Despite Civil Liberties Uproar, Canada Set to Ram Through Mass Surveillance BillCanada's House of Commons on Tuesday is poised to pass Bill C-51, a so-called "anti-terror" law, despite widespread outcry from civil liberties advocates who say the legislation would allow law enforcement to spy on civilians and violate Canadians' constitutional rights with little or no accountability.
The bill, introduced by the Conservative Party and backed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, would ... (more)
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How Private DNA Data Led Idaho Cops on a Wild Goose Chase and Linked an Innocent Man to a 20-year-old Murder Case The New Orleans Advocate recently published a shocking story that details the very real threats to privacy and civil liberties posed by law enforcement access to private genetic databases and familial DNA searching.
In 1996, a young woman named Angie Dodge was murdered in her apartment in a small town in Idaho. Although the police collected DNA from semen left at the crime... (more)
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Grooveshark Shuts Down & Apologizes to the RIAAAnother beloved business destroyed by the MAFIAA, this is their punishment for running their business out of Amerika. - Chris |
Law Enforcement's Cluelessness On Display In Congressional Hearing On Undermining EncryptionYesterday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing over this whole stupid kerfuffle about mobile encryption. If you don't recall, back in the fall, both Apple and Google said they would start encrypting data on mobile devices by default, leading to an immediate freakout by law enforcement types, laun... (more)
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New York: E-ZPass Used To Spy On MotoristsMotorists who use E-ZPass are being tracked on streets that are not tolled. The New York Civil Liberties Union revealed the program last week after receiving documents from New York City, New York's transportation department describing the $5 million federally funded surveillance program.
"The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is seeking to identify and observe trends in travel time congested areas of the city," a 2012 city proposal explained. "As part of the stu... (more)
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Senior Police Officer Suggests Companies Allowing People To Use Strong Crypto Are 'Friendly To Terrorists'Last November, we ran through the list of senior law enforcement officers on both sides of the Atlantic who all came out with suspiciously similar whines about how strong crypto was turning the internet into a "dark and ungoverned" place. Judging by this story in Reuters, others want to join the choir: Some technology and communication firms are hel ... (more)
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White House Pushes to Keep Power to Shut Down Cellphone NetworksIn 2005, amid reports that the London subway bombers had used cellphones as detonators, the White House secretly established the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 303, which granted the government the ability to unilaterally shut down all cellphone service in an area of its choosing when it feels it needs to.
The details of the procedure are still not public, and a series of lawsuits aiming to at the very least get the basics of how the law even theoretically works have faced mas... (more)
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In Deal To Get Loretta Lynch Confirmed As Attorney General, Senate Agrees To Undermine Free Speech On The InternetTwo versions of bills aimed at sex trafficking are being kicked around by legislators. The SAVE Act (Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation) passed out of the House last year. The Senate version -- the much-less-acronymically-catchy JVTA (Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act) is lookin... (more)
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Miami Police Set to Launch Federally-Funded Pre-Crime SystemThe Miami Police Department is preparing to launch a new federally-funded software program aimed at stopping crime even before it occurs. Purchased with the help of a $600,000 grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the “Hunchlab” predictive policing system will reportedly allow officers to “best forecast when and where crimes are likely to emerge.”
Utilizing years worth of local crime data, the program will use mathematical algorithms to create maps o... (more)
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CIA-Backed Company May Be Reading Your Facebook ChatsWhile sending a web link over Facebook Chat, a group of app developers noticed a curious amount of activity. Pulling at the thread, they discovered a mysterious company known as Recorded Future, and a potential CIA conspiracy.
Facebook Chat seems innocuous enough. So thought Bosnadev, a group of coders and bloggers, when they used the communication program to send a link. But something seemed amiss.
"During the testing of an application we’ve set up in a non-p... (more)
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Report: 'Nearly Every' FBI Forensics Expert Gave Flawed Testimony In 'Almost All Trials' Over A 20-Year PeriodThe FBI seems to be more interested in securing convictions than finding the truth. An investigation into questions about the agency's hair analysis commenced in 1996, but years of foot dragging by the FBI means the full truth has only come to light over the past couple of years. What's detailed in a report compile... (more)
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TSA's Investigation Into Groping Agents Ensured They Wouldn't Be ProsecutedBy now, you may have heard the story about how two TSA agents at Denver International Airport were fired recently after it was revealed that they had worked out a scam by which one agent was able to grope and fondle the genitals of male passengers he found attractive. The plan involved him signalling to a colleague who was working the scanning com... (more)
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One Year Ago, FBI Insisted That 'Terrorist' Guy It Arrested Last Week Was No Threat At AllLast week, we wrote about the FBI arresting John Booker, who was involved in yet another of the FBI's own plots. At the beginning of our post (and the criminal complaint) against Booker, we noted how a year ago Booker had tried to join the army, and had then been denied after posting stuff to his ... (more)
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UK Government Can Now Hand Out Two-Year Sentences For Revenge Porn, Online TrollingRevenge porn is now officially a crime in the UK, as last year's amendments to the Criminal Justice and Court Acts come into effect. This particular amendment targeting revenge porn was proposed last October. The change will cover the sharing of images both online and offline. It will mean that images pos ... (more)
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Middle Schooler Charged With Felony For Hacking Into School's Network To Change Teacher's Desktop BackgroundHOLIDAY — A middle school student who said he was just trying to play a prank on a teacher he didn't like was charged with a cybercrime Wednesday after authorities said he hacked into his school's secure computer network.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office has charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony. Sheriff Chris Nocco said Thursday that Green logged onto the school's ... (more)
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Philly PD Declares All Drivers To Be 'Under Investigation' While Denying Request For License Plate Reader DataWe've all heard nasty things about the citizens of the apparently ironically-named "City of Brotherly Love." They'll boo Santa Claus. They throw batteries at opposing baseball players... and their own. And that's just the sports fans.
More bad news has just arr... (more)
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Baltimore PD Has Deployed Stingray Devices Over 4,300 Times, Instructed By FBI To Withhold Info From CourtsSay what you will about the Baltimore PD and its cell tower spoofers (like... "It would rather let accused criminals go than violate its [bogus] non-disclosure agreement with the FBI…" or "It hides usage of these devices behind pen register/trap and trace warrants and then argues the two collecti... (more)
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