Mass Surveillance Proves Pointless
In times of war and national emergency, it’s sometimes necessary to sacrifice civil liberties to secure vital gains in public safety. In those cases, …
NSA
Don’t Forget Financial Privacy
Amidst all the revelations about how the American people, many of whom are absolutely convinced they live in a free society, have their telephone …
Cybersecurity: The NSA’s Big Budget Action Movie
The exercise had an awesome name, inspired by the movies: “Quantum Dawn 2.” On July 18, scads of U.S. banks, stock exchanges and government …
The NSA Speech: Obama Accepts the Logic of Staying Terrorized
For critics of the surveillance state, it is tempting to see President Obama’s speech a few weeks ago as a partial victory: Prompted by …
The Corruption of Power
We’ve pointed out in the past that President Obama’s views on the surveillance state shifted completely from when he was Senator to when he …
On “Digital” Liberty
In 1859, a book was published with the title On Liberty. Written by John Stuart Mill, a philosopher of the time, this work focused …
Sacrificing Your Privacy to Keep You Safe
Six months ago, I stepped out from the shadows of the United States Government’s National Security Agency to stand in front of a journalist’s …
“Sealed for Your Protection”
I opened a new bottle of probiotics this morning, and it had one of those circular seals on the top. You know, the one …
The NSA’s Porn Problem
In the Huffington Post last week, Glenn Greenwald, Slate contributor Ryan Gallagher, and Ryan Grim had an investigative piece reporting that the NSA had …
America’s Technology Sector Is Too Eager to Cave to a Snooping Government
Americans are still trying to get a handle on the full extent of the government’s domestic spying activities, including the recent revelation that the …