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Post by avordvet on Dec 20, 2016 6:08:54 GMT -5
Since what U.S. Law Enforcement is doing with this technology is KNOWN to be unconstitutional, the GOP will go ahead and make it law and therefor a 'legal' violation of your rights... The GOP, your friends in freedom Federal agencies can spy on phones with 400 cell-site simulatorsReport recommends national standard for Stingray cell phone tracker use By Andrea Noble - The Washington Times - Monday, December 19, 2016 The Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department have spent collectively more than $95 million on secret cellphone tracking technology and own more than 400 cell-site simulators that can be used to zero in covertly on the locations of cellphones, according to a congressional report. A report released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reveals a tally of how many cell-site simulators federal agencies own and recommends that lawmakers adopt a national standard to govern use of the devices by local and federal law enforcement agencies. www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/19/house-oversight-doj-dhs-have-more-than-400-cell-si/
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Post by avordvet on Dec 30, 2016 6:06:20 GMT -5
The Walls Have Ears: Warrant Granted For Amazon Echo Home Data, Setting Precedentby Tyler Durden, Dec 30, 2016 4:00 AM, Submitted by Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org, Technology has, for the better part of the last decade, changed our lives in significant and groundbreaking ways. But as technology continues to make great strides, helping us change the way we do business and live our lives, it is also employed by bureaucrats looking to keep an eye on everyone. Thanks to Edward Snowden and others before him, like former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence official William Binney, we now know U.S. officials make use of secret courts to gain access to phone records — ignoring due process and, of course, the 4th Amendment to the U.S. constitution. But even though the NSA revelations were widely discussed and privacy advocates have continued to press legislators and officials to justify the illegality of their actions, things seem to have only gotten worse — at least as far as official government policy is concerned. Instead of reforming the system to make sure officials observe the constitution, laws have been passed to increase the government’s access to technologies used widely by Americans and visitors. The result? The widespread normalization of government spying. Instead of sweeping outrage, many Americans continue to feel that being spied upon is part of their everyday lives — and that instead of fighting it, they should embrace it as a means to protect the country from external forces. To nearly half of the population, recent news about a court order regarding a private Amazon Echo may not seem as shocking as it should. www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-29/walls-have-ears-warrant-granted-amazon-echo-home-data-setting-precedent
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Post by avordvet on Jan 9, 2017 6:26:37 GMT -5
The Surveillance State Did Not Disappear With The Trump Victory: "It Is Still Lurking And Completely Intact"by Tyler Durden, Jan 8, 2017 4:00 PM, Submitted by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne)) via SHTFPlan.com, One of the things Donald Trump has really done correctly is to assess his future arena in the areas of intelligence-gathering and operational security. Trump wants to return to a “courier” method of transmitting sensitive information and classified documents for the purpose of reducing the amount of material that can be hacked or stolen. There is a subtlety about this for a caveat, in case the compliment has bloomed flowers in your thoughts: the NSA $50 billion facility for collection and storage of data in Utah won’t be shutting down anytime soon. As Snowden’s exposés clearly pointed out, the government has clearly followed Petraeus’ glowing “internet of things” yellow brick road to form an integrated, interconnected surveillance state. All CCTV (closed circuit television) systems, all merchants with cameras, all law enforcement cameras…all of the camera surveillance systems everywhere are either tied into data collection immediately or can be accessed for use at a later time. The latest “Jason Bourne” movie clearly illustrates how the government can utilize devices such as cellular telephones (especially the ones with cameras) to track movements, record conversations, and be a “piggyback” to relay information to a nearby computer or a camera. This isn’t the future: this is now. www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-08/surveillance-state-did-not-disappear-trump-victory-it-still-lurking-and-completely-i
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Post by Michael Downing on Jan 9, 2017 11:59:55 GMT -5
foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/06/donald-trump-has-the-keys-to-the-most-invasive-surveillance-state-in-history-nsa-cia/Donald Trump Has the Keys to the Most Invasive Surveillance State in HistoryWill he use it to impose absolute power? Americans have been warned for decades about the potential consequences of the U.S. surveillance state — the largest, most powerful, and most intrusive in the world — falling into a would-be tyrant’s hands. With Donald Trump’s inauguration looming, I have to wonder: Was anyone paying attention? In the summer of 1975, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Frank Church issued an early admonition. He had just completed a comprehensive investigation of the U.S. intelligence community, and he came away stunned by what he discovered at the National Security Agency (NSA), even in the digital Stone Age. “That capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left,” Church said. “There would be no place to hide…. I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America.” Thirty-six years later, while reporting on the NSA’s new data center in Utah, I heard another warning. Sitting in an Italian restaurant, William Binney, a crypto-mathematician, described how he had automated the agency’s global eavesdropping network. He had quit soon after discovering that George W. Bush’s administration had turned the system on the American public, just as Church had cautioned might happen. “They violated the Constitution setting it up,” Binney told me. “But they didn’t care. They were going to do it anyway, and they were going to crucify anyone who stood in the way.” He held his thumb and forefinger close together. “We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,” Binney said. In 2013, Edward Snowden echoed Binney. “A new leader will be elected, they’ll find the switch, say that, ‘Because of the crisis, because of the dangers we face in the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority, we need more power,’” Snowden said in an interview with Glenn Greenwald. “And there will be nothing the people can do at that point to oppose it. And it will be turnkey tyranny.” Is Trump about to start the ignition? The public doesn’t yet know all the details of his plans for the NSA and other intelligence agencies. It probably never will, given the clandestine nature of surveillance. Yet the signals to date are disturbing.
