Surveillance – Page 3

These Google Engineers Are Pretty Angry With The NSA

Last week, it was revealed that the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ collaborated on a program called MUSCULAR. In short, it would break into the data links that connect Google’s data servers and pilfer information without the company knowing about it. As you would expect, Google was pretty angry, and its engineers took it personally.

When the program was first revealed, Googler Brandon Downey said the news made him “terribly sad.” He then went on to compare the NSA to an evil entity in The Lord of the Rings trilogy that razes the Shire while Frodo is off destroying the one ring. If that makes no sense, you should read the whole post:

Another Googler in the UK, Mike Hearn followed up Downey’s post by revealing that he worked on the anti-hacking system that Google employs to keep criminals out of its data centers. That very same hacking system was detailed in the leaked NSA documents. He laments over the fact that the NSA will never be forced to stand trial for what it has done, and says that all he can do to protect users from government intrusion is to build better security for its data centers.

Once again, it’s probably best if you read the whole thing:

While other Googlers may not publicly state their stance regarding the NSA, many probably feel the same way. After all, government spying not only harms their image among users, but it also may have a negative effect on Google’s ability to cater foreign businesses.

In the immortal words of Sonic the Hedgehog: “That’s no good.”

[h/t: Business Insider]
[Image: Mike Hearn/Google+]

November 6, 2013

Senate Intelligence Panel Approves NSA Bill That Improves Transparency And Not Much Else

Ever since the Snowden leaks revealed that the NSA was collecting Americans’ phone records en masse, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein has been the agency’s number one cheerleader. She has consistently argued that the collection of phone records was legal and even proposed a bill that would make that collection legal under law instead of just a court decision. Now she’s one step closer to realizing her dream of an NSA that’s fully protected by the law.

The Hill reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee has passed Feinstein’s bill – the FISA Improvements Act – in a 11-4 vote. The bill would improve transparency regarding the NSA and the FISA court, but not much else. It would also prohibit the NSA from using its vast collection of phone numbers for anything other than terrorism, but it doesn’t change the fact that the agency would still have access to every Americans’ phone records. In short, Feinstein’s bill covers the NSA’s ass, but doesn’t wipe it.

In its defense, Feinstein said that she and her committee did everything they could to make the NSA more trustworthy:

“We’ve tried very hard to put together a bipartisan bill that improves transparency, improves privacy, has more public reporting, has more checks and we’ve done it to the best we can. And we’ve got a good solid two-thirds vote of the committee.”

As you would expect, nobody is really buying it. One of the four who voted agains it – Sen. Mark Udall – said that the Committee’s bill “does not go far enough to address the NSA’s overreaching domestic surveillance programs.” He went on further to say that the agency “needs fundamental reform – not incidental changes.”

Outside of the Committee, there’s already a movement to pass a more robust bill in the Senate that would not only knock the NSA down a peg, but it would also reform the FISA court in some important ways. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy introduced the USA FREEDOM Act earlier this week to end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records as well as put strict limits on the agency’s collection of Internet records under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.

Besides Leahy and his 16 co-sponsors in the Senate, Sen. Ron Wyden has also come forward saying that he’ll do everything in his power to stop what he calls “skin deep” reforms. In other words, he wants to make sure that bills like Feinstein’s are never passed. Interestingly enough, however, Wyden was not one of the co-sponsors on Leahy’s bill. It’s hard to say why he hasn’t thrown his name in to support the USA FREEDOM Act, but it’s likely that he’ll speak up about it soon.

In the end, what’s done is done. Feinstein managed to get her bill approved by the Committee she oversees. That was the easy part though. The hard part is just beginning as she now has to contend with a full Congress that doesn’t very much appreciate what the NSA has been doing.

[Image: Dianne Feinstein/Facebook]

November 1, 2013

Latest Snowden Leak Reveals How The NSA Hacks Google

One of the very first Snowden leaks alerted the world to the existence of PRISM – a program where the NSA is given access to the servers of major tech companies like Google, Yahoo and more. That particular program is supposedly operated with the consent of these companies, but a new leak suggests that the agency is also going behind these companies’ backs.

