Ron Wyden’s Past Provocative Hearing Question on Cell Site Location
As I’ve noted, yesterday Ron Wyden got Keith Alexander to refuse to answer a question about whether the NSA has ever collected or made plans to collect Americans’ cell-site information in bulk. Wyden:...
View ArticleDavid Kris Points to the Clause Loopholed Under David Barron on Metadata...
I’m working on a longer post on David Kris’ paper on the phone [and Internet] dragnets. But for the moment, I want to note that he strongly implies the US is relying on 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(f) to...
View ArticleDianne Feinstein Opens the Tech Back Door to the Dragnet Database Even Wider
I’ve been writing for months about the great big loophole providing access to the phone dragnet database. Basically, the NSA needs someone to massage the dragnet data before analysts do queries on it,...
View ArticleWill NSA Lose Access to All Verizon Cell Metadata in 12 Days Time?
Last week, NSA selectively leaked a claim it only obtains 20 to 30% of US call data because it doesn’t collect some or all cell provider data. (WSJ, WaPo, LAT, NYT) I believe the claim itself is true...
View ArticleNSA’s Single Section 215 Success Would Probably Be Impossible If NSA’s Latest...
It looks increasingly like the sole Section 215 success the FBI has had would be impossible under the claims about limits to dragnet collection NSA leaked last week. Last week, four journalists...
View ArticleRuppRogers Fake Dragnet Fix Would End (?) Bulk Firearm Record Collection, But...
I’m just beginning to go through the House Intelligence Fake Dragnet Fix bill — what I will henceforth call the RuppRogers Fake Dragnet Fix. It does have some improvements — the kind of bones you throw...
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Newly-Released Dragnet Order Suggests Spike in 215 Orders May Include...
I Con the Record reissued less classified versions of two Section 215 orders: the March 2, 2009 one that sharply restricted the phone dragnet without much new declassified, and the June 22, 2009 one...
View ArticleFBI Is Not “Surveilling” WikiLeaks Supporters in Its Never-Ending...
The FOIA for records on FBI’s surveillance of WikiLeaks supporters substantially ended yesterday (barring an appeal) when Judge Barbara Rothstein ruled against EPIC. While she did order National...
View ArticleHemisphere 2.0
As I note in an update to this post, Charlie Savage is very cross I did some math. On top of making a hilariously bad misreading of my original post — claiming I said a number was implausible even...
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Surveillance Whack-a-Mole, Section 215 to Section 702 Edition
As it happens, I and others covered the report that NSA purportedly has not restarted its use of the Section 215 CDR program in the wake of finding serious over-collection on the same day that I Con...
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