The FBI has changed its privacy rules regarding how freely agents can gain access to and search data collected by the National Security Agency that involves the communications of Americans. It just won’t say what the changes are. Additionally, there’s no word on when the changes were actually made, since that information is classified as well. [...]

A U.S. rendition plane was ready and waiting in Copenhagen in June 2013 to nab National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, a Danish news website reported this week. At the time, Snowden had fled Hong Kong and was stuck at the airport in Moscow. [...]

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 [...]

The National Security Agency (NSA) secretly replaced its program monitoring Americans' emails and moved it overseas before the operation was exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013, according to new reporting. NSA officials responded to Snowden's leaks by stating that the email records program had shut down in 2011—and in a way, it had. [...]

Echoing the post-9/11 era, intelligence officials and lawmakers are exploiting Friday's massacre to expand mass surveillance Despite no available evidence that terror suspects used encryption to plan the Paris attacks, U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers are seizing on the massacre to demand access to protected communications—in what critics warn is a blatant attempt to exploit fear in [...]

Reiterating his prior ruling which found the U.S. government's surveillance of civilians' telephone records to be unconstitutional—"Orwellian," even—a federal judge on Monday ordered the National Security Agency to halt its bulk collection program. [...]

In an interview with Swedish media, whistle-blower Edward Snowden opened up about CIA torture, ISIS, and mass surveillance. Two-and-a-half years after revealing the NSA’s mass surveillance tactics, he says he’s “very comfortable” with his choices. [...]

A German government-sanctioned special investigation has exposed a "clear breach" of intelligence-sharing agreements—including illegal surveillance of European authorities—between the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its German counterpart, known as the BND. [...]

Thanks to the pressure of civil liberties organizations and heavy-hitters in the tech industry, President Barack Obama will now have to publicly comment on his position on strong encryption. The savecrypto.org petition requested the Obama administration to publicly affirm their support for strong encryption and “[r]eject any law, policy, or mandate that would undermine our security.” [...]

The majority of European Parliament members have voted in favor of asking constituent states to grant protection to whistleblower and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has described the move as a ‘game-changer’ and a ‘chance to move forward’. MEPs have urged EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent ext [...]

Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner has agreed to look into a complaint filed by an Austrian law student claiming that Facebook has made his personal data available to US intelligent services and doesn’t guarantee a sufficient level of security. [...]

America,s National Security Agency has spied on German chancellors and their offices for more than 10 years, a new WikiLeaks report says. The three leaked NSA intercepts indicate that the US targeted 125 phone numbers of top German officials. The National Security Agency’s (NSA) intercepts published on Wednesday show that Washington has been tapping the phones of the political offices of the [...]

Chancellor Angela Merkel was not the only NSA target in the German government, as WikiLeaks has released a new tranche of documents containing a list of the phone numbers of German ministers and officials whose privacy was breached by the US spy agency. Sixty-nine high-ranking members of the German government, including the economy and finance ministers, as well as Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabrie [...]

The National Security Agency's infamous XKEYSCORE program, revealed by leaker Edward Snowden, makes searching the world's private communications as easy to use as Google, according to training documents published by the Intercept. XKEYSCORE was one of the first programs that the Guardian wrote about when Snowden began leaking NSA documents in 2013. [...]

France and Germany seem to have a servile attitude towards the US and its foreign policy which has to do with their "anti-terrorism" collection capabilities. They felt they had not to upset the collection arrangements says former CIA officer Ray McGovern. The latest documents published by WikiLeaks suggest that America's snooping activities in France are far more extensive than previously thoug [...]

From Patriot Act to the USA Freedom Act, America's debate on government surveillance of citizens - thanks to Edward Snowden - has created some heat but hardly any light in American politics. NSA backers claim the new law is reform, but isn't it only a distinction without a difference? CrossTalking with Fred Fleitz, Ken O'Keefe, and Ivan Eland. [...]

It's unlikely that Snowden will ever be removed from the US wanted list, as he told the truth about the "bastion of freedom" that lectures other states while spying on its own citizens, said Matteo Bergamini, director of Shout Out UK. It’s been two years since the publications of the NSA documents by Edward Snowden. What is the biggest achievement that came out of the revelations? [...]

A lot has changed in the two years since Edward Snowden decided to let the world know about the NSA's illegal activities, ranging from the mass collection of surveillance data, to tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phones. Despite having his world turned upside down, Snowden says he has no regrets about the life changing decision he made on June 5, 2013. [...]

The United States Senate on Tuesday will decide which direction to go next with regard to the USA Freedom Act, the supposed surveillance reform bill that already has passed the House and been endorsed by the president. According to its backers, passage of the Freedom Act would ensure that critical counterterrorism tools remain at the disposal of federal investigators but also rein in the Nation [...]