Tag Archives: Privacy

Worse Than Thought : Maryland Spied on EVERYBODY

Maryland State Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan announced in October that the department was sending letters to activists, inviting them to review their files. Photo by Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post. ‘The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy … Continue reading

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Obama’s ‘Black Widow’ : The Super Spy Computer

‘The NSA’s colossal Cray supercomputer, code-named the ‘Black Widow,’ scans millions of domestic and international phone calls and e-mails every hour. . . . The Black Widow, performing hundreds of trillions of calculations per second, searches through and reassembles key … Continue reading

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Invasive Procedures : Privacy, and Online Behaviorial Targeting

Privacy advocates meet with Obama’s people concerning online advertising and the use of behavioral research.by Wendy Davis / December 17, 2008 Privacy advocates met Tuesday with members of President-elect Barack Obama’s Federal Trade Commission transition team to urge that the … Continue reading

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Your Digital Trail and the New Big Brother

About 100 students at M.I.T. are trading privacy for a smartphone that tracks their calls, messages and movements. Photo by Jodi Hilton / NYT. Even its practitioners acknowledge that, if misused, collective intelligence tools could create an Orwellian future on … Continue reading

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Landmark Ruling : Cell Phone Location Protected by Fourth Amendment

Boston artist Nick Rodrigues’ Personal Cell Phone Booth won’t protect him from triangulation or global positioning.Chalk up one small victory for privacyBy William Michael Hanks / The Rag Blog / September 15, 2008 A powerful and easily-implemented feature of cell … Continue reading

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9/11 : The Politics of Fear, Religious Fanaticism and Checks & Balances

‘They’ve attacked us! Turn on your TV!!’By Thomas Cleaver / The Rag Blog / September 11, 2008 I remember seven years ago today like it was yesterday: the phone call at 0545 pulling me from sleep to hear a friend … Continue reading

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What We Need Is A Digital Bill Of Rights

‘It is time to really think about a comprehensive national technology policy for the Internet Age’By Erick Schonfeld / August 25, 2008 As the Democrats and Republicans gather at their national conventions, it is time to really think about a … Continue reading

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Jonathan Franzen : ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’

Skull-with-cell-phone by Spazmat in downtown New York City. Photo by Ivan Corsa. /Global GraphicaCell phones, sentimentality, and the decline of public space.By Jonathan Franzen This article appears in full in the September/October 2008 issue of Technology Review. One of the … Continue reading

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Domestic Spying : FBI to Get Freer Rein to Look for Terrorism Suspects

Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Photo by Tom Brown / Getty Images.New rules ‘expressly authorize the FBI to engage in intelligence collection inside the United States’ By Marisa Taylor / August 14, 2008 WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey confirmed plans … Continue reading

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Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent

‘Increasingly, there are no limits technologically as to what a company can do in terms of collecting information’By Ellen Nakashima / August 12, 2008 Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to … Continue reading

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There’s A Man Going ‘Round Taking Names

ACLU: Million on terrorist watch listby Michael Grabell / July 14, 2008 There won’t be any balloons dropping from the ceiling to mark this milestone. And if there are any bells and whistles, it will only be from the metal … Continue reading

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Stop the New FISA

Allowing the new surveillance law to stand would seriously cripple our free pressby Chris Hedges / July 11, 2008 If the sweeping surveillance law signed by President Bush on Thursday — giving the U.S. government nearly unchecked authority to eavesdrop … Continue reading

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