Warrantless Surveillance

Press Rebellion in the UK – British Media Launches Protest Against Spying, as GCHQ Places Investigative Journalism in Same Category as Terrorism

by

Screen Shot 2015-01-19 at 12.43.20 PMEmails from the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, the Sun, NBC and the Washington Post were saved by GCHQ and shared on the agency’s intranet as part of a test exercise by the signals intelligence agency.

The journalists’ communications were among 70,000 emails harvested in the space of less than 10 minutes on one day in November 2008 by one of GCHQ’s numerous taps on the fibre-optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet.

New evidence from other UK intelligence documents revealed by Snowden also shows that a GCHQ information security assessment listed “investigative journalists” as a threat in a hierarchy alongside terrorists or hackers.

– From the Guardian article: GCHQ Captured Emails of Journalists from Top International Media

Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, is the United Kingdom’s equivalent to the NSA. As you might expect, it is no less immoral or shady than its domestic counterpart. While most of the surveillance related posts here at Liberty Blitzkrieg have focused on the NSA, GCHQ has been front and center from time to time. For example, see the following from 2014:

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.

Boeing Declares War on Privacy in Washington State

by

Washington state has led the way in many respects when it comes to the drone issue, something I highlighted recently in my article: Just Say NO: Seattle Residents Kill the City’s Drone Program.  It’s not just Seattle though, there is a bi-partisan bill in the Washington state legislature, H.B. 1771, which limits drone use within the entire state.  The bill has already passed its House Committee hearing and, as expected, the state’s corporate overlords have started to fight back.  Specifically, Boeing.  From the Examiner:

A bi-partisan bill to limit drone use within Washington state is meeting resistance from the aerospace and defense corporation Boeing.

Just last month, H.B. 1771, a bill to put limits on government drone use within Washington state, passed its House Committee hearing. The bill establishes guidelines and standards for the use of drones by public entities to protect the privacy rights of Washington residents.

“This bill quite simply provides protection to the citizens of Washington state from warrantless surveillance. That’s our intent here. To start a conversation and say if these things are going to be used, you will protect the constitutional rights of the citizens,” said Rep. David Taylor (R), the bill’s primary sponsor.

Read more

Like this post?
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G


Follow me on Twitter.