Brand and Žižek lead celebrity call for greater whistleblower protections | US news. A group of more than 50 Hollywood stars, fashion designers, musicians, writers and philosophers have joined forces to call for greater legal protection and support for whistleblowers around the world. The diverse alliance includes philosophers Slavoj Žižek and Noam Chomsky, movie A-listers Susan Sarandon and Peter Sarsgaard, artist Sarah Lucas, and musicians Moby and MIA – not to mention the ubiquitous Russell Brand. They have come together to fly the flag for the unsung whistleblower and, in a joint statement, say that those sources and publishers who “risks their lives and careers to stand up for truth and justice” should be worthy of society’s protection and support.
Thanks to their courage, the statement says, “the public can finally see for themselves the war crimes, corruption, mass surveillance and abuses of power of the US government and other governments around the world.” “I didn’t ask Edward Snowden to stick his neck out for me,” said one of the signatories, Vivienne Westwood. Courageous. Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released From Prison. Former Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde is a free man again.
After more than five months he was released from prison this morning. Peter is expected to take some time off to spend with family and loved ones before he continues working on making the Internet a better place. After being on the run for two years Peter Sunde, aka brokep, was arrested during a family visit in southern Sweden late May. Despite being accused of non-violent crimes, Peter was transferred to a high-security unit. There was no concern for his vegan diet and he was struggling with depression. “The worst thing is the boredom”, Peter said in August, summing up his daily routine. Today Peter’s struggle in prison comes to an end. “My body just got re-united with my soul and mind, the parts of me that matters and that never can be held hostage. #brokepfree Although there is no denying that Peter was physically and mentally impacted by his stay in prison, he is now truly free.
Welcome back Peter! Inside Anonymous's Million Mask March. A year ago Wednesday night, I tweeted and retweeted from my New York City apartment at the helm of the largest Anonymous Twitter handle, updating the account’s followers with regards the annual global protests of Guy Fawkes Day, also referred to as the Million Mask March (#MMM). But this year, I temporarily left my keyboard, and made way through the streets of the nation’s capital amongst the face-hidden crowd. As I went down Washington’s 16th Street close to 5:00pm, sloping toward the White House, a small string of protesters walked parallel to me in the middle of the street. Arriving before the presidential residence, the group of a dozen people joined hundreds more, and congregated in front of the West Wing’s security gate. Anonymous has arranged physical protests for diverse, sometimes niche, causes since late 2007 and early 2008, when it declared war and claimed some victories on the mass-mind-control society of Scientology.
Press release: Top musicians, actors and Nobel laureates show support for Edward Snowden, publishers and whistleblowers | Courage Foundation. Russell Brand, M.I.A., Tom Morello and More Involved in EffortVivienne Westwood, Viggo Mortensen, Others Promote Courage Foundation’s Whistleblower Defense Efforts An international coalition of more than fifty actors, musicians and intellectuals have announced their support for Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, whistleblowers and publishers. Some are also encouraging donations to the Courage Foundation —which runs the official legal defense fund for Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers, as well as fights for whistleblower protections worldwide – with tweets and social media posts. “The courage that Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers and truthtellers have shown and continue to show is truly extraordinary and necessary in helping the public have access to their historical record through media,” said Sarah Harrison, WikiLeaks Investigations Editor and Director of the Courage Foundation.
WikiLeaks and Harrison ensured Edward Snowden’s safe exit from Hong Kong and secured his asylum. Snowden Attacks “Anything Goes” Privacy Intrusions Of British Spy Agencies. In what amounts to a wake up call directed at a British public generally considered apathetic on privacy issues, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned that U.K. spy agencies are using digital technology to conduct mass population surveillance without any checks and balances at all — overreaching and encroaching on privacy rights in a way that he characterized as even worse than the U.S. National Security Agency’s inroads into citizens’ rights. Snowden was making his first (virtual) appearance in the UK since blowing the whistle on the NSA last year, speaking at the Observer Festival of Ideas event being held today in London.
The live videolink that looped Snowden into the event from where he has temporary asylum in Moscow was not trouble free. At one point Snowden even suggested technical hitches that were preventing him from hearing interviewer John Naughton’s questions could be the result of U.K. government attempts to block his appearance. “I’m not,” said Snowden. 8 November 2014 - This Day in WikiLeaks. Federal Judge Says Public Has a Right to Know About FBI’s Facial Recognition Database. Edward Snowden: A ‘Nation’ Interview. (All photos by Nicola Cohen) On October 6, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen (professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton) sat down in Moscow for a wide-ranging discussion with Edward Snowden.
