Patriot Act Renewal

Mike Keefe, Cagle Cartoons, The Denver Post May 31, 2011 Dig deeper

Justice Dept. Wants Providers to Retain Internet Data

Staff / Truthdig Jan 25, 2011 The Justice Department will ask Congress to make it mandatory for Internet service providers to retain data on their users' activity. Law enforcement officials already can ask for data to be preserved, but Justice would like to have more robust snooping capabilities in order to investigate and prosecute "almost every type of crime." (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

2011: A Brave New Dystopia

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Dec 27, 2010 The two greatest visions of a future dystopia were George Orwell’s "1984" and Aldous Huxley’s "Brave New World." It turns out they were both right. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

Justice Dept. Hand-Slaps FBI for Spying on Greenpeace and Friends

Staff / Truthdig Sep 20, 2010 The supervising bureaucrats at the Justice Department acknowledged that the FBI should not have been spying on activists, although they decided that the bureau was not targeting anti-war and environmental groups for political reasons. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

One Day, You’ll Have a Chip in Your Rear

T.L. Caswell / Truthdig Sep 13, 2010 Should your car help authorities track you? Should it be a traveling billboard? … Amid emerging technology, the role of the license plate is in flux and causing controversy. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

How to Lose Big Brother’s Interest

Mike Luckovich / Truthdig Aug 9, 2010 Dig deeper

Big Apple? More Like Big Brother

Staff / Truthdig Jun 10, 2010 Citing the specter of terrorism, an appeals court overturned a decision that would have forced New York City to turn over documents detailing the surveillance of demonstrators, street performers and other ne'er-do-wells who may have threatened the 2004 Republican convention and our national security, of course. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

U.K. to Monitor Families With In-Home Surveillance

Staff / Truthdig Aug 5, 2009 With millions of cameras watching its citizens' every move, Britain is already one of the world's leading surveillance states. Now the government wants to go even further, putting cameras in 20,000 private homes "to make sure children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals," reports the Telegraph. Update Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Privacy Intrusion With a Twist

Staff / Truthdig Mar 11, 2009 Google on Wednesday officially announced its entry into the fray of contextualized advertising -- serving up advertisements in accordance with a user's prior Web-surfing habits. The move, which has raised alarm in the privacy community, carries an unprecedented privacy twist: Google users will now be able to see and edit the information the company collects about them. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Google: ‘I’m Feeling Sicky’

Staff / Truthdig Nov 12, 2008 While worries over Google's "big brother" surveillance practices still worry many, a softer, more health-conscious side of the search giant is partnering with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The tool, "Google Flu Trends," uses the aggregate regional data obtained from flu-related searches to predict epidemics weeks before they can be diagnosed by traditional measures. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Tim Robbins on Orwell, Obama and the Media

Kasia Anderson / Truthdig Jun 3, 2008 It's usually a reliable sign that a once-original idea has been utterly stripped of its impact by the time it becomes the premise for a reality television show. Not so for "Big Brother." Several seasons of that particular televised train wreck have come and gone, and besides, Apple Computer also cashed in on the whole surveillance paranoia theme ages ago. Big Brother is watching. We get it. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Homeland Security Meets Reality TV

Staff / Truthdig May 30, 2008 If you thought reality TV was only for wannabe warblers, petulant teens and bug-eating fetishists, guess again. The Department of Homeland Security, "as well as several other government agencies," according to The Hollywood Reporter, is working with ABC on a new "unscripted" show called "Border Security USA," brought to you, creepily enough, by the executive producer of "Big Brother." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )