Surveillance

Federal Agencies Use Cellphone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement

Apparently, the Trump administration has bought access to a commercial database that maps the movements of millions of cellphones in America and is using it for immigration and border enforcement. The location data is drawn from ordinary cellphone apps, including those for games, weather and e-commerce, for which the user has granted permission to log the phone’s location. The Department of Homeland Security has used the information to detect undocumented immigrants and others who may be entering the US unlawfully, apparently.

(Dis)Connecting the Digital City

Among smart city enthusiasts, digital inclusion — the idea that nobody in the city should be deprived of digital technologies — is an oft-repeated social objective. Despite lofty commitments, the smart city is still a work-in-progress and its record in fostering social inclusion and diversity has been dismal so far. If technological interventions are as apt to deepen divides as redress them, why do proponents insist on the smart city’s promise of lessening urban inequalities?

Attorney General William Barr Asks Apple to Unlock iPhones of Pensacola Gunman

Attorney General William Barr declared that a deadly shooting in Dec at a naval air station in Pensacola (FL) was an act of terrorism, and he asked Apple in an unusually high-profile request to provide access to two phones used by the gunman. AG Barr’s appeal was an escalation of an ongoing fight between the Justice Department and Apple pitting personal privacy against public safety.

FCC Commissioner Starks Remarks to CTA Government Affairs Council

In 2020 and beyond, my principal focus will be ensuring that our communications networks and technologies support security, privacy, and our democratic values. I am optimistic that technological developments, especially 5G standards, will support our efforts to improve network and data security.

10 tech-related trends that shaped the decade

  1. Social media sites have emerged as a go-to platform for connecting with others, finding news and engaging politically. 
  2. Around the world and in the US, social media has become a key tool for activists, as well as those aligned against them.
  3. Smartphones have altered the way many Americans go online. 
  4. Growth in mobile and social media use has sparked debates about the impact of screen time on America’s youth – and others.
  5. Data privacy and surveillance have become major concerns in the post-Snowden era.

In a first, appeals court raises privacy questions over government searches for Americans’ emails

The government’s warrantless collection of emails and other Internet data for national security purposes is lawful, but searching that information for Americans’ communications raises constitutional privacy questions, a federal appeals court in New York ruled. At issue is an appeal by a former Brooklyn man who pleaded guilty to supporting a foreign terrorist group and now is seeking to overturn his conviction, saying the evidence against him was obtained through warrantless surveillance that violated the Fourth Amendment.

Striking Tech Findings From 2019

Every year, Pew Research Center publishes hundreds of reports, blog posts, digital essays and other studies on a wide range of topics. At the end of each year, we compile a list of some of our most noteworthy findings. These are a few striking findings related to tech policy:

Phone records from AT&T and Verizon obtained in impeachment inquiry spark controversy

Phone logs subpoenaed from Verizon and AT&T put a spotlight on the powerful tools at lawmakers' disposal as they seek to investigate President Donald Trump in the impeachment inquiry. The records were some of the strongest circumstantial evidence included in the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment report, revealing extensive contact between President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and the Trump administration during critical points of the Ukraine saga.

New lawsuit challenges Trump administration policy to collect foreigners’ social media accounts

Free-speech advocates are challenging the Trump Administration’s policy of requiring foreigners to list their social media accounts as part of their visa applications, alleging in a lawsuit filed Dec 5 that the policy violates federal law and runs afoul of the Constitution.

Freedom on the Net 2019: The Crisis of Social Media

Internet freedom is increasingly imperiled by the tools and tactics of digital authoritarianism, which have spread rapidly around the globe. Repressive regimes, elected incumbents with authoritarian ambitions, and unscrupulous partisan operatives have exploited the unregulated spaces of social media platforms, converting them into instruments for political distortion and societal control.

Experts Optimistic About the Next 50 Years of Digital Life

1969 was the year that saw the first host-to-host communication of ARPANET, the early packet-switching network that was the precursor to today’s multibillion-host internet. Heading into the network's 50th anniversary, Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked 530 of technology experts how individuals’ lives might be affected by the evolution of the internet over the next 50 years. Some 72% of these respondents say there would be change for the better, 25% say there would be change for the worse, and 3% believe there would be no significant change.

Trump Administration Asks Congress to Reauthorize NSA’s Deactivated Call Records Program

Breaking a long silence about a high-profile National Security Agency program that sifts records of Americans’ telephone calls and text messages in search of terrorists, the Trump administration acknowledged for the first time that the system has been indefinitely shut down — but asked Congress to extend its legal basis anyway. In a letter to Congress, the administration urged lawmakers to make permanent the legal authority for the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans’ domestic communications, the USA Freedom Act.

