Since the first of many leaked documents showed that the NSA has been gathering phone records as part of its anti-terrorism program, there's been an ongoing fight over just what these records reveal.
To supporters, the metadata collection is a limited system that's rarely queried and doesn't contain enough information to be considered an invasive search: the NSA has said it doesn't collect either the content of calls or the names attached to phone numbers.
As many technology and legal experts on the other side say, though, metadata matters, and a Stanford Security Lab project demonstrates that removing names from a database doesn't effectively mean much.
Read moreIn his first television appearance since claiming asylum in Russia, Snowden -- who caused shockwaves around the world by revealing mass US electronic surveillance programmes -- will give a staunch defence of privacy in the short pre-recorded broadcast.
"Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel asking is always cheaper than spying," he says.
Citing the classic dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four", he adds: "Great Britain's George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information.
Read moreCanada’s intelligence agency deliberately kept the country’s Federal Court “in the dark” to bypass the law in order to outsource its spying on Canadian citizens abroad to foreign security agencies, a federal judge said.
Federal Court Judge, Richard Mosley, has slammed the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for knowingly misleading him on numerous occasions.
Since 2009, Mosley has issued a large number of warrants to the CSIS, authorizing interception of electronic communications of unidentified Canadians abroad, who were investigated as threats to domestic security.
Read moreThe U.S. government claims that a public hearing on wiretapping is not possible, as this will damage the country's security, because the materials of the case still remain classified.
According to the Government, despite the fact that the whistleblower Edward Snowden opened the world have sufficient secrets when discussing details may emerge new details. For example, many are now wondering whether engaged in collecting intelligence data itself or telecommunications companies such as AT & T and Verizon, helped her in this. In considering the claims in court for the first time the government has acknowledged that the NSA wiretapping of telephone conversations engaged and media monitoring.
Read moreTop Israeli politicians want the US to stop "systematically spying" on Israel after revelations that the NSA intercepted emails of former top brass. Much to everybody's surprise, the Prime Minister’s Office has chosen to stifle the scandal, however.
"The secret is out," Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said on Sunday. "The US is systematically spying on the defense and diplomatic leadership here in Israel. Is this how friends treat each other?" Housing Minister Uri Ariel said on Israel Radio he expected the US to admit wrongdoing.
Read moreData collected by Norway's intelligence services in Afghanistan is used by US and Nato forces to target controversial drone attacks, the organisation's head has revealed.
Lieutenant General Kjell Grandhagen told Aftenposten newspaper that the data Norway's E-Service handed over to the US's National Security Agency was "part of an overall information base used for operations".
"Such operations may include the use of drones or other legal weapons platforms," he confirmed. When Norway's Dagbladet newspaper reported in November that the US's National Security Agency collected 33m pieces of phone data from Norway over just one month, Grandhagen claimed that this was not data from Norwegians' phone calls as Dagbladet reported.
Read moreWhat would a former Gitmo detainee, a journalist in a small central Asian newspaper and an editor of a big Western publication have in common? They are provided with documents from WikiLeaks about politics in the region, but what will they do with them?
For a former Gitmo detainee, the documents reveal a bit about why he was captured – for knowing more about the movements of refugees in the area, information that he says “everybody knows.” But for editors in Central Asian capitals, WikiLeaks files are a hot potato. The documentary film dates back to 2011, when WikiLeaks activists were just starting to realize the power of the leaked US cables they had received from whistleblower Bradley (Chelsea) Manning.
Read moreAs a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry.
Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a "back door" in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.
Read moreA panel appointed by President Barack Obama has recommended significant changes to controversial surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA) that were disclosed by Edward Snowden.
The President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies report calls on Obama to end the NSA’s collection of a massive database of telephone metadata and to enact new restrictions on the use of private data held by communications and technology companies. The more than 300-page report includes 46 specific recommendations to the President, and follows on months of slow leaks from a treasure trove of documents taken from the NSA by Snowden that have caused an uproar both in the U.S. and around the world.
Read moreDenmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and several other EU countries were named among “third party partners” in the NSA-led global signal intelligence program, a new leak submitted by journalist Glenn Greenwald to Danish TV reveals.
According to the document, obtained by Swedish TV program ‘Mission: Investigate’, that has been probing Sweden's participation in global spying operations, nine European countries were added to the list of NSA accomplices. The "third party partners" to the Five Eyes nations has now grown to include nine states - Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
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