Tag Archives: Privacy

“We’re going to give you the opportunity to do stuff you can’t legally do anywhere else” — NSA Director's hiring pitch at Stanford. — Morgan Mayhem (@headhntr) November 6, 2014 You probably can’t legally do those things at the NSA … Continue reading →

Remember how I told you that law enforcement will always abuse surveillance powers? Here’s the latest proof. Despite the solemn promises, less than 1% of sneak-and-peek warrants are actually for terrorism investigations.

I know I’ve said it over and over but it bears repeating: Law Enforcement will ALWAYS abuse any data collection opportunity they are given.

Recently, The Washington Post published an editorial suggesting that Apple, Google, and other smart phone manufacturers provide a golden key to allow law enforcement access to locked phones. “Golden Key,” of course, is just a euphemism for a backdoor. It’s … Continue reading →

When arguing that they be given some new extraordinary power, governments always say, “You can trust us not to abuse this power.” It always turns out to be a lie. Here, from Britain—a democratic country by any honest person’s definition—is … Continue reading →

For those who have been off-planet and haven’t heard the news, Apple’s iOS 8 encrypts the contents of users’ iPhone and iPads in such a way that only the user—not Apple—can access it. That means that Apple can no longer … Continue reading →

A recurrent theme around here has been the need to give crypto-enabled apps a user interface that is transparent to Aunt Millie. This is important because no matter how well-protected the geeks make themselves, no one is truly safe until … Continue reading →

According to Betteridge’s law the answer should be no but Bruce Schneier isn’t so sure. We’ve heard the speculation about a second leaker responsible for revealing the details of the TAO catalog, X-KEYSTORE rules, and the tapping of Angela Merkel’s … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I wrote about the logical conclusion of government surveillance in democracies. If you’re wondering what the end result looks like in the large, here’s the answer. The most horrifying part of the linked story is: Singapore’s program is modeled … Continue reading →

I’ve been writing, recently, about surveillance abuses in the United States. Just in case my European pals are imagining that this is an NSA problem that mainly concerns America with a few residual casualties in Europe, consider this logical conclusion … Continue reading →