National Security Agency (NSA)

See the following -

After Long Delay, Obama Declines To Rule On Petition Calling For Firing Of DOJ Officials Over Aaron Swartz’s Suicide

Brian Fung and Andrea Peterson | The Washington Post | January 8, 2015

The White House has declined to rule on a petition that called for the firing of two Justice Department officials over the handling of a controversial court case involving Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide in 2013 after being accused of hacking into a university network...

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Analysis: Government’s Vast Lockers Of Data Threaten Basic Individual Freedoms

Major Garrett | Nextgov | June 12, 2013

I’m going to try to tie together strands of information NSA-style and see if a pattern emerges. I will be looking for signs that America’s historic definition and understanding of privacy are being eroded. I will also try to understand if that erosion could fundamentally alter an individual American’s relationship to government power. Read More »

Anonymous Claim Apple's Touch ID Is Linked To US Surveillance

Johnny Evans | Computerworld | October 1, 2013

Anonymous have some big claims concerning Apple [AAPL] Touch ID system, claiming a connection between the technology and the US defense industry to claim it's just another step forward for state surveillance. Read More »

Anti-RSA TrustyCon Draws Packed House Seeking Modern Security Know-How

Serdar Yegulalp | InfoWorld | February 28, 2014

Disgusted by the possibility that RSA took $10 million in NSA money to use a deliberately flawed encryption algorithm, a small contingent of folks originally slated to appear at the 2014 RSA Conference decamped and staged their own security-themed get-together: TrustyCon. Read More »

Anyone Brushing Off NSA Surveillance Because It's 'Just Metadata' Doesn't Know What Metadata Is

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | July 8, 2013

One of the key themes that has come out from the revelations concerning NSA surveillance is a bunch of defenders of the program claiming "it's just metadata." This is wrong on multiple levels. Read More »

Apple Strongly Denies Stuffing iPhones And iPads With NSA Backdoors

Paul Cooper | ITProPortal.com | July 24, 2014

Apple has vociferously denied writing surveillance backdoors into iOS, the operating system used on the iPhone and iPad range of devices. The Cupertino CA-based company released a strongly-worded statement denying any collusion with the spying programmes of intelligence agencies like the NSA and GCHQ...

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Apple, Facebook, Others Defy Authorities, Notify Users Of Secret Data Demands

Craig Timberg | The Washington Post | May 1, 2014

Major U.S. technology companies have largely ended the practice of quietly complying with investigators’ demands for e-mail records and other online data, saying that users have a right to know in advance when their information is targeted for government seizure.  

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Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter And Others Call For More NSA Transparency

John Paczkowski | AllThingsD.com | July 17, 2013

Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft are part of a broad alliance of technology companies and civil liberties groups that will tomorrow demand dramatically increased transparency around U.S. government surveillance efforts. Read More »

Are Apple iOS, OS X Flaws Really Backdoors For Spies?

Ellen Messmer | Network World | February 26, 2014

Two recently-discovered flaws in Apple iOS and Mac OS X have security experts openly asking whether the software vulnerabilities represent backdoors inserted for purposes of cyber-espionage. There's no clear answer so far, but it just shows that anxiety about state-sponsored surveillance is running high. Read More »

Are Mapbox And OpenStreetMap's Personalised Maps The Future Of Cartography?

Sarah Shearman | The Independent | June 26, 2013

People are creating their own maps and databases in a movement called open-source mapping, as Sarah Shearman discovers. Read More »

Back Off, NSA: Blackphone Promises To Be The First Privacy-Focused Smartphone

Sharif Sakr | Engadget | January 15, 2014

You may never have heard of Geeksphone, unless you take a particular interest in Firefox OS, but the Spanish manufacturer could be about to garner some global attention. It says it'll launch a new handset at Mobile World Congress next month that will prioritize privacy and security instead of all the intrusions that smartphone users usually have to put up with [...]. Read More »

Big Brother Would Like To Warn You About Big Brother, Inc.

Philip Bump | The Wire | May 2, 2014

...The new report, titled "Big Data: Seizing opportunities, preserving values," tries to flesh out what those private-sector ramifications might be...The report is the White House "hoping to move the national debate over privacy beyond the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities to the practices of companies like Google and Facebook," as the paper puts it...

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Big Data And Analytics: The Hero Or The Villain?

Theo Priestley | Wired | June 10, 2013

As the NSA PRISM debacle continues to unfold and spreads across continents it’s probably good to stop and think about the technology and philosophy behind it all. Because this is big data and analytics in its most potent and controversial form, and it’s certainly not the last time we’ll see this hit the headlines. Read More »

Big Data And Open Data: What's What And Why Does It Matter?

Joel Gurin | The Guardian | April 15, 2014

Big data and the new phenomenon open data are closely related but they're not the same. Open data brings a perspective that can make big data more useful, more democratic, and less threatening. 

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Bill in Congress Targets NSA's Accumulo Open Source Project

Kathleen Hickey | Government Computer News | July 20, 2012

A new bill on Capitol Hill could have far reaching implications for government use and development of open source platforms – potentially requiring all open source projects to “prove adequate industry support and diversification.”

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