A Peculiar Blog

I just got the June 6 issue of EFFector and thought I’d share this item from it for those who didn’t see it. It seems that the issue of immunity for telecoms that participated in the NSA’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program.
Now they’re trying to get the FISA court (remember, that’s the “Secret court” that [...]

I’ve just read a BBC News item that reveals a Canadian privacy group, “The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic”, has listed 22 violations of Canadian privacy law.
Basically they say that Facebook is collecting information about it’s users and then sharing that information without their permission. Not only that, but apparently they’re not [...]

I just read a very informative article about one person’s experience with using a commercial service to recover the contents of a “dead” hard drive.
I think this article is well worth reading by anyone that keeps any kind of “sensitive” information on their hard drives. It seems that even if you take the drive [...]

Theres a story on SeatlePI.com about an issue with cell phones that’s going to get bigger before it gets solved.
Basically it’s about cell phone networks releasing information to police without a warrant. Specifically location information. All that the police need do is say that it’s a life or death situation and they’re handing [...]

There’s a saying to the effect that those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. I saw something today that I have to say is very disturbing. It was a tagline somebody used on a post:
The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the [...]

There’s a piece in the NYTimes about lawyers having to fly all over the place and take all sorts of measures because they’re afraid of their contact with clients being monitored by the US government.
While I’m never going to be sympathetic to terrorists & their supporters, it’s part of how things are *supposed* to be [...]

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the fact that there are government agencies doing a lot of snooping on all manner of Internet traffic. It’s also safe to say that since 9-11 this snooping has escalated massively. Now, the FBI is trying to get access to data that the NSA has [...]

Recently I wrote about the feds wanting to collect DNA from everybody arrested. Well, I saw an EFF story that says the public comment period for this proposed rule will end on May 19, 2008. It’s important to get as much input on this topic against allowing this wholesale collection of DNA from [...]

Remember the FISA bill that the Senate tried to get passed that would have given immunity to telecoms for their participation in the illegal NSA domestic spying scandal? Well, it’s not quite dead yet. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has been talking deals with the “genius” behind that bill, Senator Rockefeller and is [...]

We’re moving farther and farther into the last days. One evidence of this is the growing trend of governments and law enforcement agencies to find more excuses to snoop on people. The latest in this trend is proposals by the German government that would allow video surveillance of private homes.
Oh, there’s all the [...]