surveillance

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Huge Cell, Internet Spy Biz Operates in Secret

Libya, Syria used tools during Arab Spring

(Newser) - Internet and cell phone surveillance has ballooned into a $5-billion-a-year business that operates far from the public eye, the Wall Street Journal reports. Confidential buyers can use the tools to steal information directly from your phone, monitor tens of thousands of cell calls, or use "massive intercept" gear that...

Targeted Artist Floods Officials With Personal Data on Website
 Want to Track Me, Feds? 
 Here's Everything I Do 
An Artist's Revenge
Oct 30, 2011 4:37 PM CDT

Want to Track Me, Feds? Here's Everything I Do

Hasan Elahi has found privacy through publishing everything in his life

(Newser) - Targeted by the INS and the FBI after 9/11, one American artist reacted by overwhelming authorities with reams of personal data. Officials stopped Bangladesh-born Hasan Elahi at an airport in 2002 and, over several months, put him through hours of scary interrogations. Agreeing to update them on his activities, he...

Devices Spy on You 24 Hours a Day

Personal data sells for billions of dollars

(Newser) - Companies are observing nearly every move you make and selling your personal data for billions of dollars—and Washington appears helpless to stop them, the Los Angeles Times reports. Whether it's your smart phone, cable box, Facebook page, or video game, devices are amassing reams of data on your...

Big Brother Drones Are Watching ... Us

Spy planes being used to fight floods, fires

(Newser) - The same kind of unmanned spy drones used to track militants in the badlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan is finding a growing number of uses in the US. Predator drones, already used to patrol America's borders with Mexico and Canada, are being used to fight fires, survey flood damage,...

China Plans Massive Surveillance Network

Cisco, other Western companies are poised to help

(Newser) - China is preparing a surveillance network with an area bigger than New York City—and Cisco is among the Western companies set to help. China says the system of up to 500,000 cameras is aimed at preventing crime, but human rights advocates fear it could be used to stamp...

Iceland Thinks US May Be Spying on Its Citizens

Embassy surveillance program may have violated law

(Newser) - All five Nordic nations now suspect the US has been using its embassies to spy on their citizens: Iceland has joined Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland in launching a probe into whether American embassies acted illegally by carrying out surveillance of protesters without permission from national authorities, the BBC reports....

Cops Don't Need Warrant to Track Cars With GPS

'1984 is here at last,' says dissenting judge

(Newser) - Police can secretly track your movements with a GPS device attached to your car, and come into your driveway in the middle of the night to install it—all without a warrant, a federal court has ruled. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has twice let stand the conviction of...

New Technology Nails Speeders From Space

Civil liberties group slams 'SpeedSpike'

(Newser) - Forget about trying to spot this speed trap: British authorities are testing new technology that uses satellites to catch speeders. The system combines license-plate-reading technology with a GPS system to calculate a vehicle's average speed between two points. The makers of the "SpeedSpike" system say it could reduce the...

Web Protests Win Surprise Traction in China

Some fear official tolerance is surveillance in disguise

(Newser) - The usually repressive Chinese government has been surprisingly tolerant of—and even responsive to—a wave of Internet petitions protesting local injustices and corruption. Online campaigns have gotten accused killers freed, officials fired, and charges dropped against a motorist who cut off his own finger to protest police entrapment, then...

US Drones Back Up Pakistani Offensive

Predators offer intel on militant positions in South Waziristan

(Newser) - The US military is supporting the Pakistani offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan with intelligence and imaging collected by unmanned Predator drones. The support is separate from the CIA program using the drones inside Pakistan to kill terrorist leaders. “We are coordinating with the Pakistanis,” a military...

Mukasey: Now's No Time to Weaken Patriot Act
 Mukasey: Now's No Time
to Weaken Patriot Act
OPINION
Oct 2, 2009 5:53 AM CDT

Mukasey: Now's No Time to Weaken Patriot Act

Terror arrests show that national security needs trump privacy worries

(Newser) - The arrests last week of Najibullah Zazi and other terror suspects should make lawmakers think twice about making intelligence-gathering more difficult for those trying to keep America safe from terrorist attacks, writes Michael Mukasey. Congressional Democrats are considering imposing new requirements on Patriot Act provisions when they come up for...

Obama Supports Extending Patriot Act Provisions

Administration tells Congress it wants to renew surveillance laws

(Newser) - The Obama administration supports extending three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year,  AP reports. The Justice Department tells Congress in a letter they will back preserving the post-9/11 law's authority to access business records, monitor so-called "lone...

NYC Homes Raided in Terrorism Probe

No bombs found; Senator describes action as 'preventative'

(Newser) - Federal agents and New York police raided homes in Queens today as part of an investigation of a possible terrorist attack, the AP reports. Officials said the searches revealed no bombs or other weapons they would describe as “ready for use,” but said the action was based surveillance...

London Cameras a Bust: 1 Crime Solved Per 1K

(Newser) - Surveillance cameras are nearly worthless in the fight against crime, a London police report concluded, with fewer than one crime solved annually for every 1,000 cameras.The UK is one of the world's most monitored countries, with one camera for every 14 people and 1 million cameras in London...

Fiber-Optic Mics Eavesdrop on Thieves

OptaSense can identify footsteps, vehicles from miles away

(Newser) - Major oil companies are relying on a new fiber-optic technology to keep an underground ear on intruders, the Independent reports. Devised by a British defense firm, the OptaSense system consists of microphones placed along sensitive fiber-optic cables already laid underground. The cables sense vibrations, the mics pick it up, and...

Yoo Fights Back on Torture
 Yoo Fights Back on Torture 
Jul 27, 2009 7:13 AM CDT

Yoo Fights Back on Torture

(Newser) - The embattled Bush administration lawyer who drafted memos justifying waterboarding and warrantless wiretaps is fighting back as his role comes under greater scrutiny, the Washington Post reports. John Yoo, now a University of California law professor, has been giving speeches around the country defending the tactics and his view that...

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary
Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary
OPINION
Jul 16, 2009 7:24 AM CDT

Yoo: Wiretaps Were Legal and Necessary

President had right to violate 'obsolete' FISA, Bush lawyer writes

(Newser) - Last week the inspectors general of the Justice Department, CIA, and other agencies suggested the Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, singling out lawyer John Yoo for memos justifying warrantless wiretapping. Yoo defends himself today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that FISA was "an obsolete...

Wiretap Program Had 'Limited' Value: Fed Report

(Newser) - The Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program wasn't such a great anti-terror tool after all, says a new federal report. The wiretaps—on the international communication of Americans—"generally played a limited role" in counterterrorism efforts, despite the assertions of President Bush, Dick Cheney, and other top officials that they...

NSA Violated Domestic Wiretap Limits

Agency overcollected Americans' emails, phonecalls: officials

(Newser) - The NSA has been listening in on the domestic communications of American citizens well in excess of the limits placed on it by Congress last year, say intelligence officials. The Justice Department has confirmed to the New York Times that it detected "issues" in recent months but said it ...

I Say, Old Chap, Big Brother Is Watching Twitter

UK government weighs monitoring social sites for security threats

(Newser) - The British government wants to keep an eye on what people are doing on Facebook. On the lookout for terrorist plots, the Home Office has provoked an outcry from civil libertarians by floating a plan to track users of social networking sites, which were previously free of government monitoring, reports...

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