Domestic Spying - Page 2 of 3 - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

Posted on November 10, 2014 November 10, 2014

Berlin’s digital exiles: where tech activists go to escape the NSA

Berlin’s digital exiles: where tech activists go to escape the NSA

With its strict privacy laws, Germany is the refuge of choice for those hounded by the security services. Carole Cadwalladr visits Berlin to meet Laura Poitras, the director of Edward Snowden film Citizenfour, and a growing community of surveillance refuseniks

It’s the not knowing that’s the hardest thing, Laura Poitras tells me. “Not knowing whether I’m in a private place or not.” Not knowing if someone’s watching or not. Though she’s under surveillance, she knows that. It makes working as a journalist “hard but not impossible”. It’s on a personal level that it’s harder to process. “I try not to let it get inside my head, but… I still am not sure that my home is private. And if I really want to make sure I’m having a private conversation or something, I’ll go outside.”

Poitras’s documentary about Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, has just been released in cinemas. She was, for a time, the only person in the world who was in contact with Snowden, the only one who knew of his existence. Before she gotGlenn Greenwald and the Guardian on board, it was just her – talking, electronically, to the man she knew only as “Citizenfour”. Even months on, when I ask her if the memory of that time lives with her still, she hesitates and takes a deep breath: “It was really very scary for a number of months. I was very aware that the risks were really high and that something bad could happen. I had this kind of responsibility to not fuck up, in terms of source protection, communication, security and all those things, I really had to be super careful in all sorts of ways.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/09/berlins-digital-exiles-tech-activists-escape-nsa

Posted on October 16, 2014 October 16, 2014

How Federal Agents Illegally Force Twitter, Google, and Banks to Turn Over Private Customer Data Without a Proper Warrant

How Federal Agents Illegally Force Twitter, Google, and Banks to Turn Over Private Customer Data Without a Proper Warrant

Private companies are fighting the federal government in court over the Patriot Act’s “National Security Letters,” which violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Earlier this week, FBI Director James Comey gave an interview to 60 Minutes during which he revealed a flawed understanding of personal freedom. He rightly distinguished what FBI agents do in their investigations of federal crimes from what the NSA does in its intelligence gathering, when the two federal agencies are looking for non-public data.

The FBI requires, Comey correctly asserted, articulable suspicion to commence an investigation and probable cause to obtain a search warrant. It does this because its agents have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and their failure to comply with that oath may very well render the evidence obtained by unconstitutional means useless in court.

The NSA, as we know, makes no pretense about presenting probable cause to a judge. Rather, it asks a judge on a secret court (so secret that the judges themselves are kept from the court’s files) for general warrants. A warrant based on probable cause must specifically describe the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized. General warrants, which the Constitution prohibits, permit the bearer to search wherever he wishes and seize whatever he finds.

https://reason.com/archives/2014/10/16/unconstitutional-patriot-act

Posted on October 16, 2014 October 16, 2014

Privacy concerns lead to N.J. legislation restricting access to cars’ ‘black boxes’

file photo Boyd Loving

Privacy concerns lead to N.J. legislation restricting access to cars’ ‘black boxes’

OCTOBER 15, 2014, 11:55 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014, 11:58 PM
BY KIBRET MARKOS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

A new federal requirement that automakers install black-box-type devices in nearly all new cars has been welcomed by New Jersey law enforcement officials, but the warnings of privacy advocates and others have prompted state lawmakers to call for safeguards that would restrict the use of the data collected.

The devices, called event data recorders, are already installed in most late-model cars and have been used by law enforcement authorities in North Jersey since at least 1994, said Andrew Rich, a retired accident investigator for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office who is now a consultant on collision investigations.

Back then, the devices provided information only about the change of speed immediately prior to a crash, he said. They have grown much more high-tech, and now collect information on change in speed, brake application, seat belt use and air bag deployment, among other things, Rich said.

Experts stress that although the devices are commonly called “auto black boxes,” they do not continuously record and store information like aircraft black boxes do. Instead, they record only seconds worth of data, and continuously override the recording. The boxes store data only in the case |of an incident, usually a crash, that causes the air bags to deploy, said Jim Harris, an accident reconstruction expert in Miami, Fla.

