surveillance – The News Desk

House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program

12Apr

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Technology

House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program

A controversial US wiretap program days from expiration cleared a major hurdle on its way to being reauthorized.After months of delays, false starts, and interventions by lawmakers working to preserve and expand the US intelligence community’s spy powers, the House of Representatives voted on Friday to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years.Legislation extending the program—controversial for being abused by the government—passed in the House in a 273–147 vote. The Senate has yet to pass its own bill.Section 702 permits the US government to wiretap communications between Americans and foreigners overseas. Hundreds of millions of calls, texts, and emails are intercepted by government spies each with the “compelled assistance” of US communication...

Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program

10Apr

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Technology

Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program

For the third time since December, House Speaker Mike Johnson has failed to wrangle support for reauthorizing a critical US surveillance program, raising questions about the future of a law that compels certain businesses to wiretap foreigners on the government’s behalf.Johnson lost 19 Republicans on Tuesday in a procedural vote that traditionally falls along party lines. Republicans control the House of Representatives but only by a razor-thin margin. The failed vote comes just hours after former US president Donald Trump ordered Republicans to “Kill FISA” in a 2 am post on Truth Social, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, under which the program is authorized.The Section 702 surveillance program, which targets foreigners overseas while sweeping up a large amount of U...

Why the Noise of L.A. Helicopters Never Stops

29Dec

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Entertainment

Why the Noise of L.A. Helicopters Never Stops

The Jay Stephen Hooper Memorial Heliport sits on top of a brutalist brick-and-concrete building, the C. Erwin Piper Technical Center, across from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. It’s an area where trains, buses, and highways all converge, and where the sounds of helicopters coming and going are barely noticeable above the din of engines and the smell of exhaust. From the ground, the heliport is barely visible. The best view of it is nearby, from the Cesar Chavez Bridge, over the Los Angeles River, which, in this part of the city, is just a low stream of water in a giant concrete aqueduct. From there, looking over a rail yard, one can see the helicopters parked at an angle on the roof, and the blinking of video monitors inside of an observation tower. On a recent evening, just befor...

12Dec

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Business

How to Fix Section 702 Surveillance

Congress is still debating how to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and doing it right has never been more important. The risk of terrorism has gone up since Hamas’s massacre in Israel, and the U.S. needs all the intel it can get to detect and prevent future attacks on the American homeland.Section 702 lets the government monitor non-U.S. citizens outside the U.S. to protect national security. The information collected goes into a database that can later be searched by law enforcement. But the authority has come under scrutiny after abuses by some Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who ran searches related to Black Lives Matter protesters and even Members of Congress. Lawmakers want to reauthorize the program while protecting civil libertie...

Governments Spying On Apple: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications: US senator

7Dec

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Business

Governments Spying On Apple: Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications: US senator

WASHINGTON: Unidentified governments are surveilling smartphone users via their apps' push notifications, a US senator warned on Wednesday.In a letter to the Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden said foreign officials were demanding the data from Alphabet's Google and Apple. Although details were sparse, the letter lays out yet another path by which governments can track smartphones. Apps of all kinds rely on push notifications to alert smartphone users to incoming messages, breaking news, and other updates. These are the audible "dings" or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or their sports team wins a game. What users often do not realize is that almost all such notifications travel over Google and Apple's servers. That gives the two companies unique insight into ...

A Civil Rights Firestorm Erupts Around a Looming Surveillance Power Grab

29Nov

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Technology

A Civil Rights Firestorm Erupts Around a Looming Surveillance Power Grab

United States lawmakers are receiving a flood of warnings from across civil society not to be bend to the efforts by some members of Congress to derail a highly sought debate over the future of a powerful but polarizing US surveillance program.House and Senate party leaders are preparing to unveil legislation on Wednesday directing the spending priorities of the US military and its $831 billion budget next year. Rumors, meanwhile, have been circulating on Capitol Hill about plans reportedly hatched by House speaker Mike Johnson to amend the bill in an effort to extend Section 702, a sweeping surveillance program drawing fire from a large contingent of Democratic and Republican lawmakers favoring privacy reforms.WIRED first reported on the rumors on Monday, citing senior congressional aide...

We Can’t Return to a Pre-9/11 Mindset on Foreign Surveillance

24Nov

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Business

We Can’t Return to a Pre-9/11 Mindset on Foreign Surveillance

By Michael B. Mukasey and Jamil N. JafferNov. 23, 2023 12:09 pm ETThe U.S. faces threats from every corner of the globe. Chinese-made fentanyl and its chemical precursors pour through the southern border, and the Communist Party menaces in the Indo-Pacific. Iran’s terrorist proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, fire on American allies and troops in the Mideast. North Korea tests ballistic missiles. Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine. Each of them endangers Americans at home to boot.America’s security depends on our ability to understand and respond to these threats. Yet Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the primary method for gathering intel against such threats, expires Dec. 31. Letting it lapse over misplaced concerns about Americans’ privacy wou...

Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill

10Nov

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Technology

Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill

Leaders in the United States Senate have been discussing plans to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) beyond its December 31 deadline by amending must-pass legislation this month.A senior congressional aide tells WIRED that leadership offices and judiciary sources have both disclosed that discussions are underway about saving the Section 702 program in the short term by attaching an amendment extending it to a bill that is sorely needed to extend federal funding and avert a government shutdown one week from now.The program, last extended in 2018, is due to expire at the end of the year. Without a vote to reauthorize 702, the US government will lose its ability to obtain year-long “certifications” compelling telecommunications companies to wiretap oversea...

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

8Nov

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Technology

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

In 1763, the radical journalist and colonial sympathizer John Wilkes published issue no. 45 of North Briton, a periodical of anonymous essays known for its virulent anti-Scottish drivel—and for viciously satirizing a British prime minister until he quit his job. The fallout from the subsequent plan of the British king, George III, to see Wilkes put in irons for the crime of being too good at lambasting his own government reverberates today, particularly in the nation whose founders once held Wilkes up as an idol, plotting a revolt of their own.Wilkes’ arrest boiled the Americans’ blood. Reportedly, the politician-cum-fugitive had invited the king’s men into his home to read the warrant for his arrest aloud. He quickly tossed it aside. At trial, Wilkes explained its most insidious feature:...

Intensified Israeli Surveillance Has Put the West Bank on Lockdown

7Nov

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Technology

Intensified Israeli Surveillance Has Put the West Bank on Lockdown

On Sunday, October 29, Ahmed Azza was given permission to leave his neighborhood for the first time in three days. He passed the surveillance camera trained on his front door and the group of Israeli soldiers stationed on the hill above and walked eight minutes to the checkpoint at the end of his street. He placed his belongings on a table to be searched, made mandatory eye contact with the facial recognition camera, and crossed through the rotating metal barriers into Hebron. Ten hours later, he was given a one-hour window to return home before the checkpoint closed and he was locked out—or in—for the next two days.Azza lives in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, the most tightly controlled neighborhood in the West Bank. Since 1997, Tel Rumeida has formed part of H2, a section of Hebron controlled by ...