Surveillance Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Kit O'Connell: Approximately 8,000 Words

So, you may have heard: the CIA could be listening to your phone conversations, recording your Skype calls, and even spying on you through your TV.

The latest bombshell from WikiLeaks, code named “Vault 7,” revealed the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret tool box of technological exploits. This leak is terrifying, to be sure, but it also gives tech companies valuable new information about how to protect their users.

And for everyday activists on the Front Lines, there are some vital, and simple steps we can take to protect our allies and our plans from surveillance.

Now, we still don’t know who’s responsible for the Vault 7 leak, although WikiLeaks released a statement saying that the anonymous source, “wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.”

Much like Snowden hoped to do.

Obama Dismantles NSEERS Travel Registry To Thwart Trump’s Anti-Muslim Plans

A busy security line at the Orlando airport. January 29, 2010. (Flickr / frankieleon, CC )

December 30, 2016

Kit

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Obama Dismantles NSEERS Travel Registry To Thwart Trump’s Anti-Muslim Plans

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

President Barack Obama has dismantled an inactive anti-terrorism program in an apparent attempt to block the incoming administration from using it against Muslim immigrants and travelers in the United States.

One of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial moves during his campaign was his promise to build a registry of Muslims living in the United States, but a similar program to track immigrants and visitors has existed in the country for the past decade.

Established under President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System required men over 16 from 24 Muslim-majority countries and North Korea to register with the Department of Homeland Security upon entering the United States.

Under pressure from civil liberties activists and advocates for immigrants, DHS suspended NSEERs in May 2011. On Dec. 22, Obama acted to formally end the program.

Booz Allen Hamilton: NSA’s ‘Digital Blackwater’ A Sign Of Deep Ties Between US Gov’t & Private Spies

A stencil by Banksy on a wall opposite a surveillance camera reads, "What are you looking at?" (Flickr / nolifebeforecoffee) (Flickr / nolifebeforecoffee)

October 8, 2016

Kit

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Booz Allen Hamilton: NSA’s ‘Digital Blackwater’ A Sign Of Deep Ties Between US Gov’t & Private Spies

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Booz Allen Hamilton, a powerful government contractor at the heart of multiple leaks of classified material from the NSA, also spends big on D.C. lobbying, and its employees have given generously to presidential campaigns this election cycle.

In light of Booz Allen Hamilton’s role in two major leaks of government surveillance secrets, the corporation’s lobbying efforts and its employees’ campaign contributions reflect the deep ties between private corporations and the U.S. government and its national intelligence apparatus.

In August, the FBI quietly arrested Harold Thomas Martin, a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, for stealing classified documents. News of his arrest finally surfaced last week. Martin may have been responsible for the leak of a suite of malware tools that the NSA uses to secretly access computers.

Interview with Flashpoints Radio: Cell-Jamming Tech Used On Journalists At DNC

In this July 29, 2016 photograph, a Philadelphia police officer threatens activists with his baton during protests outside the Democratic National Convention. (Kit O'Connell)

August 17, 2016

Kit

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Interview with Flashpoints Radio: Cell-Jamming Tech Used On Journalists At DNC

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

I covered the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia for MintPress News, where I was disturbed to discover that journalists’ cell-phone signals were routinely jammed at protests near the convention’s security fence. The jamming, which was experienced by both mainstream and independent journalists, was especially clear on the night Pres. Barack Obama spoke.

Developed In Iraq, Deployed At the DNC?: Cell-Jamming Technology Is Being Turned On Journalists

n July 27, 2016, activists, media and citizen journalists with smartphones surround a group of anticapitalist activists burning a U.S. flag. Journalists, including a MintPress News reporter, found it difficult or impossible to upload video of incidents like this one while near the entrance to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. (MintPress News / Kit O'Connell)

August 12, 2016

Kit

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Developed In Iraq, Deployed At the DNC?: Cell-Jamming Technology Is Being Turned On Journalists

Posted in Journalism, MintPress News, and Occupy Wall Street

Technology developed to jam cellphones during the Iraq War may be getting deployed against journalists reporting on protests against the political establishment in the United States.

While police and government surveillance of protests, including monitoring of cellphone use, is well-documented, efforts to block signals at protests remains an oft-repeated, but never proven, rumor.

It may be impossible to definitively prove that authorities are using cellphone “jamming” technology, but journalists working with both mainstream and independent media reported unusual difficulties accessing the internet during recent protests at the gates of the Democratic National Convention, consistent with the effects this very real technology could have.

ACLU Of Oregon Condemns State’s Surveillance Of Black Lives Matter Activists

In this Nov. 25, 2014 photograph, activists in Portland, Oregon march for Ferguson with a banner reading "The Whole System Is Guilty." (Flickr / Sarah Mirk)

April 21, 2016

Kit

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ACLU Of Oregon Condemns State’s Surveillance Of Black Lives Matter Activists

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

An investigation of social media surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists shows a pattern of systemic racism and disregard for the law, according to an Oregon civil rights group.

The comments from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon came in response to a report issued this month by the Oregon Department of Justice on the DOJ’s Criminal Justice Division’s monitoring of the social media use of Black Lives Matter activists.

“The report is damning,” wrote Mat dos Santos, the nonprofit’s legal director. “It paints an abysmal picture of rampant misinformation, beginning with agents and analysts and running all the way up to the deputy attorney general, and it shows how one mistake in judgment can lead to dangerous consequences for the public.”

Last year, a “threat assessment report” issued by an investigator at the state’s DOJ, singled out Facebook and Twitter users that used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag for surveillance. The investigation became so broad that one of the department’s own attorneys was cited in the report as a possible threat.

Ellen Rosenblum, the state’s attorney general, said she was “shocked and appalled” and called for a full investigation, according to a November article from The Oregonian.