The latest Snowden leak, as reported by The Washington Post, shines light on a program called MUSCULAR. In short, it’s a joint effort between the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ to break into and take information from Google’s and Yahoo’s servers.

Latest Snowden Leak Shows How The NSA Infiltrates Google

What kind of information can the NSA access through this? According to the report, the agency gathered email metadata alongside other content, like audio and video. In fact, the leaked report said that the NSA gathered over 181 million records from Google’s and Yahoo’s servers in only 30 days.

So, how is any of this legal? Collecting Americans’ information from the servers of tech companies is illegal, even for the NSA. According to the report, the NSA gets away this by collecting information from Google’s and Yahoo’s overseas servers. This loophole allows the agency to remain on the right side of the law as this collection is carried out through Executive Order 12333 – an executive order signed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Google and Yahoo are both understandably angry about this latest revelation, and Google says that it will continue to implement tighter encryption between the data links that connect its servers. By doing so, Google will be able to slow down, or even stop, the NSA from accessing its servers. As for Yahoo, there’s been no indication yet regarding whether or not the company is moving to encrypt the data links between its servers.

[Image: The Washington Post]

October 30, 2013

Sen. Patrick Leahy Officially Introduces The USA FREEDOM Act In The Senate

Earlier this month, Sen. Patrick Leahy began circulating a piece of legislation called The USA FREEDOM Act. We knew what the legislation would do, but we didn’t know any of the specifics until today.

The Hill reports that Sen. Leahy has finally introduced The USA FREEDOM Act, or the Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection, and Online Monitoring Act, into the Senate this afternoon. The legislation, which enjoys 16 co-sponsors in the Senate, clocks in at 118 pages and seeks to reform both the NSA and the FISA court. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, otherwise known as the congressman who wrote the original Patriot Act, has also introduced sister legislation in the House with more than 70 co-sponsors.

“The government surveillance programs conducted under the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act are far broader than the American people previously understood. It is time for serious and meaningful reforms so we can restore confidence in our intelligence community,” Leahy said. “Modest transparency and oversight provisions are not enough. We need real reform, which is why I join today with Congressman Sensenbrenner, and bipartisan coalitions in both the Senate and House, to introduce the USA FREEDOM Act.”

So, what exactly does the USA FREEDOM Act do? First and foremost, it ends the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Currently, the NSA uses an interpretation of Section 215 handed down by the FISA court that allows it to indiscriminately collect Americans’ phone records.

Section 215 is not the only thing that needs reform and Leahy knows it. His legislation would also reform Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act – a law that allows the NSA to collect Americans’ Internet communications without a warrant. Under the USA FREEDOM Act, there will be stricter limits placed on the kind of online communications that can be collected, and it will also require the NSA to “obtain a court order prior to conducting “back door” searches looking for the communications of U.S. persons in databases collected without a warrant under Section 702.”

The legislation would also improve oversight and transparency by reforming two key components of the intelligence community – the FISA court and data request reporting. For the former, the legislation would appoint a public privacy advocate that would argue in favor of pro-privacy in front of the FISA court. As for the latter, the legislation would permit companies to publish the number of data requests they receive from the federal government. It would also require the government to report these numbers itself.

Finally, the USA FREEDOM Act would implement new sunset dates for both the FISA Amendments Act and National Security Letters to bring their expiration in line with the 2015 sunset date for Section 215. The reasoning is that Leahy believes having all three sunset in the same year will force Congress and the executive branch to address every part of the NSA and FISA in one go instead of having years between them.