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Post by avordvet on Jan 17, 2017 16:06:37 GMT -5
Governments struggling to retain trust of citizens, global survey findsSurvey spanning 40 countries reveals how officials are failing to keep up with changes in way voters gather information and form opinionsPatrick Wintour, Tuesday 17 January 2017 06.04 EST, Last modified on Tuesday 17 January 2017 07.27 EST Weakened and distrusted central governments around the world have been incapable of responding to the way the internet and social media have empowered populist but previously fringe groups, a unique worldwide survey of government communication chiefs has found. The survey spanning 40 countries is the first international review to reveal how deeply governments feel they are losing control and authority over communications. It shows they have been collectively shaken by public distrust of governments, and are struggling to keep pace with how modern voters gather information and form their opinions. The advent of fake news, the dissemination of knowingly inaccurate news, has only deepened the crisis. www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/17/governments-struggling-to-retain-trust-of-citizens-global-survey-finds
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Post by avordvet on Jan 19, 2017 5:47:10 GMT -5
The CIA is corrupted, as are most 'Intelligence' agencies. The CIA should be disbanded and their duties combined into the DIA... There are over 17 Federal Intelligence Agencies, most are duplicative and should not exist. CIA unveils new rules for collecting information on Americans
By Jonathan Landay, Reuters, January 18, 2017 LANGLEY, Va. (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday unveiled revised rules for collecting, analyzing and storing information on American citizens, updating the rules for the information age and publishing them in full for the first time. The guidelines are designed "in a manner that protects the privacy and civil rights of the American people," CIA General Counsel Caroline Krass told a briefing at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The new rules were released amid continued public discomfort over the government's surveillance powers, an issue that gained prominence following revelations in 2013 by former government contractor Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency (NSA) secretly collected the communications data of millions of ordinary Americans. ca.news.yahoo.com/cia-unveils-rules-collecting-information-americans-232648285.html
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Post by avordvet on Jan 20, 2017 5:50:00 GMT -5
Not gonna make the 'career' spooks very happy... Almost all of these 'agencies' should be disbanded and their duties reconsolidated. Report: Trump Might Overhaul US Intel Community StructureThursday, 19 Jan 2017 04:50 PM The pending reforms should include a downsizing of analysts and administrative personnel, especially a large number of lawyers, the Times reported. "The new administration needs to encourage intelligence professionals who have been harmed by the political class to come forward and reveal what has taken place," one unnamed official told the Times. www.newsmax.com/Politics/intelligence-community-CIA-DNI/2017/01/19/id/769491/
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Post by avordvet on Mar 13, 2017 4:44:18 GMT -5
Scrutiny Intensifies on the Warrantless Collection of Americans’ CommunicationsCivil Liberties advocates call for more transparency around a controversial foreign surveillance law that Congress must decide whether to reauthorize this year.by Mike Orcutt, March 10, 2017 The controversy around the communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russian officials before he became president is highlighting something civil liberties advocates particularly dislike about the government’s foreign surveillance practices: when it spies on foreigners it believes to be overseas, which it can do without probable cause, it also sweeps up plenty of information pertaining to Americans. The years-long debate in Washington over this sort of “incidental” collection of Americans’ communications data could get particularly intense this year because Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is set to expire at the end of 2017 if Congress does not reauthorize it. Installed in 2008, the law authorizes the National Security Agency to collect the electronic communications of “non-U.S. persons” who are “reasonably believed” to be outside the country. This surveillance inevitably collects data on Americans as well, for example if they happen to be communicating with a target. Dan Coats, President Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, has called reauthorization a top priority. Civil liberties advocates, meanwhile, argue that Congress should pass reforms to install more checks and balances. www.technologyreview.com/s/603804/scrutiny-intensifies-on-the-warrantless-collection-of-americans-communications/
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Post by avordvet on May 3, 2017 5:15:04 GMT -5
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Post by avordvet on May 4, 2017 13:02:52 GMT -5
