MetaFilter posts tagged with privacy

NSA Has Routinely Listened In On Americans Phone Calls, Passed Around Salacious Bits

ericb — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:51:27 -0800

"Ever since President Bush confirmed the existence of a National Security Administration wiretapping program in late 2005, he has insisted it is aimed only at terrorists’ calls and protects Americans’ civil liberties ("This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America — and I repeat: limited.")....However, ABC News reports [text with embedded video] that the NSA frequently listened to and transcribed the private phone calls of Americans abroad....These conversations included those of American soldiers stationed in Iraq and American aid workers abroad, such as Doctors Without Borders."^* A former military intercept operator: "These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East....personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism....[We] routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted....'Hey, check this out...there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy.'"

Cats Defending Henhouses

digaman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:58:21 -0800

Worried about social-network data mining? Facebook hires Ted Ullyot, former right-hand man to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as its general counsel. Tapping Ullyot, who worked on the infamous torture memo and other illustrious projects, is a sign that the burgeoning Scrabble platform "is a little more grown-up," says Facebook public-policy VP Elliot Schrage.

We admire your work

cimbrog — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:42:04 -0800

We know the NSA is watching. They have corporate buddies to help them out. But now they've found a true ideological soul mate - China While there are significant hurdles to be overcome for Q6/17's plans to become a reality, it doesn't make people feel any better when they are using justifications like this. [Via]

It's not dead, it's just resting

bjrn — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:25:27 -0800

Privacy is dead - get over it [part 2] is a talk by private investigator Steve Rambam. It's a talk he has been giving for a number of years where he shows how privacy is being taken away, not by sinister plots but because people are giving it away. With people putting up everything and nothing on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and so on, as well as a growing quantity of data held in private databases, he shows how easy it is to find out enormous amounts of data on just about anyone. All in all the video is three hours long, but if you have the time it's well worth watching. It includes Steve summing up how much info he managed to get on a volunteer in four and a half hours (a lot, everything really). And how he made a bet seeing if the same volunteer could avoid being tracked down by Steve for 60 days (it involved some more stuff, but you'll have to watch the video). This version of the talk was recorded at The Last HOPE conference, where MeFi's own Adam Savage also had a talk.

WhoTubes?

The Bellman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:59:35 -0800

Google has been ordered to turn over all of its electronic records of the videos watched by users on YouTube to Viacom. The 12 terabytes of data include records of every video watched by every user, including the user's login name (if any) and IP address. Google had complained that the disclosure would invade user's privacy, but this argument was blunted somewhat by Google's earlier statement that IP Addresses are not, in and of themselves, personally identifying information. Google was also ordered to turn over certain other information, including its video classification database schema, but was not ordered to turn over information regarding videos marked as private, its source code, or its advertising database schema.

Cyber Command Über Alles

homunculus — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:55:24 -0800

Attention Geeks and Hackers: Uncle Sam's Cyber Force Wants You! Welcome to Cyberwar Country, USA

Mental Privacy

homunculus — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:15:07 -0800

The Government Is Trying to Wrap Its Mind Around Yours. Why the Next Civil Rights Battle Will Be Over the Mind.

Keep your telescreens on comrades

caddis — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:59:26 -0800

With Comcast, your TV watches you. Comcast is developing cable boxes with cameras to watch the room. They will know who is there to provide shows in your profile, engage parental controls, and of course, deliver targeted advertising. ~~Ceiling Cat~~ Comcast is watching you....

Watch Lists

homunculus — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:50:34 -0800

ACLU Watch List Counter: U.S. Terror List Now Exceeds 900,000 Names. That's an awful lot of terrorists. More Privacy and Surveillance Filter: Bruce Schneier on The Myth of the 'Transparent Society', Glenn Greenwald on The Banality of the Surveillance State, and Stephen Colbert on AT & Treason. A spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center had a response to the ACLU in a comment at Threat Level.

Internet Troll Moves to Quash Subpoena Designed to Uncover their IRL Identity

Law Talkin' Guy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:04:23 -0800

Two Yale Law School graduates who allege they were subjected to a campaign of online harassment file suit against the site's owner and two dozen internet trolls for copyright infringement, defamation, and a variety of other tort and IP claims. In the latest developments, the website's owner was dropped from the lawsuit, and another defendant moved (seemingly pro se) to quash a subpoena served originally on their ISP to reveal their identity. The case raises compelling questions regarding the limits of personal jurisdiction, liability of anonymous defendants and nonparty search engines that might be subject to injunctions, and of course the age-old struggle to balance first amendment rights to freedom of speech with laws that discourage malicious harassment.