“Following 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act passed the judiciary committees with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill has helped keep Americans safe by ensuring information is shared among those responsible for defending our country and by enhancing the tools the intelligence community needs to identify and track terrorists,” Sensenbrenner said. “But somewhere along the way, the balance between security and privacy was lost. It’s now time for the judiciary committees to again come together in a bipartisan fashion to ensure the law is properly interpreted, past abuses are not repeated and American liberties are protected. Washington must regain Americans’ trust in their government. The USA FREEDOM Act is an essential first step. I would like to thank Congressmen Conyers and Amash, Congresswoman Lofgren, Chairman Issa and others for working with us to draft this important legislation and encourage all my colleagues to support it.”

Now, before you go off and petition your local lawmakers to pass this law, you might want to check out Sen. Patrick Leahy’s statement on his bill. It’s an excellently written piece on how he feels about the NSA and what he hopes the legislation will accomplish.

[Image: Patrick Leahy]

October 29, 2013

White House Suggests More NSA Reforms In Wake Of Recent Leaks

Last week, The Guardian reported that the NSA was eavesdropping on 35 world leaders, including US allies. As you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with those being spied on, while reports emerged that the spying programs were stopped after the president learned of their existence. Now the Obama administration says it may apply additional measures to reign in the NSA.

RT reports that White House press secretary Jay Carney announced that the Obama administration will be taking an even harder look at NSA surveillance programs after it was revealed that the agency was spying on world leaders:

“There are a number of efforts underway that are designed to increase transparency, to work with Congress to look at reform to the Patriot Act [and] to look at ways we can increase oversight and increase constraint on the authorities provided by these programs.”

Despite saying that the White House would “work with Congress to look at reform to the Patriot Act,” Carney continued to emphasize that all the powers given to the NSA under the FISA court’s interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act are entirely legal. If anything, the Obama administration will likely look to the reform bills being pushed by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. Both call for increased transparency, but not much else. In fact, both join the administration in saying that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records is legal.

To fight against such ineffective reform, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and original Patriot Act author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner will introduce the USA Freedom Act in both the Senate and House. The bill not only ends the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215, but it also reforms the FISA court to allow a public advocate to argue against government interests. The bill will allow private companies to publish the number of data requests they receive as well.

Of course, the White House could very well be serious about implementing serious reform. Carney said that the administration is continuing its review of these programs, and that it will “look at how we can better balance our security needs and the security needs of our allies against the real privacy concerns that we all share.”

We can only dream, right?

[Image: White House/flickr]

October 28, 2013

Now Celebrities Are Even Coming Out Against The NSA

It’s sometimes hard for the celebrity to relate to the common folk. After all, they don’t have to worry about many of things that us plebeians have to deal with on a daily basis. Every once in a while, however, an issue comes along that we can all stand behind – like a right to privacy.

The latest moral crisis to ruffle the feathers of both the common man and celebrities is the recent leaks regarding the NSA’s surveillance programs. Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the agency is given the power to collect Americans’ phone metadata in bulk, and not even the rich and powerful are immune.

To that end, some famous celebrities alongside privacy advocates have created a short video for the EFF called, “Stop Watching Us.” It’s like one of those celebrity-filled “Save the children” ads, but without the guilt trip. As a bonus, John Cusack makes an appearance. Check it out:

If the impassioned pleas of Wil Wheaton, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Oliver Stone have moved you to action, you can join the movement at Stop Watching Us. It’s a Web site set up by the EFF and Mozilla to collect signatures that will then be sent to Congress to let them know that you don’t like what the NSA is not doing.

[Image: EFForg/YouTube]

October 23, 2013

Edward Snowden Receives Sam Adams Award, Speaks On Camera For The First Time In Months

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor that leaked details of the agency’s surveillance programs to newspapers around the world, is still hiding out somewhere in Russia. That didn’t stop the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence from delivering their most prestigious award to him though.

Now, the award is pretty big news, but what’s even bigger is that Snowden actually spoke on camera. It’s been months since he last gave any kind of spoken statement, but here we are with three short clips of his talk from WikiLeaks.

The first is a short bit where Snowden speaks on the unsurprising revelation that Intelligence Director James Clapper lied to Congress about the NSA’s capabilities. He points out the absurdity of a Justice Department that refuses to prosecute Clapper, but will do everything its power to go after whistleblowers like himself and others.

