The Privacy and Civil Liberties Board is getting to work on the surveillance/FISA issues. But they’ll do so behind closed doors for now. Via Cryptome, from the Federal Register: PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD [Notice-PCLOB-2013-03; Docket No 2013-0004; Sequence No. 3] Sunshine Act Meeting TIME AND DATE: 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19,…
Category: Govt
Apple gets about 4,000 – 5,000 government requests for customer info during 6-month period
Apple has joined Google, Microsoft, and Facebook in saying it has obtained permission to disclose a bit more about requests it receives. In a statement issued yesterday, they write: Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government’s “Prism”…
Senators skip classified briefing on NSA snooping to catch flights home
Alexander Bolton reports: A recent briefing by senior intelligence officials on surveillance programs failed to attract even half of the Senate, showing the lack of enthusiasm in Congress for learning about classified security programs. [WATCH VIDEO] Many senators elected to leave Washington early Thursday afternoon instead of attending a briefing with James Clapper, the Director…
The state secrets privilege in challenges to government surveillance programs
Babak Siavoshy writes: As the Washington Post reports, one of the legal obstacles the ACLU may face in its lawsuit challenging NSA surveillance of telephony metadata is the state secrets privilege. In recent years, the government has used the state secrets privilege with increasing frequency to block lawsuits and prevent discovery on national security grounds. According to Professor Donohue, between 2001…