It’s become a little too common a story: police thugs beating the hell out of a citizen (who may or may not have done anything) citizen with camera takes pictures or video of police abuse police arrest photographer because apparently it’s illegal to record police brutality The new trend is to make photographing the police […]
Privacy as you know it is dead–but you can bring it back
By Martin Bosworth I have little to say about the Kabuki theater that is Elliot Spitzer’s fall from grace, so aptly summed up is the situation by my man Motherwell over here. But it does tie in to a larger point–if a former Attorney General and current Governor of one of the most powerful states […]
Who has access to your personal data? Everyone–except you
By Martin Bosworth Last month the Associated Press cast a harsh light on a dark secret of many big public industries–that workers have far too much access to personal data of customers, and misuse and abuse it accordingly Vast computer databases give curious employees the ability to look up sensitive information on people with the […]
FISA Fight: Senate passes telecom immunity and flips the bird to America
Earlier today, Sam asked a very important question: When it comes to convincing the public that it’s somehow justifiable to give a pass to corporations that illegally spied on Americans without a warrant, how stupid do you think we are? Well, the answer is that the so-called “Democratic” Congress doesn’t give a damn what we […]
All your Internets are belong to ATT & the NSA
By Martin Bosworth Two seemingly coincidental bits of news crossed my desk yesterday morning. First, the Wall Street Journal contains excerpts of an interview with Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in which he outlines a vast new initiative to police Internet traffic “for abuse.” Meanwhile, AT&T announced that it plans to extend its initiative […]
Verizon to the government: “Our customer information…let us show you it.”
In response to an inquiry launched by House Democrats as to the role the major telecoms played in abetting the NSA surveillance program, Verizon came out yesterday and admitted that it had turned over customer data to federal authorities 720 times between 2005 and 2007–or once a day, every day, for the last two years: […]






