Sunday 23 June 2013

Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S. | McClatchy

Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S. | McClatchy: "Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage. “Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy." 'via Blog this'

Monday 17 June 2013

Public Safety Month I | The MIT Press

Public Safety Month I | The MIT Press: "The revelations raise questions in regard to three of the five case studies in the book – privacy, censorship and social networking regulation – with Facebook, Google, Yahoo! and other US-based multinationals handing over data on their non-US customers under the US FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The revelations threaten to derail agreements between US and European governments which permit data exchange while protecting European citizens’ fundamental rights. The implications of a breakdown in trust between European and US governments could jeopardize several other areas of cooperation for public safety, notably air passenger records, financial transfers, and the overall ‘safe harbor’ by which US multinationals can certify their data practices as conforming to European privacy standards." 'via Blog this'

Saturday 15 June 2013

Retired Federal Judge: Your Faith In Secret Surveillance Court Is Dramatically Misplaced

Retired Federal Judge: Your Faith In Secret Surveillance Court Is Dramatically Misplaced | ThinkProgress: "It’s an anointment process. It’s not a selection process. But you know, it’s not boat rockers. So you have a [federal] bench which is way more conservative than before. This is a subset of that. And it’s a subset of that who are operating under privacy, confidentiality, and national security. To suggest that there is meaningful review it seems to me is an illusion."
Gertner, an attendee at the American Constitution Society’s national convention, stood up during a panel discussion to make her comment after Sales, a law professor at George Mason University, suggested that individuals have some protection from excessive government surveillance because the Internet Service Providers who field government requests for information have the opportunity to challenge those requests before the secret court. “This isn’t a a paper tiger,” he said. “This is a court that engages in judicial review.”
Gertner urged the audience to be skeptical about the court’s oversight, both because of its severely conservative make-up, and its secrecy. " 'via Blog this'

Sunday 9 June 2013

Toxic Cloud Computing, and How Open Source Can Help

Toxic Cloud Computing, and How Open Source Can Help - Open Enterprise: "There followed a test case at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which held definitively that the Fourth Amendment requirement for a specific warrant only applied to surveillance directed at US persons. This opened the door for Congress to enact FISAA §1881a in 2008, which authorized mass-surveillance of foreigners (outside US territory), but whose data was within range of US jurisdiction. However, the most significant change escaped any comment or public debate altogether. The scope of surveillance was extended beyond interception of communications, to include any data in public cloud computing as well. This change occurred merely by incorporating “remote computing services” into the definition of an “electronic communication service provider”."
And so the Cloud became a giant hose sucking data into the NSA 'via Blog this'

Friday 7 June 2013

Europe opens up to the cloud: does NSA need to ask permission to spy on us?

This old story becomes very interesting after today's revelations - Europe opens up to the cloud Tech News and Analysis: "WP29 says the EU’s new upcoming data protection laws should ban organizations in the EU from passing on people’s personal data to third countries just because those countries’ courts or governments demand it, “unless this is expressly authorized by an international agreement or provided for by mutual legal assistance treaties or approved by a supervisory authority.”" NSA needs to ask us before Google can cough up EU citizens' data? 'via Blog this'

Thursday 6 June 2013

Brown and Marsden to present #RegulatingCode at ORGCon 2013

We're on at 12pm in the Council Chamber talking about #RegulatingCode - and Ian has a video 'preview' (with cut-away shots aplenty of the Thames at low tide...)
Chris will also present the book in Brighton at the Festival of Social Sciences Friday 3.45pm.

EU Council deals killer blow to privacy reforms » The Privacy Surgeon

EU Council deals killer blow to privacy reforms » The Privacy Surgeon: "Council’s proposals will put the onus on industry to police itself, except in limited circumstances. The role of the Commission will be all but eliminated, national regulators will have less discretion to take action and – crucially – the rights of data subjects will be reduced.
From a prescriptive framework to a risk based approach. This means that instead of being required to follow a set of harmonised procedures and safeguards to protect information, data controllers can decide for themselves what constitutes a risk, and merely show that they have taken some steps to mitigate that risk. This will include the development of self regulating codes of conduct.
Exemption for social networking. All social networking and online activities conducted by individuals will be exempt from the regulation, meaning that a vast regulatory black hole will open up across online information flows.'via Blog this'