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House Intelligence Committee’s NSA Surveillance Bill Includes New Threats and Old Thrown last-minute into a torrent of competing legislation, a new bill meant to expand the NSA’s broad surveillance powers is the most recent threat to American privacy. It increases who is subject to surveillance, allows warrantless search of American communications, expands how collected data can be used, and treats constitutional protections as voluntary. The bill must be stopped immediately. There is little time: despite the bill’s evening release yesterday, November 29, a committee is scheduled to markup the bill tomorrow, December 1. The bill is called the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 , and it was introduced by Rep. Nunes (R-CA), the Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. It shares the same name as another bill introduced in the Senate in October. Both bills are attempts to reauthorize Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, a powerful surveillance auth

House Intelligence Committee’s NSA Surveillance Bill Includes New Threats and Old Thrown last-minute into a torrent of competing legislation, a new bill meant to expand the NSA’s broad surveillance powers is the most recent threat to American privacy. It increases who is subject to surveillance, allows warrantless search of American communications, expands how collected data can be used, and treats constitutional protections as voluntary. The bill must be stopped immediately. There is little time: despite the bill’s evening release yesterday, November 29, a committee is scheduled to markup the bill tomorrow, December 1. The bill is called the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 , and it was introduced by Rep. Nunes (R-CA), the Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. It shares the same name as another bill introduced in the Senate in October. Both bills are attempts to reauthorize Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, a powerful surveillance auth

When Tweets Are Governmental Business, Officials Don’t Get to Pick and Choose Who Gets To Receive, Comment On, And Reply to Them. That Goes For the President, Too We’ve taken a stand for the First Amendment rights of individuals to receive and comment on social media posts from governmental officials and agencies. We’ve received a lot of good questions about why we believe that public servants—mayors, sheriffs, senators, even President Donald Trump—can’t block people whose views they dislike on Twitter without violating those persons’ free speech rights. Some question why citizens have a right to receive an official’s private Twitter account—@realdonaldtrump, for example. Others point out that Twitter isn’t a government forum with an obligation to allow users access to Trump’s messages, and others say users can still use workarounds to see the tweets of those who have blocked them.  We’re taking a deep dive into the First Amendment here to explain our thinking and our reading of

When Tweets Are Governmental Business, Officials Don't Get to Pick and Choose Who Gets To Receive, Comment On, And Reply to Them. That Goes For the President, Too We’ve taken a stand for the First Amendment rights of individuals to receive and comment on social media posts from governmental officials and agencies. We’ve received a lot of good questions about why we believe that public servants—mayors, sheriffs, senators, even President Donald Trump—can’t block people whose views they dislike on Twitter without violating those persons’ free speech rights. Some question why citizens have a right to receive an official’s private Twitter account—@realdonaldtrump, for example. Others point out that Twitter isn’t a government forum with an obligation to allow users access to Trump’s messages, and others say users can still use workarounds to see the tweets of those who have blocked them.  We’re taking a deep dive into the First Amendment here to explain our thinking and our readin

According to the World Economic Forum, digital transformation in the Oil & Gas industry could unlock approximately $1.6 trillion of value for the industry, its customers and wider society. Digital transformation is emerging as a business strategy that leverages digitalization to lower costs and increase profitability across the business. As a broad technological movement, digitalization implies a high degree of connectivity and analysis of data and a vast acceleration in the ability to quickly assess fluid business situations and to make accurate predictions and decisions.  The amount of time and degree of investment required in the past to perform such work was prohibitive. Today, acquiring such abilities is both affordable and a prerequisite for remaining competitive. The digital transformation trend is spawning new developments in the areas of simulation and virtual and augmented reality, particularly in the areas of oil and gas engineering and training operations. On the engin

New European Copyright Enforcement Plans Loom Large Even as Users Revolt Against Filter Proposal Today EFF joined over 80 groups in writing once again  [PDF] to European politicians about disastrous new EU copyright proposals. Along with human and digital rights organizations, media freedom organizations, publishers, journalists, libraries, scientific and research institutions, educational institutions including universities, creator representatives, consumers, software developers, start-ups, technology businesses and Internet service providers, we wrote to share our respectful but serious concerns that discussions in the Council and European Commission on the Copyright Directive are on the verge of causing irreparable damage to our fundamental rights and freedoms, our economy and competitiveness, our education and research, our innovation and competition, our creativity and our culture. Since we last wrote about these copyright discussions, the LIBE (Civil Liberties) committe

New European Copyright Enforcement Plans Loom Large Even as Users Revolt Against Filter Proposal Today EFF joined over 80 groups in writing once again  [PDF] to European politicians about disastrous new EU copyright proposals. Along with human and digital rights organizations, media freedom organizations, publishers, journalists, libraries, scientific and research institutions, educational institutions including universities, creator representatives, consumers, software developers, start-ups, technology businesses and Internet service providers, we wrote to share our respectful but serious concerns that discussions in the Council and European Commission on the Copyright Directive are on the verge of causing irreparable damage to our fundamental rights and freedoms, our economy and competitiveness, our education and research, our innovation and competition, our creativity and our culture. Since we last wrote about these copyright discussions, the LIBE (Civil Liberties) committe

EFF Demands Information About Secretive Government Tattoo Recognition Technology Government Program Is Aimed at Using Body Art to Identify Religions, Nationalities, and Political Beliefs Washington, D.C. – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Homeland Security today, demanding records about the agencies’ work on the federal Tattoo Recognition Technology program. This secretive program involves a coalition of government, academia, and private industry working to develop a series of algorithms that would rapidly detect tattoos, identify people via their tattoos, and match people with others who have similar body art—as well as flagging tattoos believed to be connected to religious and ethnic symbols. This type of surveillance raises profound religious, speech, and privacy concerns. Moreover, the limited information that EFF has been able to obtain about the program has already r

EFF Demands Information About Secretive Government Tattoo Recognition Technology Government Program Is Aimed at Using Body Art to Identify Religions, Nationalities, and Political Beliefs Washington, D.C. - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Homeland Security today, demanding records about the agencies’ work on the federal Tattoo Recognition Technology program. This secretive program involves a coalition of government, academia, and private industry working to develop a series of algorithms that would rapidly detect tattoos, identify people via their tattoos, and match people with others who have similar body art—as well as flagging tattoos believed to be connected to religious and ethnic symbols. This type of surveillance raises profound religious, speech, and privacy concerns. Moreover, the limited information that EFF has been able to obtain about the program has already r

As FCC Contemplates Repealing Net Neutrality Protections, Indian Telecom Regulator Reaffirms Support for Principles of Non-Discrimination Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks fairly, without improper discrimination in favor of particular apps, sites or services. Even as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is pushing a plan to end net neutrality protections in the U.S., India’s telecom regulator has called for strengthening the principle of non-discriminatory access to the Internet. This week the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended amending all existing ISP licenses in India to explicitly prohibit discriminatory traffic management practices. Having rules in place that restrict ISPs and telecom providers’ ability to control access to content via their networks is important for a free and an open Internet. Such rules prevent network providers from degrading the qual