Appeals Court OKs Challenge to Warrantless Electronic Spying

wired

A legal challenge questioning the constitutionality of a federal law authorizing warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans inched a step closer Wednesday toward resolution.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for the second time, rejected the Obama administration’s contention that it should toss a lawsuit challenging the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act. Among other things, the government said the plaintiffs — Global Fund for Women, Global Rights, Human Rights Watch, International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association, The Nation magazine, PEN American Center, Service Employees International Union and others — don’t have standing to bring a constitutional challenge because they cannot demonstrate that they were subject to the eavesdropping or suffered hardships because of it.

The lawsuit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, was lodged within hours of the FISA Amendments Act (.pdf) being signed into law by President George W. Bush in July 2008. The legislation is being challenged because it allows the National Security Agency to electronically eavesdrop on Americans without a probable-cause warrant if one of the parties to the communication resides outside the United States and is suspected of a link to terrorism.

“It is the glory of our system that even our elected leaders must defend the legality of their conduct when challenged,” (.pdf) Judge Gerard Lynch wrote.

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Cyber spying is the new face of espionage

cbc.ca

'When we do trace [cyber espionage] back to China, the Chinese put the blame on a rogue group of hackers — they're very careful to make sure it never gets traced back to intelligence or defence sources.'—Christian Leuprecht, Royal Military College of Canada

When many people think of espionage, the image that readily comes to mind is of the furtive spy, clad in black, taking photographs of secret dossiers with a camera disguised as a cigarette lighter. It's an image that seems quaint and dated, especially since the end of the Cold War. But the recent controversy surrounding Conservative MP Bob Dechert's flirtatious email exchanges with a Chinese journalist remind Canadians that the threat of international espionage did not vanish with the fall of the Iron Curtain.

If anything, the threat to Canadian secrets has strengthened in recent years and is something the federal government is fighting on a daily basis.

Christian Leuprecht, an associate professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, says the Dechert case represents a textbook example of international espionage.

"It is an active, long-standing intelligence tradition to use journalists, because it's easy to place them on temporary assignment somewhere for a period of time," he said. Journalists ask questions, meet people, learn things. "There seems to be something more to the story than meets the eye." But although they are still used, the need for such field operatives is declining in the online age.

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OnStar Begins Spying On Customers’ GPS Location For Profit

zdziarski.com

I canceled the OnStar subscription on my new GMC vehicle today after receiving an email from the company about their new terms and conditions.

While most people, I imagine, would hit the delete button when receiving something as exciting as new terms and conditions, being the nerd sort, I decided to have a personal drooling session and read it instead. I’m glad I did.

OnStar’s latest T&C has some very unsettling updates to it, which include the ability to sell your personal GPS location information, speed, safety belt usage, and other information to third parties, including law enforcement. To add insult to a slap in the face, the company insists they will continue collecting and selling this personal information even after you cancel your service, unless you specifically shut down the data connection to the vehicle after canceling.

The complete update can be found here. Not surprisingly, I even had to scrub the link as it included my vehicle’s VIN number, to tell OnStar just what customers were actually reading the new terms and conditions.

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