Another clip touches upon the government’s constant assurance that everything the NSA does is done with the consent of Americans. He doesn’t say that’s a lie, but rather points out that the secrecy in which the NSA’s activities are conducted make it impossible for the American people to understand, let alone consent to, what’s going on.

The third clip shows Snowden talking about the NSA’s mass surveillance programs and how they make us less safe. He argues that these programs not only do little to stop terrorist activities, but that the existence of the programs themselves threaten Americans’ freedoms and way of life.

There’s obviously more here than what WikiLeaks has posted, but the whole talk has not been put online yet. We’ll let you know if, and when, the whole thing is posted. Regardless of how you feel about Snowden, he’s an intelligent man with some very interesting things to say.

[Image: TheWikiLeaksChannel/YouTube]

October 14, 2013

Luxembourg Authorities Investigating Skype’s Relationship With NSA

Skype is not spying on you, or at least that’s what it said back in July of last year. That claim is now suspect in the wake of the Snowden leaks, especially one that found Skype had made it easier for the NSA/FBI to intercept calls being made on the service. Now Skype’s home country of Luxembourg has opened an investigation into the company.

The Guardian reports that Luxembourg’s data protection commissioner has opened an investigation regarding Skype’s alleged ties to the NSA. In particular, the commissioner wants to find out if Skype is in violation of the country’s strict surveillance laws. The country only approves surveillance in one of two ways – judicial approval or through a tribunal.

What’s interesting about this investigation is that Skype’s work with the NSA could be totally legal in Luxembourg. The Guardian notes that Skype’s activities may have been approved through some secret means not privy to the data protection commissioner. If that turns out to be the case, he will be hit with the one-two punch of not only being able to prosecute, but also learning that the government went over his head to approve surveillance.

If Skype is found in violation of the law, however, the commissioner will be able to pursue a number of remedies. For starters, he could outright ban Skype from sharing communications data with the NSA or any other government entity. It also faces the usual fines that come with privacy violations.

A lot of the concerns regarding Skype are not new. Last year, the company announced that it was moving from decentralized P2P communications to servers. The move was defended as a way to increase call quality, but moving away from P2P also makes it easier for the authorities to eavesdrop on and even save calls made over Skype. The company vehemently denied such accusations last year, but as noted above, it’s a little harder to do so now that we know about PRISM.

With Skype under investigation, where does this leave Microsoft? Well, the company has already made it clear that it intends to fight the U.S. government on making the NSA and its federal data request program more transparent. If its wish is granted, we would most likely be able to see how many people are targeted on Skype. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t seem too interested in actually stopping Skype surveillance though. Maybe Luxembourg’s data protection commissioner has more luck in his investigation.

[Image: skype/YouTube]

October 11, 2013

Sen. Ron Wyden Says He’ll Fight Ineffective NSA Reform

NSA reform has been near the top of Congress’ priorities ever since details of the programs were leaked by Edward Snowden in early June. Despite all of Congress agreeing that something needs to be done, they can’t seem to agree on how to reform the intelligence agency. Now one Senator has slammed the “skin deep” reforms proposed by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

The Hill reports that Sen. Ron Wyden has promised to fight against intelligence committees in Congress that are aiming to introduce what he calls “skin deep” reforms. He is, of course, talking about the NSA reform proposals being spearheaded by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. Both have gone out of their way to paint the NSA in a positive light after the leaks, and have vowed to make sure any reform to the agency does not impact its ability to indiscriminately collect Americans’ phone records.

Wyden argued further that a bill from Feinstein, Rogers or any other NSA proponent would only further encourage the agency to trample the civil rights of American citizens:

“From a privacy and liberty perspective, this is truly a dangerous proposition. It would spark a new era of digital surveillance in our country and serve as a big rubber stamp of approval for invading the rights of law-abiding Americans.”

