Friends in High Places Support NSA Call-Tracking Lawsuit. One week after the ACLU filed the first appellate brief challenging the government’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, we’re getting a little help from our friends. Yesterday, seven prominent and diverse organizations filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of our challenge, which is now before the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. It is rare to see such a diverse group of amici supporting one side of the docket — which simply goes to show the breadth of the emerging pan-partisan consensus that the government’s bulk phone-records program violates Americans’ privacy and the Constitution. Below is a list of the seven amici, along with a preview of their briefs. Together with the ACLU’s filing last week, these briefs surely give the government much to consider before it files its opposition brief in the Second Circuit on April 10.
Don’t Spy on Us | Home | English PEN. The current laws haven't stopped the intelligence services expanding their reach into our private lives. Don't Spy On Us is calling for an inquiry to investigate the extent to which the law has failed and suggest new legislation that will make the spooks accountable to our elected representatives, put an end to mass surveillance in line with our 6 principles and let judges not the Home Secretary decide when spying is justified. Mass surveillance violates the European Convention on Human Rights Mass or blanket surveillance contravenes Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) and Article 10 (the right to freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly stated that surveillance, if conducted without adequate judicial oversight and with no effective safeguards against abuse, will never be compatible with the European Convention. Mass surveillance is increasing Parliamentary oversight must become the norm.
Next NSA Boss Thinks NSA Just Needs Better PR; And Kicks It Off With A Bunch Of Cyberwar FUD. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg urges Obama to come clean about NSA spying. Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg blasted the US government’s electronic surveillance practices on Thursday, saying he’d personally called President Barack Obama to voice his displeasure. “When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his personal Facebook page. ”I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform,” the 29-year-old Zuckerberg continued.
The phone call and Zuckerberg’s 300-word missive on Thursday come amid a series of revelations about controversial government surveillance practices that were leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Facebook, which operates the world’s No 1 Internet social network with 1.2 billion users, declined to comment beyond Zuckerberg’s post. Reuters. Art for the Soul. Richard Lazzara,owner: Shankar Gallery:"Art for the Soul" Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Art for the Soul by Richard Lazzara on absolutearts.com Buy My Photos ClusterShot Now You Can Help America Support "Richard The Artist". Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Art for the Soul Stumble It! My StumbleUpon Page Looking for more about [term]?
Lijit Search Globe of Blogs See shankargallery on photoblog.com richardlazzara is on shutterchance.com shankargallery is on fotolog.com Artmajeur International Online Art Gallery Art SALE by Richard Lazzara on absolutearts.com View Richard Lazzara's profile EXPERIENCE MY ART AT MY ART PLOT on RICHARDLAZZARA.MYARTPLOT.COM Richard Lazzara on Faves Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR. Check out LiveJournal.com! About The Artist by Richard Lazzara on shankar-gallery.com Lingams by Richard Lazzara on shankar-gallery.com.com.
Hail the cell phone smasher! | Mormon Iconoclast. A friend of mine sent this link to Facebook. And I had a new hero. Kevin Williamson, smasher of cell phones, kudos! Very well done indeed sir! I genuflect in your general direction! And yet. But in a theater, stealing a phone (an expensive one, I imagine), and flinging it against a wall (certainly a disruptive act) is something we applaud. ‘Cause you just don’t do that. Little kids get a dispensation. I wrote a play a few years ago, called Coughlaugh. Part of my loathing of audience misconduct is history. Movies 8 was the epicenter for audience rudeness in the Western hemisphere. Let’s play guess the movie! But, see, at Movies 8, this kind of outrageous movie commentary was de rigueur.
And even beyond the children at inappropriate movies, Movies 8 audiences were generally rude. And that’s at movies. Confession time: I’ve been guilty too. I was attending a play (a really good one) in Salt Lake. And I promise. Netizen Report: #TheDayWeFightBack Editi. #TheDayWeFightBack Edition. From top left: mural by War Design art collective in Bogota, Colombia; public protest in Manila, Philippines (photo by @leannejazul) ; public rally in San Francisco, US (photo by Ellery Biddle); anti-surveillance cartoon by Egyptian artist Doaa Eladl.
Sonia Roubini, Bojan Perkov, Hae-in Lim, Ellery Roberts Biddle, and Sarah Myers contributed to this report. Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week's report begins on the Internet, where people and groups all over the world came together and took a stand against mass surveillance on February 11, #thedaywefightback. February 11 was also a great day for potent discussion about the different ways in which surveillance takes shape and affects citizens in different countries. I cannot accept the idea that the fight has now moved to the area of surveillance and away from free speech. Cool Things Publications and Studies. #TheDayWeFightBack Edition. 6 Anti-NSA Technological innovations that May Just Change the World. People used to assume that the United States government was held in check by the constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and which demands due process in criminal investigations, but such illusions have evaporated in recent years.
