Stop the Propaganda / Feed the Truth » Privacy

Government spies could scan every call, text and email

Stop the Propaganda — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:59:13 +0000

(Telegraph.co.uk) - The huge eavesdropping programme would involve the creation of a mammoth central computer database to store hundreds of billions of individual pieces of communications traffic. Supporters say it would become one of the security services’ most comprehensive tools in the fight against terrorism but critics described it as “sinister”. MI5 currently has to apply to [...]

U.S. agents can seize travelers’ laptops: report

Stop the Propaganda — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:24:01 +0000

(StopThePropaganda.com) - Careful what you keep on your laptop or even your iPod when travelling to the United States. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers’ laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday. Under recently disclosed Department [...]

Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns’ DNA

Stop the Propaganda — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:20:36 +0000

(InfoWars.net) - President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database. Described as a “national contingency plan” the [...]

Telemarketers face ‘do-not-call’ axe on Sept. 30

Stop the Propaganda — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:46:15 +0000

(CBC.ca) - Canadians will be able to give telemarketers the slip as of Sept. 30 when the national do-not-call-list officially begins operating. Under the new rules, announced Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, telemarketers will not be allowed to call anyone who registers either by phone with Bell Canada Inc., which is administering the [...]

Privacy breaches on the rise in B.C.

Stop the Propaganda — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:24:12 +0000

(Vancouver Sun) - The number of privacy breaches in B.C. is on the rise, partly due to a spate of stolen laptops and personal records swiped from employee cars last year, according to the provincial privacy commissioner. Commissioner David Loukidelis said Tuesday his office investigated 92 privacy breaches last year, up from 86 a year earlier [...]

Viacom agrees to YouTube privacy deal

Stop the Propaganda — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:01:24 +0000

(vnunet.com) - Google and Viacom have reached an agreement to omit user information from a YouTube log which the search giant has been forced to hand over. The agreement means that Viacom will not be able to see precisely which videos have been accessed by each viewer, nor will it be able to see a specific [...]

Kerr on Privacy Idealism

Michael Geist — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:23:41 +0000

My colleague Ian Kerr posts a great speech he recently delivered on the importance of privacy "idealism" in advocacy.

Get your hands off my iPod!

Stop the Propaganda — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:00:11 +0000

Big brother is watching you and your iPod. Think about it. If customs officials can inspect the contents of your laptop and your iPod, they might as well see what else is in there. (Guardian News and Media Limited ) - An agreement on intellectual property rights to be ratified by the G8 heads of [...]

Senate Approves Telecom Amnesty, Expands Domestic Spying Powers

Ryan Singel — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:13:49 +0000

(Wired Blog Network) - The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to grant retroactive amnesty to the telecoms that aided the President Bush's five-year secret, warrantless wiretapping of Americans, and to expand the government's authority to sift through U.S. communications, handing a key victory to the Bush administration. READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired Blog Network, Ryan Singel, [...]

45% of Canadians rebuff retailers’ requests for personal info: survey

Stop the Propaganda — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:29:45 +0000

Nearly half of Canadians say they have refused to give personal information to a retailer, according to a survey commissioned by the federal privacy commissioner. The survey also found that one in two Canadians said they have questioned a retailer why they need a name, postal code or address. Consumers said they were reluctant to provide names, [...]

Viacom Will Know What You’ve Watched on YouTube

Stop the Propaganda — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:05:22 +0000

Viacom made several other requests that Judge Stanton denied, including access to YouTube video source code, video ID code, and information on Google’s entire advertising procedure. While it has some programs in place to scan for infringement content, YouTube claimed that there was no automatic way to tell if a video posted to YouTube was copyrighted [...]

YouTube ordered to hand over user details

Stop the Propaganda — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:45:45 +0000

A U.S. federal judge has ordered Google Inc. to hand over to media giant Viacom the records of every video users have watched on the video-sharing site YouTube, records that include users’ names and IP addresses. Viacom is suing Google for not doing enough to keep its copyrighted videos from television shows such as The Daily [...]

CIRA’s Backdoor Access in New WHOIS Policy

Michael Geist — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:25:55 +0000

My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) revisits the disappointment with CIRA's implementation of its new whois policy. While dot-ca registrants across the country were being advised of the new policy last April, special interests representing law enforcement and trademark holders were quietly pressuring CIRA to create a backdoor that will enable these two groups to have special access to registrant information. Just days before the new policy took effect, CIRA caved to the behind-the-scenes pressure and took a major step backward in the implementation of its policy.

CIRA has defended the changes by arguing that the policy will be reviewed in 12 months and that it falls to the government to provide legal protection for whistleblowers. Yet CIRA could just have easily retained the no-exception policy and reviewed its effect one year later. Moreover, it is CIRA's policies - not government law and policy - that leaves online activists stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place." The CIRA whois database is one of the largest publicly-accessible databases of personal information in the country. The agency's last minute about-face represents a significant setback for those registrants who were promised better privacy protection.

Senate Hearing On Laptop Seizures At US Border

kdawson — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:11:00 +0000

suitablegirl writes "As we have discussed, Customs and Border Patrol is allowed to seize and download data from laptops or electronic devices of Americans returning from abroad. At a Senate hearing tomorrow, privacy advocates and industry groups will urge the lawmakers to take action to protect the data and privacy of Americans not guilty of anything besides wanting to go home."

The New Surveillance Bill: The Worst of Both Worlds

Aziz Huq, The Nation — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:00:01 +0000

On fundamental matters of privacy and accountability, the new FISA Amendments Act reduces the separation of powers to a check-the-box exercise.

Bush Wants Your Eyeballs

Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:00:01 +0000

George Bush just issued a directive to expand the acquisition of biometric information from citizens, and may share it with foreign governments.

Wiretaps “R” Us: Is the FBI Tracking Your Cellphone?

Stop the Propaganda — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:02:00 +0000

Under broad powers handed the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Congress in 2001 after it passed the Orwellian USA Patriot Act, the rights of ordinary citizens have progressively been stripped away by America’s national security state. With a history of domestic counterinsurgency operations against the left, and despite bruising attacks after 9/11 on its (undeserved) reputation [...]

Does what happens in the Facebook stay in the Facebook?

Stop the Propaganda — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:18:03 +0000

New Spy Cam Software Blurs Faces of the Innocent

Stop the Propaganda — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:12:00 +0000

Cities and corporations are stringing up thousands and thousands of surveillance cameras, armed with advanced video intelligence algorithms, to watch out for terrorists and crooks. Too bad the rest of us get caught on tape, while the electronic eyes make...