Aside from the damage inflicted to our civil liberties, Wyden argued that keeping the NSA as is would have disastrous effect on American tech companies. In fact, a study from August found that American cloud service providers could lose up to $35 million by 2016 if nothing is done about the NSA.

“This is a serious economic issue at a time when we all know our economy certainly is fragile,” Wyden said. “It will put tens of thousands of high-paying American jobs at risk if this trend continues. If a foreign enemy was doing this much damage to our economy, people would be in the streets with pitchforks.”

So, what does Wyden intend to do about it? He’s working with a number of like-minded senators to pass a reform bill that would end the collection of Americans’ phone records, prevent the agency from targeting Americans and create a privacy advocate in the FISA court. He also joined forces with 26 other senators back in June demanding that the NSA reveal more information about its surveillance programs.

[Image: Senator Ron Wyden/Facebook]

October 9, 2013

Sen. Leahy Introduces USA Freedom Act To Reign In NSA

One of the most vocal opponents of the NSA’s surveillance program has been Sen. Patrick Leahy. He’s promised for a while now that he would bring some sort of anti-NSA legislation to the floor, and he’s now done that with the help of Patriot Act author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.

Last night, Leahy began to circulate an outline of what he calls the USA Freedom Act. The bill would drastically limit what the NSA can do while ending some of its more controversial surveillance programs. It would also make both the NSA and FISA court more transparent.

To start, Leahy’s bill would end the bulk collection of Americans’ phone metadata under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. It would limit the collection of phone metadata to international terrorism or clandestine intelligence investigations. It would also require any and all investigations to pertain to one of the following:

Government Says Tech Companies Can’t Reveal Data Request Numbers Because Terrorism

Ever since PRISM’s reveal in early June, tech companies named as participants in the program have been trying to distance themselves from it. Part of that effort involved asking the federal government to let them publish the number of federal data requests they receive on an annual basis. Those requests were rejected, and now the companies in question are suing the federal government for the right to release those numbers.

In a motion filed on Monday, the Department of Justice responded to the lawsuits by saying that anymore transparency that what is currently being offered by Washington would threaten national security. The government notes that its current plan to publish aggregate numbers that lump both federal and local government data requests into one number is sufficient enough. It asserts that anything else would play right into the terrorists’ hands:

Dissatisfied with the Government’s efforts to strike the appropriate balance between the public interest in transparency and the protection of national security, the petitioners seek declaratory relief that would effectively give every communications provider in the United States the right to reveal the nature and scope of any FISA surveillance of their communications platforms. Such information would be invaluable to our adversaries, who could thereby derive a clear picture of where the Government’s surveillance efforts are directed and how its surveillance activities change over time, including where the Government initiates or expands surveillance efforts involving providers or services that adversaries previously considered “safe.”

After two pages of redactions, the Justice Department continues its argument that revealing data request numbers benefits nobody but terrorists:

Second, for similar reasons, the companies’ proposed unilateral disclosures would allow our adversaries to infer when the Government has acquired a collection capability on new services.

Third, the proposed disclosures would also enable our adversaries to gain significant information about which platforms and services are not subject to surveillance, or are subject to only limited surveillance.

Disclosing precise numbers associated with each provision or title of FISA, as the companies propose, would provide our adversaries with even more specific information, which they could use to track the Government’s sources and methods of FISA-authorized intelligence collection.

In short, the government is arguing that allowing any kind of meaningful transparency into the current debate on surveillance would lead to an uptick in terrorist activities. It’s like they think terrorists are stupid enough to be communicating via U.S.-based services like Facebook or Gmail. The fact of the matter is that the real threats to national security aren’t using these services, and yet the government continues to argue that surveilling American activities on Facebook is the key to stopping terrorism.

Obviously, tech companies are expressing disappointment with the Justice Department’s motion. A Yahoo spokesperson said it best in a statement to The Hill:

“[The] decision to block our ability to share with our users more granular information related to national security requests ultimately breeds mistrust and suspicion — both of the United States and of companies that must comply with government legal directives.”

