Tag Archives: wiretapping

FBI wants wiretap backdoors to Internet

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Declan McCullagh, writing in CNET:

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require the firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.

The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

It is time, once again, for the Internet community to man the barricades and push back on a further erosion of privacy rights in this country.

UK to monitor ALL communications

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According to the BBC, the UK is set to implement a plan to monitor all telephone calls, Internet use and emails throughout the country.

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon.

Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.

The Home Office says the move is key to tackling crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it.

This is the ultimate Big Brother society, and one which we seem to be moving towards as well. The total end of privacy is a real risk.

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Tech quote of the day

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We do recognize the power and value of this data. We’re very aware that this information is sensitive. It’s a treasure trove.

– Andrew Coward, chief marketing officer of Carrier IQ.  The company stands accused of capturing extensive data from cell phone users, including every phone number dialed and every text message sent, without such users’ knowledge.

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No mobile phone privacy (updated x3)

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As reported in Wired, a new report (together with a related video) shows how software called Carrier IQ is secretly installed on millions of cellphones, with no notice to the users. The software seems clearly to log virtually all actions of the user and deliver the information to the cellphone carrier.

Though the software is installed on most modern Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart of Connecticut analyzed its workings, revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience — ostensibly so carriers and phone manufacturers can do quality control.

But now he’s released a video actually showing the logging of text messages, encrypted web searches and, well, you name it.

Eckhart labeled the software a “rootkit,” and the Mountain View, California-based software maker threatened him with legal action and huge money damages. The Electronic Frontier Foundation came to his side last week, and the company backed off on its threats. The company told Wired.com last week that Carrier IQ’s wares are for “gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life.”

The company denies its software logs keystrokes. Eckhart’s 17-minute video clearly undercuts that claim.

So far it appears to be installed only on Android, Blackberry and Nokia phones. How functions of this software can be squared with so-called cellphone security and encryption is impossible to say. In other words, at least if you have one of the enumerated phones, your data is clearly at risk.

Update: References to Carrier IQ are contained in Apple’s iOS software on iPhones. However, it seems the software is not activated unless the iPhone is placed in diagnostic mode. From The Verge:

chpwn notes that initial research indicated that Carrier IQ’s software may only be active when the iPhone is in diagnostic mode. In a blog post, chpwn confirms that, based on his initial testing, Apple has added some form of Carrier IQ software to all versions of iOS, including iOS 5. However, the good news is that it does not appear to actually send any information so long as a setting called DiagnosticsAllowed is set to off, which is the default. Finally, the local logs on iOS seem to store much less information than what has been seen on Android, limited to some call activity and location (if enabled), but not any text from the web browser, SMS, or anywhere else. We’ll let you know when more details arise.

Update 2: From All Things D, comes this statement from Apple:

We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.

Update 3: And now, the lawsuits begin.

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Privacy victory

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A US District Court Judge in Texas has ruled that obtaining cellphone records without a warrant is unconstitutional. In her ruling, Judge Lynn N. Hughes states:

The records would show the date, time, called number, and location of the telephone when the call was made.  These data are constitutionally protected from this intrusion.

Be careful what you ask for

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Hasan M. Elahi has a fascinating op-ed in today’s New York Times. He describes how in 2002, despite being an American citizen, he was stopped in Detroit upon entering the country and grilled for hours by Federal agents who believed he might be involved in terrorist activity. The Feds followed up with lie detector tests, numerous interviews and other activities.

In response Elahi, decided to log virtually all his activities, travel, and small details of his life, and then continuiusly forward the information to the FBI. He also posted all the information, in an unorganized fashion to his website. He suggests that this might be the best response to government spying. He just might be right.

Excerpt:

On my Web site, I compiled various databases that show the airports I’ve been in, food I’ve eaten at home, food I’ve eaten on the road, random hotel beds I’ve slept in, various parking lots off Interstate 80 that I parked in, empty train stations I saw, as well as very specific information like photos of the tacos I ate in Mexico City between July 5 and 7, and the toilets I used.

These images seem empty, and could be anywhere, but they’re not; they are extremely specific records of my exact travels to particular places. There are 46,000 images on my site. I trust that the F.B.I. has seen all of them. Agents know where I’ve bought my duck-flavored paste, or kimchi, laundry detergent and chitlins; because I told them everything….

