Telephone companies are quietly balking at the idea of changing how they collect and store Americans' phone records to help the National Security Agency's surveillance programs. They're worried about their exposure to lawsuits and the price tag if the US government asks them to hold information about customers for longer than they already do.
The first phone company to publish a transparency report isn’t AT&T or Verizon
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Ever since we learned that the country's phone companies were handing vast amounts of data to the government under court order, pressure has been mounting for them to publish a Silicon Valley-type transparency report detailing how exactly they're complying. Now the first such report is out. But instead of coming from industry mainstays such as Verizon or AT&T, the disclosure comes from a little-known, left-leaning service known as CREDO Mobile.
US phone companies never once challenged NSA data requests
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
None of the phone companies that handed over communications metadata in bulk to the National Security Agency ever challenged the agency on its data requests.
Consumers worried about NSA intrusions have little recourse
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Consumers worried about the National Security Agency's ability to read even encrypted electronic data have few options, according to cybersecurity and privacy experts. And some experts said the NSA's reported actions to crack the sophisticated technology that masks data traveling over the Internet may have made that information more vulnerable, possibly exposing Web users to criminal hackers.
Here’s how phone metadata can reveal your secrets
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The National Security Agency’s surveillance program, now being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, only collects metadata about Americans’ phone calls—who they call, when, and how long the calls last. In defending the program, the government has cited a controversial 1979 Supreme Court decision that held that phone records are not protected by the Fourth Amendment because consumers do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their calling records.
Smart phone searches by police should raise alarm
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The more we hear about President Obama's attitude toward privacy, the less we like. The latest eyebrow-raiser is the Administration's argument that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cell phone searches.
Democrats demand Obama ‘end the bulk collection of phone records’
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) demanded that President Barack Obama “end the bulk collection” of the public’s phone records.
Here’s what can go wrong when the government builds a huge database about Americans
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The National Crime Information Center database, maintained by the FBI, provides law enforcement agencies across the country with information they need to do their job, including information about outstanding arrest warrants, gang memberships, firearms records, and much more. According to the AP, it serves 90,000 agencies and receives 9 million data points every day.
If PRISM Is Good Policy, Why Stop With Terrorism?
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
If the justification for PRISM and associated programs is predicated on their potential effectiveness, why shouldn't such logic be applied elsewhere?
Concerns Arise on U.S. Effort to Allow Internet ‘Wiretaps’
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Surveillance can be a tricky affair in the Internet age.