Microsoft and Google joined in with statements reiterating once again that more transparency is needed in the debate over striking the right balance between privacy and national security. Google added that the government’s decision to redact sections of its motion to the FISA court also illustrates a need “for greater transparency in the FISC process.”

The government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuits will probably win out in the end, but for now, we can only hope that the FISA court admits that at least a little more transparency is needed.

[Image: Wikimedia Commons]

October 3, 2013

NSA Used Americans’ Cellphone Location Data In Tracking Trials

Since the Snowden leaks began in early June, we’ve learned numerous things about the NSA and its various surveillance programs. Perhaps the most shocking of these revelations was a program called XKeyscore that allowed the NSA to track everything Americans do online. Now it’s been revealed by the government that it was planning to take it a step further by tracking Americans’ physical locations.

The Hill reports that NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander spoke at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning where he revealed that the agency had been working on a trial program that would indiscriminately collect cellphone location data from Americans. The trial program ran from 2010 to 2011 and targeted an unknown number of people.

So, how is this possible? Current law makes it so that cellphone location data tracking requires a warrant with probable cause. Gen. Alexander argued that the bulk collection of cellphone location data was legal under Section 215 of the Patriot Act – the same clause that allows the bulk collection of phone metadata. Just like its phone metadata collection program, the NSA would just sit on the cellphone location data it had received.

After this revelation, Gen. Alexander was quick to point out that the data was merely used to “test its systems” and was not used for intelligence analysis. He also said that the agency wouldn’t start the program up again until it received permission to do so from the FISA court, and that he would notify Congress upon its revival.

What’s interesting about all of this is that Gen. Alexander himself pretty much conceded that the NSA doesn’t even need this capability. It already collects bulk phone metadata, including phone numbers, and can hand over that data to the FBI when it has a probable cause warrant. In short, he readily admits that the FBI can handle all domestic investigations, including those that require location tracking.

Granted, that’s not likely to happen as Gen. Alexander noted that the bulk collection of cellphone location data “may be something that would be a future requirement for the country.” I don’t know of any event that would require the NSA to collect bulk location data, and frankly, it seems as unnecessary as the current bulk phone metadata collection program.

While Gen. Alexander says that it isn’t currently collecting cellphone location data, Sen. Ron Wyden isn’t so sure. His position on the Senate Intelligence Committee makes him privy to some classified information, and he says that Alexander isn’t telling the whole story:

“After years of stonewalling on whether the government has ever tracked or planned to track the location of law abiding Americans through their cell phones, once again, the intelligence leadership has decided to leave most of the real story secret — even when the truth would not compromise national security.”

Unfortunately, Wyden’s hands are tied as he can not reveal any of the classified information he receives as a member of the Intelligence Committee. The best he can do is continue pushing the executive branch and intelligence community to be more transparent about its surveillance programs.

[Image: Google Play]

October 2, 2013

NSA Built Secret Social Network To Spy On Americans

How many social networks do you use today? If you’re like most Internet users, you at least have a Facebook and Twitter account. After that, you might also hop onto Google+, Instagram, Vine or Pinterest. If you really want to push your social hipster cred, you might even still rock a MySpace profile. Regardless of your social network allegiances, you all also belong to a social network that you don’t even know about.

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that the NSA had started to build a social network in 2010 that could graph any American’s online social connections with the data it collects through its various programs like PRISM. Think of it like Facebook’s Open Graph, but it maps a person’s connections with other people through their online communications.

So, why does the NSA need a tool like this? It can already snoop on Americans’ online activities and emails. According to the report, which came from documents obtained by Edward Snowden, the government did this so it could “conduct large-scale graph analysis on very large sets of communications metadata without having to check foreignness.”

Excuse me? Did I just read that right? The NSA, an agency that is required by law to check whether or not a target is a non-U.S. person, uses this system to bypass such a requirement. What’s worrisome is that this analysis tool has been available for some time, but it could only be used on foreign communications at first over fears that it may violate Americans’ privacy. That fear was thrown out the window in 2010 when the agency started to use the same tool on Americans.

