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Obama Justice Department snoops on AP reporters' phone calls

UPDATED 19:01 PM EDT, May 13, 2013 |

   WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

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UPDATED 23:08 PM EDT, May 2, 2013

Eyes on You

Police and politicians across the U.S. are pointing to the example of surveillance video that was used to help identify the Boston Marathon bombing suspects as a reason to get more electronic eyes on their streets.

From Los Angeles to Philadelphia, efforts include trying to gain police access to cameras used to monitor traffic, expanding surveillance networks in some major cities and enabling officers to get regular access to security footage at businesses.

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UPDATED 7:12 AM EDT, April 24, 2013

Online privacy is evolving. Does it matter to you?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Online privacy rules are changing. The question now is how much you'll care.

America's tech industry is finalizing voluntary disclosure standards on the sensitive information being sucked from your smartphone like your location, surfing habits and contacts. Senate Democrats are pushing for a clearer opt-out button for all online tracking. And Microsoft is offering a new browser that encourages people to block the technology that enables tracking.

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UPDATED 21:57 PM EDT, April 21, 2013

Bombing probe highlights expansion of surveillance

As the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings illustrates, getting lost in the crowd is no longer an easy feat. There are eyes — and cameras — everywhere.

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UPDATED 23:20 PM EST, March 7, 2013

Judge: DHS must release scanner radiation reports

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security must release two safety reports it conducted in the 2000s evaluating the radiation safety of body-scanning machines.

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, Royce Lamberth, ruled Thursday that the agency improperly withheld 2006 and 2008 reports in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The request was filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest research center in Washington that focuses on privacy issues and civil liberties.

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UPDATED 6:52 AM EST, February 18, 2013

Tracking Your Mobile Devices

The Homeland Security Department has awarded a University of Alabama-Birmingham researcher $583,000 to develop a system for that could be used to track people through their cell phones and mobile devices.

With little fanfare, the university announced the grant to Professor Raghib Hasan from Homeland's Science and Technology Directorate earlier this month, saying the money will be used to build a “system for verifying the location history and chorological track of cell phones and smart phones, tablets, and other mobile devices."

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UPDATED 7:28 AM EST, February 11, 2013

9/11 lawyers fear government eavesdropping at Gitmo

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Lawyers for the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks want to know if U.S. government officials have been eavesdropping on their private conversations with the defendants.

The evidence for any such listening, the subject of a hearing scheduled to start Monday at this U.S. base in Cuba, is circumstantial.

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UPDATED 8:12 AM EST, November 23, 2012

Facebook proposes to end voting on privacy issues

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is proposing to end its practice of letting users vote on changes to its privacy policies, though it will continue to let users comment on proposed updates.

The world's biggest social media company said in a blog post Wednesday that its voting mechanism, which is triggered only if enough people comment on proposed changes, has become a system that emphasizes quantity of responses over quality of discussion. Users tend to leave one or two-word comments objecting to changes instead of more in-depth responses.

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UPDATED 8:18 AM EST, November 13, 2012

The ease of obtaining email

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your emails are not nearly as private as you think.

The downfall of CIA Director David Petraeus demonstrates how easy it is for federal law enforcement agents to examine emails and computer records if they believe a crime was committed. With subpoenas and warrants, the FBI and other investigating agencies routinely gain access to electronic inboxes and information about email accounts offered by Google, Yahoo and other Internet providers.

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UPDATED 15:35 PM EDT, August 15, 2012

Warrantless Cell Surveillance

In a split decision expanding government surveillance powers, a federal appeals court has ruled police don't need a warrant to track the GPS signal and location of a suspect through his mobile phone.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal voted 2-1 on Tuesday against requiring police to get court permission before tracking a cell phone user through the device's Global Positioning System signals, saying it was no different than using a dog to track human scent.

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