Tag: mass surveillance

The Many Occasions Joe Biden Took Credit For Writing The Patriot Act

If Vice President Joe Biden decides to enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, his past positions — including on trade bills, the Iraq War, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and changes to welfare — are sure to draw the ire of the party’s liberal base.

Much has already been made about Biden’s instrumental role as a senator pushing through the 1994 crime bill — “a bill that made the problem worse” according to former President Bill Clinton, who signed it into law.

Another potential sticking point for liberals: Biden not only voted for the 2001 Patriot Act, he, on many occasions, claimed credit for writing it.

“I drafted a terrorism bill after the Oklahoma City bombing,” Biden was quoted as saying by the New Republic in 2001.

“And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill,” Biden continued, referring to the Patriot Act. The act broadened the surveillance capabilities of U.S. law enforcement agencies as it relates to identifying potential terrorists, and many of its provisions have been opposed by liberal Democrats and civil libertarians.

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You can’t fight fascism by expanding the police state

In the coming days and weeks we are likely to see pundits and lawmakers call for things like passing a new domestic terrorism law, expanding mass surveillance programs, increasing funding for the FBI and law enforcement, installing backdoors in encrypted messaging apps, and arming police with more technology like facial recognition and social media monitoring software. We’re also likely to see renewed attempts by the government to curtail freedom of expression, including misguided attacks on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

This is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing. Expanding the U.S. government’s already bloated surveillance state will only bring more terror and harm to the same communities that Trump targeted with his racist policies and rhetoric. More money, weapons, and technology in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security—an agency complicit in human rights abuses long before Trump took office—won’t stop the rising threat of right-wing violence. Instead it will be used to suppress legitimate dissent, and disproportionately target Black and brown activists, Muslims, immigrant communities, and social movements that effectively challenge systemic injustice and corporate power.

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Project Mockingbird / Operation Mockingbird

There have been a lot of rumors and allegations against what “Mockingbird” actually was, but it appears that quite possibly, there were two project names. One has been confirmed while the other remains elusive (if real at all).

Project Mockingbird

PROJECT Mockingbird was a wiretapping operation initiated by President John F. Kennedy to identify the sources of government leaks by eavesdropping on the communications of journalists.

This is the program mentioned in the CIA records below, and The Black Vault also added records from the Gerald Ford Presidential Library on the same.

Operation Mockingbird

OPERATION Mockingbird was a alleged secret campaign by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to influence media. Begun in the 1950s, it was said to be initially organized by Cord Meyer and Allen W. Dulles, it was later led by Frank Wisner after Dulles became the head of the CIA.

The organization recruited leading American journalists into a network to help present the CIA’s views, and funded some student and cultural organizations, and magazines as fronts. As it developed, it also worked to influence foreign media and political campaigns, in addition to activities by other operating units of the CIA.

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How silent signals from your phone could be recording and tracking you

Aside from networking, companies use ultrasonic signals (or beacons) to gather information about users. That could include monitoring television viewing and web browsing habits, tracking users across multiple devices, or determining a shopper’s precise location within a store.

They use this information to send alerts that are relevant to your surroundings – such as a welcome message when you enter a museum or letting you know about a sale when you pass by a particular store.

But since this technology records sound – even if temporarily – it could constitute a breach of privacy. An analysis of various Australian regulations covering listening devices and surveillance reveals a legal grey area in relation to ultrasonic beacons.

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Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Repeal Unconstitutional Patriot Act

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) have joined forces from across the aisle in an attempt to bring an end to the unconstitutional Patriot Act forced upon the American people in the wake of 9/11.

Since its quick arrival on October 26, 2001, the USA Patriot Act has been an assault upon civil liberties of ordinary citizens, as well as a boon for the military-industrial complex receiving a flood of taxpayer dollars in the name of security.

Moreover, the bulk data collection of information on Americans has never received proper transparency or oversight, even to Congress. Rep. Massie and Rep. Gabbard are now introducing new legislation called the “Protect Our Civil Liberties Act” (HR8970) as a means to remedy the abuses with 6-point approach.

  1. Repeal the Patriot Act, which permitted phone metadata collection.
  2. Repeal the FISA Amendments Act, which permitted email surveillance.
  3. Make retaliation against whistleblowers inside the intelligence community illegal – with penalties for engaging in such activity.
  4. Ensure that probable cause warrants are issued in all cases of government surveillance of Americans.
  5. Prohibit government backdoors designed to end-run encryption and other privacy measures.
  6. Mandate that the Government Accountability Office annually monitor all surveillance programs for compliance.

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Government Keeps List of 8 Million Names Considered Threats – MORE NEW SECRET DOCUMENTS

Main Core is the code name of a database maintained since the 1980s by the federal government of the United States. Main Core contains personal and financial data of millions of U.S. citizens believed to be threats to national security. The data, which comes from the NSA, FBI, CIA, and other sources, is collected and stored without warrants or court orders.

The database’s name derives from the fact that it contains “copies of the ‘main core’ or essence of each item of intelligence information on Americans produced by the FBI and the other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community.”
If you are a student of history, however, you will realize this is nonsense. If you know anything about Continuity of Government measures implemented following September 11, 2001 and earlier programs like Rex 84 and Operation Garden Plot , you already have a sneaking suspicion the NSA’s massive surveillance operation has nothing to do with al-Qaeda. It’s about collecting data on American
citizens, specifically the eight or so million compiled in the Main Core database.

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Creepiest Tech Guide of 2020 — Activity Trackers, Wireless Headphones, Smart Speakers, OMG!

For many years experts have warned about privacy AND cybersecurity risks associated with “Smart” (see 1, 2, 3), wireless, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and technology (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

Thanks to Mozilla for publishing their 2020 guide to help you determine which products are too invasive for your comfort level. Hint: if privacy matters to you even the slightest – completely avoid Amazon’s new Halo health band.

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New Study Reveals The Most Heavily Surveilled Cities on Earth

2021 is a big moment for CCTV: the world’s one-billionth surveillance camera is likely to be installed by the end of the year. A single CCTV camera per every eight humans on Earth.

But of course, it doesn’t quite work like that. Each camera doesn’t follow a set group of people around, creating a neatly edited portrait. The cameras are (mostly) fixed in position, and some countries have many more cameras than others.

In China and the US, for example, there is already one camera per 4.1 and 4.6 people, respectively – way ahead of the curve. But what if it is more pertinent to think of how cameras are distributed spatially? After all, more cameras across a city with a smaller footprint makes for greater coverage of everybody’s comings and goings.

The increasing levels of CCTV surveillance could have direct implication to people’s privacy, so Surfshark wanted to know which cities have the highest number of CCTV cameras per square kilometer. We gathered the numbers, crunched them, and produced a series of new visualizations to illustrate just how pervasive surveillance cameras are in the 130 most populous international cities.

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