In a week of devastating disclosures about government surveillance, here’s one ray of light. The ACLU of Massachusetts reports the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court‘s verdict in Commonwealth v. Rousseau. In separate trials, John Rousseau and Michael Dreslinski were each convicted of four charges relating to a spree of burning and vandalizing properties. As part of their [...]
Get Your Data Out Of The US Now: NSA’s “PRISM” System Reveals How Insecure Your Data Really Is
by Alex Marthews on June 7, 2013
As if yesterday’s explosive revelations about NSA’s ongoing interception of all of Americans’ phone calls weren’t enough, yesterday evening another top secret document was released (see here for screenshots), documenting for the first time that NSA had persuaded every major tech company with the exception (so far) of Twitter to allow them real-time access to [...]
Can You Hear Us Now? Colonial-Style General Warrants Return To America
by Alex Marthews on June 6, 2013
Glenn Greenwald in the British newspaper The Guardian has published a leaked Top Secret order dating from the day of the Boston Marathon bombings providing evidence of intrusive cellphone surveillance dating from at least 2007. In the order, the NSA directs Verizon to send to it daily the metadata on ALL CELLPHONE CALLS – the [...]
Microscope Monday: Analysis of Massachusetts’ proposed License Plate Privacy Act, H 3068 / S 1648
by Alex Marthews on June 4, 2013
One of the curious things about digitization is that it allows data to be circulated and shared almost effortlessly. New, cheap ways of sharing and storing data can turn data collection that was previously quite innocent into a serious threat to our ability to be free from government surveillance. Historically, the law has recognized no [...]
Free Methuen teenager Cameron D’Ambrosio
by Garret Kirkland on May 31, 2013
[Welcome to our new contributor, Garret Kirkland of the Defend the Fourth Coalition! - Ed.] What the hell is going on in Massachusetts? Nobody needs to be reminded about the Boston Marathon tragedy, and many of you heard about Cameron D’Ambrosio from Methuen, MA, who was taken into police custody in response to a Facebook [...]
A Helpful PSA from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center
by Alex Marthews on May 29, 2013
Here at the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, we have watched in sorrow as misinformation about our work to defend America and keep Americans safe here in America has appeared in certain scurrilous publications. We felt it was important to get the truth out about what we do and why we do it. Some crypto-Marxist at [...]
Maryland v. King: Supreme Court Rules That Warrantless DNA Swabs of Arrestees Are A-OK
by Alex Marthews on May 17, 2013
[Originally published before the ruling; text and headline updated to reflect it. - Ed.] The Supreme Court is considering the case Maryland v. King (thanks to Jennifer Wagner at Genomics Law Report for an excellent and detailed analysis), which turns on whether law enforcement needs a warrant to take the DNA of someone arrested and [...]
By 2020, Commercial Vendors Will Offer Quantum Encryption
by Alex Marthews on May 14, 2013
One of the major problems with challenging the surveillance state is that it is extremely difficult to prove legally that you have been under surveillance. The only people able to prove it are the government themselves, or (in highly unusual cases) people to whom the government has accidentally disclosed that they are under surveillance. What [...]
Drawing The Line On Drones: Maine, Massachusetts legislators ponder when drones can be used without a warrant
by Alex Marthews on May 9, 2013
Scott Thistle at the Bangor Daily News reports that the Maine Senate is now considering a bill regulating the use of drones. The bill is the result of consultations including legislators of both parties, the ACLU of Maine, and the Defense of Liberty PAC. It imposes a one-year moratorium on the use of drones by [...]
FBI-Borg Informs US Private Sector of its Impending Assimilation, Generously Limits Fines for Resistance to $25,000 Per Day Per Violation
by Alex Marthews on May 8, 2013
The FBI has a new proposal afoot to require communications companies doing business in the US to make their communications technologies “wiretap-ready”, to avoid the “going-dark problem”. From Charlie Savage at the New York Times, six hours ago: The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of [...]