United States National Security Agency

Obama To Unveil NSA Reform Legislation, But Will Congress Act Anytime Soon?

President Obama is preparing to offer legislation to make good on his promise to reform the National Security Agency's bulk collection of U.S. phone records, also known as metadata. Whether or not that legislation passes through Congress is yet to be seen.

Obama Meets with Tech Executives Again, Discussing NSA After Zuckerberg's Public Criticism

President Obama met for a second time with top technology industry executives on Friday, discussing concerns over the National Security Agency's surveillance programs and the possibility of reform.

Social Media Saturday: Twitter Celebrates 8th Birthday, Gets Banned in Turkey, and U.S. Gov. Tells Facebook About Privacy

This week in social media, Twitter turned eight years old and was banned in Turkey, Facebook faced off with the government over privacy (and it's the other way around this time), and Pinterest and Tumblr both got into marketing and ads. It's time for Social Media Saturday!

The NSA Roadshow Moves from SXSW to TED: This Time NSA Joined In

Google's Larry Page, Edward Snowden, and the NSA's Rick Ledgett all spoke at TED this week on the National Security Agency's surveillance. Here are the highlights.

NSA Can "DVR" An Entire Nation's Phone Calls for 30 Days - Report

If you thought the National Security Agency, which is now famous for collecting U.S. phone records or "metadata," wasn't at least capable of listening in on the actual content of phone calls, think again. A new Washington Post report says the NSA has the capability to record phone calls and hold on to the entire record on a 30-day basis - for entire countries.

Latest NSA Revelation Pushes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Buttons

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with most giants of the tech industry, has expressed his critical views on the U.S. National Security Agency's activities before, but it appears that the most recent NSA revelation published this week has pushed him over the edge. On Thursday, Zuckerberg called President Obama himself, after which he publically aired his grievances on (of course) Facebook.

Google's Making Cracks in the Great Firewall of China with Encrypted Search

Google has decided to challenge China's censorship and surveillance of the internet by offering encrypted Web searches for those inside the country by default, a move the company says is part privacy internet technology it's increasingly rolling out around the world.

Creator Tim Berners-Lee Calls for Bill Of Rights for Internet On Web's 25th Birthday

Twenty-five years ago today, on March 12 1989, a British computer scientist working at CERN submitted a proposal for an information management system based on "hypertext" that would link people, computers, and documents in a connected "web" he called "Mesh." A year later he would rename it the World Wide Web - I think you've heard of it.

In Feinstein CIA Speech, Constitutional Separation of Powers, Fourth Amendment Concerns Emerge

The battle of words between the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the chairwoman of the Senate committee whose charge is to oversee the CIA's activities is primed to erupt into a Constitutional crisis, and possibly a watershed moment for the public conversation over the powers of the U.S. Government's spying apparatus.

NSA Leaks Show Facebook-Spoofing Malware Programs Expanding - Greenwald Report

Is that Facebook? Or is the U.S. National Security Agency pretending to be Facebook to install malware on your computer? It turns out, that's a question you might have to ask yourself.

SXSW 2014: Snowden Speaks, Criticizing NSA Directors For Weakening US Cybersecurity

On Monday, the ex-National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of more than a million top-secret documents to the press in 2013 - leading to an avalanche of revelations about the U.S. cyberspy agency's activities - took the (virtual) stage at South by Southwest.

SXSW 2014: Julian Assange Speaks Out On NSA, Journalism, and the Internet

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange kicked off the South by Southwest Interactive conference on Saturday with a Skype-powered video chat with the tech geeks gathered in Austin, TX. Speaking from his imposed house arrest in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Assange talked with SXSW attendees about his life, the National Security Agency, and the new era of journalism and activism.

SXSW Interactive 2014: A Change in Focus, Tone with Darker Tech Topics and International Scope, Including Latin American Startups

South by Southwest Interactive has always been seen as the hip place to go to learn about the next big Silicon Valley startup, but the tone and focus has changed a little this year. The festival is toning down the "trendy" and enlarging its international focus, along with taking on some serious issues in technology.

Boeing Black: An NSA-Proof Phone That's Actually Geared More For NSA Use

The year 2013 will probably be remembered as the year when the general public learned that there are no guarantees of security and privacy in cyberspace. Aerospace manufacturer Boeing took a stab at a perfectly secure device, as it unveiled the "Boeing Black" this week, entering the race to make a smartphone that keeps its data safe.

The Most Private of Privacy Invasions: UK Spies Collected Pictures from Ordinary Yahoo Users' Webcams

Britain's version of the National Security Agency, the GHCQ, has reportedly captured images from the webcam chats of millions of Yahoo users. And Yahoo is not happy about it, to say the least.

RSA Conference 2014: A Call To Arms, After a Dismal Year for Cyber Security

While thousands of tech companies and organizations, big and small, and many more concerned citizens got out and protested mass internet surveillance earlier this month, one senior VP at a security firm told attendees at this week's RSA Conference on cyber security that they aren't mad enough.

'The Day We Fight Back': Thousands Protest NSA Surveillance in Aaron Swartz's Memory

Reddit, Tumblr, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, the American Civil Liberties Union and more than 5,000 other internet-based companies and organizations have joined together to protest surveillance by the National Security Agency on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

NSA Onerously Linked With Drone Strike Program, According to a Report by Greenwald's New Venture

The National Security Agency is working with the Joint Special Operations Command's High Value Targeting task force to track targets using their cellphones and blow them away using drones, according to a new report.

Obama's NSA Limitations Approved, But NSA Collection Already Lower Than Expected

Just as a court has approved of two of President Obama's reforms to limit the use of phone records by the National Security Agency, a report has come out showing that the NSA's phone record collection has actually already been somewhat limited - simply due to being overwhelmed by information.

Snowden Leaks: U.K. Spies Launched Cyber Attacks Against Hacktivist Group Anonymous

It looks like the U.K.'s spy agency has it's own Low Orbit Ion Cannon, and it's not afraid to use it - or restricted from targeting non-terrorism related civilians.

What's the NSA Doing With Angry Birds Data?

The National Security Agency and its British counterpart have reportedly targeted Angry Birds and other unsecured mobile phone apps to vacuum up data.
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