Now we know that the NSA is targeting Americans with its social graph tool, but what kind of information is the agency using to build these graphs? According to the leaked documents, the NSA pulls communication data from public and commercial sources alongside information like bank codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls and GPS location information. It even pulls from property records and tax data to create a massive web of your personal and probably not so personal connections.

A leaked slide, courtesy of The New York Times, shows what that web looks like:

Like with every other revelation, the NSA was given the chance to explain itself. In this case, a spokesperson for the agency said that “all data queries must include a foreign intelligence justification, period.” That’s all well and good, but as Techdirt’s Mike Masnick points out, the NSA’s use of the word “justification” gives them broad permissions to spy on Americans. In other words, it doesn’t need a concrete foreign target to spy on Americans anymore. It just needs to have a hunch.

I don’t know about you, but a hunch doesn’t exactly sound like a solid enough justification to me. Even so, that’s not going to stop the agency. What can stop it are the numerous pieces of legislation moving through Washington, but who knows when or if those bills are going to get off the ground.

September 30, 2013

Charles McCullough Called On To Investigate The NSA

It’s a well-known fact at this point that the NSA has violated the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans. The Snowden leaks and official disclosures have both pointed out that the agency has violated its own rules regarding the protection of Americans’ civil rights numerous times. The big question now is whether or not these violations were intentional.

The Hill reports that nine Senate Judiciary Committee members have sent a letter to the Charles McCullough, Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, asking him to conduct a thorough review of the NSA. In particular, the letter calls for McCullough to look into the following matters:

Rep. Bob Goodlatte Wants To Reign In The NSA

Whenever House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte isn’t thinking about implementing a nationwide online sales tax, he’s busy thinking about the NSA. That’s only a good thing, however, as he’s one of the lawmakers that wants to subject the agency to more Congressional oversight.

The Hill reports that Goodlatte’s committee hosted a classified hearing today with senior intelligence officials. After the hearing, he said that further civil liberty protections are needed despite the administration’s claims that the agency operates under sufficient congressional and judicial oversight.

“Over the past few months, the House Judiciary Committee has conducted vigorous oversight of our nation’s foreign surveillance programs, including today’s classified hearing. I appreciate the witnesses’ testimony today further detailing these programs and the current practices employed by the agencies to protect U.S. citizens’ civil liberties. However, I am convinced that further protections are necessary. I am committed to working with members of the House Judiciary Committee, House leaders, and other members of Congress to ensure our nation’s intelligence collection programs include robust oversight, additional transparency, and protections for Americans’ civil liberties while maintaining a workable legal framework for national security officials to keep our country safe from foreign enemies.”

What would Goodlatte’s NSA legislation entail? That remains to be seen, but he already has quite a few allies in the House to get something done. Rep. Darrell Issa has called for another vote on a House bill amendment that would have defunded the NSA’s phone metadata collection program. Likewise, Reps. Justin Amash and John Conyers introduced the LIBERT-E Act back in June that would rewrite the Patriot Act to remove Section 215 – the clause that allows the agency to collect phone records.

Regardless of what happens, Congressmen in both the Senate and the House will attempt to reign in the NSA through new legislation. What’s important now is that their efforts gain enough traction among their fellow lawmakers, and more importantly, President Obama. Any potential anti-NSA legislation would probably not be able to override a presidential veto.

[Image: Congressman Bob Goodlatte/Facebook]

September 18, 2013

FISA Court Orders NSA To Release Phone Surveillance Documents

Since early June, the U.S. government has been slowly opening up about the NSA’s numerous surveillance programs in response to a number of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Some civil liberty groups, however, think that the government isn’t being as transparent as they should be and have been pushing the government to release more data.

