OpenStack 02/27/2015 (a.m.)

• Snowden Calls for Disobedience Against the U.S. Government Washington's Blog

  Edward Snowden for President in 2016!

  Tags: surveillance state, Snowden, civil-disobedience

  • - By Paul Merrell
  • In a question and answer session on Reddit earlier today, Edward Snowden wrote:

• DOJ Inspector General Complains About FBI Foot-dragging | Just Security

  Tags: surveillance state, DEA, bulk-collection, IG, withholding

  • Late last week, the Inspector General (IG) for the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress complaining of the FBI’s refusal to set a timeline for turning over documents related to an IG investigation of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s use of subpoenas to gain access to and use certain bulk data collections.

    The IG has been seeking documents related to its investigation since Nov. 20, 2014. While the FBI has provided some of the requested information to the IG, negotiations over other documents led to a production deadline of Feb. 13, 2015. When the FBI communicated it would miss that deadline, it would not commit to a new deadline, triggering the IG’s letter to Congress.

    Interestingly, the IG also challenged the FBI’s interpretation of what information can be withheld during IG investigations. As the IG pointed out, allowing “access to records of the [DOJ] only when granted permission by the Department’s leadership is inconsistent” with the IG Act, the Appropriations Act, and general IG independence.

    The full letter is below.

• FCC votes to protect the internet with Title II regulation | The Verge

  Tags: net neutrality, FCC

  • Net neutrality has won at the FCC. In a 3-to-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission today established a new Open Internet Order that implements strict net neutrality rules, including prohibitions on site and app blocking, speed throttling, and paid fast lanes.

  • Critically, the order also reclassifies internet providers' offerings as telecommunications services under Title II of the Communications Act. Though this is likely to provoke a challenge in court, Title II gives the commission the tools it needs to enforce these strict rules.

    This is also the first time that net neutrality rules will apply, in full, to mobile internet service. Additionally, the commission uses the new order to assert its ability to investigate and address complaints about "interconnect" agreements — deals made between internet providers like Comcast and content companies like Netflix, which has regularly complained that these deals are unfair.

    The FCC's new order establishes a standard that requires internet providers to take no actions that unreasonably interfere with or disadvantage consumers or the companies whose sites and apps they're trying to access. At most, internet providers may slow down service only for the purpose of "reasonable network management" — not a business purpose.

• Privacy Day | ACLU of Oregon

  Privacy measures that the ACLU is pushing at the state level in Oregon. Links are to short summaries of legislation.

  Tags: surveillance state, Oregon, legislation, ACLU, digital-privacy

  • - By Paul Merrell

  • Help strengthen Oregon's privacy protections and limit the use of dragnet surveillance.

    We are advocating for:
    •    SB 339 - Strict guidelines for the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPR) 
    •    SB 640 - A warrant requirement to access email, phone, and location records
    •    SB 641 - A warrant requirement to search cell phones

    Advances in technology have made it too easy for law enforcement to track where you go, what you do, and who you are with. Most of the data the government collects is about innocent people who are not suspected of any crimes. Yet the government collects that personal information - or accesses it directly from your internet or cell phone provider – and can keep it for years on end. 

    Technology has changed but your rights haven't.

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