“Otherwise, if you try to download data from a random car in a parking lot, you will find no information,” Harris said.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/privacy-concerns-lead-to-n-j-legislation-restricting-access-to-cars-black-boxes-1.1109979#sthash.W4tVUjug.dpuf

Posted on October 13, 2014 October 13, 2014

American suicide bomber’s travels in U.S., Middle East went unmonitored

American suicide bomber’s travels in U.S., Middle East went unmonitored
By Adam Goldman and Greg Miller October 11

VERO BEACH, Fla. — There were no U.S. air marshals watching the newly clean-shaven passenger on the transatlantic flight, no FBI agents waiting for him as he landed in Newark in May 2013 after returning from Syria’s civil war.

As the 22-year-old Florida native made his way through a U.S. border inspection, officers pulled him aside for additional screening and searched his belongings. They called his mother in Vero Beach to check on his claim that he had merely been visiting relatives in the Middle East. But when she vouched for him, U.S. officials said, Moner Mohammad Abusalha was waved through without any further scrutiny or perceived need to notify the FBI that he was back in the United States.

Earlier this year, after returning to Syria, Abusalha became the first American to carry out a suicide attack in that country, blowing up a restaurant frequented by Syrian soldiers on behalf of an al-Qaeda affiliate. His death May 25 was accompanied by the release of a menacing video. “You think you are safe where you are in America,” he said, threatening his own country and a half-dozen others. “You are not safe.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/american-suicide-bombers-travels-in-us-middle-east-went-unmonitored/2014/10/11/38a3228e-4fe8-11e4-aa5e-7153e466a02d_story.html

Posted on September 13, 2014 September 12, 2014

U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data

U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data

By Craig Timberg September 11 at 9:16 PM

The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications — a request the company believed was unconstitutional — according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National Security Agency’s controversial PRISM program.

The documents, roughly 1,500 pages worth, outline a secret and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle by Yahoo to resist the government’s demands. The company’s loss required Yahoo to become one of the first to begin providing information to PRISM, a program that gave the NSA extensive access to records of online communications by users of Yahoo and other U.S.-based technology firms.

The ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review became a key moment in the development of PRISM, helping government officials to convince other Silicon Valley companies that unprecedented data demands had been tested in the courts and found constitutionally sound. Eventually, most major U.S. tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Apple and AOL, complied. Microsoft had joined earlier, before the ruling, NSA documents have shown.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-threatened-massive-fine-to-force-yahoo-to-release-data/2014/09/11/38a7f69e-39e8-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html

Posted on September 4, 2014 September 4, 2014

Rogue Cell Towers Could Be Intercepting Your Call

photo by Boyd Loving hummmmm……….(Ridgewood Rogue Tower?

Rogue Cell Towers Could Be Intercepting Your Call
Dave Lewis Contributor

It seems rather far fetched at first glance. There is news that came out last week that rogue cell phone towers around the US are forcing mobile devices to disable their encryption making it possible that someone might be able to listen in to your call. “That could never happen to me,” you think out loud. But, apparently it could.

In 2010 at the DEF CON in Las Vegas, security researcher Chris Paget did the unthinkable. He built a cell tower of his own so that he could spoof legitimate towers and intercept calls.The device would mimic the type used by law enforcement agencies to intercept phone calls. In this case, he was able to build it for roughly $1500 US. Paget’s device would only capture 2G GSM phone calls. Carriers such as AT&T T +0.37% and T-Mobile would be vulnerable as they use GSM, unlike Verizon which relies on CDMA technology.

I was in attendance for this particular presentation and I had a disposable phone with me at the time. During the presentation when the device was switched on my phone was more than happy to oblige and seamlessly associated with the contraption that was across the room. Had I not been aware that this was going on, it was quite conceivable that I could have not noticed the change to the rogue tower. The point of this presentation was to raise awareness of the security flaws that affect GSM related phones.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davelewis/2014/09/03/rogue-cell-towers-could-be-intercepting-your-call/

Posted on August 14, 2014 August 14, 2014

Edward Snowden is on the cover of WIRED!