Throughout their nearly four-hour conversation, which lasted considerably longer than planned (see below for audio excerpts), the youthful-appearing Snowden was affable, forthcoming, thoughtful and occasionally humorous. Among other issues, he discussed the price he has paid for speaking truth to power, his definition of patriotism and accountability, and his frustration with America’s media and political system. The Nation: It’s very good to be here with you. Snowden: I describe myself as an indoor cat, because I’m a computer guy and I always have been. The Nation: You have everything you need to continue your work? Snowden: Yes. Snowden: Yeah, I’ve got more than enough for my needs, let’s put it that way. Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems. In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, arrived from America at Ellingham Hall, the country house in Norfolk, England where Assange was living under house arrest.
For several hours the besieged leader of the world’s most famous insurgent publishing organization and the billionaire head of the world’s largest information empire locked horns. The two men debated the political problems faced by society, and the technological solutions engendered by the global network—from the Arab Spring to Bitcoin. They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with U.S. foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to Western companies and markets. Newsweek Magazine is Back In Print In some ways the higher echelons of Google seemed more distant and obscure to me than the halls of Washington.
The Economist explains: How Guy Fawkes became the face of post-modern protest. ON NOVEMBER 5TH Britons up and down the country will light bonfires and set off fireworks to mark the execution of Guy Fawkes, a 17th-century Roman Catholic terrorist. More recently activists have appropriated the day as one of mass protest. Anonymous, an online "hacktivist" group, is encouraging people to march against their governments. The London faction of the "million mask march" will gather outside the Houses of Parliament, many of them wearing masks of a grinning Guy Fawkes. How did he become the face of post-modern protest? In 1605 Fawkes was part of a Roman Catholic group that plotted to blow up the House of Lords during the state opening of parliament.
In the 1980s graphic novelists Alan Moore and David Lloyd created a comic strip, "V for Vendetta", in which the main protagonist is a cloaked anarchist who wears a grinning, moustachioed Guy Fawkes mask while battling against a fascist authoritarian state. Lone lawyer sues Obama, alleging illegality of surveillance programs. Justice Department lawyers have asked a federal court in Pittsburgh to dismiss a sweeping lawsuit brought earlier this year by a local lawyer against President Barack Obama and other top intelligence officials.
In a new motion to dismiss filed on Monday, the government told the court that the Pittsburgh lawyer, Elliott Schuchardt, lacked standing to make a claim that his rights under the Fourth Amendment have been violated as a result of multiple ongoing surveillance programs. Specifically, Schuchardt argued in his June 2014 complaint that both metadata and content of his Gmail, Facebook, and Dropbox accounts were compromised under the PRISM program as revealed in the documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. In an e-mail to Ars on Wednesday, Marcia Berman, a senior trial counsel who authored the motion to dismiss, said, "Per department policy, attorneys do not comment to the media on litigation. " As Berman wrote in the motion to dismiss: Julian Assange on His New Book, When Google Met WikiLeaks. Julian Assange, the 43-year-old founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June of 2012.
He occupies a single room in the building, a couple hundred square feet of space cluttered with work and life. He avoids using email and tries to interact with his staff only in person. “I have to act like Osama bin Laden now,” he writes in his recently published book, When Google Met WikiLeaks (OR Books). The book chronicles the afternoon in 2011 when he was visited by four individuals: Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google; Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas; Lisa Shields, vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Scott Malcomson, the communications director for the International Crisis Group. Ecuador has granted Assange asylum, but the United Kingdom will not allow Assange, who is Australian, passage to South America. But there’s a difference between leadership and direction—coercive control over something. How to Find a Million Mask March Near You. Exclusive: DN! Goes Inside Assange’s Embassy Refuge to Talk WikiLeaks, Snowden and Winning Freedom.
Feds identify suspected 'second leaker' for Snowden reporters. Edward Snowden, left, appears with Glenn Greenwald in a scene from the documentary Citizenfour. (Radius TWC/AP … The FBI has identified an employee of a federal contracting firm suspected of being the so-called "second leaker" who turned over sensitive documents about the U.S. government's terrorist watch list to a journalist closely associated with ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, according to law enforcement and intelligence sources who have been briefed on the case. The FBI recently executed a search of the suspect's home, and federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia have opened up a criminal investigation into the matter, the sources said. But the case has also generated concerns among some within the U.S. intelligence community that top Justice Department officials — stung by criticism that they have been overzealous in pursuing leak cases — may now be more reluctant to bring criminal charges involving unauthorized disclosures to the news media, the sources said.
