New documents obtained by the National Security Archive reveal that the US government considered establishing a nuclear weapons storage site in Iceland during the 1950s. The really interesting part? The United States wasn’t going to tell Iceland.
Source: The US Considered Hiding Nuclear Weapons In Iceland (And Not Telling Iceland)
How a middle-aged pro-democracy activist was falsely accused of terrorism and placed on a top-secret NSA surveillance list.
Source: In Bungled Spying Operation, NSA Targeted Pro-Democracy Campaigner
The DEA loves taking cash from travelers so much it has hired TSA screeners as informants, asking them to look for cash when scanning luggage. It routinely stops and questions rail passengers in hopes of stumbling across money it can take from them.But it goes further than just hassling random travelers and paying government employees to be government informants. As the USA Today’s article points out, the DEA is datamining traveler info to streamline its forfeiture efforts.
Source: DEA Accessing Millions Of Travelers’ Records To Find Cash To Seize | Techdirt
Following a court win by its client BMG over Cox Communications this week, Rightscorp has issued an unprecedented warning to every ISP in the United States today. Boasting a five-year trove of infringement data against Internet users, Rightscorp warned ISPs that they can either cooperate or face the consequences.
Source: Rightscorp Threatens Every ISP in the United States – TorrentFreak
Keith Lipscomb/Malibu Media breakup brings more and more interesting tidbits. Yesterday it came to my attention that Markel Insurance Company (MIC), a malpractice insurer for Lipscomb, Eisenberg an…
The NSA spies on NGOs to help the U.S. dig up information on how targets respond to disease and weapons of mass destruction.
Source: How the U.S. Spies on Medical Nonprofits and Health Defenses Worldwide
An undercover FBI agent egged on a would-be terrorist shortly before he opened fire on a Texas cartoon contest last year, raising new doubts about the bureau’s approach to cozying up to its targets.
Source: FBI Agent Goaded Garland Shooter to “Tear Up Texas,” Raising New Alarms About Bureau’s Methods
Venezuelan tweeter says short clips were legal under local laws—Twitter disagrees.
Source: Olympics fan claims Twitter killed his account after he posted Rio videos | Ars Technica
“Upon information and belief, Getty has been carelessly and recklessly acquiring content, not doing due diligence and not taking adequate measures to prevent infringement as well as falsifying/removing proper copyright management information. In fact, its aggressive acquisition schedule is possible only at the expense of others’ rights. Undeterred by almost two hundred complaints filed with Washington State Attorney General’s Office, despite several lawsuits, and the growing consensus in the industry that its abusive, unethical, and reckless business practices must be addressed, Getty has shown that it cannot and will not reform on its own accord.”
Source: Getty Images sued again over alleged misuse of over 47,000 photos | Ars Technica
An algorithm is deciding certain criminal defendants should spend more time in prison. And that determination can’t be fully challenged because the code belongs to a private company which provides the software to the government.Eric Loomis was determined to be a “high risk” defendant, based on something called a “COMPAS score.” COMPAS — Criminal Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions — cranks out Presentence Investigation Reports for use in the courtroom, utilizing a number of factors to generate a score that lets judges know how likely the defendant is to re-offend.The problems with this system are numerous. For one, the code is proprietary, so defendants aren’t allowed to examine the factors that lead to this determination, unlike other sentencing guidelines created by the government, which are open to the public to examine.Another problem is that the algorithm engages in demographic profiling — generally considered to be a bad thing when it comes to determining criminal behavior.
