Poitras receive a prize for truth-telling

Metadata monitoring more intrusive than eavesdropping, Snowden and Greenwald warn

Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, who brought to light the whistleblower's leaks about mass U.S. government surveillance last year, appeared together via video link from opposite ends of the earth on Saturday for what was believed to be the first time since Snowden sought asylum in Russia.

Snowden, Greenwald say monitoring 'metadata' is more intrusive

Former CIA Director Calls Female Senator Too ‘Emotional’ On Torture Report

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has chaired the Senate’s Intelligence Committee for five years. So when she suggested last month that investigators should make public a report on the U.S.’s interrogation techniques because it would “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted,” one might have seen it as the strong words and fair assessment of a person who has deep experience on the issue.

Hayden Faults Administration, Not CIA, on Benghazi Talking Points

Former deputy CIA director Michael Morell told the House Intelligence Committee this week that despite reports from the chief of station in Libya that no protests occurred outside the American diplomatic facility in Benghazi prior to the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack on it, he edited the administration’s talking points to include references to such protests. His CIA analysts in Washington believed they had occurred, and the station chief, after all, was 500 miles away in Tripoli.

When the barrels of guns are lifted, truth vanishes - Kristinn Hrafnsson

For the public revelations that the CIA and NSA were spying on the committee that was supposed to have oversight of their activities should be of great concern as it is a major breakdown in the system of checks and balances that should be inherently present in a healthy democracy. Despite all of the Snowden revelations there is also no indication that the NSA has changed its practices or made changes to how they carry out operations. By not publishing information that the public has the right to know the media has also failed and according to WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson, it is: "... an absolutely disgusting break with all the basic principles of journalism that I know of. And they claim that this is done upon the request of the US authorities for the security concerns. That is not acceptable." Unfortunately today, he says: "We have submissive and lame editorial boards that will simply do as they are told."

Low Intensity War Challenges National Independence of Venezuela

Over the past six weeks the so called salida ya [exit now] strategy launched by the Venezuelan opposition has developed, in part, into a low intensity war against the democratically elected government of President Nicolas Maduro. This essay will examine two strategic objectives of the Bolivarian revolution that serve as pillars of resistance to the anti-democratic elements of the counter revolution: the struggle to preserve national independence and the campaign to develop and expand the communal structures that are the organized expressions of popular power.

Report: US Agency Created ‘Cuban Twitter’ To Foster Dissent

US thinks UK is complacent about role in world

CIA operatives operating inside Syria with U.S. trained rebel units

The first cell of Syrian rebels trained, armed and financed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Jordan have reportedly began crossing over the Syrian border, according to the Guardian newspaper.

An ‘emotional’ debate over Bush/Cheney-era torture policies

The Senate Intelligence Committee last week easily approved a measure last week to declassify part of its report on Bush/Cheney-era torture policies. As Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee’s chairwoman, explained, making the findings public is important to “ensure that an un-American, brutal program of detention and interrogation will never again be considered or permitted.”

The Torture Report’s Long, Winding Road

Any encouragement that torture opponents may take from an initial step toward releasing part of a long Senate report on CIA abuses during the Bush-43 years is tempered by the fact that the declassification process may be glacially slow and still leave much hidden, writes Nat Parry.

The Ethics Of NBC Letting George W. Bush Be Interviewed By His Daughter

Last February, the world caught a glimpse George W. Bush’s paintings through work of a hacker named Guccifier. The paintings were amateurish and charming and slightly embarrassing for a former president. They famously included self-portraits of him bathing.

Watch: U.S. senator gets so angry at Cheney’s torture defense that he offers to waterboard him

Dick Cheney has defended torture techniques so many times that a frustrated U.S. senator has finally offered to waterboard the former vice president.

“The accusations are not true,” Cheney told college television station ATV last week. “Some people called it torture. It wasn’t torture.”

Liz Cheney: Stop ‘political’ investigation of torture and focus more on Benghazi

Fox News contributor Liz Cheney on Sunday argued that a United States Senate report on Bush-era torture was “political” and that lawmakers should spend more time investigating President Barack Obama’s role in failing to prevent terrorist attacks in Benghazi.

Tony Blair 'knew everything about CIA interrogation programme'

Extraordinary Decisions: Italy’s High Court and the Bush Administration

The year President George W. Bush left office, Jane Mayer published “The Dark Side,” a scathing, revelatory piece on the Bush administration’s unscrupulous detention and interrogation policies during the administration’s War on Terror. Mayer’s account reports the dubious legal foundations for the policies and contains detailed descriptions of the numerous human rights abuses the executive branch justified in the name of national security.

‘Good Daughter’ vs ‘Crazy Liberal’: Juan Williams, Liz Cheney Battle Over CIA Torture Report

ormer Wyoming Senatorial candidate Liz Cheney and Fox News analyst Juan Williams clashed on Fox News Sunday over the upcoming Senate report on the CIA’s use of enhanced interrogation techniques (torture, to those of you scoring at home), with Cheney arguing congressional oversight already exists and the report is a Democratic hit job, and Williams responding that the politicization of counterterrorism has prevented oversight efforts.

Pelosi: Cheney is proud of CIA misrepresentations

Pelosi: Cheney is ‘proud’ of ‘tone’ he set at CIA

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is “proud” of the “tone and attitude” he set at the CIA, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, amid growing tension between the Agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee over the declassification of a Bush-era torture report that the Senate says will show the CIA misled the American public.

New bill would force Barack Obama to publish US drone strike casualties

A bipartisan Bill that would force President Obama to reveal casualties from covert US drone strikes has been put before the US Congress.

Delays in Effort to Refocus C.I.A. From Drone War

Musharraf allowed drone strikes in FATA: NYT

In the skies above Yemen, the Pentagon’s armed drones have stopped flying, a result of the ban on American military drone strikes imposed by the government there after a number of botched operations in recent years killed Yemeni civilians.

Bush, Musharraf struck deal for drone strikes: NYT

US President Bush and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf had a deal allowing drone strikes in the tribal areas as a covert operation, run by the CIA, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

The undeclared political war between Latinos and Asians

A political war may be developing between Latinos and Asians in California over attempts to undo the state’s 18-year-old ban on race-conscious admissions policies at the University of California.

Australian civil servants ordered to fink on colleagues who criticize gov't online