Privacy Part 3: Government Surveillance

March 3

Over the past two weeks we’ve looked at big-picture concepts of privacy and how the Internet reflects these issues in the context of corporations and people. This week, we dive into the specific question of surveillance by governments: how the Internet allows governments to observe their (and other governments') citizens, how these issues are different than from the corporate context, and what government surveillance does to us and the Internet as a system. We'll also look at how companies are working to inform citizens about surveillance, and the issues they encounter.

Assignment 2

Your final project prospectus is due today before class. Please upload your prospectus here.

Readings

Government vs. Corporate Surveillance

• Brian Fung, Yes, There Is Actually a Huge Difference Between Government and Corporate Surveillance

• Bruce Schneier, The Trajectories of Government and Corporate Surveillance

Surveillance Theory and Practice

• Neil Richards, The Dangers of Surveillance (pages 1934-96; 1942-45; and 1952-58)

• Kit Walsh, The NSA's Spying Powers: Reading the Statute

• Jack Goldsmith, We Need an Invasive NSA

• Steve Vladeck, Laura Donohue's Comprehensive Case Against Bulk Metadata Collection

• If you're interested, the Donohue article can be found here.

• Re/Code, An Interview with President Obama (10:50-15:25 only)

• Orin Kerr, Apple's Dangerous Game and Apple's Dangerous Game, Part 2: The Strongest Counterargument

Transparency and Accountability

• Ryan Budish, What Transparency Reports Don't Tell Us

• Electronic Frontier Foundation, Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying (skim)

• IC on the Record (skim)

• Google Transparency Report: United States (skim)

• Twitter Transparency Report (skim)

Optional Readings

• The Jennifer Granick / Orin Kerr debates on metadata and the Fourth Amendment

• Granick's opening
• Kerr's response
• Granick's reply
• Kerr's sur-reply

• Emily Bell et al., Comment to Review Group on Intelligence and Communication Technologies Regarding the Effects of Mass Surveillance on the Practice of Journalism (pages 9-12 ("Mass surveillance raises issues beyond individual surveillance," "Secret and confusing law," and "Chilling Effects") only)

• The Guardian, NSA Surveillance Revelations Decoded (skim)

• Ryan Gallagher, Meet the Machines That Steal Your Phone's Data

Class Discussion

Please remember to sign your postings by adding four tildes (~~~~) to the end of your contribution. This will automatically add your username and the date/time of your post, like so: Andy 15:12, 7 November 2013 (EST)

Hello everyone, just wanted to start off the discussions with net neutrality. Regardless of which camp you're on, it seems like it has taken a huge step towards one direction.

Links:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-26/fcc-adopts-net-neutrality-rule-backed-by-obama-for-open-internet

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/technology/net-neutrality-fcc-vote-internet-utility.html?_r=0

http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/26/technology/comcast-net-neutrality/

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/republicans-gop-split-on-net-neutrality-115564.html (government split on net neutrality)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/26/net-neutrality-fcc-vote_n_6761702.html

http://www.vox.com/2015/2/26/8117905/new-net-neutrality-rules-explained

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/26/net-neutrality-activists-landmark-victory-fcc (Net Neutrality activists)

Caelum (talk) 11:45, 27 February 2015 (EST)

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We'll talk more about Net Neutrality in a future class, after we get the written rules from the FCC. Thanks for sharing! Andy (talk) 11:57, 27 February 2015 (EST)

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thanks Caelum. It seems net neutrality is another one of those issues of balancing the govmt's ability to function v. individual's rights. Hromero10 (talk) 13:16, 2 March 2015 (EST)

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Re: Government Surveillance. When the revelations of the NSA surveillance program first came to the surface my first reaction was, who the hell these CEO's think they are to just open the doors for the feds to come in and take whatever they want without even challenging their authority to do this? The answer quickly became clear - like everything else related to National Security - intimidation. Intimidation by the government against private companies for the consequences of refusing to cooperate which could cause them to be responsible for allowing the next 9-11 to happen. The scepter of a similar terrorist attack has been the cudgel the government has wielded over every questionable piece of legislation to come from the Patriot Act, like the approval of 'enhanced interrogations' to holding enemy combatants without charges, to the assassination of U.S. Citizens abroad without due process.

As expected, most companies folded promptly like a deck of cards, and only a few courageos souls had the conviction to challenge the government's authority and methods. Its important to note that many of those executives who opened the door for the feds to come in had already been helped handsomely by the government in previous years in their transition from phone providers to internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast, so they were not in a strong position to tell the government to take a hike - the feds practically owned them. So with the doors wide open - one stream of information went to the phone and internet companies, the other went straight to the government's servers - the feds have been collecting massive amounts of personal information on private citizens without a search warrant for years.

Because of the inaction of some spineless executives and CEOs, some of them simply beholden to the government's wishes, there is very little that can be done to stop the government's constant intrusion and gathering of relevant and irrelevant information about millions of citizens without a warrant. Court litigation and lobbying in congress will help some, but what citizens can do is hold these web service and phone companies' feet to the fire. Consumers should demand that our privacy be respected and guarded, not sold to the highest bidder, or third or fourth parties. On that, we are only in the begining stages - the public is only becoming more aware of the depth of the surveilance and the possible consequences in future years.

A very important question was raised in passing during RE/Code's interview with President Obama in which he asks: "Who owns your data? Your health records,your financial information, your e-mail?" He didn't elaborate much on the issue but it is a hugely important question. If the answer is data belongs to the individual that generates it, then we have a big problem because we know corporations are gonna find a way to own it and charge people to release it or erase it if they want, getting back tangentially to the issue of the right to be forgotten. But the bottom line is that all data about a person should belong to the individual. As it stands today, no one is really sure, but one thing is for certain, no one has any control of their own data today. No one can control what government does with it or what a company does with it, much less what any hacker can do with your personal information. The only thing I've seen on the web out there is a handful of websites that show people how to prevent advertisers and third parties from following your clicks on line and purchases for marketing purposes. In conclusion, the internet is a long way, hundreds of thousands of miles, perhaps even light years away from anything resembling privacy. Hromero10 (talk) 13:16, 2 March 2015 (EST)