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Constitution Protects Location Information, CDT Argues - Via Center for Democracy and Technology:
In a July 31 amicus brief filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, joined by CDT, ACLU and the ACLU of Pennsylvania, argued that cell phone location information is protected by the Fourth Amendment. The brief argues that a court should require the government to obtain a warrant based on probable cause in order to gain access to cell site location information stored by a cell phone company.
Amicus brief in In Re Application of United States [PDF] July 31, 2008
(Read Original Article - Via Center for Democracy and Technology.)
Canadians File Class Actions Over Incoming SMS Fees - Via Slashdot:
dontmakemethink writes "CTV reports that over the last couple of weeks class-action lawsuits have been filed against two major Canadian cellular service providers, Bell and Telus, for imposing fees on incoming text messages. While there has been very vocal opposition to the introduction of the fees, those who cannot change providers due to binding contracts feel the situation is actionable in court. Some of those not bound by contract, such as myself, have given their service provider notice that they will charge the provider for having to contact them to have charges reversed for unsolicited texts. Because service providers are aware of the volume of unsolicited texts, we feel they are liable for the inconvenience to their clients for preventing spam charges, and more importantly under no circumstances should service providers profit from spam. We also feel that requiring us to buy text bundles to avoid the inconvenience of reversing spam charges constitutes extortion. They can charge me for texts when they stop the spam."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
Olympics Journalists Urged To Use Crypto, to Thwart Chinese Spying - Via Threat Level:
Journalists covering the Olympics in Beijing ought to consider using virtual private networks and avoiding the use of instant messenger to interview subjects for stories, says Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN's former Beijing bureau chief and University of Hong Kong new media professor.
"If you are trying to work on sensitive stories that may be beyond topics that perhaps the Chinese government might be happy about you reporting, if you’re communicating with sources who might be under surveillance, you need to make sure that you’re using secure e-mail and that you’re using a secure internet connection," she says. read more »
Only Government Can Argue in Secret Spy Court, Feds Say - Via Threat Level:
The Bush Administration told a secret spying court Wednesday that it should not allow the ACLU to participate in the court's review of new blanket surveillance programs that sweep in milions of emails and phone calls that cross the border, arguing the matter is too sensitive for outsiders.
Under the new spying law passed by Congress in early July, the government may order Google or AT&T or AOL, to turn over every email, phone call or IM that enter or leave the country (with just a few caveats).
For nearly 30 years, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act largely banned such blanket surveillance being done inside the United States, requiring instead that the government get individualized court warrants.
But the government does have to explain to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court how the vacuum cleaner doesn't suck up communications that are known to be from Americans to Americans or purely domestic communications.
The ACLU wants to be there when that happens. read more »
Salon's New Revelations on Illegal Spying - Via EFF.org Updates:
Salon today published a new article in it's series of investigations into the Bush administration's illegal spying programs: Exposing Bush's History Abuse of Power (log-in may be required).
The article describes how some in Washington D.C. are discussing the idea of a new and sweeping investigation into the White House's surveillance programs, one inspired by the famous Church Committee investigations of the 1970s. The Church Committee uncovered the extent of illegal surveillance begun during the McCarthy era and expanded under President Nixon, and lead eventually to the FISA reforms which President Bush has so famously ignored.
The article also makes new claims about the extent of the current spying program, citing the use of a secret database with roots in programs begun under President Reagan in the 1980s: read more »
When the Man-In-The-Middle Wants Money - Via Susan Crawford blog:
I drafted a post today for InternetEvolution that they edited.
Say you’re walking down the sidewalk having a talk with your best friend about all kinds of things. What if you found out later that the sidewalk you were using wasn’t really a sidewalk – but instead a kind of false-front giant copying machine, unobstrusively vacuuming up what you were saying and adding to its database of information about you? Or, say you send a letter to a client of yours (to the extent you still do this), and it turns out later that your letter was intercepted, steamed open, and the contents were read. Or, say you are having a telephone conversation with someone named Peter Brown and it turns out later that the voice you heard on the other end of the line wasn’t Peter Brown at all but instead some sounds aimed at convincing you that Peter Brown was still on the line. read more »
Opposed to Wiretap Amnesty? Run a TV Ad for Six Bucks - Via Threat Level:
If you're one of the thousands of voters angry over the Democrats' cave on domestic spying and telecom amnesty, a new online grassroots movement is now making it easy to buy a local ad on MSNBC, CNN and several other networks, for less money than you'd think.
The grassroots group Get FISA Right has created a 30-second spot critical of the surveillance bill passed by Congress earlier this month. It's placed the spot with a Los Angeles startup that buys ad time in bulk from cable providers and resells off slivers to individuals willing to pay for airtime in markets around the country. read more »
Three Ways to Fight Immunity - Via EFF.org Updates:
It’s been two weeks since the Senate’s cowardly vote to pass the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), caving in to the president’s demands. With this vote, Congress gave the president virtually all of the spying powers he has sought for so long, and delivered the one thing he demanded above all else: Immunity for his telecom buddies for their role in his illegal spying program.
EFF fought long and hard to prevent passage of immunity for the telecoms, and this vote was a serious setback for our case seeking to hold AT&T and the other telecoms accountable. But the fight is far from over. As we suggested in the immediate aftermath of the vote, Congress may have caved, but EFF has not. In the coming months and weeks, we will continue the fight against immunity on multiple fronts.