Million Mask March rallies sweeping the globe LIVE UPDATES. Published time: November 05, 2014 14:53 Edited time: November 05, 2014 19:57 Pro-democracy protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks pose in central Brussels November 5, 2014, on the day marking Guy Fawkes Night. (Reuters/ Francois Lenoir) The Million Mask March is sweeping the globe across Wednesday as demonstrators protest against austerity, mass surveillance and oppression. Participants will obscure their faces to protect their identity. Protesters and police engaged in a tense and prolonged stand-off outside London’s Buckingham Palace as metal barriers cordoning off the area were removed and protesters incited police to fight. Protesters have been felling the metal barriers on their journey and they lay scattered across London's streets and the protesters move.
One protester read out a rap as he marched, bemoaning "fat cats" and lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction. "We know the uprisings you choose to incite, and that's why we stand, and that's why we fight," he finished. Internet Emergency. Justice for Edward Snowden. It is time for President Obama to offer clemency to Edward Snowden, the courageous U.S. citizen who revealed the Orwellian reach of the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance of Americans.
His actions may have broken the law, but his act, as the New York Times editorialized, did the nation “a great service.” In an interview that the Nation magazine is publishing this week, Nation Contributing Editor Stephen Cohen and I asked Snowden his definition of patriotism. He sensibly argues patriotism is not “acting to benefit the government,” but to “act on behalf of one’s country. . . . You’re not patriotic just because you back whoever’s in power today. . . .
That requires hard choices. Snowden’s actions revealed that the National Security Agency was collecting information, without a warrant, on millions of Americans. Snowden’s revelations came only a few weeks after James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, was asked under oath by Sen. Charges dropped for #PayPal14 hacktivists, company launches #PayPal15 trend. Number of European Arrest Warrants reaches record high. Earlier this week she warned that Britain's would become a "safe haven for European criminals" without the warrant, putting the "lives of law abiding citizens at risk". James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, told a House of Lords committee which is investigating extradition that each warrant costs £13,000 to process. It means British taxpayer is thought to have footed a bill of the best part of £100 million over the last five years for European Arrest Warrants. There were 6,844 people arrested between 2009-10 to 2013-14, of whom 5,072 were extradited to another country.
Each of the arrests would have led to a court appearance – and possibly a lengthy appeal – meaning that according to Mr Brokenshire’s figure it cost the taxpayer £89.9 million. In all, there were 7,881 requests for people – including Britons – to be extradited to another European country in 2013-14, up from just 3,870 four years earlier, although it is unclear how much these cases cost to process. Hungary internet tax cancelled after mass protests. 31 October 2014Last updated at 08:57 ET Viktor Orban's Fidesz party has a two-thirds majority in parliament Hungary has decided to shelve a proposed tax on internet data traffic after mass protests against the plan.
"This tax in its current form cannot be introduced," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. Large-scale protests began on Sunday, when demonstrators hurled old computer parts at the headquarters of Mr Orban's ruling Fidesz party. The draft law - condemned by the EU - would levy a fee on each gigabyte of internet data transferred. The protesters objected to the financial burden but also feared the move would restrict free expression and access to information.
The levy was set at 150 forints (£0.40; 0.50 euros; $0.60) per gigabyte of data traffic. After thousands protested the government decided to cap the tax at 700 forints per month for individuals and 5,000 forints for companies. The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest writes: He saw how unpopular the tax was. What happens next? Internet of Things will transform life, but experts fear for privacy and personal data.
Lawrence Lessig Interviews Edward Snowden. Net Neutrality: President Obama's Plan for a Free and Open Internet. Memo to NSA and GCHQ: Sending encrypted emails doesn’t make you a criminal. Home Depot says about 53 million email addresses stolen in breach. ‘Courage is contagious’: Artist campaigns for Snowden-Assange-Manning monument. Why I'd Let Google Put My Genome in the Cloud. French startups are taking a more privacy centric approach file sharing. UN to investigate claims that UK spies infiltrated climate talks | Environment. How one man’s private files ended up on Apple’s iCloud without his consent.
