LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 20, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

Rise Up or Die

The Lotto Symbolizes the False Promises of Barracuda Capitalism

Obama Unscathed by Scandals, Mayor Denies Smoking Crack, and More

Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King

'SNL': Stefon's Farewell Features Anderson Cooper

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * Rise Up or Die

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals
The Girls of Atomic City

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar
Tuna: Love, Death, and Mercury

Tuna: Love, Death, and Mercury

By Richard Ellis
$10.88

more items

 
Tags

Tag: Privacy


Neal. (CC BY 2.0)

A ‘Sea Change’ in the Media’s View of Obama?

Upon finding itself a target of the administration’s spying program, the establishment press suddenly disapproves of the president’s record on “civil liberties, transparency, press freedoms, and a whole variety of other issues on which he based his first campaign,” Glenn Greenwald writes in The Guardian.

Posted on May 15, 2013 READ MORE


Here’s What a ‘Bee Drone’ Will Look Like

You’ve heard reports of drones the size of insects. A new video shows a flying robot the size of a quarter developed by engineers at Harvard.

Posted on May 4, 2013 READ MORE



Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)

Jason Collins’ Place in History

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The first male athlete in one of the big American sports to come out of the closet won’t be the last. Also: race and terrorism, and the companies that do (and don’t) protect your privacy from the government.

Posted on May 3, 2013 READ MORE


Jason Collins’ Place in History

This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: The first male athlete in one of the big American sports to come out of the closet won’t be the last. Also: race and terrorism, and the companies that do (and don’t) protect your privacy from the government.

Posted on May 3, 2013 READ MORE



Shutterstock photo of secrets.

Google’s Spymasters Are Now Worried About Your Secrets

There is a growing acceptance and indeed a demand for additional surveillance cameras, cellphone eavesdropping, location checks and biometric identifiers.

Posted on Apr 29, 2013 READ MORE



nolifebeforecoffee (CC BY 2.0)

Don’t Push Us, Intelligence Veterans Say

Intelligence experts say criticism that the FBI should have done more to catch the Tsarnaev brothers and prevent the Boston Marathon bombings could provoke government agencies to infringe civil liberties.

Posted on Apr 23, 2013 READ MORE



Illustration based on images from T-Mobile and Apple.

Review of the iPhone on T-Mobile: No Bullshit

Not so long ago, T-Mobile was suicidal. Now it wants to be the first pro-consumer cellular network.

Posted on Apr 22, 2013 READ MORE



Giffords ‘Furious’ Over Gun Vote, Stewart Mocks ‘Human Centipede’ CNN, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including a setback for privacy rights advocates and the bizarre connection between the alleged sender of ricin-laced letters and one of the targets.

Posted on Apr 18, 2013 READ MORE



TechCrunch (CC BY 2.0)

Regulate Civilian Drones, Google Chief Says

Google CEO Eric Schmidt wants to limit the domestic use of drones by civilians, citing privacy and security concerns.

Posted on Apr 13, 2013 READ MORE



nateone (CC BY 2.0)

Retailers Use Databases to Track and Exclude Workers

Retailers across the country have created a database of workers accused of stealing and are using the information to deprive those people of jobs.

Posted on Apr 3, 2013 READ MORE



Michal Osmenda (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Microsoft Gives Your Information to the Government

The company’s first transparency report shows the U.S. and Turkish governments were nearly tied in 2012 for making the most requests for customer data, such as IP addresses, emails and photographs.

Posted on Mar 22, 2013 READ MORE



erix! (CC BY 2.0)

Judge Rules National Security Letters Unconstitutional

A federal judge Friday ordered the U.S. government to stop issuing “national security letters”—secret demands made of telecommunications companies for their customers’ private data that forbid recipients from discussing the orders with most anyone.

Posted on Mar 16, 2013 READ MORE



moriza (CC BY 2.0)

Spy Agencies to Have Access to Your Finances

The Obama administration plans to give all U.S. intelligence agencies full access to a database that contains information on the financial activity of American citizens and others who bank in the country, a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters says.

Posted on Mar 15, 2013 READ MORE



cambodia4kidsorg (CC BY 2.0)

Value Privacy? Watch Your Likes

Research into 58,000 Facebook users in the U.S. shows that intimate information—including sexual orientation, drug use and political beliefs—can be accurately gleaned from a review of their “like” updates.

Posted on Mar 12, 2013 READ MORE


What Do Data Brokers Know About You?

Data companies are scooping up enormous amounts of information about almost every American. They sell information about whether you’re pregnant or divorced or trying to lose weight, about how rich you are and what kinds of cars you have.

Posted on Mar 10, 2013 READ MORE



Johann Larsson (CC BY 2.0)

What the Government Can Get From Your iPhone

A court document obtained by the ACLU reveals the kind of data federal agents are able to pull off of a seized iPhone using “advanced forensic analysis tools.”

