Domestic Surveillance

Crestview, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has long been regarded as the preeminent domestic law enforcement agency in the United States, entrusted with “protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution”. Over the course of my 25-year FBI career, I have seen a shift in the bureau’s […]

Red State Plans to Investigate Abortion Seekers and Trans Youth Require Sanctuary States to Lock Down Data

Electronic Frontier Foundation

By Adam Schwartz | – ( Electronic Frontier Foundation ) – In the wake of this year’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs overruling Roe v. Wade, sheriffs and bounty hunters in anti-abortion states will try to investigate and punish abortion seekers based on their internet browsing, private messaging, and phone app location data. We can […]

Domestic Surveillance

Donald Trump’s Document Grab and the Dismantling of Democracy

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Thanks to Donald Trump, secrecy is big news these days. However, as political pundits and legal experts race to expose the layers of document-related misdeeds previously buried at his Mar-a-Lago estate, one overlooked reality looms large: despite all the coverage of the thousands of documents Trump took with him when he […]

Arab World

Does Mideast Panopticon — Urban Surveillance and Digital Identities — foretell our Dystopian Future?

Middle East Monitor

By Muhammad Hussein | – ( Middle East Monitor) – It has forever been the dream of almost every state, intelligence agency, empire and totalitarian regime to oversee the doings of all of their subjects, to detect any hint of dissent, to control their movements, to influence their thinking and even to peer into their […]

Corporate Surveillance

Did the Pegasus Spyware Netanyahu used against Palestinians and gave to Saudis bring him Down?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Pegasus spyware made by the Israeli NSO company and backed by the Israeli state has been used extensively against Palestinians to keep them stateless, and former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used access to the software as an incentive for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to improve relations […]

Afghanistan

The Taliban reportedly have control of US biometric devices – a lesson in life-and-death consequences of data privacy

The Conversation

By Margaret Hu | In the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and the ouster of the Afghan national government, alarming reports indicate that the insurgents could potentially access biometric data collected by the U.S. to track Afghans, including people who worked for U.S. and coalition forces. Afghans who once supported the U.S. have […]

Dissent

Drones and Protesters: How High-Tech Surveillance Amplifies Police Bias and Overreach

The Conversation

By Andrew Guthrie Ferguson | – Video of police in riot gear clashing with unarmed protesters in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filled social media feeds. Meanwhile, police surveillance of protesters has remained largely out of sight. Local, state and federal law enforcement organizations use […]

Domestic Surveillance

Comey did it to himself & Us, by gutting Privacy, Encryption, & 4th Amendment

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – In former FBI director James Comey’s interview with ABC News, he attempted to position himself as an upholder of the rule of law, of the constitution, and even of the truth. Human beings are very good at forgetting their own misdeeds and building narratives that justify […]

Bill of Rights

Shadowy US Covert Ops & Surveillance Abroad always Come Home

contributors

By Alfred W. McCoy | (Tomdispatch.com) | – – [This piece has been adapted and expanded from the introduction to Alfred W. McCoy’s new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.] In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the […]