Category Archives: Privacy

My opinion of Patricia Dunn drops another notch.

From the Congressional testimony of Patricia Dunn, former Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard, regarding the company’s use of fraudulent means to obtain the telephone records of reporters and fellow board members: Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas):  “If I … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty, Privacy | Leave a comment

MSNBC Poll about “Pretexting”

Associated with their article about HP chairwoman Patricia Dunn spying on board members and reporters, MSNBC has a reader poll asking “Do you believe using pretexting to obtain someone’s records should be made illegal?” Pretexting is the practice of lying … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Privacy | Leave a comment

Federal District Court rules warrantless wiretaps illegal

U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has issued a ruling in the case American Civil Liberties Union et al. v. National Security Agency/Central et al. (2006), regarding the NSA’s warrantless wiretap program (TSP). The Bush administration and Congress have … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty, Privacy | Leave a comment

U.S. now issuing passports that endanger citizens

As of yesterday (14 August 2006), the U.S. Department of State is issuing passports containing an RFID chip. They are claimed to have anti-skimming provisions, but these are of dubious worth. The big threat isn’t so much that the bad … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty, Privacy, Travel | Leave a comment

American Government term paper

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I received an A (97%) for my term paper for the American Government class. The subject of the paper was wiretapping, with a brief historical review, descriptions of recent developments and my own … Continue reading

Posted in American Government, Freedom and liberty, Privacy | Leave a comment

FBI wants even more wiretapping

As if CALEA wasn’t bad enough when it only applied to telephones, the FBI now wants to extend it to force makers of Internet communications gear to include a built-in back door for wiretapping. And of course, the goverment isn’t … Continue reading

Posted in Freedom and liberty, Privacy | Leave a comment

fMRI being used on suspected terrorists?

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides real-time images of brain activity, and has the potential to be a “super lie detector”, but is at a very early stage of development and it is quite premature to use it for that … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty, Privacy | 1 Comment

Police hypocrisy

The Nashua Telegraph reports that Michael Gannon of Nashua, New Hamshire was arrested because the video security system he installed in his home recorded an incident in which the police confronted him. They’ve charged him with two felony violations of … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty, Privacy | 1 Comment

FOIA request to the NSA regarding telephone call detail records

On May 11 I submitted a FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552) request to the NSA which requested information on their arrangements with telecommunications carriers to obtain telephone call detail records without warrants or court orders. I haven’t gotten a reply yet; … Continue reading

Posted in Freedom and liberty, Privacy | Leave a comment

Extending the PATRIOT Act

Looks like it’s almost a done deal, unfortunately. “Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president,” said Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who voted to pass the bill package. What an incredibly … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty, Privacy | Leave a comment