PEOPLE who visit my site — and my server logs indicate repeat visits from the Department of Homeland Security, the C.I.A., the National Reconnaissance Office and the Executive Office of the President — don’t find my information organized clearly. In fact, the interface I use is deliberately user-unfriendly. A lot of work is required to thread together the thousands of available points of information. By putting everything about me out there, I am simultaneously telling everything and nothing about my life. Despite the barrage of information about me that is publicly available, I live a surprisingly private and anonymous life.

 

Secret laws, secret memos

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Laws in the United States should not be secret. Laws should be subject to judicial review. Operational details of military actions need not be disclosed but the law and rules governing the military, the Department of Justice or any other part of the government should be publicly open.

Neither is occurring under Barack Obama, any more than under George W. Bush.

The Obama administration’s secret legal memorandum that opened the door to the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric hiding in Yemen, found that it would be lawful only if it were not feasible to take him alive, according to people who have read the document.

The secret document provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war, according to people familiar with the analysis.

It is important to note that, not only is this memorandum kept secret, it wasn’t even completed until months after Obama had ordered al-Awlaki killed.

This isn’t American justice.

And the secrecy isn’t limited to international settings. From today’s Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Sonic said it fought the government’s order and lost, and was forced to turn over information. Challenging the order was “rather expensive, but we felt it was the right thing to do,” said Sonic’s chief executive, Dane Jasper. The government’s request included the email addresses of people Mr. Appelbaum corresponded with the past two years, but not the full emails.

Both Google and Sonic pressed for the right to inform Mr. Appelbaum of the secret court orders, according to people familiar with the investigation. Google declined to comment. Mr. Appelbaum, 28 years old, hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.

The court clashes in the WikiLeaks case provide a rare public window into the growing debate over a federal law that lets the government secretly obtain information from people’s email and cellphones without a search warrant. Several court decisions have questioned whether the law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

And note, that the government was seeking to forbid the ISP and Google from even telling the individual that the government was seeking his information. This is like something from the Soviet Union, not our “democracy.”  More the second story from Boing Boing.

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FISA constitutional challenge survives

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A constitutional challenge to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has survived an en banc rehearing in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  The challenge was brought by human rights groups, lawyers and journalists who claim to have been wiretapped or believe they will be wiretapped under FISA without probable cause and in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The hearing was focused on whether such claimants have standing to bring the challenge.  A three judge panel initially ruled that the plaintiffs had standing, and the the defendants (the government) sought an en banc rehearing.  The en banc appellate panel evenly split 6-6 denying the request for such rehearing. As a result, the initial Second Circuit ruling  affirming standing remains in effect and, unless the decision is appealed to the Supreme Court, the constitutionality of FISA will be, at least initially, be determined by the lower court.

More info here.

Great news.

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Privacy quote of the day

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The fiction that the vast majority of the American population consents to warrantless government access to the records of a significant share of their movements by ‘choosing’ to carry a cell phone must be rejected. In light of drastic developments in technology, the Fourth Amendment doctrine must evolve to preserve cell-phone user’s reasonable expectation of privacy in cumulative cell-site-location records.

– US District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the Eastern District of New York, ruling that probable cause must be demonstrated by prosecutors as a pre-condition to demanding location-driven cell phone records from a phone company. In other words, get a warrant.

Full-text of the decision here.

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Free speech quote of the day

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Since the UK is not an Arab country sitting next to Egypt we are going to hear a lot of complaining about social media. You’ll hear that none of this would have happened if it were not for social media. Twitter is bad. Facebook is bad.

Investigations need to take place. Can we mine the social media companies for information about would-be rioters? Can we call them terrorists?

This will eventually spill over to the US where there is already talk about mining the social media sites. Let’s run everyone’s Twitter feed through Quantico and see if we can profile and find troublemakers. Let’s just throw them in jail now in a pre-crime move that could save lives!

I have argued that the next step on the agenda of tyranny is to license the Internet so only certain users can use it. You’ll need a license to podcast or run a blog. This will be to protect the public of course. France and other countries have already promoted the idea that if you are caught downloading copyrighted material you get put on a three strikes program and can have all your Internet privileges taken away for life. The logic of this is just plain weird. But it is a trend.

Something is afoot and none of it is good. Let’s see how it plays out in the UK. Maybe we should put a no-fly zone over the country? Oh wait, what am I thinking? These are thugs and punks, not freedom fighters and dissidents. These are just plain criminals.

