If you’re wary of the NSA but still want to keep in touch with your family and friends, I’ve got a cell phone for you. FreedomPop recently launched the Privacy Phone, which the company says is the only smartphone and mobile service that allows for encrypted communications. Nicknamed the “Snowden Phone,” the phone – which Continue Reading →
NSA
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The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording “100 percent” of a foreign country’s telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden. A Continue Reading →
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the first name that comes to mind as a champion of privacy. But the seemingly endless revelations of NSA surveillance programs has inspired Facebook’s founder to call up no less than President Obama himself to defend his users from government intrusion. On Thursday Zuckerberg posted a statement on Facebook calling on the Continue Reading →
Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process. The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology Continue Reading →
NSA leaker Edward Snowden addressed a packed auditorium at South by Southwest on Monday, speaking via livestream from Russia. In response to questions from ACLU program director Ben Wizner, Snowden called on internet service developers to thwart the NSA by making strong encryption ubiquitous. “They’re setting fire to the future of the internet,” Snowden told Continue Reading →
Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk Continue Reading →
Administration lawyers have presented the White House with four options for restructuring the National Security Agency’s phone-surveillance program, from ditching the controversial collection altogether to running it through the telephone companies, according to officials familiar with the discussions. President Barack Obama in January asked U.S. intelligence agencies and the attorney general to report by March Continue Reading →
A new report originating from the ongoing Snowden document trove presents the terrifying possibility that our casual gaming habits offer government surveillance agencies a look at some key personal data, including but not limited to age, location and even sexual orientation. Angry Birds is cited by name by the documents as an example of the Continue Reading →
In an online Q&A session, former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden answered 13 questions posed by Twitter users. The questions he considered ranged from the reasoning behind his leaks, to his hope for what the future of American intelligence programs may look like. In the session, hosted by a “Free Snowden” group, he noted the report Continue Reading →
An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down. The findings are laid out in a 238-page report, scheduled for release by Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, Continue Reading →