Technology

Constitution, Courts, Encryption, FBI, Law, Liberty, Privacy, State Power, Surveillance, Technology

What’s at Stake 

It’s not about 1 person. It’s not about 1 phone. It’s about the government being able to snoop on all people, on all phones, on all devices, on your TV, PC, even your HVAC and car. The government wants a skeleton key to unlock whatever it wants whenever it wants. This is dangerous in the extreme.

Via This Is the Real Reason Apple Is Fighting the FBI @ AgainstCronyCapitalism.org

America, Constitution, Courts, Encryption, Federal Government, History, Law, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology

All Writs Act

While the All Writs Act is not used every day, the act has been successfully invoked by the government to compel telephone companies to install wiretaps, for phone companies to hand over call records, and to obtain CCTV footage, handwriting exemplars, and DNA samples. It has even been cited to force a defendant to cough up his computer password.

What’s more, it has played a part in copyright piracy cases. In a forthcoming law journal article,Annemarie Bridy, a law professor at the University of Idaho, writes that “some courts granting broad preliminary orders against non-parties in ‘pirate site’ cases have cited the All Writs Act as a source of authority.”

The All Writs Act was originally part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the Supreme Court, the lower courts, and spelled out the basic powers of the judicial branch of government. In 1990, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor described the Judiciary Act as “probably the most important and most satisfactory Act ever passed by Congress.”

Via How Apple will fight the DOJ in iPhone backdoor crypto case @ Ars Technica.

Encryption, FBI, Federal Government, Liberty, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology

Are They Actually Hypocrites?

Apple CEO Tim Cook declared on Wednesday that his company wouldn’t comply with a government search warrant to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardinokillers, a significant escalation in a long-running debate between technology companies and the government over access to people’s electronically-stored private information.

But in a similar case in New York last year, Apple acknowledged that it could extract such data if it wanted to. And according to prosecutors in that case, Apple has unlocked phones for authorities at least 70 times since 2008. (Apple doesn’t dispute this figure.)

Via Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before @ The Daily Beast

Encryption, FBI, Federal Government, Liberty, Privacy, State Planning, Surveillance, Technology

Incentive to Tyrants Abroad

“This move by the FBI could snowball around the world. Why in the world would our government want to give repressive regimes in Russia and China a blueprint for forcing American companies to create a backdoor?” Wyden told the Guardian.

“Companies should comply with warrants to the extent they are able to do so, but no company should be forced to deliberately weaken its products. In the long run, the real losers will be Americans’ online safety and security.”

Via Apple encryption case risks influencing Russia and China, privacy experts say @ The Guardian.

Encryption, Federal Government, Law, Liberty, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology

Apple Stands with Liberty

“February 16, 2016 A Message to Our Customers The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand. This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around…

Free Speech, Privacy, Surveillance, Technology

Encryption for free speech 

If we are going to continue to preserve our right to free speech in the electronic age, then we need to use tools like encryption,” says Ladar Levison, founder of the Lavabit, the encrypted email service used by Edward Snowden prior to the NSA leaks.

Capitalism, Health, Technology

The End of Doom

Cancer rates are down in America. Lifespans are up all over. Food is more abundant. Poverty is in decline. Critical to this progress is technology. Ronald Bailey discusses how and why to keep that ingenuity coming in his new book, The End of Doom.

Business, Cronyism, Liberty, Lobbying, Military, NSA, Surveillance, Technology

Cronies of the Surveillance State

“If journalists are writing about this they should not be naive about the immensity of the security establishment,” said Columbia Journalism School professor Todd Gitlin. Gitlin says that he understands why media outlets would call upon former government officials to discuss NSA issues given that they have “earned their expertise by virtue of their institutional…

Business, Technology

SpaceX Tries for Tuesday

SpaceX will be busy today with spacecraft potentially coming and going from orbit at the same time. The company will try to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral less than two hours before a Dragon capsule returning from the International Space Station is due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. Launch of…

Business, Technology

SpaceX tries for launch and landing of the Falcon 9 rocket

It’s not just the launch from the private SpaceX, but the landing – on a barge to make reuse of rockets much cheaper – that’s noteworthy today: The launch is currently scheduled for 6:07 p.m. on the East Coast. You can tune into NASA TV starting at 5 p.m. for live coverage of the countdown…