Posted on Feb 27, 2013 READ MORE



Colevito Mambembe (CC BY 2.0)

Facebook Acknowledges It Was Hacked

Facebook revealed that it was the target of a “sophisticated attack” by hackers last month, but claims it found no evidence they gained access to user information.

Posted on Feb 16, 2013 READ MORE



Flickr/dbking

Will Democrats Sell Your Political Opinions to Credit Card Companies?

For years, state Democratic parties have been gathering information about individual voters’ political leanings. Now, that record may go up for sale—and not just to political groups. They are looking into whether credit card companies, retailers like Target or other commercial interests may want to buy the information.

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 READ MORE



satanoid (CC BY 2.0)

Google Reports Government Push for Private Data

Google’s latest transparency report shows the number of government requests for private data increased 136 percent from the second half of 2009 to the end of 2012 as U.S. officials used legislation that “bypasses judicial approval to access the online information of private citizens,” according to The Guardian.

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 READ MORE



Obama’s Second Term Begins, Maher on the U.S. ‘Quasi-Police State,’ and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including sore loser Rick Santorum’s tough talk for the president and why the Republicans’ debt ceiling proposal may be a constitutional fail.

Posted on Jan 20, 2013 READ MORE



Electronic Frontier Foundation (CC BY 2.0)

Truthdigger of the Week: Electronic Frontier Foundation

As the larger part of American culture seems ready to surrender its claim to privacy without question, organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are riding like Paul Revere through the digital Massachusetts night.

Posted on Dec 29, 2012 READ MORE



Screenshot via The Journal News

Newspaper Draws Criticism for Posting Gun Owners’ Addresses

The Journal News, a newspaper that serves New York’s lower Hudson Valley, is taking heat for its decision to post a map with the names and addresses of local gun permit holders on its website over the weekend.

Posted on Dec 26, 2012 READ MORE



edans (CC BY 2.0)

Truthdigger of the Week: @KYAnonymous

When the law lags behind, it’s up to digital do-gooders such as @KYAnonymous to protect the privacy and physical safety of those put at risk by “revenge porn” predators like Hunter Moore.

Posted on Dec 8, 2012 READ MORE



samantha celera

Government Requests for Users’ Google Data Spikes

Were you a target of any of the nearly 21,000 requests made by governments worldwide in the first half of 2012 for access to search results, Gmail accounts and other data Google holds for its users?

Posted on Nov 13, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Lynne Sladky

Mitt Romney Knows Where You Live—And So Much More

The Democratic and Republican campaigns have accumulated a tremendous amount of political and personal data on millions of Americans.

Posted on Oct 31, 2012 READ MORE



Flickr/ massmatt

Supreme Court Dismisses Eavesdropping Lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case against the nation’s telecommunications companies for cooperating with a once-secret wiretap program enacted by the Bush administration to monitor suspected terrorists.

Posted on Oct 9, 2012 READ MORE


Big Brother in Your Car

Your chipper TV friend Flo, otherwise known as Progressive Insurance’s ubiquitous shill, wants you to be excited—very excited.

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 READ MORE



jesus-leon (CC BY 2.0)

British Malware Can Take Over IPhones

Spyware developed by a U.K. group can take control of a number of mobile devices, including iPhones and BlackBerrys, turning on microphones and cameras, tracking locations and monitoring emails, text messages and voice calls.

Posted on Sep 1, 2012 READ MORE



Public Domain Photos (CC BY 2.0)

Government Surveillance: Cheaper and Deeper

Technical advancements and plunging costs for digital storage mean that government surveillance programs no longer have to be selective about the data they store. And with the average person leaving a trail of Web browsing, emails, text messages and more, there’s plenty of information that can be filed away on individuals.

Posted on Aug 24, 2012 READ MORE



Viktor Nagornyy (CC BY 2.0)

NYPD Spying on Muslims Led to No Terror Cases

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg points to the NYPD’s covert counterterrorism program as a model for the rest of the country. But according to a deposition given by the department’s intelligence commander earlier this summer and unsealed on Monday, police eavesdropping on conversations between Muslims has led to no terror investigations.

Posted on Aug 22, 2012 READ MORE



WarmSleepy (CC BY 2.0)

Big Brother Gets Established in NYC

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Wednesday revealed that for the last six months the city has been monitoring its residents via a network of roughly 3,000 closed circuit television cameras that feed into NYPD headquarters. The technology is termed the “Domain Awareness System.”

Posted on Aug 9, 2012 READ MORE



kainet (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Senator Moves to Rein In Warrantless Spying

A bill put forward by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., proposes to slap some limits on the U.S. government’s collecting of information on Americans under its warrantless electronic spying program.

Posted on Aug 4, 2012 READ MORE



Furryscaly (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Privacy by Design

Nicholas Merrill is tired of waiting for Congress to protect Americans’ privacy online. So he plans to force the matter by changing the way telecommunication companies do business.

