Surveillance

Dispelling Some Big Brother Myths

There’s been a lot of talk in the press lately about government surveillance; Congress, instead of providing checks and balances on President Bush’s illegal spying program, actually voted to radically EXPAND the spy powers (and, of course, give legal immunity to phone corporations). It seems like whenever government surveillance and harassment makes the news, coverage […]

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Corporations Tracking Who Activists Are Dating

We’ve recently learned that Burger King has been spying on human rights activists, and the FBI would like to be spying on vegan potlucks. Not to be outdone, it looks like the Society of Toxicology commissioned a “threat analysis” to try to get smart about, among other things, who activists are dating. The organization held […]

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“Burger With a Side of Spies”

Eric Schlosser has a great oped in The New York Times about how Burger King hired a sketchy private security firm to spy on non-violent activists. WHILE the Patriot Act has raised fears about government spying on ordinary citizens, the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying has received much less attention. During […]

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Feds Testing Technology to Film “Terrorists” With Cell Phones

Saw this at the great new blog Little Brother. USA Today reports: The Homeland Security Department is testing technology that would allow its agents to use cellphones or e-mail devices to covertly share live video of possible terrorists over a law enforcement network… A live video feed could be shared with “dozens or hundreds of […]

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A Bigger Big Brother

Big Brother isn’t just watching. He’s making biometric databases, recruiting firefighters and redefining “privacy.” There’s been a lot going on in terms of government surveillance and privacy concerns. Here’s a few highlights: Do you look like a terrorist? The FBI is spending $1 billion create the biggest biometric database in the world. That means the […]

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Fun With FBI Files

An easy way to get your DHS travel dossier. An easy, automated site for generating Freedom of Information Act requests for your FBI/CIA/NSA/etc. files. Be sure to email me and let me know if you turn up anything good!

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Project to “Snag Extremists and Terrorists Online”

From Boing Boing: The Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Arizona has developed a National Science Foundation funded system “to systematically collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web.” Using advanced techniques such as Web spidering, link analysis, content analysis, authorship analysis, sentiment analysis and multimedia analysis, Chen and his team can find, […]

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National Intelligence Director: Debating Spying Will Cause Americans to Die

Blogs and news outlets have been buzzing about yesterday’s ruling on the Patriot Act. This level of debate and discussion on domestic spying and surveillance is long overdue. According to a recent interview National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, though, such debate is intolerable. He doesn’t call it un-American or un-patriotic, like some folks like to […]

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Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act

Happy Thursday. From Dan Eggen at The Washington Post: A federal judge today struck down portions of the USA Patriot Act as unconstitutional, ordering the FBI to stop issuing “national security letters” that secretly demand customer information from Internet service providers and other businesses. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York ruled that the […]

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Green Scare Events Get Some Publicity by Industry Groups

Americans for Medical Progress is an industry group behind a lot of the scare-mongering and labeling activists as “terrorists.” How flattering to be listed in their newsletter. I’m looking forward to the Yale Law School event this weekend: ACTIVISTS’ CALENDAR AMP is continuously monitoring activists’ planning. We are in touch with targeted institutions as warranted. […]

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