Over the past five years, I’ve posted a number of stories concerning the illegal surveillance of journalist Nicky Hager and Hager’s attempts to hold the government accountable. I have nothing but respect for him for pushing back against illegal surveillance. Some of the significant aspects of his case arose from an illegal raid in 2014…
Category: Govt
Disputed N.S.A. Phone Program Is Shut Down, Aide Says
Charlie Savage reports: The National Security Agency has quietly shut down a system that analyzes logs of Americans’ domestic calls and texts, according to a senior Republican congressional aide, halting a program that has touched off disputes about privacy and the rule of law since the Sept. 11 attacks. The agency has not used the…
Privacy, Policy, and the Illusion of Control
Dennis Fisher reports: These are strange times in Washington. Congress, which has spent decades conspicuously showing only the most passing interest in privacy, suddenly is awash in proposed privacy legislation and the calendars in both chambers are crowded with committee hearings on the topic. The unending string of breaches and data-misuse and abuse scandals, coupled…
The Case for Keeping Patient Immigration Status Private
Erin Connolly reports: As the issue of immigration continues to be a focal point in the Trump administration, healthcare professionals have started grappling with the question of whether or not they must report undocumented immigrants to authorities — or face Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations if they do. In 2013, Arizona introduced…