Category: Privacy & Security
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It matters what the NSA does
It seems axiomatic that if we want to have an informed conversation about the legality, ethics, and policy implications of the NSA’s actions, it is useful to know what the NSA is doing. Yet a vocal subset of NSA defenders seem to be taking the contrary position, that information about the agency’s activities serves no…
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NSA call data analysis: inside or outside government?
Last week the President suggested that the NSA’s database of phone call data be stored outside the government, and he asked his Administration to study how this could be done. Today I’d like to start unpacking the options.
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Can Washington re-architect the NSA phone data program?
In the President’s NSA reform speech last week, he called for a study of how to re-architect the NSA’s phone call data program, to change where the data is stored. This raises a bunch of interesting computer science questions, which I’m planning to explore in a series of posts here.
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Is There a Future for Net Neutrality after Verizon v. FCC?
In a decision that was widely predicted by those who have been following the case, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has invalidated the FCC’s Open Internet Rules (so-called net neutrality regulations), which imposed non-discrimination and anti-blocking requirements on broadband Internet access providers. The rules were challenged by Verizon as soon as they…
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The Internet “Access Trap” in Developing Countries
Three of five people in the world still do not have access to the Internet. From the perspective of standard economic models, this is puzzling. The supply of international connectivity has expanded dramatically since 2009, when several submarine fiber cables came online connecting even the poorest countries in Africa to the global Internet. Also, with…
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Signing Mass Surveillance Declarations and Petitions: Should Academics Take a Stance?
Quite often, especially since the Snowden revelations began, tech policy academics will be approached by NGO’s and colleagues to sign petitions ‘to end mass surveillance’. It’s not always easy to decide whether you want to sign. If you’re an academic, you might want to consider co-signing one initiative launched today.
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RSA doesn't quite deny undermining customers' crypto
Reuters reported on Saturday that the NSA had secretly paid RSA Data Security $10 million to make a certain flawed algorithm the default in RSA’s BSAFE crypto toolkit, which many companies relied on. RSA issued a vehement but artfully worded quasi-denial. Let’s look at the story, and RSA’s denial.
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Judge Leon explains why the NSA uses everyone's metadata
There are many interesting things to discuss in Judge Leon’s opinion from yesterday, finding the NSA’s phone metadata program likely unconstitutional. In this post, I’ll focus on an interesting bit of computer science in the judge’s ruling, and I’ll explain why the judge’s computer science argument is actually more powerful than he realized.
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How to protect yourself against NSA tracking
Jonathan Mayer and I have a new piece in Slate about how the NSA piggybacks on the web tracking activities of advertisers and other services. Essentially, the trackers tag computers and smartphones with unique tracking IDs that are attached to web requests, and the NSA uses those tracking IDs to follow users. I wrote last…
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The Politics of the EU Court Data Retention Opinion: End to Mass Surveillance?
The Wall Street Journal headlines: “EU Court Opinion: Data Retention Directive Incompatible With Fundamental Rights”. The Opinion is strong, but in fact not yet an outright victory to privacy and civil liberties. The jury is out: the Opinion is a non-binding, but influential advice to the E.U. Court, that will deliver its final judgment come…