From OMB Watch:
Responding to the outcry over covert police surveillance of peaceful activists’ meetings, Maryland lawmakers voted on March 24, 2009 in favor of a bill to protect residents from having authorities violate their First Amendment rights. The House of Delegates and Senate approved similar bills and Governor Martin O’Malley has expressed his commitment to [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Big Brother's Shadow category.
Maryland Lawmakers Limit Covert Police Surveillance
From the UK – Overhaul public databases, government urged
From Information World Review:
The government chief information officer (CIO) should report to either the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the deputy prime minister, according to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. The recommendation came in a report which called for a radical overhaul of the way data should be collected, held and managed by the government.
Its [...]
From the UK – ISPs to record all emails and calls
From the Guardian:
Internet service providers are to keep records of emails and online phone calls under controversial new government regulations that come into force today.
ISPs will be legally obliged to store details of emails and internet telephony for 12 months as a potential tool to aid criminal investigations. Although the content of emails and calls [...]
Book Groups Launch New Effort to Amend Patriot Act
From the PEN American Center:
Organizations representing booksellers, librarians, publishers, and writers today launched the latest phase in their five-year campaign to restore the reader privacy safeguards that were stripped away by the USA Patriot Act. Since 2003, the Department of Justice has used its expanded power under the Patriot Act to issue more than 200 [...]
Obama Administration Embraces Bush Position on Warrantless Wiretapping and Secrecy
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The Obama administration formally adopted the Bush administration’s position that the courts cannot judge the legality of the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) warrantless wiretapping program, filing a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA late Friday.
In Jewel v. NSA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging the agency’s dragnet surveillance of millions [...]
Cybersecurity Bill Proposes Unprecedented Government Power Over the Internet
From the Center for Democracy & Technology:
A cybersecurity bill introduced today in the Senate would give the federal government extraordinary power over private sector Internet services, applications and software. The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 (S.773) would, for example, give the President unfettered power to shut down Internet traffic in emergencies or disconnect any critical infrastructure [...]
Nadler Reintroduces Bipartisan National Security Letters Reform Act
Press Release:
Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, along with Reps. Jeff Flake (AZ-06), William Delahunt (MA-10) and Ron Paul (TX-14), today reintroduced the National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 1800), a bipartisan bill designed to provide crucial checks against the overreaching [...]
Database State
Database State by Ross Anderson, Ian Brown, Terri Dowty, Philip Inglesant, William Heath, Angela Sasse, Foundation for Information Policy Research (March 2009)
In recent years, the Government has built or extended many central databases that hold information on every aspect of our lives, from health and education to welfare, law–enforcement and tax.
This ‘Transformational Government’ programme was [...]
UK Government may track social networking traffic
From Computer Weekly:
The government is considering tracking and retaining data on social networking sites as part of a move to tackle internet crime.
Minister Vernon Coaker said the government is considering retaining data from sites like Facebook, MySpace and Beebo.
Appeals Court Says Charity’s Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Can Proceed
From OMB Watch:
The only remaining case challenging warrantless wiretapping during the Bush administration, Al-Haramain v. Bush, has survived another attempt by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to have it dismissed because it claims key evidence cannot be used without threatening national security. On Feb. 27, 2009 the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Ninth [...]