More Spying and More LyingJudge Andrew Napolitano, Posted: May 04, 2017 12:01 AM Late last week, President Donald Trump told CBS News that domestic surveillance of American citizens should be the "No. 1" topic of inquiry until we can find out "what the hell is going on" with it. Also late last week, the National Security Agency -- the federal government's 60,000-person-strong domestic spying agency -- announced that it would voluntarily hold back on its more aggressive uses of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That section permits the NSA to capture communications between foreigners and Americans without a warrant from any court, even though the NSA has its own secret court that has granted well over 99 percent of applications for spying brought to it. Yet the NSA has convinced the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that when it captures the communications of a foreigner and an American and those communications refer to a third person who is an American, Section 702 extends the authority for warrantless spying to that third person, as well. And it extends to any person whom the third person is talking about -- and so forth, out to the sixth level of communication. If you do the math, this NSA-concocted, Section 702-generated, secret FISA court-approved logic permits warrantless spying on nearly everyone in the United States. So why did the NSA announce that it will pull back on the way it utilizes Section 702 as the basis for its mass spying? Here is the back story. townhall.com/columnists/judgeandrewnapolitano/2017/05/04/more-spying-and-more-lying-n2321645
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Post by avordvet on Jun 1, 2017 4:47:19 GMT -5
Judge Orders Gov't To Stop Screwing Around And Hand Over Docs In Long-Running Surveillance Case from the doing-nothing-24/7 deptby Tim Cushing, Tue, May 30th 2017 3:23am One of the longest-running lawsuits over NSA surveillance is still no closer to a final decision, but at least we may get to take a look at a few more Section 702 documents. Jewel vs. NSA (filed in 2008) predates the Snowden leaks by five years and, judging by the speed of the government's responses, will probably hit the 10-year mark before everything is sorted out. The EFF reports a production order has been handed down by the court, which will hopefully light a fire under the recalcitrant government. www.techdirt.com/articles/20170527/05434837462/judge-orders-govt-to-stop-screwing-around-hand-over-docs-long-running-surveillance-case.shtml
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Post by avordvet on Jun 17, 2017 5:25:35 GMT -5
What? BUT the Republicans are on the side of freedom and liberty! ... Yeah, not so much... White House Makes It Official: It Wants to Keep Snooping on AmericansTrump and group of GOP senators don’t want us to have greater privacy protections from unwarranted domestic surveillance.Scott Shackford, Jun. 13, 2017 3:30 pm President Donald Trump and allies may complain on Twitter and out loud how the Deep State illegally snooped on him under his predecessor, Barack Obama, but that doesn't mean the White House wants less surveillance authority. The White House and several GOP senators have made it official: They want to make some significant surveillance authorities permanent under law without addressing concerns by civil liberties and privacy advocates that these authorities are being used to collect Americans' data without the use of warrants. What we're talking about is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments. Section 702 grants some important authorities for the National Security Agency (NSA) to engage in unwarranted surveillance of foreign agents and potential threats overseas. It expires this year if Congress doesn't renew it. The problem: While Section 702 is sold as a mechanism of snooping on foreign agents and potential terrorists in other countries, it also ends up collecting private information and communications from Americans if they've made contact with these targets. When Trump complained his campaign had been snooped upon while communicating with officials connected to foreign governments (like Russian and Turkey), in all likelihood, the foreign officials were the actual targets. The NSA has "minimization" procedures when private data and communications originating from American citizens ends up "incidentally" gathered through Section 702. NSA analysts aren't supposed to be able to easily invade the privacy of citizens. reason.com/blog/2017/06/13/white-house-makes-it-official-it-wants-t
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Post by avordvet on Jun 27, 2017 4:46:47 GMT -5
The Republicans including Trump said they were gonna put a stop to this stuff... The Age Of No Privacy: The Surveillance State Shifts Into High Gearby Tyler Durden, Jun 26, 2017 11:55 PM, Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government.” ? William O. Douglas, Supreme Court Justice (1966)The government has become an expert in finding ways to sidestep what it considers “inconvenient laws” aimed at ensuring accountability and thereby bringing about government transparency and protecting citizen privacy. Indeed, it has mastered the art of stealth maneuvers and end-runs around the Constitution. It knows all too well how to hide its nefarious, covert, clandestine activities behind the classified language of national security and terrorism. And when that doesn’t suffice, it obfuscates, complicates, stymies or just plain bamboozles the public into remaining in the dark. Case in point: the National Security Agency (NSA) has been diverting “internet traffic, normally safeguarded by constitutional protections, overseas in order to conduct unrestrained data collection on Americans.” It’s extraordinary rendition all over again, only this time it’s surveillance instead of torture being outsourced. www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-26/age-no-privacy-surveillance-state-shifts-high-gear
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