Tag: NSA
Press Releases
Privacy advocates call on U.S. Congress to release information crucial for surveillance reform debate
Access Now joins more than 30 civil society organizations in calling for U.S. House Judiciary Committee leaders to release critical information regarding the current implementation of U.S. surveillance laws.…
18 March 2019
Blog
Too much posturing and not enough substance on encryption
Last week, Obama Administration officials revealed that they will not force technology companies to weaken encryption to give government officials special access to users’ data. However, this is only a partial win for advocates of smart digital security policy. As our U.S. policy manager Amie Stepanovich explains in a post at Just Security, ambiguity remains with regard to the administration’s stand on encryption.…
14 October 2015
Blog
U.S. Senate rushing through cyber-surveillance bill (UPDATED)
Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee will secretly consider the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a bill that would enable companies to sign, seal, and deliver your personal information to the NSA. …
11 March 2015
Blog
New Crypto Guidance Draft Offers Brighter Path Forward
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the second draft of its “Cryptographic Standards and Development Process,” a document intended to provide principles and guidance on the creation of cryptographic standards. Crypto standards developed by NIST serve as the basis for secure communications and interactions across the internet.
Access applauds NIST for the new draft — which expands upon and strengthens the language behind important principles first set out in the previous draft — and for actively and transparently engaging with the public on these important issues. We also encourage NIST to include specific language directed at the National Security Agency (NSA) before the text is finalized.…
29 January 2015
Blog
Away from exceptionalism: The need for global surveillance reform
Surveillance impacts everyone, especially the most vulnerable and at-risk populations. It is past time that all users demand action, domestically as well as internationally, for the universal respect of human rights.…
11 December 2014
Press Releases
Civil Society and Companies Join Together in Call for Stronger Encryption Standards
Today, a coalition of civil society organizations and companies sent a letter to the Obama Administration asking it to set strong guiding principles for the establishment of encryption standards. …
20 November 2014
Blog
Dear Congress: Ignore distractions and pass USA FREEDOM
With limited time left in the legislative calendar for this Congress, it is time for an assessment of priorities. To start, we need to reign in the NSA’s privacy-violating surveillance programs. The USA FREEDOM Act would limit, instead of expand, the government’s intake of user information. It should be a priority for the outgoing Congress. And yet, priorities seems to be elsewhere.…
31 October 2014
Blog
Virtual Integrity: Three steps toward building stronger cryptographic standards
As the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance make clear, the preservation of the integrity of communications and systems is a key obligation under international law. Just as it would be unreasonable for governments to insist that all residents of houses should leave their doors unlocked just in case the police need to search a particular property, or to require all persons to install surveillance cameras in their houses on the basis that it might be useful to future prosecutions, it is equally disproportionate for governments to interfere with the integrity of everyone’s communications in order to facilitate its investigations or to require the identification of users as a precondition for service provision or the retention of all customer data. …
18 September 2014
Press Releases
Four Members of Congress Join Dozens of Organizations to Urge President Obama to Limit Mass Surveillance Under Executive Order 12333
Access has convened a coalition of digital rights groups to urge the Obama Administration to reform Executive Order 12333, which authorizes mass surveillance by NSA and other intelligence agencies with no meaningful limits. …
2 September 2014