internet freedom

The Dangers of Surveillance

This article seeks to explain the harms of government surveillance. Drawing on law, history, literature, and the work of scholars in the emerging interdisciplinary field of “surveillance studies,” the article offers an account of what those harms are and why they matter. The article moves beyond the vagueness of current theories of surveillance to articulate a more coherent understanding and a more workable approach. At the level of theory, the paper explains why and when surveillance is particularly dangerous and when it is not.

Caught in the cloud Privacy, encryption, and government back doors in the web 2.0 era

Over the last few years, consumers, corporations and governments have rushed to move their data to “the cloud,” adopting web-based applications and storage solutions provided by companies that include Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Cloud computing services provide consumers with vast amounts of cheap, redundant storage and allow them to instantly access their data from a web-connected computer anywhere in the world. Unfortunately the shift to cloud computing needlessly exposes users to privacy invasion and fraud by hackers.

From Facebook to Mug Shot: How the Dearth of Social Networking Privacy Rights Revolutionized Online Government Surveillance

This Article seeks to bring attention to the problem of Facebook privacy and rectify it. It examines Facebook‘s architecture, reveals the ways in which government agencies have investigated crimes on social networking sites, and analyzes how courts have interpreted the Fourth Amendment and the ECPA.

An End to Privacy Theater : Exposing and Discouraging Corporate Disclosure of User Data to the Government

This article focuses on the lack of information and on the policy changes necessary to create market pressure for companies to put their customers’ privacy first. The article outlines the numerous ways in which companies currently assist the government, often going out of their way to provide easy access to their customers’ private communications and documents.