Technology in the News

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Lois Lerner Warned IRS Employees to "be cautious about what we say in emails"

reason.com

by Peter Suderman

July 9, 2014

Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official who cannot provide email records to congressional investigators because of a computer crash shortly after a congressional committee began its probe, warned other IRS employees to be "cautious about what we say in emails" that could be released to Congress. That's according to an email exchange between Lerner, the former IRS director of tax exempt organizations, and another IRS employee. The exchange, which occurred in April, 2013, a little less than two years after her own hard drive crashed, was made public by the House Oversight Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into conservative non-profit organizations.

The Latest Snowden Leak Is Devastating to NSA Defenders

theatlantic.com

by Conor Friedersdorf

July 7, 2014

The agency collected and stored intimate chats, photos, and emails belonging to innocent Americans—and secured them so poorly that reporters can now browse them at will.

Consider the latest leak sourced to Edward Snowden from the perspective of his detractors. The National Security Agency's defenders would have us believe that Snowden is a thief and a criminal at best, and perhaps a traitorous Russian spy. In their telling, the NSA carries out its mission lawfully, honorably, and without unduly compromising the privacy of innocents. For that reason, they regard Snowden's actions as a wrongheaded slur campaign premised on lies and exaggerations. But their narrative now contradicts itself. The Washington Post's latest article drawing on Snowden's leaked cache of documents includes files "described as useless by the analysts but nonetheless retained" that "tell stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes. The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted are catalogued and recorded nevertheless."

CISPA is back.

cispaisback.org

July 7, 2014

This time, CISA is even worse than CISPA. The bill would give the NSA even more authority to access our data and force companies to fork over private data without a search warrant.

CISA is an even more toxic bill than the original CISPA bill. CISA stays in line with the original objective of the CISPA bill to strengthen and legitimize the NSA's surveillance programs. But this time the bill would allow for and encourage sweeping datamining taps on Internet users for the undefined purpose of domestic "cybersecurity". The NSA would be able to share this data with police and other law enforcement agencies for domestic "cybersecurity" purposes - meaning these powers will be used against innocent citizens.

Fight for the Future

fight4future.tumblr.com

July 7, 2014

Over the weekend a detailed report in the Washington Post caught the U.S. government in more lies about the scope of it's dragnet surveillance programs.

The Post showed that the NSA intercepted communications from ordinary people 9 times more often than from "targets" suspected of any wrongdoing. People are outraged. And we should be. Any politician that plans to keep their job should be doing everything they can to put an end to these illegal and unethical surveillance practices. Infuriatingly, *tomorrow* the Senate Intelligence Committee is rushing to advance "CISA," a bill that would give the NSA more access to our data than ever before, and give companies like Facebook and Google legal immunity for violating our privacy.

Four librarians gagged and threatened with prison time under the Patriot Act | Police State USA

policestateusa.com

July 6, 2014

"The fact that the government can and is eavesdropping on patrons in libraries has a chilling effect."

Using the broad powers granted under the USA PATRIOT Act, the FBI demanded that 4 librarians produce private information about library patrons' reading habits, then used an endless gag order to force them to remain silent about the request for the rest of their lives under penalty of prison time. In July 2005, two FBI agents came to the office of the Library Connection, located in Windsor, Connecticut. The Library Connection is a nonprofit co-op of library databases that arranges record-sharing between 27 different libraries. It facilitates book rental tracking and other services.

New Russian law bans citizens' personal data being held on foreign servers

RT

July 6, 2014

All internet companies collecting personal information from Russian citizens are obliged to store that data inside the country, according to a new law. Its supporters cite security reasons, while opponents see it as an infringement of freedoms.

The law, passed Friday by the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, would come into force Sept. 1, 2016. The authors of the legislation believe that it gives both foreign and domestic internet companies enough time to create data-storage facilities in Russia. The bill was proposed after some Russian MPs deemed it unwise that the bulk of Russians' online personal data is held on foreign servers, mostly in the US. "In this way foreign states possess full information, correspondence, photographs of not only our individuals, but companies as well," one of the authors of the bill, Vadim Dengin of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) told Itar-Tass. "All of the [internet] companies, including the foreign ones, you are welcome to store that information, but please create data centers in Russia so that it can be controlled by Roscomnadzor (the Federal Communications Supervisory Service) and there would be a guarantee from the state that [the data] isn't going anywhere."

Judge foils US investigators' attempt to seize Kim Dotcom's decryption keys

RT

July 4, 2014

Investigators in the United States won't be handed over the decryption keys necessary to access digital data seized from the home of internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom in early 2012, a New Zealand judge ruled this week.

Authorities raided Dotcom's mansion outside of Auckland, New Zealand, nearly two-and-a-half years ago as part of an operation conducted with the aid of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in response to felony copyright infringement and racketeer allegations brought in America against the German-born hacker-turned-businessman. Computer hard drives seized from Dotcom's Coatesville, NZ home were cloned and given to the FBI after the incident. This past January, though, the New Zealand Court of Appeals ruled that the American feds should never have legally acquired the copied data.

As Commanded by EU, News Stories Start Disappearing from Google Searches

reason.com

by Scott Shackford

July 3, 2014

The Google purge has begun in Europe. After Europe's top court ruled that people have the "right to be forgotten" and have information that embarrasses them (with no regard for factual accuracy) removed from searches, The Guardian reported that six of their stories are no longer easily findable from people living in Europe.

A 3D Printer That Turns Coke Bottles Into Whatever You Can Imagine

gizmodo.com

by Andrew Liszewski

July 1, 2014

Star Trek's replicators were not only able to produce any food or products our far-off descendants wanted, they were also able to make it from any kind of waste products.

It was the ultimate recycling scenario, one that the new Ekocycle Cube 3D Printer hopes to emulate by using a new filament made in part from recycled plastic bottles. The Ekocycle printer will be available from Cubify for $1,200 later this year, and will use filament cartridges that contain at least three recycled 20 oz. PET plastic bottles, but the material still retains the flexibility and durability of standard 3D printer filament.

Cryptome claims all Snowden files will be published in July to avert a war

RT

July 1, 2014

​All of the National Security Agency files accessed by former contractor Edward Snowden could be published in the month of July if vaguely worded predictions tweeted this week from the digital library site Cryptome prove to be correct.

A series of micro-messages published by the website - a portal for sharing sensitive documents that predates WikiLeaks by a decade - suggest further Snowden leaks may be on the way. "During July all Snowden docs released" reads an excerpt from one Cryptome tweet sent on Monday this week. "July is when war begins unless headed off by Snowden full release of crippling intel. After war begins not a chance of release," reads another tweet sent from Cryptome on Monday this week. "Only way war can be avoided. Warmongerers [sic] are on a rampage. So, yes, citizens holding Snowden docs will do the right thing," insists another.

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