The biggest thing to come out of Texas may turn out to be a blow to Internet freedoms: legislators there are considering a bill that would compromise privacy on the Web for all residents of the Lone Star State.

Lawmakers in the State Senate are expected to vote Monday on a bill that, if passed, would compel Internet Service Providers (ISPs) anywhere in the world to fork over private Web records if that information could aid in a criminal investigation. Read More

The FBI is pushing for expanded power to eavesdrop on private Internet communications. The law enforcement agency wants to force online service providers to build wiretapping capabilities into their products. But a group of prominent computer security experts argues that mandating “back doors” in online communications products is likely to compromise the security of Americans’ computers and could even pose a threat to national security. Read More

A federal judge recently ruled that if someone has their cell phone turned on, their location data does not deserve protection under the Fourth Amendment, meaning law enforcement can track individuals without a search warrant.

New York magistrate judge Gary Brown decided in favor of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents who were seeking his approval over a warrant on a doctor who they suspected was being paid for issuing thousands of prescriptions. Read More

The president of the Associated Press has sent a letter of protest to US Attorney General Eric Holder over the Department of Justice’s broad surveillance of individual reporters’ phone conversations.

In a letter received by the AP on Friday, the Justice Department acknowledged but offered no explanation for the seizure of two months’ worth of telephone records of reporters and editors. Read More

The country’s largest mobile phone operator is selling details of the internet habits of its 27 million customers. The telecommunications giant EE has struck a deal with the research firm Ipsos Mori to pass on data including what websites smartphone users visit. Read More

Washington’s Blog

We noted in March that all U.S. intelligence agencies – including the CIA and NSA – are going to spy on Americans’ finances.

The IRS is joining the fun. Read More

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post

A hacker has proven that Google Glass can be turned into a secret surveillance device by anyone with physical access to the device, according to a report. Oddly enough, even former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has come out against the technology.

It’s quite odd to see the likes of Michael Chertoff – the man who made tons of money off of the TSA’s naked body scanners Read More

An 18-year-old high school student from the greater Boston area has been arrested and charged with making terroristic threats after police were alerted to “disturbing verbiage” on his personal Facebook page.

Authorities have set bond at one million dollars for Cameron B. D’Ambrosio of Methuen, MA following a Thursday afternoon arraignment one day after he was apprehended at his home around 30 miles north of Boston. Read More

The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court quietly rubber stamped nearly 2,000 government requests to search or electronically monitor people in the United States last year, according to a Justice Department report published this week.

The agency, which oversees requests for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents on US soil Read More

by Declan McCullagh

Encryption used in Apple’s iMessage chat service has stymied attempts by federal drug enforcement agents to eavesdrop on suspects’ conversations, an internal government document reveals.

An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption Read More

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post

The city of Dayton, Ohio is considering deploying a system similar to the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (ARGUS) – the technology that allows up to 36 square miles to be monitored at once – without having to wait for the FAA’s drone rules to be issued. Read More

Doubts over Department of Homeland Security surveillance are nothing new – especially after a Senate committee found “fusion centers” were breaching civil liberties. Now, documents show the agency spies on peaceful demonstrations “as a matter of policy.” Read More

The Federal Bureau of Investigation lost an appeal Monday to delay a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy advocacy group that’s suing the agency for information related to its StingRay cellphone surveillance technology. Read More

Madison Ruppert
Activist Post

Continuing the US military’s focus on developing robots that mimic animals, the US Naval Undersea Warfare Center and Office of Naval Research has funded a project that has already produced a prototype of a giant robotic jellyfish.

Other research includes insect-like drones capable of carrying out lethal missions Read More

An internationally-spread Orwellian surveillance system uncovered by RT has been linked to a software company that collects the GPS coordinates of cell phone users in over 100 major cities.

The discovery of the TrapWire risk mitigation program last year and its ability to match human faces caught on camera against massive databases of intelligence led to an outcry from privacy advocates around the world. Read More