... with attention to the unseen

Whenever the frequency of an event of interest is extremely low — such as with acts of terrorism — even a very accurate test will fail very often. Corey Chivers explains why. Recent revelations about PRISM, the NSA’s massive program of surveillance of civilian communications have caused quite a stir. And rightfully so, as it [...]

The South China Morning Post reports: Two pan-democratic lawmakers urged US President Barack Obama on Friday to stop all legal action against and “consider letting go” NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden who has taken refuge in Hong Kong. They made the comments at a press conference at which they also made public a letter they have [...]

Peter Ludlow writes: To get some perspective on the manipulative role that private intelligence agencies play in our society, it is worth examining information that has been revealed by some significant hacks in the past few years of previously secret data. Important insight into the world these companies came from a 2010 hack by a [...]

Bloomberg reports: Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said. These programs, whose participants are known as trusted partners, extend far beyond what was revealed by Edward [...]

The Guardian reports: The FBI has shrugged off growing congressional anxiety over its surveillance of US citizens, claiming such programs could have foiled the 9-11 terrorist attacks and would prevent “another Boston”. The FBI director, Robert Mueller, also revealed that US authorities would be taking action against whistleblower Edward Snowden for revealing the extent of [...]

Marcy Wheeler writes: The director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, made it clear Thursday that he believes the FBI should have access to any of your data not covered by the fourth amendment of the US constitution. Yet he seemed unwilling to turn over the FBI’s own metadata in return. At issue is at least [...]