Edward Snowden is on the cover of WIRED next month clutching an American flag:https://nyp.st/1pNCe75

So whats are your thoughts , Snowden, Privacy, Domestic spying ???

Posted on August 7, 2014 August 7, 2014

Think the Supreme Court protected your cellphone from warrantless searches? Think again.

Think the Supreme Court protected your cellphone from warrantless searches? Think again.

By Brian Fung July 30

It was supposed to be a simple day trip to Niagara Falls. Little did he know the visit might land him in prison for the next 100 years.

Ali Saboonchi was returning from the Canadian side of the falls with his wife in 2012 when he was detained by customs agents at the U.S. border. The agents eventually let the Maryland man go, but not before seizing his electronic devices: an iPhone, an Android phone and a USB flash drive.

At a special facility in Baltimore nearly 400 miles away, officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement made a copy of the drives and performed what a judge later called an invasive forensic search using “specialized software.”

In the devices’ storage was what U.S. officials say is evidence of a plot to violate U.S.-Iranian trade restrictions, according to federal court documents. Now Saboonchi, who was allegedly involved in the plot, faces four counts of illegal export and one count of conspiracy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/07/30/think-the-supreme-court-protected-your-cellphone-from-warrantless-searches-think-again/

Posted on August 5, 2014 April 11, 2020

Obama’s FBI to hire firm to rate ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stories about the agency

Obama’s FBI to hire firm to rate ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stories about the agency

Officials mum on need for and use of such info

The FBI is hiring a contractor to grade news stories about the agency as “positive” “neutral” or “negative,” but the agency won’t say why officials need the information or what they plan to do with it.

FBI officials wouldn’t even reveal how they will go about assigning the grades, which were laid out in a recent contract solicitation. The contract tells potential bidders to “use their judgment” in scoring news coverage as part of a new “daily news briefing” service the agency is seeking as part of a contract that could last up to five years.

The move is reminiscent of a similar effort the Obama administration made to grade media coverage of its response to the BP oil spill. A separate defense contract rating reporters’ work was scrapped in 2009.

In a statement of work, the agency says its public affairs office needs a contractor to help monitor “breaking news, editorials, long-form journalism projects and the larger public conversation about law enforcement.”

But the lack of clear public methods and goals raises “troubling questions,” said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

“You would certainly worry this could affect access,” he said. “It might affect the way they’re going to approach your questions, whether they’re going to be extra careful not to make news if you’re on the ‘bad list.’”

Mr. Kennedy also pointed out that journalism can be nuanced and complicated, raising questions about what sort of guidance the agency provides to contractors to fit stories into positive, neutral or negative boxes.

“If you’re rigorously fair about it and you’re getting the FBI’s point of view out there, they would probably write that as a negative story, but it strikes me as neutral,” he said.

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/3/fbi-hires-firm-to-rate-news-stories-about-the-agen/#ixzz39WHAdr1E

Posted on July 13, 2014 July 13, 2014

The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control

William Binney testifies before a German inquiry into surveillance. Photograph: Getty Images

The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control

At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US, says whistleblower William Binney – that’s a ‘totalitarian mentality’

William Binney is one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA. He was a leading code-breaker against the Soviet Union during the Cold War but resigned soon after September 11, disgusted by Washington’s move towards mass surveillance.

On 5 July he spoke at a conference in London organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism and revealed the extent of the surveillance programs unleashed by the Bush and Obama administrations.

“At least 80% of fibre-optic cables globally go via the US”, Binney said. “This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores.”

The NSA will soon be able to collect 966 exabytes a year, the total of internet traffic annually. Former Google head Eric Schmidt once arguedthat the entire amount of knowledge from the beginning of humankind until 2003 amount to only five exabytes.

