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Academic Writing
ACLU v. Clapper Will End the Telephone Dragnet
Cross-posted from Just Security.
Last week’s dramatic Second Circuit decision in ACLU v. Clapper, invalidated the alleged legal basis for the NSA domestic phone call dragnet, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, just weeks before that provision is about to expire.
The Intelligence Time Machine
On Tuesday, members in the House and Senate introduced new versions of the USA Freedom Act that would prohibit bulk collection of records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the FISA pen register authority, and national security letter statutes. The legislation, if passed, would result in significant changes to the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records program, raising questions about the impact such prohibitions could have on the Intelligence Community (IC). This makes it a good time to revisit analyses of the utility of bulk collection programs. Read more about The Intelligence Time Machine
Surveillance forces journalists to think and act like spies
Once upon a time, a journalist never gave up a confidential source. When someone comes forward, anonymously, to inform the public, it's better to risk time incarcerated than give them up. This ethical responsibility was also a practical and professional necessity. If you promise anonymity, you're obliged to deliver. If you can't keep your word, who will trust you in the future? Sources go elsewhere and stories pass you by.
Not ‘digital exhaust;’ rather ‘digital fossils’
Recently a member of Congress got into some pretty serious hot water over allegations he accepted numerous unethical, and perhaps illegal, favors including flights on airplanes. The Associated Press, which broke the story, documented these flights in several different ways, but perhaps the most interesting was by examining the location data embedded in pictures that the lawmaker posted on his Instagram account. This “metadata” (data about data) exposed the locations of the politician, who was an inveterate social media documenter of his travels, when the pictures were taken. The story is Read more about Not ‘digital exhaust;’ rather ‘digital fossils’
Two continents, two courts, two approaches to privacy
At 3:20 a.m. on August 24, 2014, the strongest earthquake in a quarter-centuryrocked the San Francisco Bay Area, causing damage widely estimated at between $300 million and $1 billion.
The right to life and the Martens Clause
Patrick Lin made interesting observations on the ethical notion of human dignity in the context of LAWS. Even if LAWS could act in accordance with IHL, taking of human life by machines violates a right to dignity that may even be more fundamental to the right to life.
Download the attached PDF to read Patrick Lin's full testimony. Read more about The right to life and the Martens Clause
What’s new in the U.S. cyber strategy
The Department of Defense has just issued a new cyber strategy, which perhaps provides the best public presentation of how the United States thinks about cybersecurity. As always with these documents, what is left out is as important as what is put in. So how has U.S. strategic thinking about cybersecurity changed in the post-Snowden era?
The United States isn’t worried about a ‘cyber Pearl Harbor’ any more Read more about What’s new in the U.S. cyber strategy
What’s behind the Gazprom crisis?
The European Union has opened an initial antitrust case against Gazprom, the Russian government-owned gas and energy giant. It is accusing Gazprom of abusing its market power to jack up prices and punish E.U. member states for noncompliance with its demands. As always with such cases, there is plenty of politics. The E.U. Read more about What’s behind the Gazprom crisis?
The new German spying scandal is a big deal
German media organizations, such as Der Spiegel and Die Zeit, are reporting on Thursday on a spying scandal that threatens to create new controversy over the NSA.
What’s the story? Read more about The new German spying scandal is a big deal