It turns out that the NSA considers itself above the law in every respect and feels entitled to spy on anyone anywhere in the world without warrants, and without any real oversight. Understandably these revelations shocked the average citizen who had been conditioned to take the government's word at face value, and the backlash has been considerable.
The recent "Today We Fight Back" campaign to protest the NSA's surveillance practices shows that public sentiment is in the right place. Whether these kinds of petitions and protests will have any real impact on how the U.S. government operates is questionable (to say the least), however some very smart people have decided not to wait around and find out. 4Decentralized Websites. Don’t Spy on Us: #TheDayWeFightBack | Wh. Aaron Swartz passed away a year ago tomorrow. We are Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, Peter Eckersley (EFF), and David Segal (Demand Progress) here to talk about Aaron and a protest we're organizing on 02/11 in his honor. Ask us anything. : IAmA. Aaron Swartz Explains Why The NSA Needs To Be Stopped. Spy Agencies Probe Angry Birds and Other Apps for Personal Data.
When a smartphone user opens Angry Birds, the popular game application, and starts slinging birds at chortling green pigs, spy agencies have plotted how to lurk in the background to snatch data revealing the player’s location, age, sex and other personal information, according to secret British intelligence documents. In their globe-spanning surveillance for terrorism suspects and other targets, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have been trying to exploit a basic byproduct of modern telecommunications: With each new generation of mobile phone technology, ever greater amounts of personal data pour onto networks where spies can pick it up. According to dozens of previously undisclosed classified documents, among the most valuable of those unintended intelligence tools are so-called leaky apps that spew everything from users’ smartphone identification codes to where they have been that day. The scale and the specifics of the data haul are not clear.
Detailed Profiles. New Details Show Broader NSA Surveillance Reach. Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data. The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications. The Guardian has acquired top-secret documents about the NSA datamining tool, called Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks. The focus of the internal NSA tool is on counting and categorizing the records of communications, known as metadata, rather than the content of an email or instant message. The Boundless Informant documents show the agency collecting almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March 2013.
Iran was the country where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered, with more than 14bn reports in that period, followed by 13.5bn from Pakistan. Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data | World news. The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014. Don’t Spy on Us: #TheDayWeFightBack | What's On | Free Word Centre. Tue 11 Feb 2014, 7:00pm Free Word Lecture Theatre Join English PEN and Open Rights Group on a day of global protest against mass surveillance, as civil liberties groups and activists around the world unite to defend privacy and freedom of expression online. With keynote speakers and tech experts to advise you on your privacy and security online. Since Edward Snowden’s first revelations about the National Security Agency’s collection of US data last summer, the British public has witnessed a series of alarming disclosures regarding the extent of the surveillance programmes operated by US and UK intelligence services.
Guest speakers from leading privacy, freedom of expression and human rights groups in the UK will announce a new coalition, Don’t Spy On Us, calling for legal reform and judicial oversight of the intelligence service’s mass surveillance programme. This event is FREE, with a bar, live demonstrations and keynote speakers. Thedaywefightback: the internet protest surveillance on feb. 11th. Don’t Spy on Us: #TheDayWeFightBack | What's On | Free Word Centre. Thedaywefightback: the internet protest surveillance on feb. 11th. Codepink: Today @medeabenjamin of @Codepink... Politics, Political News - Election 2012 - POLITICO.com.
#StopTheNSA lights up Twitter - Tal Kopan. Dear Internet, Today is #TheDayWeFightBa. #TheDayWeFightBack: Reform Public and Pr. #TheDayWeFightBack Against Mass Surveill. #StopTheNSA lights up Twitter - Tal Kopan. #StopTheNSA lights up Twitter - Tal Kopan. Brazilian Activists Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance. As the world comes together to take a stand against mass surveillance on February 11, 2014, Brazilian citizens, organizations and collectives are bringing momentum to #TheDayWeFightBack campaign. Anti-surveillance collective Antivigilancia.tk (@antivigilancia on Twitter), one of the 15 Brazilian signatories of the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, has a website with complete information in Portuguese on how to participate in #TheDayWeFightBack, as well as several resources for the day of action, such as banners and memes.
