“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will begin collecting social media information and search results to include in immigration records starting on October 18, according to a rule published in the Federal Register last week. The policy will affect individuals going through the immigration process as well as naturalized citizens.” More …
Privacy
Social Media Sites Can Profile Your Contacts
“Why you should think twice before you give an app access to your phone’s address book.” (Podcast) More …
Surveillance without Borders: The “Traffic Shaping” Loophole and Why It Matters
“Since the disclosures of Edward Snowden in 2013, the U.S. government has assured its citizens that the National Security Agency (NSA) cannot spy on their electronic communications without the approval of a special surveillance judge. Domestic communications, the government says, are protected by statute and the Fourth Amendment. In practice, however, this is no longer strictly true. These protections are real, but they no longer cover as much ground as they did in the past.” More …
GOP Data Firm Leaks Personal Details of Nearly 200 Million American Voters
“Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server. The data leak contains a wealth of personal information on roughly 61 percent of the US population. Along with home addresses, birthdates, and phone numbers, the records include advanced sentiment analyses used by political groups to predict where individual voters fall on hot-button issues such as gun ownership, stem cell research, and the right to abortion, as well as suspected religious affiliation and ethnicity.” More …