Search WikiLeaks. Silk Road 2 Seized! (Multiple Markets Seized) - Deep Dot Web. What Is Enlightenment?: Google, Wikileaks, and the Reorganization of the World. In Disguise as Climate Negotiators. People trust NSA more than Google, survey says. Brain decoder can eavesdrop on your inner voice - tech - 29 October 2014. The 7 Privacy Tools Essential to Making Snowden Documentary CITIZENFOUR. UK Gov't Waste Explored. Three Spooky Ways You're Being Spied on This Halloween. Snowden awarded Russian private literary prize. 08STOCKHOLM748_a. 49 Organizations Call on Congress to Restore Whistleblower Rights for Intelligence Contractors. Watching You, Watching Me: How surveillance affects modern life.
Harvey Weinstein on Edward Snowden's 'Citizenfour': "It Changed My Opinion of Him" Q exclusive: Defiant Julian Assange says he's 'pretty hard to kill' | Q | CBC Radio. Swedish prosecutors keep up arrest warrant against Assange. Assange's lawyers mull prosecutor's response. Julian Assange: Google’s Basic Business Model ‘Same as the NSA’s’ Congress Still Has No Idea How Much the NSA Spies on Americans. NSA Firefoxed: Mozilla team-up with Tor to improve internet privacy. Getting Started With a Zero Trust Approach to Network Security - Infosecurity Magazine.
DDoS Explosion Imminent for Guy Fawkes Day - Infosecurity Magazine. How Attackers Can Use Radio Signals and Mobile Phones to Steal Protected Data. Facebook Adds “Onion” Address for Anonymous Browsing. But Does It? Peter Carey’s Amnesia: drawing on the dismissal - Books and Arts Daily. Facebook is now accessible through the Deep Web. Tor GUI `SelekTOR` Sees New Major Release. DDoS Preparedness: More Than a Firewall - Infosecurity Magazine. Security Companies Team Up, Take Down Chinese Hacking Group. GCHQ views data without a warrant, government admits | UK news. Comforting the NSA and Afflicting Its Dissenters.
Secretive, unblockable Verizon perma-cookies kick up privacy concerns. Security Companies Team Up, Take Down Chinese Hacking Group. The FTC is suing AT&T for throttling its unlimited data customers. Protest against the world's first internet tax in Hungary. Snowden vindicated: The truth about raw intelligence sharing. Hackers breach some White House computers. 11 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook In 2014. Ed Snowden Taught Me To Smuggle Secrets Past Incredible Danger. Now I Teach You. Affidavit_of_Julian_Assange. Security researcher uses radio frequencies to smuggle data out of isolated network. Researcher Shows Why Tor Anonymity Is No Guarantee Of Security. Feds Want To Keep A Big Part Of Their Argument Against Lawsuit Over Internet Spying A Total Secret. Feds Want To Keep A Big Part Of Their Argument Against Lawsuit Over Internet Spying A Total Secret.
The right to privacy in a big data world: When properly understood, privacy rules essential, experts say -- ScienceDaily. Taxes on Information Technologies Threatening Economic Growth, Report Says. Nude Photos of Jennifer Lawrence Are Latest Front in Online Privacy Debate. State surveillance privacy Freedom of expression. Julian Assange - Google Is Not What It Seems. We Want Privacy, but Can’t Stop Sharing. How Google's Sundar Pichai Stands Out. Research Shows Mass Surveillance Fails 'Drastically' In Striking Balance Between Costs And Benefits To Society. Fake Tor Project website delivers malware instead of anonymity | Detection | Prevention | Intelligence.
Google worker arrested for cyberstalking. Right to Online Privacy at Risk as Governments Engage in Mass Surveillance – Counter-terrorism Expert. Web Liberty and Privacy. The Really Dark Internet. iCloud Uploads Local Data Outside of iCloud Drive. EXPERT: Here Are 4 Things Edward Snowden Gets Wildly Wrong About The NSA. Secret History of Silicon Valley. Verizon Wireless tracking on its customers by injecting UID into all HTTP requests made on the VZW network. Wikileaks Publishes Updated Intellectual Property TPP Chapter. Assuming that something like privacy on the Internet breaks completely down, what do you think would be the consequences? : privacy.
Researchers Finds Malicious Tor Exit Node Adding Malware to Binaries. Security In A Box | Tools and tactics for your digital security.