– John C. Dvorak

The Patriot Act’s secret interpretations

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Two Senators have claimed that the Federal government has developed and is using a very broad interpretation of the Patriot Act‘s provisions.  They claim it is so broad that it supports massive surveillance of Americans far larger than a plain reading of the Act would support. They have called for a report from the National Director of Intelligence and the DOJ fully explaining their interpretations.

“There is a significant discrepancy between what most Americans – including many members of Congress – think the Patriot Act allows the government to do and how government officials interpret that same law,” wrote the Senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. “We believe that most members of the American public would be very surprised to learn how federal surveillance law is being interpreted in secret. ”

The Senators tried to get the government to reveal some of the law’s contents, by forcing the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to produce a report outlining when this secret surveillance has gone overboard. Yesterday, the effort failed. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said no to the report by rejecting Wyden and Udall’s amendment to the FY2012 Intelligence Authorization Act.

In other words: we are all still in the dark about how the government is spying on us.

Full article here.

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H.R. 1981: here we go again (updated)

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The House Judiciary has passed a bill that is yet another assault on privacy. And, consistent with past practice, such bills are always named so as to produce a compliant public response.

Proponents of the H.R. 1981 bill have titled it the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011. It’s believed by some that the legislation will help lift law enforcement out of the “dark ages”.   Agents will be able to subpoena IP information instead of needing a court-ordered warrant. Investigators will have a further leg up when identifying child porn distributors and users since the bill ensures that the “footprints of predators are not erased,” according to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan believes the bill is mislabeled. “This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It’s creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes,” he says.

This is so typical. There is a massive invasion of privacy by the Federal government and one of the scary “3Ps” is trotted as the primary purpose of the bill. The three Ps, as all Americans should know by now are pedophilia, pornography and piracy.

Besides civil libertarians, who else is opposed to the bill? The Electronic Frontier Foundation,  the ACLU, EPIC, and others.

Update: More from LifeHacker, including what to do to protect yourself, here.

Your best bet is to find yourself a good VPN provider and hook it up to a good VPN tool to encrypt and route all your internet traffic through a third-party that isn’t your ISP. Virtual Private Networks creates secure, encrypted connections between your computer and a server on the internet, then routes all your internet activity through that server. Your ISP would only really be logging the IP address of your VPN server, which doesn’t give them much of your private info.

Tor is one of the easiest ways to browse anonymously online (even if it isn’t perfect). If you’re a Chrome user, you can even create a simple Tor toggle button to use it only when you really need it. By anonymizing your browsing, your ISPs won’t have a record of what you’ve been doing. They’ll know you were online, but the details won’t be available to them or the police. Of course, there’s no assurance that any anonymous browsing tool will provide full protection but it’s definitely better than nothing at all. If setting up Tor seems a little daunting, Vidalia can help simplify the process. You’ll also want to read our guide on protecting your privacy when downloading for more suggestions.

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FBI opens probe of News Corporation

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More trouble for the Murdochs:

In the U.S., the FBI opened a probe into whether employees of News Corp. might have hacked or attempted to hack into the private calls, voice-mail messages or call records of 9/11 victims or their families, according to people familiar with the investigation. The probe was opened Thursday morning, following a request a day earlier by Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.), who heads the House Homeland Security Committee and whose Long Island district was home to many victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

It will also look into whether any News Corp. employees bribed or sought to bribe police officials to gain access to such records.

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Rupert Murdoch headed for a fall

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John Cassidy, writing for The New Yorker, summarizes the current state of affairs for the Murdoch family:

The question marks hang over the Murdochs, not News Corp. In the coming months, both Rupert and James will be called before a British judge to explain what they knew about phone hacking and when. The judicial inquiry that David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, announced today will be modelled on the 2003 Hutton Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, the British weapons scientist who had expressed skepticism about government claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The evidence that Lord Hutton unearthed, about which I wrote a long article for the magazine, effectively destroyed Tony Blair’s reputation.

***

Then there is the U.S. angle, such as it is. Yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, called on the American authorities to determine whether phone hackers tied to News International had targeted U.S. individuals. “I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans. If they did, the consequences will be severe,” Rockefeller said in a statement.

In short, the Murdochs and News Corp. are going to be besieged for months and years to come.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer family.

And while I am on the subject, one of the best places to follow developments in this story is at The Guardian‘s live political blog covering the entire mess.

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