Archives for Surveillance

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/2/16

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Former Attorney General Eric Holder recently said that he thought Edward Snowden had done a public service for Americans and generated a conversation that we needed to have about privacy and security. A recent vote in the Senate Intelligence Committee that would allow the FBI to gain access to information about our emails without a court order, and a new patent for a police cruiser light bar that would include facial recognition capability might make us wonder where that conversation is ending up.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 5/7/15

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The great promise of possibilities offered by the web are increasingly constrained by governments, including our own. Congress is now considering several bills which have the potential to affect our use of the web – and beyond – in terms of privacy and civil liberties. Here’s where the Protecting Cyber Networks Act and renewal of Section 215 of the Patriot Act stand at the moment.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/30/15

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Section 215 of the Patriot Act will expire on June 1 unless it is renewed. In the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the historically unparalleled level of surveillance of Americans that this part of the Patriot Act has authorized, a lot of people don’t think it should be renewed, at least in its present form. Perhaps that is why Mitch McConnell quietly submitted, with no public announcement, a reauthorization bill that would extend the act as it is for five more years, and then invoked Senate rule 14 to bypass public committee hearings on the bill. Those who have an opinion on S.1035 might want to let their elected representatives know – and pronto!

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 11/13/14

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today, let’s take a more detailed look at the Verizon Wireless program that is tracking and profiling and selling information about 106 million customers who are, of course, paying Verizon for the privilege of being tracked online, and what Verizon Wireless, and maybe AT&T Mobile, customers can go about it. Unfortunately, the answer is not much.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/14/11

In this edition, we update a couple of topics we’ve looked at recently – the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an alternative to SOPA which troubles many in this country and aboard; and a reminder that our privacy laws are reducing the competitiveness of U.S. companies trying to do business in countries worried about ubiquitous U.S. surveillance of personal information.

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/14/11

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Smile – you’re on Candid Camera! No, not the TV show, the every day security show that is going on all over the country and all over the world. Going to lower Manhattan? There are a thousand security cameras there per square mile
– and they are being tied together so police can access the images from any of them. Visiting London? You’re image will probably be recorded 300 times in a day. Well, you might say, these cameras help police solve crimes.
Maybe, but they can be used for lots of other things as well. Here are some of them in this show from the Electronic Cottage archives.