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Posts Tagged ‘PATRIOT Act’

Google: FBI watching you on internet

March 8, 2013 Comments off

indiatimes.com

(Google says the FBI is monitoring…)

WASHINGTON: Google says the FBI is monitoring the Web for potential terrorist activity. But it can’t say how extensive the surveillance is.

As part of the Google Transparency Report, the Internet giant this week released data on so-called National Security Letters — official requests for data under the Patriot Act passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But Google said it was only allowed to provide broad ranges of numbers: in the years from 2009 to 2012, for example, it received between zero and 999 requests. The requests affected between 1,000 and 1,999 accounts, except in 2010 when the range was 2,000 to 2,999 accounts, Google said.

“You’ll notice that we’re reporting numerical ranges rather than exact numbers. This is to address concerns raised Read more…

Categories: FBI Tags: , , , ,

Internet takeover: New legislation would allow state to arbitrarily shut down, seize websites

July 26, 2011 Comments off

naturalnews

Freedom of speech is under attack once again as the bloated US federal government continues its quest to destroy the last bastion of free and open communication — the internet.

Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property” bill, also known as the Protect IP Act, is more oppressive and restrictive to free speech than even communist China’s internet censorship protocols, and a group of law professors recently wrote an open letter warning that the bill would allow the government to freely pull websites without any proper legal restrictions.

Last November, NaturalNews reported that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had already begun seizing website domains and ordering that they be shut down permanently for supposed copyright infringement — and the agency did this apart from due process or a proper trial (http://www.naturalnews.com/030542_c…).

No law or legal precedent permitted this rogue agency — which is a tyrannical spawn of post-9/11 hysteria that is not even constitutionally legitimate to begin with, by the way — to undergo its website seizing operation. The agency simply decided to break the law and do as it pleased.

Now, certain members of Congress are pushing to turn this oppressive, illegal tyranny into law through the Protect IP Act, which by all appearances is even more severe than Read more…

Categories: GOVERNMENT, internet, United States Tags: , , , , , ,

EU cloud data can be secretly accessed by US authorities

July 5, 2011 1 comment

theregister

US-owned companies bound by Patriot Act, says Microsoft

Personal information belonging to EU users of US-owned cloud-based services could be shared with US law enforcers without the user being informed, Microsoft has said.

The software giant said it could not guarantee that it would not have to hand over EU customers’ data on a new cloud service it has developed whilst keeping details of the data transfer secret.

Cloud services allow internet users to store data online instead of locally.

EU data protection laws state that organizations must tell people when they are asked to disclose their personal information.

These EU provisions might conflict with obligations US-based firms, such as Microsoft, face under US law.

The USA Patriot Act gives law enforcement authorities the right to access Read more…

Categories: internet Tags: , , , , , ,

32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid

May 26, 2011 1 comment

endoftheamericandream

Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic “big brother” control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled?  Well, that is exactly where things are headed.  We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible.  Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on their citizens.  Paranoia has become standard operating procedure all over the planet and nobody is to be trusted.  Global politicians will give speeches about liberty and freedom even as they undermine them at every turn.  There are very, very few nations on the planet where liberty and freedom are increasing.  Instead, almost everywhere you turn the “control grid” is getting tighter.  Governments don’t want us gathering together and interacting with one another.  Instead, they want us to work our tails off to support the system, they want us enslaved financially and constantly drowning in debt, and they want us addicted to television and other forms of entertainment.  They want us as numb and docile as possible.  Meanwhile, all over the globe they continue to construct a futuristic “big brother” control grid that will ensure that they will always be able to control us.

Sadly, this is not the plot to some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie.

This is really happening.

When you read the list below, each of the 32 signs may not seem to be all that significant individually.  However, when they are all taken together, they paint a truly frightening picture….

#1 The days of the free and open Internet are slowly coming to an end.  Many nations around the world have implemented strict Internet censorship and many other nations are moving in that direction.  With each passing year the level of freedom on the Internet diminishes.

Regulation of the Internet has even become a primary topic of discussion at G-8 meetings.  According to The New York Times, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the charge for a more “civilized Internet”…. Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, World Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Fear-Based Society and the Resultant Loss of Liberty

May 11, 2011 Comments off

truthistreason

What do the Patriot Act, X-ray scanners and “enhanced” pat downs at airports, our new healthcare system (I hate calling it “Obamacare” because he’s just a puppet like all Presidents), Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” and all other government programs have in common? They’re all sold to us by politicians as a means to keep us safe: safe from terrorists, safe from the bad insurance companies who will uninsure you when you get sick, safe from economic hardships.

Notice, if you will, that these sort of programs get passed by our government when something bad happens that affects the psyche of the entire US. 9/11 happens and we get the PATRIOT Act, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a host of other anti-liberty, supposedly pro-safety, laws and agencies; the Christmas Day underwear bomber detonates a small bomb setting himself ablaze and we get body scanners and “enhanced” pat downs at airports; the economy hits the skids and it’s the perfect time to pass sweeping healthcare “reform” because everyone’s concerned they will lose their job and their healthcare.

As Rahm Emmanuel famously said, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”

However, I would argue Ben Franklin’s perspective is the healthy one. In 1818, he wrote: “They willing to give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety, deserve neither and will lose both.”

Benjamin Franklin was a wise man; a student of history. He studied — as all the founders did — the toll this forfeiture of liberty for Read more…

Categories: Liberty, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

iPhone iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go

April 21, 2011 Comments off

guardian

Apple’s iPhone saves every detail of your movements to a file on the device. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

Security researchers have discovered that Apple‘s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or Read more…

Categories: Technology Tags: , , , , , , ,

PATRIOT Act extension would add judicial oversight

January 28, 2011 Comments off

Bill would shift next extension away from election year

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced legislation to the Senate Wednesday that would extend expiring provisions of the controversial PATRIOT Act.

“Congress now faces a deadline to take action on the expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act,” Sen. Leahy said in a statement. “The USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011 will preserve law enforcement and intelligence techniques that are set to expire on February 28, 2011, and extend them to December 2013.”

The legislation, titled “The USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011,” would extend the roving wiretap provisions, the “lone wolf” measure and the “library records” provision. The provisions allow authorities to conduct surveillance without identifying the person or location to be wiretapped, permits surveillance of “non-US” persons who are not affiliated with a terrorist group, and lets the government gain access to “any tangible thing” during investigations, respectively.

The bill also increases judicial oversight of government surveillance powers, such as requiring authorities to list the facts that justify obtaining a court order and raising the standards for gaining permission to conduct wiretaps.

“While this bill makes important changes to the Patriot Act to increase oversight of its powers, it unfortunately allows many dangerous provisions to continue,” Michelle Richardson, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel, said. Read more…

Categories: America, Freedom, PATRIOT Act Tags: , , , , ,