Last year, U.S. police used a robot to kill someone for the first time following a mass shooting in Dallas, Texas. Now, this disturbing trend towards automation in policing could move a step further towards normalization. A familiar piece of American foreign policy -- the use of lethal weaponized drones -- may become a part … Continue reading Connecticut bill would allow lethal police drones
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The American Civil Liberties Union of California revealed on Tuesday that it has obtained records from prominent social media companies showing that up until recently they had agreements with a controversial data mining company called Geofeedia that markets its social media surveillance services to law enforcement agencies. The companies named in the ACLU report -- … Continue reading Facebook let surveillance company monitor its favorite protest group
In a move described as "unprecedented" by a Justice Department attorney, four current and former Central Intelligence Agency employees, including two top officials, will be called to testify in a civil case against former CIA psychologist contractors who were involved in the Agency's infamous torture program, a federal judge ruled this week. CIA personnel who … Continue reading Judge issues ‘unprecedented’ order for CIA officials to testify in torture case
It may not come as a huge surprise that the company embroiled in controversy following today's groundbreaking Reuters report on surveillance is Yahoo, as the internet search and email giant was one of several major tech companies exposed as being accessible to the National Security Agency's Prism program in 2013. It is certainly shocking to … Continue reading Yahoo revelations expand known scope of NSA mass surveillance
Just over a month after releasing its first numbers on drone strike deaths, including a figure of between 64 and 116 civilians killed that critics have said is vastly underestimated, the Obama administration late last week released a redacted version of its "playbook" outlining the requirements for "lethal action" against suspected terrorists, along with guidelines … Continue reading Drone strike ‘playbook’ shows govt. rationalizing extrajudicial killing
An incident Thursday in which federal agents reportedly demanded access to a Wall Street Journal reporter's mobile phone as she entered the country highlights the broad and vague powers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But the government is actually using a little-discussed loophole in border security law to dubiously claim authority that goes … Continue reading Feds’ attempted search of reporter’s phone highlights egregious border rules
Three years after the Boston Marathon bombing, previously undisclosed documents continue to emerge that challenge official explanations of circumstances surrounding the terrorist attack, specifically relating to actions of the FBI. In the aftermath of the bombing, it was widely reported that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers sought in connection with the attack who … Continue reading New Documents Raise More Boston Bombing Questions
A diverse range of organizations including Amnesty International USA, Uber and Lyft, as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union, published a letter this week urging the rejection of a plan to exempt the FBI's biometrics database from provisions of the Privacy Act. The "Next Generation Identification" (NGI) database, as it … Continue reading Groups Urge FBI Biometrics Transparency
Privacy advocates claimed a small victory last week, as a proposed last-minute change to an Illinois face recognition law was withdrawn shortly after being introduced. Illinois has a strong biometrics privacy law, which requires companies to get consent before collecting biometric data such as face, iris, or fingerprint scans. The change, proposed by Illinois Senator … Continue reading Activists See Threat, Investors See Cash Cow
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