Tag Archives: Privacy

If you’re like me, you probably enjoyed the spectacle of Tom Matzzie live-tweeting an overheard off-the-record conversation between Ex NSA Director Michael Hayden and a reporter. The hilarity was terminated when a colleague of Hayden called him to warn of … Continue reading →

Rick Falkvinge has a great article that makes an obvious point. We can know for sure that government surveillance has foiled exactly zero terror plots. We know this because planning, let alone carrying out, terror plots is a crime but … Continue reading →

The U.S. Government’s overreaching has claimed another victim. The CryptoSeal VPN service has pulled the plug. These are good guys who did everything possible to provide a secure, private VPN service. They didn’t keep logs and could provide authorities only … Continue reading →

I’ve written before about Aaron Swartz’s last project, software to enable whistle blowers to communicate with news organizations anonymously. The New Yorker was the first to implement the system. Those with information about government misdeeds finally had a secure way … Continue reading →

Bruce Schneier has an interesting post on setting up an air gap computer. It seems simple: just never connect your computer to the Internet. The problem is a completely isolated computer isn’t much use unless all you want to do … Continue reading →

The New Yorker has a nice article on the Lavabit back story and current status. It recounts the details of the negotiations between Lavabit and the government. It’s pretty clear that the government was disingenuous about their demands. Armed with … Continue reading →

A common reaction to the NSA disclosures has been, “Meh, it’s just metadata.” Unfortunately, the issues are perceived as being overly technical and as a result it is difficult to explain to the man-in-the-street, let alone your Aunt Millie, how … Continue reading →

In my The New York Times on Encryption Backdoors post, I mentioned that Representative Russ Holt of New Jersey has introduced legislation that reins in the NSA and prohibits some of its more egregious activities. Although it doesn’t go far … Continue reading →

In a bit of good news, The New York Times has published an editorial Calling on the NSA to close their backdoors. There’s nothing in the editorial that will be news to Irreal readers but it’s useful because it educates … Continue reading →