In a major victory in one of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, the Justice Department conceded yesterday that it will release hundreds of pages of documents, including FISA court opinions, related to the government’s secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the law the NSA has relied upon for years to mass collect the phone records of millions of innocent Americans.
Category: Privacy, Surveillance, & Security
Facebook privacy and kids: Don’t post photos of your kids online.
We post nothing about our daughter online. Nothing. It’s the only way to defend her against facial recognition, Facebook profiling, and corporate data mining.
Knowing what we do about how digital content and data are being cataloged, my husband and I made an important choice before our daughter was born. We decided that we would never post any photos or other personally identifying information about her online. Instead, we created a digital trust fund.
On the day of her birth, our daughter already had accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Github. And to this day, we’ve never posted any content.
All accounts are kept active but private. We also regularly scour the networks of our friends and family and remove any tags. Those who know us well understand and respect our “no posts about the kid” rule.
When we think she’s mature enough (an important distinction from her being technically old enough), we’ll hand her an envelope with her master password inside. She’ll have the opportunity to start cashing in parts of her digital identity, and we’ll ensure that she’s making informed decisions about what’s appropriate to reveal about herself, and to whom.
Source: Facebook privacy and kids: Don’t post photos of your kids online.
Email service used by Snowden shuts itself down, warns against using US-based companies | Glenn Greenwald | Opinion | The Guardian
Glenn Greenwald: Edward Snowden: ‘Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, and the rest of our internet titans must ask themselves why they aren’t fighting for our interests the same way’
I think it is interesting that some people are starting to take action (e.g. closing their businesses) in reaction to this, scare tactics or not. I also think it is somewhat concerning that the government did not just lean on the big firms, but has also started leaning on the little guys. Leaning on the big corporations is unsurprising to me because the government’s “reward” for succeeding is very high, with millions of records captured, and the risk is very low since the companies don’t have much choice but to comply if they lose legal appeals because their shareholders wouldn’t let them simply close up shop.
The politics of this certainly come across from both sides. However, I have a hard time damning them for doing what has worked in the recent past (slogans, tag lines, blowing things out of proportion, etc.) when a convincing case could be made that their position will *definitely* lose if they don’t politi-fight this way. This is annoying, but I really see no way around it.
Online Privacy: How Did We Get Here? | Off Book | PBS Digital Studios – YouTube
As technology has evolved over the past two centuries, so have our expectations about privacy. This new digital world allows us to connect with each other with increasing ease, but it has also left our personal information readily available, and our privacy vulnerable. Cultural norms have pushed us all online, seemingly at the mercy of whatever terms of service are put before us. Cookies and tracking allow companies to collect limitless amounts of information about us, often more than we’d share with family and friends. And in the push for national security, the government has collected vast amounts of information as well, often without our knowledge. With the NSA leak reigniting this important debate, we take a closer look at the state of privacy in the digital age.
Are the Feds Asking Tech Companies for User Passwords? – The Atlantic
The secrecy surrounding the tactic, alleged by CNET sources, is as alarming as the potential abuses.
Even as the Obama Administration avows that it welcomes a civic debate about the surveillance state, it preemptively short-circuits citizens’ ability to assess and debate policy. It’s disingenuous, illiberal, anti-democratic, and imprudent. The notion that self-government, secret policy, and secret law can coexist is Obama’s folly, and the folly of his predecessors.
Source: Are the Feds Asking Tech Companies for User Passwords? – The Atlantic
Secret policy and secret law make for secret police and dictators.