Tag: privacy

Fascinating look at the National Security Agency

A chunk from a great Saturday read in today’s New York Times:

The agency’s Dishfire database — nothing happens without a code word at the N.S.A. — stores years of text messages from around the world, just in case. Its Tracfin collection accumulates gigabytes of credit card purchases. The fellow pretending to send a text message at an Internet cafe in Jordan may be using an N.S.A. technique code-named Polarbreeze to tap into nearby computers. The Russian businessman who is socially active on the web might just become food for Snacks, the acronym-mad agency’s Social Network Analysis Collaboration Knowledge Services, which figures out the personnel hierarchies of organizations from texts.

The spy agency’s station in Texas intercepted 478 emails while helping to foil a jihadist plot to kill a Swedish artist who had drawn pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. N.S.A. analysts delivered to authorities at Kennedy International Airport the names and flight numbers of workers dispatched by a Chinese human smuggling ring.

The agency’s eavesdropping gear, aboard a Defense Department plane flying 60,000 feet over Colombia, fed the location and plans of FARC rebels to the Colombian Army. In the Orlandocard operation, N.S.A. technicians set up what they called a “honeypot” computer on the web that attracted visits from 77,413 foreign computers and planted spyware on more than 1,000 that the agency deemed of potential future interest.

Read the rest at:  No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A. .

Hoeppner celebrates death of gun registry, defends lawful access bill

Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner was in the spotlight today. First, third and final reading of the bill that will kill the long-gun registry passed the House of Commons. Hoeppner has been at the “face” of Tory attempts to kill the bill  for the last couple of years. Second, as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, Hoeppner has had to defend the controversial “lawful access” legislation, Bill C-30. (I’m not a fan). Continue reading Hoeppner celebrates death of gun registry, defends lawful access bill

The government fights for its "lawful access"

Across our newspaper chain today, I argue that the C-30, the government’s so-called “lawful access” legislation, is bad, that, “there is no excuse for this kind of intrusion on the privacy rights of Canadians and certainly not one from a government that says it champions the idea that the federal government ought to respect individual liberties and rights.” [Read my full column on this]

Last night, perhaps seeing that there were a great number of pundits criticizing this bill [here’s the Post‘s Matt Hartley, for one], one of the aides for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews circulated three examples Continue reading The government fights for its "lawful access"

Warrant-less wiretaps: What Toews says and what C-30 says

In the House of Commons Monday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said this, in response to allegations that his about-to-tabled legislation, would allow police to obtain information about the online activities of Canadians without a warrant:

    Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member that any outrageous claims that private communications will be intercepted without a warrant is a complete fabrication. Continue reading Warrant-less wiretaps: What Toews says and what C-30 says

Text of C-30: The bill that would allow warrant-less Internet wiretaps

Here is the text of the Bill C-30, tabled this morning in the House of Commons. Among its provisions, it would allow police to obtain customer data and other information from your Internet service provider (ISP) and other telecom provider without first obtaining a warrant from a judge. NDP MP Charlie Angus calls this “an unprecedented bill that undermines the privacy rights of Canadians.” Continue reading Text of C-30: The bill that would allow warrant-less Internet wiretaps