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Showing posts with label Mass surveillance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mass surveillance. Show all posts
NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden has voiced his opposition to the
Investigatory Powers Bill, which was unveiled Wednesday by the British
government, saying ministers are “taking notes on how to defend the
indefensible.”
His remarks come
as Home Secretary Theresa May has admitted that UK spy agencies MI5,
MI6 and GCHQ secretly collected communications data for decades to
protect “national security.”
Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia
after leaking top-secret documents about American and British mass
surveillance techniques, posted a series of tweets condemning the new
bill.
He said the powers given to security agencies in the bill amounted to access to “the activity log of your life.”
May
announced on Wednesday that internet companies would be required to
store a record of every website accessed by users for a year. The new
bill also targets encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and
iMessenger, which allow users to evade hackers and data collection.
The federal government has been fighting hard for years hide details about its use of so-called stingray surveillance technology from the public.
The
surveillance devices simulate cell phone towers in order to trick
nearby mobile phones into connecting to them and revealing the phones’
locations.
Now newly released documents confirm long-held
suspicions that the controversial devices are also capable of recording
numbers for a mobile phone’s incoming and outgoing calls, as well as
intercepting the content of voice and text communications. The documents
also discuss the possibility of flashing a phone’s firmware “so that
you can intercept conversations using a suspect’s cell phone as a bug.”
The
information appears in a 2008 guideline prepared by the Justice
Department to advise law enforcement agents on when and how the
equipment can be legally used.
The
Department of Justice ironically acknowledges in the documents that the
use of the surveillance technology to locate cellular phones 'is an
issue of some controversy.'
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California obtained the documents (.pdf) after a protracted legal battle
involving a two-year-old public records request. The documents include
not only policy guidelines, but also templates for submitting requests
to courts to obtain permission to use the technology.
Not
content to wait for action at the federal level, those opposed to the
ongoing mass surveillance of the NSA and other agencies are speaking out
and pushing laws at the state level to ensure privacy rights are
protected. (Image: thedaywefightback.org)Concerned about
the government's increasing surveillance powers but unimpressed with the
congressional response in Washington so far, state lawmakers from both
major political parties are now taking it upon themselves to protect the
online and communication privacy of their constituents.
Meanwhile,
individuals and privacy groups are planning their own grassroots
response to mass surveillance, hoping to repeat past victories by
harnessing the power of digital communications to ensure they are
adequately protected from government overreach.
As the Associated Press
reports Wednesday, efforts are now underway "in at least 14 states are a
direct message to the federal government: If you don't take action to
strengthen privacy, we will." According to AP:
Republican
and Democratic lawmakers have joined in proposing the measures,
reflecting the unusual mix of political partnerships that have arisen
since the NSA revelations that began in May. Establishment leadership
has generally favored the programs, while conservative limited
government advocates and liberal privacy supporters have opposed them.
Supporters
say the measures are needed because technology has grown to the point
that police can digitally track someone's every move.
Devices such
as license plate readers and cellphone trackers "can tell whether you
stayed in a motel that specializes in hourly rates, or you stopped at
tavern that has nude dancers," said David Fidanque, director of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
"It's one thing to know
you haven't violated the law, but it's another thing to know you haven't
had every one of your moves tracked," he said.
Next
week, on February 11, privacy advocates and online freedom groups are
mobilizing against NSA and other government surveillance in a day of
action they've dubbed 'The Day We Fight Back.' According
to Katitza Rodriguez at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the
groups organizing the action, those participating will be demanding "an
end to mass surveillance in every country, by every state, regardless of
boundaries or politics."
Galvanized by what they see as 13 Principles
of internet and communication freedoms, activists will use the day to
call attention to those goals, lobby on their behalf with their
representatives, and declare an end to the encroaching, unaccountable,
and unregulated surveillance apparatus.
"The Principles spellout
just why mass surveillance is a violation of human rights," explained
Rodriguez, and they "give sympathetic lawmakers and judges a list of
fixes they could apply to the lawless Internet spooks. On the day we
fight back, we want the world to sign onto those principles. We want
politicians to pledge to uphold them. We want the world to see we care."
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