Here is a brief primer on what we are doing now to fight back against this unconstitutional bill: read more »
Anti-Robocall Crusader Pushes For a Crackdown on Political Phone Droids - Via Threat Level:
With the general election still a few months off, the subject of robocalling is probably far from the minds of most voters. But Shaun Dakin has become a quixotic national crusader against these automated calls, and he wants to put politicos on notice.
Dakin, the founder of the non-profit National Political Do Not Contact Registry, is launching a new initiative to push California regulators to enforce its little-noted robocall rule.
"What we're trying to do is to make politicians understand that there is a law on the books against these kinds of automated robocalls without a live person -- it's $500 per incident per violation," he says. "We want to make them realize that someone's paying attention to this."
With few exceptions, California's public utilities code says that robocalls are only legal when they're introduced by a live person. But Dakin says that the rules are never enforced, and points to the spate of robocalls conducted by the presidential candidates during this year's primaries as an example. read more »
Speculation over back door in Skype via Heise Online (DE)
According to reports, there may be a back door built into Skype, which allows connections to be bugged. The company has declined to expressly deny the allegations. At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations.
This has been confirmed to heise online by a number of the parties present at the meeting. Skype declined to give a detailed response to specific enquiries from heise online as to whether Skype contains a back door and whether specific clients allowing access to a system or a specific key for decrypting data streams exist. read more »
It's Not Just 02 Leaking MMS Messages - Via Slashdot:
wiedzmin writes "A recently publicized issue with UK's O2 leaking private MMS to the Internet by making them available and searchable in Google has gained a lot of momentum and forced the company to promptly fix the problem. However a quick internet search shows that other mobile server providers, including those located in US and Canada, also make all MMS messages available in a similar manner. In fact, operators like Sprint and Boost Mobile will even let you see the phone number from which the picture or video was sent, download it, print it, forward it or reply to it from the same web page. Other operators like Canada's Bell, Solo Mobile, Verizon, Rogers and Quest appear to have removed or otherwise protected all MMS messages recently as all the cached search listings that show up for these providers are no longer available. There is no telling how many other operators' MMS listings can be accessed given correct search terms, but it looks like they are starting to get the idea and remove them from the web."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
CRS Report of the Week: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: A Sketch of Selected Issues - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:
This report was prepared and published prior to the Senate passing of FISA.
CRS Report RL34566, July 7, 2008.
From the report’s summary:
The current legislative and oversight activity with respect to electronicsurveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has drawnnational attention to several overarching issues. This report briefly outlines threesuch issues and touches upon some of the perspectives reflected in the ongoingdebate. These issues include the inherent and often dynamic tension between nationalsecurity and civil liberties, particularly rights of privacy and free speech; the need forthe intelligence community to be able to efficiently and effectively collect foreignintelligence information from the communications of foreign persons located outsidethe United States in a changing, fast-paced, and technologically sophisticatedinternational environment or from United States persons abroad, and the differingapproaches suggested to meet this need; and limitations of liability for thoseelectronic communication service providers who furnish aid to the federalgovernment in its foreign intelligence collection. Two constitutional provisions, inparticular, are implicated in this debate — the Fourth and First Amendments. Thisreport briefly examines these issues and sets them in context.
(Read Original Article - Via CDT - PolicyBeta.)
The FCC: Current Structure and its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:
This report provides a brief look at the FCC budget for the last three years, followed by an overview of the Commission and its mandate, structure, strategic plan, and proposals for both procedural and substantive changes.
CRS Report RL 32589, May 13, 2008
From the Report’s Summary: read more »
Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law - Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald:
(Updated below - Update II - Update III - Update IV)
This afternoon, I spoke with Jameel Jaffer, the Director of the ACLU's National Security Project, regarding the two legal proceedings commenced today by the ACLU challenging the constitutionality of the new FISA law. The roughly 20-minute discussion can be heard here.
The ACLU filed one action in the FISA court, requesting that -- contrary to how the FISA court normally works -- all proceedings regarding the constitutionality of the FISA law be open to the public and transparent, and that the proceedings be adversarial (i.e., that the ACLU -- rather than just the Government -- can participate). The other action was filed in a federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that the provisions which vest vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President are, for multiple reasons, violative of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU's lawsuits do not challenge the constitutionality of the telecom immunity provisions of the new FISA law because those sections will be challenged by EFF and local/affiliate ACLU groups in separate actions. The legal documents filed today by the ACLU are here.
In the podcast, Jaffer details exactly what warrantless surveillance powers the new FISA bill vests in the President, along with the reasons they are so pernicious. read more »
The ‘Repeal Immunity’ Movement Begins Today - Via EFF.org Updates:
Today, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston was invited to guest-blog at The Hill.com's Congress Blog on EFF's plans in the wake of the recent surveillance law overhaul:
Our long war against warrantless wiretapping has only just begun, and we will not stop until we get that legal ruling we’ve been fighting for. Wednesday we only lost a battle, not the war, and EFF’s struggle to hold the White House and the telecoms accountable for their lawbreaking will continue on multiple fronts — starting with a constitutional challenge to the immunity provisions...
While duking it out over immunity in the courts, EFF will also continue its fight in Washington, working in the next session of Congress — a Congress likely to be much different in its composition than today’s, and working with a different president — to wipe the stain of the FAA’s immunity provisions off the books.
(Read Original Article - Via EFF.org Updates.)
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