Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

MassPrivateI

The National Security Agency for almost three years searched a massive database of Americans’ phone call records attempting to identify potential terrorists in violation of court-approved privacy rules, and the problem went unfixed because no one at the agency had a full technical understanding of how its system worked, according to new documents and senior government officials.   Continue reading “NSA admits it violated American’s privacy by spying on their phone calls”

MassPrivateI

Washington, D. C. – Newly disclosed U.S. government files provide an inside look at the Homeland Security Department’s practice of seizing and searching electronic devices at the border without showing reasonable suspicion of a crime or getting a judge’s approval.

The documents published Monday describe the case of David House, a young computer programmer in Boston who had befriended Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, the soldier convicted of giving classified documents to WikiLeaks. U.S. agents quietly waited for months for House to leave the country then seized his laptop, thumb drive, digital camera and cellphone when he re-entered the United States.    Continue reading “DHS is targeting activists at the border confiscating smartphones and laptops without probable cause”

MassPrivateI

North Carolina – Can a firefighter pull over a motorist suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol? Perhaps not, a sharply divided North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday. Gordon Shatley, a Chapel Hill Fire Department lieutenant, was responding to a fire alarm when he stopped his fire engine at the intersection of Estes Drive and Fordham Boulevard at 10:30pm on May 27, 2011. To his left he saw a light-colored Mercedes stopped with a window partially rolled down in pouring rain with only parking lights and the interior dome light on.    Continue reading “Firefighters want to be allowed to conduct DUI traffic stops”

MassPriavateI

In Chicago and Indiana the contentious police-state tactic of officers stopping random pedestrians for warrantless pat downs is no longer a concern just for residents of New York City. The practice, it seems, is spreading to police departments throughout the Nation.

“With the new Region STOP Team, no bust – or suspicious glance – is too small. Because you never know what crime you could be preventing or what wanted person you might find,” the news report says.   Continue reading “Police begin using “Region Stop Teams” to stop drivers who look at them the wrong way”

Huffington Post – by Radley Balko

I’ve previously written about the cognitive bias problem in state crime labs. This is the bias that can creep into the work of crime lab analysts when they report to, say, a state police agency, or the state attorney general. If they’re considered part of the state’s “team” — if performance reviews and job assessments are done by police or prosecutors — even the most honest and conscientious of analysts are at risk of cognitive bias. Hence, the countless and continuing crime lab scandals we’ve seen over the last couple decades. And this of course doesn’t even touch on the more blatant examples of outright corruption.   Continue reading “New Study Finds That State Crime Labs Are Paid Per Conviction”

Washington Post – by Matt Zapotosky

In the eyes of federal prosecutors in Virginia, Chad Dixon is a brazen criminal whose misdeeds threatened border security, state secrets and young children across America. They say he taught convicted sex offenders and aspiring federal law enforcement officers how to cheat their court- or job-imposed lie detector tests — even when he knew that they planned to use his advice for nefarious purposes.   Continue reading “Indiana man accused of teaching people to beat lie detector tests faces prison time”

MassPrivateI

The Acxiom Corporation, a marketing technology company that has amassed details on the household makeup, financial means, shopping preferences and leisure pursuits of a majority of adults in the United States, knows that Mr.Scott E. Howe is 45, married with children, the owner of a house in the 2,500-square-foot range, and is interested, among other things, in tennis, domestic travel, cooking, crafts, sweepstakes and contests. Those intimate details, Mr. Howe says, are entirely accurate.    Continue reading “What data brokers know about you and how you can opt-out”

Huffington Post – by Andrea Rael

“When one door closes, another is opened,” as the saying goes. But Colorado did one better, albeit not very intentionally.

Formerly known as the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, the 550-acre facility in Bent County, Colorado will now offer supportive housing, health services, substance abuse treatment, counseling and job training for the homeless. From there, it is hoped that participants will be able to transition to independent living — while saving the state money.   Continue reading “Colorado’s Fort Lyon Prison, Closed By Budget Cuts, Reopens To House Homeless”

MassPrivateI

In Pennsylvania, authorized law enforcement can access the state’s Justice Network (JNET) to access critical information for investigations. The JNET Facial Recognition System allows about 500 of JNET’s 40,000 users – individuals from local, state and federal law enforcement – to narrow down a search for a suspect by comparing images from sources like surveillance footage and social media sites against a statewide criminal database containing 3.5 million photos, according to JNET officials.    Continue reading “Pennsylvania DOT to enter 36 million drivers license and identification photos into facial recogntion database”

Wired – by DAVID KRAVETS

Following complaints from privacy groups, California lawmakers on Friday suspended legislation to embed radio-frequency identification chips, or RFIDs, in its driver’s licenses and state identification cards.

The legislation, S.B. 397,  was put on hold by the state Assembly Appropriations Committee, despite it having been approved by the California Senate, where it likely will be re-introduced in the coming months. Had the measure passed, it would have transformed the Sunshine State’s standard form of ID into one of the most sophisticated identification documents in the country, mirroring the four other states that have embraced the spy-friendly technology.   Continue reading “California Abruptly Drops Plan to Implant RFID Chips in Driver’s Licenses”

MassPrivateI

No amount of economic growth will land you a job if you get unfairly snagged in the FBI’s faulty background check system. And you can lose your job because of the FBI file inaccuracies, too.

After working without incident at a Philadelphia port for 33 years, Russ F. was told he was out of a job when a newly required post-9/11 security clearance check found an arrest dating back to 1971. Charges were never filed, and Russ was never prosecuted.   Continue reading “The FBI’s background employment checks are filled with inaccuracies”

Corp Watch – by Pratap Chatterjee

Glimmerglass, a northern California company that sells optical fiber technology, offers government agencies a software product called “CyberSweep” to intercept signals on undersea cables. The company says their technology can analyze Gmail and Yahoo! Mail as well as social media like Facebook and Twitter to discover “actionable intelligence.”

Could this be the technology that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is using to tap global communications? The company says it counts several intelligence agencies among its customers but refuses to divulge details. One thing is certain – it is not the only company to offer such capabilities – so if such data mining is not already taking place, that day is not far off.   Continue reading “Glimmerglass Intercepts Undersea Cable Traffic for Spy Agencies”