May 08 5 things to know about the NSA court ruling By Ken Dilanian, Associated Press WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has declared illegal the National Security Agency program that collects data on the landline calling records of nearly every American. The ruling Thursday, the first of its kind by an appeals court, comes as… Continue reading
Apr 09 Baltimore police often surveil cellphones amid U.S. secrecy By Jack Gillum, Juliet Linderman, Associated Press BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Police Department has an agreement with the U.S. government to withhold certain information about secretive cellphone surveillance technology from the public and even the courts, according to a confidential agreement obtained by The Associated Press. On… Continue reading
Feb 20 NSA helped British steal cell phone codes, latest Snowden leak reveals By Ken Dilanian, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Britain's electronic spying agency, in cooperation with the U.S. National Security Agency, hacked into the networks of a Dutch company to steal codes that allow both governments to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide, according to the documents… Continue reading
Dec 25 NSA releases 12 years of damaging oversight reports on Christmas Eve By Travis Daub Compelled by an ACLU FOIA request, the agency published twelve years of quarterly reports that were created for the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board between 2001 and mid 2013. The reports are heavily redacted, but include details of intentional and unintentional… Continue reading
Nov 14 Planes mimic cellphone towers to collect data By Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is collecting data from thousands of cellphones through high-tech gear deployed on airplanes that mimics communications towers, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Continue reading
Nov 04 Federal appeals court struggles on NSA surveillance case By Pete Yost, Associated Press Three federal appeals court judges struggle to decide if National Security Agency's phone data surveillance program is a necessary intelligence-gathering tool or an intrusion of privacy. Continue reading
Oct 28 Watch How the Postal Service is helping law enforcement monitor snail mail By PBS News Hour An internal audit of the U.S. Postal Service found that it approved nearly 50,000 requests from law enforcement to monitor personal mail. Gwen Ifill sits down with Ron Nixon of The New York Times, who has been investigating this story… Continue watching
Oct 28 U.S. Postal Service approved nearly 50,000 law enforcement requests to monitor mail By Laura Santhanam Law enforcement agencies tracked the mail of tens of thousands of Americans in 2013 with the United States Postal Service’s approval. Continue reading
Sep 12 U.S. threatened Yahoo with daily fine if it did not comply with data handover By Pete Yost, Associated Press WASHINGTON — Yahoo's free email service could have cost the company an extra quarter of a million dollars a day. The government called for the huge fine in 2008 if Yahoo didn't go along with an expansion of U.S. surveillance… Continue reading
Aug 26 AP sources: U.S. surveillance planes fly over Syria By Julie Pace, Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. has begun surveillance flights over Syria after President Barack Obama gave the OK, U.S. officials said, a move that could pave the way for airstrikes against Islamic State militant targets there. Continue reading