U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for new transparency about bulk surveillance conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency, following the release of documents that revealed a secret bulk collection program and problems with how the agency searches and handles Americans’ information. Wyden and…
Category: Govt
Non-Vaccinated Austrians to Be Fined Starting From March 15
From the Your Papers, Please! Department: Since February 4, the mandate of imposing full and booster vaccination from Austrian citizens has entered force in the country. As a result, President Alexander Van der Bellen has signed the new law, according to which all adults residing in the country have to be vaccinated or risk being…
I.R.S. to End Use of Facial Recognition for Identity Verification
Alan Rappeport reports: The Internal Revenue Service plans to stop using facial recognition software to identify taxpayers accessing their accounts on the agency’s website amid concerns over privacy and data security. The decision comes as the I.R.S. is coping with a daunting tax season, faced with backlogs of old tax returns, staffing shortages and additional…
Fed authorities hire ‘data brokers’ to steal data
Dave Moore writes: As if hacker losses from identity theft weren’t bad enough, federal and local police continue to evade Constitutional search and seizure limitations by hiring crooks to steal the personal records of innocent citizens. Starting somewhere around the early to mid 2000’s, numerous federal agencies, including the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, the…