Category Archives: Surveillance state

Rights Advocates Alarmed by US Spy Agency’s Purchase of Warrantless Phone Location Data

Defense Intelligence Agency skirts constitutional warrant requirements by buying location data from data brokers.

Cash in the Time of Covid: Down But Not Out

Physical cash should still have an important — albeit diminished — role to play in the economy of the future.

Critics Warn Repeal of Section 230 ‘Would Be Devastating for Human Rights, Social Movements, and Marginalized People’

No, Section 230 is not about Facebook. It protects you from liabilty if you forward an e-mail, so you should think twice about a repeal.

Larry Wilkerson: No Evidence of Massive Russian Hack

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson says so far the anti-Russia hysteria about an alleged hack looks like the phony claims about WMD in Iraq.

Antitrust Spring

Regulators and officials are dusting off antitrust rule books to go after tech monopolists.

How Do You Combat Information Overreach?

A shaggy dog story, and a request for reader ideas on how to escape unreasonable requests for personal information.

Ticketmaster’s Reckless, Privacy-Shredding Covid Plan to Get You in Their Seats

Ticketmaster wants to use technology to make events safer. Too bad its ideas are intrusive and medically questionable.

Bill Would Clamp Down on Cops Collecting DNA From Kids

A proposed New York City bill would halt DNA collection from children in the absence of an arrest or parental consent.

Daniel Ellsberg on the Assange Extradition and Growing Fascism

Daniel Ellsberg, in an interview with Paul Jay, describes the threat the Assange show trial poses for journalists around the world.

Michael Olenick: The Surprisingly Short Road from Abolitionism to Credit Bureaus

Abolitionist Lewis Tappan, the inventor of credit bureaus, would be distressed to see how his creation is being put to use.

Quelle Surprise: NYT Article on U.S. Contact Tracing Deficiencies Doesn’t Fall for Big Tech’s Claim that Effective Contact Tracing Requires an App, But Fails to See What Good Health Care Has to Do with It

NYT piece on contact tracing doesn’t see what good health care has to do with why some of these efforts elsewhere have worked well.

COVID-19 Mistakes to Avoid: Don’t Conflate Contact Tracing with Contact Tracing By App

Big Tech and Big Pharma each has a dog in the COVID-19 fight and wish to replace what has worked before and is working now with technofixes.

Key CIA-Backed Ally Indicted for Organ Trade Murder Scheme

A sordid example of what happens when the CIA is willing to get in bed with just about anyone to advance what it sees as US interests.

No, We Don’t Need to Place Our Faith in Downloading Some Untested, Privacy-Infringing App as the Only Possible COVID-19 Slayer; Why Don’t We Look to Places that Have Successfully Limited Disease Spread and Copy Their Policies?

Ars Technica clutches pearls at poll showing decline in those willing to download privacy-infringing app to stymie spread of COVID-19.