Cities track citizens' sentiment through social media

Monitoring social media feeds is a common practice for major brands and companies trying to keep up with consumer sentiment and tastes. City governments are now tapping into those data streams to keep tabs on residents' chatter and complaints about what's happening around town.  Social media creates a wide-ranging sensor network of sorts that helps cities direct resources to what residents actually care about.

Coalition presses to change surveillance law

A coalition of nearly 40 privacy and civil liberties groups is demanding changes when lawmakers weigh whether to renew Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which allows for the collection of information about US phone calls and text messages. The provision, and two others that were reauthorized in the 2015 USA Freedom Act following the leaks by former federal contractor Edward Snowden, are slated to expire on Dec. 15 unless lawmakers act.

President Trump's pretzel-logic tech policy

The Trump administration's policy toward big tech moved in two opposite directions recently, as the White House sought the big platforms' help in predicting mass shootings while it was also reportedly drafting plans to punish them for perceived bias. On Aug 9, the administration invoked the help of Google, Facebook and other companies to detect and deter mass shooters before they act. Meanwhile, the White House has circulated a draft of a new executive order aimed at imposing new restrictions on tech platforms' freedom to moderate the content users contribute.

FBI and Facebook Potentially at Odds Over Social-Media Monitoring

An effort by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to more aggressively monitor social media for possible threats could clash with Facebook's privacy policies and possibly its attempts to comply with a record $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The FBI is soliciting proposals from outside vendors for a contract to pull vast quantities of data from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media “to proactively identify and reactively monitor threats to the United States and its interests.” The request was posted in July 2019, weeks before a series of mass murders shook the coun

The Metadata Trap: The Trump Administration Is Using the Full Power of the US Surveillance State Against Whistleblowers

Government whistleblowers increasingly being charged under laws such as the Espionage Act, but they aren’t spies. While we all live under extensive surveillance, for government employees and contractors — especially those with a security clearance — privacy is virtually nonexistent. When a government worker becomes a whistleblower, the FBI gets access to reams of data describing exactly what happened on government computers and who searched for what in government databases, which helps narrow down the list of suspects.  Government insiders charged under the Espionage Act are not allowed to

Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the FCC reveal. Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural SD and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of MN, IA, WI, and MO, before concluding in central IL.

Cisco to Pay $8.6 Million to Settle Government Claims of Flawed Surveillance Tech

Cisco Systems agreed to pay $8.6 million to settle claims that it sold video surveillance technology that it knew had a significant security flaw to federal, state and local government agencies. Cisco will pay civil damages in connection with software that it sold to various government agencies, including Homeland Security, the Secret Service, the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Attorney General Barr says encrypted apps pose ‘grave threat’ to safety

Attorney General William Barr delivered a blistering critique of encrypted messaging programs, saying they are preventing law enforcement from stopping killings, drug dealing and terrorism, and warned that time may be running out for the tech industry to make changes on its own.

Sponsor: 

Blandin Foundation

Date: 
Tue, 10/08/2019 - 14:00 to Thu, 10/10/2019 - 22:00

Broadband access today is as varied as communities across Minnesota. Some enjoy a gig, others are working hard for any service, and the rest are somewhere in between. This conference is for all communities, regardless of where they are on the spectrum – because we’ve learned that having broadband isn’t enough. It takes inspiration, encouragement and guidance to reap the full benefits. We’ll be talking about how to make the most of what you’ve got and/or get more.

This year’s conference will shine a light on local broadband heroes as well as look at several aspects of broadband:



Repeated mistakes in phone record collection led NSA to shutter controversial program

The National Security Agency purged millions of Americans’ phone records after learning that some of the data was collected in error in 2018 as part of a controversial counterterrorism program. Between Oct. 3 and 12, an unidentified phone company provided the NSA with records that it should not have received — records not related to terrorism suspects. The NSA assessed that “the impact was limited given the quick identification, purge processes and lack of reporting,” according to one report.

Right to Connect: A Media-Policy Roadmap for Presidential Candidates

A platform of recommended media-and-tech policies for all presidential candidates. Over the summer of 2019, Free Press Action will send the platform to each of the presidential candidates. Free Press Action will also generate a scorecard rating each candidate’s positions relative to Right to Connect’s recommendations. What is the platform asking candidates to do?

Service Meant to Monitor Inmates’ Calls Could Track You, Too

Thousands of jails and prisons across the US use a company called Securus Technologies to provide and monitor calls to inmates. But the former sheriff of Mississippi County (MO) used a lesser-known Securus service to track people’s cellphones, including those of other officers, without court orders, according to charges filed against him in state and federal court. The service can find the whereabouts of almost any cellphone in the country within seconds.