It’s not just the government looking at your personal information. Lawyers and law enforcement can trace our digital tracks. And it’s easier than you might think.
Surveillance and Privacy
How the proliferation of surveillance technology affects personal privacy in the digital age
Posted inCriminal Justice, Local Law Enforcement, Militarization of Police, Surveillance and Privacy
Policing on camera
A federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy was unconstitutional because it resulted in discriminatory practices and unreasonable searches. Alexis Karteron, senior staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, discusses the ruling.
Posted inNational Security, Surveillance and Privacy
A history of official secrecy
Researchers at Columbia University are working on a “declassification engine.” Reporter Amanda Aronczyk speaks with professor Matthew Connelly about the project.
Posted inCybersecurity, National Security, Surveillance and Privacy
Defending leaks
Ben Wizner, an attorney for the ACLU, is coordinating Edward Snowden’s legal defense for leaking classified NSA documents. We speak with him at his office in New York about the value and limits of leaks.
Posted inLocal Law Enforcement, Surveillance and Privacy
Oakland surveillance center progresses amid debate on privacy, data collection
Local officials are pushing forward with a federally funded project to link surveillance cameras, license-plate readers, gunshot detectors, Twitter feeds, alarm notifications and other data into a unified “situational awareness” tool for law enforcement.
Posted inLocal Law Enforcement, Surveillance and Privacy
License-plate readers let police collect millions of records on drivers
At a rapid pace, and mostly hidden from the public, police agencies throughout California have been collecting millions of records on drivers and feeding them to intelligence fusion centers operated by local, state and federal law enforcement.
Posted inSurveillance and Privacy
Rare case sheds light on cellphone surveillance device
Flickr/jtrout FBI investigators used a court order authorizing access to cellphone customer data to quietly deploy a powerful surveillance technology known as “stingrays,” privacy groups contend in a new court filing [PDF] that claims the devices are overly invasive. Your cellphone can be singled out by its international mobile subscriber identity, or IMSI, which then makes […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Local Law Enforcement, Surveillance and Privacy
Amid drone debate, police spend millions on spy planes
A Pilatus PC-12 NG Spectre in flight.Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. While the nation disputes if, when and where the government should use drones over U.S. soil, Texas state police are taking their surveillance efforts to the next level. In a little-noticed July purchase, officials at the Texas Department of Public Safety inked a $7.4 million contract […]
Posted inLocal Law Enforcement, Surveillance and Privacy
Private companies pitch Web surveillance tools to police
Surfing the InternetBrian Lane Winfield Moore/Flickr Private tech firms have found a new market for their sophisticated software capable of analyzing vast segments of the Internet – local police departments looking for ways to pre-empt the next mass shooting or other headline-grabbing event. Twitter, Facebook and other popular sites are 24-hour fire hoses of raw […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Surveillance and Privacy
DEA installs license-plate recognition devices near Southwest border
Interstate 19 in Arizona, heading toward the U.S.-Mexico borderKen Lund/Flickr In their unending battle to deter illegal immigration, drug trafficking and terrorism, U.S. authorities already have beefed up border security with drug-sniffing dogs, aircraft and thousands more agents manning interior checkpoints. Now, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has decided it wants more, and the Justice […]