Posted on Jul 24, 2012 READ MORE



America’s Drones Are Homeward Bound

The FAA has until Sept. 30, 2015, to formulate a plan to integrate up to 30,000 drones into U.S. airspace.

Posted on Jul 17, 2012 READ MORE



twicepix (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Forget ‘Cellphone,’ That’s a ‘Tracker’ in Your Pocket

Mobile phone service providers collect user information and share it with the government, to the tune of at least 1.3 million disclosures per year. What if our nomenclature reflected that?

Posted on Jul 15, 2012 READ MORE



Photo by Johan Larsson (BY-CC)

What Your Cellphone Tells the Police Behind Your Back

It turns out you’ve been carrying a snitch around in your pocket. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., announced Monday that the nation’s wireless providers complied with 1.3 million requests in 2011 for private data, including location and text messages.

Posted on Jul 9, 2012 READ MORE


Glenn Greenwald Challenges the Surveillance State

Some measure of privacy and secrecy for people is essential, especially when it comes to “effective activism,” the Salon blogger and former constitutional lawyer told an audience at the Socialism 2012 conference last week.

Posted on Jul 6, 2012 READ MORE



The Penguin Press

A Former CIA Operative Against Excessive Secrecy

Human rights lawyer Scott Horton, on the Harper’s Magazine website, asks career CIA counterterrorism agent Henry Crumpton what America can do to balance the need for secrecy with the people’s right to know what their government is doing. Crumpton is author of the new book “The Art of Intelligence.”

Posted on Jul 5, 2012 READ MORE



re:publica 2012 (CC BY 2.0)

Open Doubts About the ‘Internet in a Box’

The open-source “FreedomBox” promises “turnkey” privacy, anonymity and security while surfing the Internet. But development problems may ensure it never escapes the feverish dreams of open Internet advocates.

Posted on Jun 29, 2012 READ MORE



(CC-BY)

Property Rights in the Cloud

In the Information Age, you should be thinking about your computer—and asking, how much of you is really yours?

Posted on May 4, 2012 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS



Silvio Tanaka (CC-BY)

Web Inventor: Stop the British Snooping Bill

The British government’s plan to turn the Internet into a national intelligence cache that stores data on every U.K. Web surfer was frustrated Tuesday when Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, condemned such a move as a “destruction of human rights.”

Posted on Apr 18, 2012 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS



Visualogist (CC-BY)

The Key Words the Government Monitors Online

A government manual obtained by a privacy watchdog group reveals that the Department of Homeland Security has compiled a list of hundreds of key words used to detect possible terrorist and other threats on social media sites.

Posted on Feb 25, 2012 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS


Robert Reineke of Venezuela stands by the Google booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 7.
AP / Jae C. Hong

Google Caught Tracking Apple Users

Sneaky, sneaky Google. The online search giant did an end run around Apple’s proprietary Web browser by jacking Safari’s privacy settings so that the Internet travels of iPhone and computer users could be followed for marketing purposes without their knowledge.

Posted on Feb 17, 2012 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS



Flickr / Gauldo

Facebook Gets Spanked by the FTC

As you may recall, a couple of years ago Facebook was caught making users’ personal information public without advance warning, suggesting a cavalier attitude toward the issue of privacy, putting it generously. Well, the Federal Trade Commission also treated the social networking giant generously, it turns out ... (more)

Posted on Nov 29, 2011 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


9/11 Monument

Share
Posted on Sep 11, 2011 READ MORE



kodomut (CC-BY)

Collateral Damage in the War on Anonymity

From warrantless wiretapping to ever-present surveillance cameras, our world is right now in the midst of a long war on anonymity.

Posted on Aug 12, 2011 READ MORE  |  22 COMMENTS



Enrique Dans (CC-BY)

Anonymous Is Going to Try to Kill Facebook (Video)

Remember, remember the fifth of November 2011. That’s the day hactivist collective Anonymous plans to “kill” the second-busiest website on the Internet “for the sake of your own privacy.” In a video message, Anonymous warns that “you are not safe from them [Facebook] nor from any government” to which the social networking website feeds information. (more)

Posted on Aug 9, 2011 READ MORE  |  33 COMMENTS



Jeff Schuler (CC-BY)

FBI Makes It Easier to Pry

The FBI is making it easier for agents to snoop on their fellow Americans without leaving a paper trail, raising disturbing questions outlined by The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer. A former agent quoted by Serwer says it may return the agency to the COINTELPRO era.

Posted on Jun 13, 2011 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS



Facebook

Poll: Are You Worried That Facebook Recognizes Your Face?

Regulators in the U.S. and Europe are concerned about a new Facebook feature that uses face-recognition software to “tag” users in their friends’ photos. (more)

Posted on Jun 9, 2011 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS


Patriot Act Renewal

Share
Posted on May 29, 2011 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


View older articles:  1 2 3 >

View the most popular tags overall?

Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.