The Hill reports that the FISA court has sided with the ACLU in a motion filed by the organization that sought to have the government release documents pertaining to Section 215 of the Patriot Act. If you recall, defenders of the NSA say that Section 215 is what allows them to collect Americans’ phone metadata. With this win, the public will finally get to see the legal interpretation of Section 215 that allowed the NSA to collect phone records.

“We are pleased that the surveillance court has recognized the importance of transparency to the ongoing public debate about the NSA’s spying,” said Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “For too long, the NSA’s sweeping surveillance of Americans has been shrouded in unjustified secrecy. Today’s ruling is an overdue rebuke of that practice. Secret law has no place in our democracy.”

So, what’s next? Well, the government has until October 4 to submit all documents relevant to the surveillance court’s rulings on Section 215. At the time, the government must also propose which information in the documents should be redacted. After that, the documents will be thoroughly reviewed and then released to the public once all the proper redactions have been made.

As you can imagine, this is a pretty big win for the ACLU. In the past, the organization and others like it have lost similar motions and lawsuits that sought to sought to obtain more information about surveillance programs or even shut them down. With increased pressure from both citizens and Congress, the Obama administration really has no choice but to release the documents. Not doing so would continue to erode faith in the administration, and that’s one thing Obama has continually stated he would like to avoid.

It should be noted that today’s win does not cover the documents the ACLU is currently seeking to declassify in a lawsuit filed in New York. In that particular lawsuit, the ACLU claims the NSA’s phone metadata collection program violated Americans’ First and Fourth Amendments protections. In recent weeks, other organizations, like the NRA, have joined the lawsuit seeking the same disclosures.

[Image: Wikimedia Commons]

September 13, 2013

Darrell Issa Calls For Another Vote On House Amendment That Would Defund The NSA

In late July, an amendment that would have defunded the NSA’s phone metadata collection program was brought to the House floor. It was narrowly defeated in a 205-217 vote, but now one of the lawmakers who voted against it wants to bring it back.

Rep. Darrell Issa, a lawmaker that’s usually pretty good on tech issues, originally voted no on the Amash amendment back in July. In a new letter to Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Issa says that his vote against the amendment was made in response to assurances that the NSA would be subject to a “substantive legislative review.” That obviously hasn’t happened yet. Instead, a recently declassified FISA court decision has forced him to reconsider his original vote on the matter:

Prior to earlier votes on the House floor on amendments to limit NSA intelligence gathering programs, members of Congress were given assurances that there would be a substantive legislative review of their scope and function. Now that it has been publicly acknowledged that the communications of Americans were included in the NSA’s data collection program, likely violating their Fourth Amendment rights, Congress must respond in a manner that both increases the transparency of the Agency’s programs and reinforces the constitutional protections of our citizens.

Now that the House has come back into session, I respectfully request that you move legislation to the floor, including the language of the Amash Amendment that was narrowly defeated on July 26, 2013 during debate on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, as quickly as possible. Government actions that violate the Constitution cannot be tolerated and Congress must act to ensure the NSA and the rest of the intelligence community permanently cease such acts and hold the appropriate individuals accountable.

What’s interesting about this is that it might be indicative of a larger flip-flop on the NSA in Congress. TechDirt’s Mick Masnick certainly thinks so as he sees Issa’s newly found support of the Amash amendment to be evidence that “the tiny majority that the NSA had in the House on this issue is long gone.”

We certainly can’t say for sure what will happen, but the NSA is already dealing with a lot of heat from Congress these days. Not all of the proposed bills thus far want to outright defund the agency, but there’s a concerted effort to at least make it more transparent. The Obama administration might like to think that it’s already being transparent enough, but lawmakers, corporations and citizens all think they could be doing a lot more to ensure that the NSA doesn’t abuse its power.

[Image: Darrell Issa/Facebook]

September 11, 2013

Tag: Surveillance

NSA Court Decision Gets The NMA Treatment

Santa Is Apparently Working For The NSA

Internet Giants Urge U.S. To Reform Government Surveillance

Latest NSA Leak Finds Agency Spied On Porn Habits Of “Radicalizers”