Tag: NSA

Access sums up the past year of surveillance revelations and asks: given what we know now about the extent of government surveillance, what will we know next?

On June 5, 2013, The Guardian revealed the first in a series of classified National Security Agency (NSA) document leaks provided by former government contractor Edward Snowden. The first document we saw contained an order requiring Verizon to hand over all customer metadata on “an ongoing, daily basis” to the NSA and FBI, a surveillance program as egregious as it is disproportionate. The leaked documents that followed revealed further evidence of widespread user surveillance and bulk data collection by the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ. These included tapping into Apple, Google, and Microsoft servers and listening in on private mobile phone and Skype calls. Across the world, internet users and foreign government officials alike soon learned that they were unknowing targets of NSA spying tactics.

Per the latest Snowden revelation, the NSA is recording all call content in at least two countries

The revised House bill doesn’t move us forward on NSA reform, now it’s up to the Senate

On May 21, 2014, by voice vote the House Science and Technology Committee adopted an amendment to the FIRST Act removing the requirement that NSA be consulted on encryption standards. The Amendment was authored by Congressman Alan Grayson.

Today, the USA FREEDOM Act, in an amended form, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee by a unanimous vote of 32-0 (7 not voting). Among several legislative proposals to reform the NSA currently discussed by U.S. Congress, Access believes there is only one that will meaningfully change foreign intelligence surveillance: the USA FREEDOM Act.

Following revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) deliberately weakened cryptographic standards put out by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIST recently proposed a series of principles to guide cryptography standards-setting going forward. Access, together with a coalition of eleven other digital rights, technology, privacy, and open government groups, submitted a letter today calling on NIST to strengthen cryptography principles, noting in particular that the principles must be “modified and amended to provide greater transparency and access.”

Access provides a timeline and analysis of the Heartbleed vulnerability

In the wake of the ongoing revelations about NSA surveillance, Access releases an infographic measuring how the leading four reform proposals stack up against the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance.

Last Thursday, the U.N. Human Rights Committee released a report criticizing NSA surveillance, for among things, failing to protect rights of non-U.S. persons. The Committee’s report comes in the context of its overall review of civil and political rights in the U.S. in accordance with its treaty obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).