Privacy

Papers, please – and your Facebook posts: US to demand social media info from visa applicants
People seeking a US visa may soon be required to disclose their social media information so that five years’ worth of their online footprint can be scrutinized. It was previously reserved for people from terrorism-affected states. [...]
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West’s Fatal Intellectual Poverty
The United States and its NATO allies are facing an existential threat. But the threat has nothing to do with Russia, China, or any other external “enemy” for that matter. The West’s own worst enemy is itself. Or more precisely, the intellectual bankruptcy of its political and military leaders and their dominant public discourse. [...]
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Between the Null and the Void
Happy cultures are all alike. But this is not a happy culture. Sullen and sour, America seems like a country whose nerves are shot. And, after 16 straight years of war, why wouldn’t the political neurons be frayed? Each day the fear factor is being ratcheted up. New threats are being targeted. New wars being planned. A paralytic dread hangs over the Republic. [...]
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Pictures of You: UK Gov’t Goes Ahead With Shady $6Mln Facial Recognition Tech
The UK government has decided to put out a tender for a US$6 million contract for facial recognition software, despite the fact thousands of pictures on their system may be of innocent people. [...]
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Liberty lost? Americans increasingly unhappy with levels of freedom, survey says
America is often referred to as the "Land of the Free," but as citizens prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July, their satisfaction with the country's freedom is significantly lower than it was a decade ago, according to a newly released Gallup poll. The survey found that although 91 percent of Americans were satisfied with the freedom in their lives in 2006, only 75 percent feel the same way t [...]
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An American Prophet (Chris Hedges) Is Vindicated
I’m not the only person to note that if Jesus ever actually showed up in America it would be our “Christians” who would shout him down — if, that is, he talked about peace and the horror of an imperial nation addicted to war. “Blessed are the peacemakers”? No thanks! If you ever want to know what it looks like when a mob in love with far right nationalism and on fire with a lust for [...]
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Tip of the Iceberg: Extent of #Vault7 Leak ‘Shocking’, More to Come
The extent of WikiLeaks' latest exposure is surprising and shocking, Australian researcher David Glance told Radio Sputnik, suggesting that the leak has dealt a heavy blow to both the CIA's image and US national security. Meanwhile, WikiLeaks signals that it has released less than one percent of its damning Vault 7. [...]
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China urges US to stop hacking other countries following Vault 7 release
Beijing has called on the US to stop its hacking practices against China and other countries, following a WikiLeaks release which reportedly exposes the CIA’s extensive hacking capabilities and lists Chinese routers as targets. [...]
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America Is Not  The Greatest Country Anymore 🎞
The Most Honest 6 Minutes Off-TV Ever The beginning scene of the new HBO series The Newsroom explains why America's Not the Greatest Country Any Longer... But It Can Be. Rarely do we find people who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. ~Martin Luther King, Jr Re [...]
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Gestapo America
FBI Director James Comey got Hillary off the hook but wants to put you on it. He is pushing hard for warrantless access to all of your Internet activity, Comey, who would have fit in perfectly with Hitler’s Gestapo, tells Congress that the United States is not safe unless the FBI knows when every American goes online, to whom they are sending emails and from whom they are receiving emails, an [...]
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Snowden Warns World Against Trusting Privacy to Tech Giants Like Microsoft
The whistle blower who exposed the totality of the America’s mass domestic surveillance program suggested that users should look to free and open source software to preserve their privacy. On Saturday, NSA whistle blower spoke to the Free Software Foundation’s LibrePlanet2016 conference [...]
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Snowden movie co-creator: ‘US State Dept and president did not want this film’
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, whose novel Time of the Octopus provided the basis for the upcoming movie “Snowden” shot by Oliver Stone, spoke to RT about the unexpected challenges filmmakers encountered in the US. Simply called Snowden, the biographical thriller directed by Oliver Stone tells the story of the US National Security Agency whistleblow [...]
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Censorship Around the World Still at High Levels
Most people believe that we are living in a more enlightened age of increasing press freedom, but the latest censorship reports tell a different story. Censorship is still a big issue around the world. Censorship remains at high levels in many countries, despite the fact that we tend to think we live in a world without that much of it (at least in the so-called “enlightened and developed West [...]
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Freeing Julian Assange: the Final Chapter
One of the epic miscarriages of justice of our time is unravelling. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention — — the international tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether governments comply with their human rights obligations — has ruled that Julian Assange has been detained unlawfully by Britain and Sweden. [...]
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‘Unacceptable nuisance’: German court rules Facebook ‘friend finder’ illegal
A German court has ruled Facebook’s ‘friend finder’ function, which allows the social network to market services to non-users, illegal. The court said the promotion is “intrusive” and that Facebook had not adequately informed its members about it. [...]
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Defending Digital Privacy, 200+ Groups & Experts Decry Global Attack on Encryption
A coalition of cyber activists and advocacy groups from 42 countries on Monday released a letter defending encryption and calling on governments to end efforts at undermining such digital privacy tools. A coalition of cyber activists and advocacy groups from 42 countries on Monday released a letter defending encryption and calling on governments to end efforts at undermining such digital privac [...]
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How Debt Conquered America | Consortiumnews
America presents itself to the world as “the land of the free” but – for the vast majority – it is a place of enslaving indebtedness, a reality for much of “the 99%” that has deep historical roots hidden or “lost” from our history, as Jada Thacker explains. Since its center-stage debut during the Occupy Wall Street movement, “the 99%” – a term emblematic of extreme economi [...]
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No End to “So Much War” as President Obama Delivers Oval Office Speech
For only third time during his two terms in office, President Obama delivered a live televised address from the Oval Office on Sunday night devoted to what is often called "national security" following announcements from U.S. law enforcement they are treating a mass shooting in San Bernadino, California last week as a possible example of "international terrorism." [...]
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Signs of a Dying Society
While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society." [...]
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