Privacy
January 21, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
The upcoming Winter Olympic games aren’t just the genocide Olympics. They are also the totalitarian Olympics. James Hohmann reports: China is requiring anyone attending the Winter Olympics to download an app on their cellphone that will allow the surveillance state to track their movements. Ostensibly to help with coronavirus contact tracing, the software also includes glaring encryption flaws that make it easier for authorities to snoop on athletes in attendance
»
May 25, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s obvious which of those things is not like the other, but apparently not to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. During a hearing on facial recognition technology, she tried to connect this form of surveillance with the privacy concern cited by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. Ocasio-Cortez opined that the privacy concern “doesn’t just give us [sic] a right to my uterus, it gives me a right to my hand and
»
December 7, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Alex Acosta’s Labor Department has authorized OSHA inspectors “to use camera-carrying drones as part of their inspections of outdoor workplaces.” So reports Bloomberg Law, linking to a May 18, 2018 DOL memorandum obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The memorandum requires inspectors to “obtain express consent from the employer” before using a drone, thus likely avoiding a Fourth Amendment problem. However, as prominent labor lawyer and former DOL
»
September 12, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
We haven’t written yet about the Equifax data breach. It is one of the worst, if not the worst, security breach of our personal information in history, the personal information of most U.S. adults having been obtained by cyber criminals. However, I had nothing of note to say about it. Stuff happens, I thought, and very bad stuff can happen in our digital age. My view changed when I read
»
December 30, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I wrote about a Wall Street Journal report that the NSA spied on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and members of his government, and that the spying included intercepting communications with members of Congress. I included in the post the Journal’s brief discussion of the rules that apply to U.S. surveillance that reaches such members. According to the Journal: A 2011 NSA directive said direct communications between foreign intelligence
»
December 29, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama announced two years ago that he would stop eavesdropping on leaders of U.S. allies, after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs. According to The Wall Street Journal, this meant an end to spying on French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders. However, Israel apparently failed to make Obama’s list of true allies. The Journal reports that
»
June 4, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Chinese hackers have invaded computers at the federal Office of Personnel Management, accessing personal information relating to at least four million current and former government employees. The New York Times reports: The Obama administration on Thursday announced what appeared to be one of the largest breaches of federal employees’ data, involving at least four million current and former government workers in an intrusion that officials said apparently originated in China.
»
June 2, 2015 — John Hinderaker
Here in the Twin Cities, it started when a man described as an aviation buff noticed a small airplane acting oddly. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on May 29: Aviation buff John Zimmerman was at a weekly gathering of neighbors Friday night when he noticed something peculiar: a small plane circling a route overhead that didn’t make sense to him. It was dark, so a sightseeing flight didn’t make sense,
»
May 31, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
As John notes below, Rand Paul has used his Senatorial prerogative to block the Patriot Act. As a result, its provisions will expire at midnight. A new Act will be passed, but probably not for at least 72 hours. Let’s hope that terrorists worldwide respect Sen. Paul’s prerogative and wait 72 hours before using using U.S. phone lines to plot attacks on U.S. interests. Rand Paul is concerned, as he
»
May 28, 2015 — Paul Mirengoff
John has flagged Rand Paul’s ISIS whopper — the claim that Republicans are to blame for the rise of ISIS. When Republicans controlled the White House, ISIS was, as John says, little more than a dream in the minds of a few fanatics. The dream was realized not because of Republicans, but mostly because President Obama reversed President Bush’s policies and prematurely withdrew American forces from Iraq. But Rand Paul’s
»