Binney, who featured in a 2012 short film by Oscar-nominated US film-maker Laura Poitras, described a future where surveillance is ubiquitous and government intrusion unlimited.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/the-ultimate-goal-of-the-nsa-is-total-population-control

Posted on July 6, 2014 July 6, 2014

In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are

In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are
BY BARTON GELLMAN, JULIE TATE AND ASHKAN SOLTANI

Files provided by Snowden show extent to which ordinary Web users are caught in the net

Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by theNational Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post.

Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.

Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents. NSA analysts masked, or “minimized,” more than 65,000 such references to protect Americans’ privacy, but The Post found nearly 900 additional e-mail addresses, unmasked in the files, that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or U.S.residents.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html

Posted on May 31, 2014 May 31, 2014

New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information

New federal database will track Americans’ credit ratings, other financial information

BY RICHARD POLLOCK | MAY 30, 2014 | 6:00 AM

As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose intimate details of their families and financial lives — including theirSocial Security numbers — in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted an April 16 Federal Register notice of an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a reversal of previously stated policy.

FHFA will manage the database and share it with CFPB. A CFPB internal planning document for 2013-17 describes the bureau as monitoring 95 percent of all mortgage transactions.

FHFA officials claim the database is essential to conducting a monthly mortgage survey required by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and to help it prepare an annual report forCongress.

Critics, however, question the need for such a “vast database” for simple reporting purposes.

https://washingtonexaminer.com/new-federal-database-will-track-americans-credit-ratings-other-financial-information/article/2549064

Posted on May 1, 2014 May 2, 2014

Edward Snowden: NSA Spies More on Americans Than Russians

Edward Snowden: NSA Spies More on Americans Than Russians

“We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.”

Edward Snowden told a crowd of fans Wednesday that the government’s surveillance programs collect more data on Americans than any other country.

“Does the NSA know more about Americans in America than Russians in Russia?” Snowden said, appearing by live video during an awards ceremony in Washington. “We watch our own people more closely than anyone else in the world.”

Snowden also took several shots at the National Security Agency and its top officials, and criticized the agency for wearing two contradictory hats of protecting U.S. data and exploiting security flaws to gather intelligence on foreign threats.

“U.S. government policy directed by the NSA … is now making a choice, a binary choice, between security of our communications and the vulnerability of our communications,” Snowden said, suggesting the government was biased toward the latter activity.

The former NSA contractor was awarded the Ridenhour Award for Truth-Telling along with Laura Poitras, one of his chief confidants. The 30-year-old fugitive remains in Russia, where he fled and earned temporary asylum following his disclosures of classified information about the NSA’s bulk data-collection practices.

Poitras also beamed into the ceremony from Berlin. The documentary filmmaker is believed to be one of only two people—along with journalist Glenn Greenwald—to possess the entire cache of Snowden files.

https://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/edward-snowden-nsa-spies-more-on-americans-than-russians-20140430

Posted on April 21, 2014 April 21, 2014

“The US has lost the moral authority to talk about a free and open internet,”

“The US has lost the moral authority to talk about a free and open internet,”
By Richard Waters in San Francisco

A meeting in Brazil this week will reveal whether Washington has succeeded in preventing international anger over the Edward Snowden revelations clouding discussions about future governance of the internet.

São Paulo is to host a two-day international meeting, starting on Wednesday, called by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, one of the international leaders who was a target of US surveillance.

International unrest over US and British internet surveillance has weakened Washington’s ability to shape the debate about the internet’s future, according to people involved in the process.

“The US has lost the moral authority to talk about a free and open internet,” said a former senior US government official.

The São Paulo meeting had the potential to become deeply political and expose rifts between countries over future control of the internet, said Greg Shatan, a partner at law firm Reed Smith in Washington. “It was called under extraordinary circumstances, it’s a reaction to a perceived crisis,” he said.

The US made a highly symbolic gesture last month in an attempt to defuse the situation.

In a move that had long been urged by Brussels, Washington said it planned to give up its last remaining direct role in controlling the internet. This involves checking the accuracy of changes to internet addressing made by ICANN, the international body that oversees the system. Though a limited and highly technical function, this has long been a focus for international discontent at US influence over the internet.

https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4529516c-c713-11e3-889e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2zVSW5HCG