The U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB or ‘the Board’) released yesterday a report on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance and collection activities conducted under Section 702 of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978). In 2013, following the disclosure of classified information by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the Board was...
What constitutes an individual’s “right to privacy” in the digital realm has become a topic of heated debate across the U.S. Following the reveal of government programs that monitor, record, and store Americans’ digital communications, there has been a widespread demand to strengthen laws that protect rights to privacy, both online and...
In 2013, Edward Snowden brought to light the extent of government surveillance in the United States, exposing everything from the collection, storage, and analysis of Americans’ private emails, phone calls, and text messages by intelligence agencies nationwide. Outraged, the public called for the protection of their First and Fourth Amendment...
Today, President Obama released a Presidential Policy Directive, “Signals Intelligence Activities,” which outlines the manner in which signals intelligence is authorized to be collected by the United States. He stated that gathering practices must be adherent to privacy and civil liberties, “in accordance with the Constitution and applicable statutes, Executive...
The Brennan Center’s newest report of the National Security and Local Police survey blows the whistle on local police information gathering and surveillance activities in the United States. The Brennan Center for Justice, a branch of New York University School of Law, concluded that “police intelligence gathering lacks standards, and...
Early this week the Brennan Center for Justice released its newest report on the US government and data collection, entitled “What the Government Does with Americans’ Data.” The report consults five U.S. intelligence agencies to uncover what changes were made in information-collecting policy following the attacks of September 11, 2001...
The Vera Institute of Justice has published a report titled, Coming of Age with Stop and Frisk: Experiences, Perceptions, and Public Safety Implications. The report contains the results of a study launched in 2011 which examined the question: “How does being stopped by police, and the frequency of those stops,...
Unleashed and Unaccountable: The FBI’s Unchecked Abuse of Authority, a new report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), details the “extraordinary expansion of FBI power over the last 12 years” and the way the agency “has subverted internal and external oversight by squelching whistleblowers, imposing and enforcing unnecessary secrecy,...
The National Security Archive has collected content related to recent press disclosures about the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance activities. The National Security Archive has compiled over 125 documents to provide important context about the legal and social ramifications of the Edward Snowden revelations. The compilation is titled "The Snowden...
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) has released its Wiretap Report for 2012. The annual report to Congress examines “the number of federal and state ‘applications for orders authorizing or approving the interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications’”. The report also provides information on the number...
