Obama wants computer privacy ruling overturned

Georgetown SLB reports that the Obama administration is seeking to reverse a federal appeals court decision that dramatically narrowed the government’s search-and-seizure powers in the digital age. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals’ 9-2 decision in August offered Miranda-style guidelines to prosecutors and judges on how to protect Fourth Amendment privacy rights while conducting [...]

13 EU Countries launch coordinating body for national counterterrorism centres

13 National Terrorism Centres gathered in Paris last week to discuss further cooperation, Le Monde reports. At the meeting countries which have such a body, including Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, decide to launch a common structure: the Coordinating Committee of Counterrorism Centres. This network will monitor developments of the terroris threat. [...]

UK Intercept Modernisation Programme delayed until after next election

The Independent reports that plans to store information about every phone call, email and internet visit in the United Kingdom have in effect been abandoned by the Government.
The Home Office confirmed the “Big Brother” scheme had been delayed until after the election amid protests that it would be intrusive and open to abuse. Although ministers [...]

UK has no figures on closing extremist websites

The register reports that UK Security Minister Lord West told the Lords on Wednesday that he could not say how many websites have been censored because no records have been kept. The Terrorism Act 2006 granted powers for police to compel web hosts to shut down websites promoting terrorism. But the powers have never been [...]

DoS attack can defeat law enforcement wiretaps University reports

People who think they are being wiretapped by the cops could disable the taps by sending a stream of text messages or making numerous VOIP calls to overwhelm the system’s thin bandwidth, researchers in Pennsylvania postulate.The researchers say they’ve found a vulnerability in U.S. law enforcement wiretaps, if only theoretical, that would allow a surveillance [...]

Iran sets up special unit to monitor political websites

The head of the unit, Col Mehrdad Omidi, said it would target political “insults and the spreading of lies”. Most opposition websites are already banned, especially those linked to the defeated presidential candidates from Iran’s disputed June elections. More here.

UK consultation about changing communications environment

The consultation examined how the rapidly changing communications environment means the existing capability of the police, the security and intelligence agencies and other public authorities is declining, and why change is necessary in the UK. It asked for views on options for maintaining vital communications data capabilities. The responses found that the rejection of a [...]

Civil society declaration on global privacy standards

The declaration was presentation at a privacy conference in Madrid and included a call for a moratorium on “the development or implementation of new systems of mass surveillance, including facial recognition, whole body imaging, biometric identifiers, and embedded RFID tags, subject to a full and transparent evaluation by independent authorities and democratic debate.”
More news here.

Report of UN Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism on his mission to Egypt

An advanced edited version of the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on Egypt is out now. (A/HRC/13/37/Add.2, 14 October 2009). It will be discussed at the Human RIghts Council’s Thirteenth Session in March 2010.

In this report the Special Rapporteur examines the emergency law, criminal law provisions on terrorist crimes, and amended article 179 of the Constitution [...]

Shubert et. al v. Obama and the invocation of the state secrecy principle

Georgetown SLB reports that the Department of Justice asserted the state secrets privilege to prevent the National Security Agency from having to disclose information about its domestic collection activities after the disclosure of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, or TSP, in 2005.  The plaintiffs allege they were caught up in a “dragnet” of NSA surveillance that [...]