Secret Social Network Was Created By NSA To Spy On Americans
How many social networks do you use today? If you’re like most Internet users, you at least have a Facebook and Twitter account. After that, you might also hop onto Google+, Instagram, Vine or Pinterest. If you really want to push your social hipster cred, you might even still rock a MySpace profile. Regardless of your social network allegiances, you all also belong to a social network that you don’t even know about.
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List of How Many People Who Were Targeted By The NSA In 2012 To Be Declassified
Earlier this month, President Obama outlined four ways that he would like to reform the NSA and FISA court. A big part of those reforms was increased transparency, and it looks we’ll finally be getting a little more transparency.
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Lavabit Halts Email Service Due To U.S. Government
In early July, it was suggested that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden used Lavabit. For those unaware, it’s a small email provider based out of Texas that promises the utmost privacy through encryption. The service had a small following, but now it’s gone.
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Email Privacy Amendment Unanimously Passed By House
The ECPA amendment that would require government agencies to obtain a warrant when accessing email hasn’t made much headway since the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it back in April. Now the House is trying to make sure email privacy is here to stay with a different strategy.
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Under Certain Conditions The NSA Can Use Incidental Data
One of the scariest parts about the NSA’s spying program is its collection of incidental data – information that may or may not be about American citizens that just so happens to be picked up with information on non-U.S. targets. It’s been said that the NSA can’t use this data, but a new report says they can under certain conditions.
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Cellphone Unlocking Bill Hearing To Be Held By House
Pretty much everybody in Washington agrees with the common man – you should be able to unlock your cellphone without fear of repercussion. Where we tend to disagree is how to go about doing this. Unfortunately, the House has decided to hold a hearing on a cellphone unlocking bill that does absolutely nothing to fix the problem.
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Governments are Leading Many IT Innovations
This week I am back to covering emerging technologies and their practical uses. I have been seeing some innovative social business efforts from government for some time so this post, Governments Are Out Front in IT Innovation, was not a surprise. It mentions President Obama’s campaign to see innovation in IT, ranging from its use of big data to open source technologies. On his first day in office, the President also pledged to make the federal government a model for open data. It will take time but there is progress. The use of big data by his re-election campaign to target get out the vote efforts remains a model for this space.
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Event Tip — GIS for Government
Here’s details of an interesting technology event scheduled to take place in June in Washington D.C. enter GIS for Government. The event will tackle the topics of funding, interoperability and other pressing matters that government are faced with – expect Big Data, the cloud, OSM, open source and related items to be discussed!
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Should Google Glass Be Banned While Driving?
As previously reported, West Virginia is already looking to outlaw the use of devices like Google Glass while driving. Other states are likely to follow.
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Filibuster Gets Rand Paul An Extra 40,000+ Twitter Followers
On Wednesday (and into early Thursday), Kentucky Junior Senator Rand Paul led a 13-hour filibuster – the old-fashioned “talk until you can’t talk anymore” type. Paul, aided by a handful of other Senators, used exactly 12 hours and 52 minutes to delay the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA head. Paul stated that the filibuster was in response to the government’s drone program, specifically a clause that may allow the use of drones on American citizens on American soil.
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