Cartoon by Latuff with D'Incao (2013). Shared by WebWe Want on Flickr (BY SA 2.0) Well-known Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff took on the challenge launched by Web We Want early in February to create original visual works on digital surveillance and the right to privacy. Cartoon by Latuff with Operamundi (2013). Shared by WebWe Want on Flickr (BY SA 2.0) Brazilian Activists Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance. Nonprofits talking about #TheDayWeFightBack. #thedaywefightback. Google - Google+ - We’re standing up with the web on #thedaywefightback to… Google+ - We’re standing up with the web on #thedaywefightback to… +Richard Lee : do you realize that with a single comment you have bashed both the citizens who are participating in an international initiative and the companies that are promoting it because, in your opinion, the most important thing was to promote your article?
Do you really think that people who read your comment will perceive you as someone who cares about others? My suggestion, whenever you see someone who tries to do something good, is to appreciate their effort, even if you perceive them as a political opponent to bash at any occasion. At the end of the day, a world-wide initiative where citizens and companies work together to reach a goal, is way more concrete than your article. Nonprofits talking about #TheDayWeFightBack. Google+ - We’re standing up with the web on #thedaywefightback to… #thedaywefightback. Richard Lazzara - Dear Internet, Today is. Shankargallery (Dear Internet, Today is #TheDayWeFightBack , biggest pro - #jpy3bk.
Dear Internet, Today is #TheDayWeFightBack , biggest protest against #NSA Spying #StopTheNSA : TheHackersNews. Dear Internet, Today is #TheDayWeFightBack , biggest protest against #NSA Spying #StopTheNSA : TheHackersNews. Art for the Soul. Richard Lazzara,owner: Shankar Gallery:"Art for the Soul" Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Art for the Soul by Richard Lazzara on absolutearts.com Buy My Photos ClusterShot Now You Can Help America Support "Richard The Artist". Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Art for the Soul Stumble It! My StumbleUpon Page Looking for more about [term]? Lijit Search Globe of Blogs See shankargallery on photoblog.com richardlazzara is on shutterchance.com shankargallery is on fotolog.com Artmajeur International Online Art Gallery Art SALE by Richard Lazzara on absolutearts.com View Richard Lazzara's profile EXPERIENCE MY ART AT MY ART PLOT on RICHARDLAZZARA.MYARTPLOT.COM Richard Lazzara on Faves Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.
Check out LiveJournal.com! About The Artist by Richard Lazzara on shankar-gallery.com Lingams by Richard Lazzara on shankar-gallery.com.com. Dear Internet, Today is #TheDayWeFightBack , biggest protest against #NSA Spying #StopTheNSA : TheHackersNews. Dear Internet, Today is #TheDayWeFightBack , biggest protest against #NSA Spying #StopTheNSA : TheHackersNews. #TheDayWeFightBack: Reform Public and Private Data Mining. Today, February 11, 2014, is "The Day We Fight Back," a movement dedicated to reforming government mass surveillance. It's an important cause, one that we hope you'll join by heading to TheDayWeFightBack.org and contacting your representatives in Congress.
But is it enough to merely deal with government surveillance? Part of the the reason why the NSA has been so effective at monitoring American citizens is because of private data mining by tech companies. These companies scan our emails, request pervasive data permissions on our smartphones, and then act surprised when the government taps into their massive data centers and makes copies. We're disturbed by NSA surveillance, but we're almost equally disturbed by the rise of "big data" and private data mining. NSA Facts We've written a ton about NSA surveillance. Don't just take our word for it though. The NSA "has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.
" #TheDayWeFightBack Against Mass Surveillance » The OpenCUNY Academic Medium. #TheDayWeFightBack: Reform Public and Private Data Mining. #TheDayWeFightBack Against Mass Surveillance » The OpenCUNY Academic Medium. Recherche - #TheDayWeFightBack... Edward Snowden Speaks in Half-Hour Televised Interview. Edward Snowden says he sleeps well - despite potential death treats. (Photo: NDR News/Germany)German television station NDR News on Sunday night aired an in-person interview with American whistleblower Edward Snowden in which he speaks both broadly and specifically about the NSA surveillance programs his actions have helped expose to the world.
Conducted in Mosow, this is the first such interview with the former NSA contractor since journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras met and interviewed him in a Hong Kong hotel room last June. Watch: [Though earlier available via YouTube, the video of the interview was pulled.] The official NDR News transcript from the recorded interview follows. Mr Snowden did you sleep well the last couple of nights because I was reading that you asked for a kind of police protection. Are there any threats? There are significant threats but I sleep very well. But fortunately you are still alive with us. I would describe it as intimate. It’s a short adventure. LoShime : The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014. A List of Events Happening on The Day We Fight Back. bOuka_AnOn : Don't let them win- Fight back... The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014. AnonStarseed : Protesters rally for... Protesters rally for 'the day we fight back' against mass surveillance | World news.
Reform Government Surveillance. The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014. The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014. The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014.