Category: domestic surveillance

Lawmakers Vow Reforms to Government’s Secretive Surveillance Power

The law authorizing warrantless searches of data on U.S. citizens by the federal government has been so consistently abused that it must be either thoroughly revised or allowed to expire this year, surveillance and privacy advocates say. “A law designed to provide tools to collect foreign intelligence and prevent terrorist attacks has been warped into…


Bipartisan Lawmakers Vow Reforms to Government’s Secretive Surveillance Power

The law authorizing warrantless searches of data on U.S. citizens by the federal government has been so consistently abused that it must be either thoroughly revised or allowed to expire this year, surveillance and privacy advocates say. “A law designed to provide tools to collect foreign intelligence and prevent terrorist attacks has been warped into…


Homeland Security Portrays White Conservatives as Radical Threats in Training Documents

America First Legal (AFL) has released documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showing that the agency has conducted programs that characterize white people and conservative values as tilting towards radicalism. An internal memo (pdf) dated Jan. 29, 2021—just nine days after Biden was sworn in as the president—talks about a “Choose…


The Surveillance State Is on the March

Commentary As a working principle, the conviction that things are always worse than they seem is hard to beat. Along with the observation from William Dean Howells that the problem for a critic isn’t making enemies but keeping them, that mournful conviction that things are worse than they seem has the twin clarifying advantage of…


Postal Service Illegally Surveilled Protests, IG Says

Days after its sweeping covert internet surveillance operation was exposed through media reports, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) changed the program’s name and told analysts to stop monitoring the keyword “protest,” according to a recently released inspector general’s report. The March 25 IG report comes nearly a year after the USPIS “Internet Covert…


Inspector General Finds Significant Problems With Postal Service’s Surveillance Program

Days after its sweeping covert internet surveillance operation was exposed through media reports, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) changed the program’s name and told analysts to stop monitoring the keyword “protest,” according to a recently released inspector general’s report. The March 25 IG report comes nearly a year after the USPIS “Internet Covert…


DHS Collected Americans’ Financial Records in Bulk: Sen. Wyden

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has collected Americans’ financial records in bulk, according to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Wyden revealed the existence of a DHS financial surveillance in a March 8 letter to the department’s inspector general, calling for an investigation into the previously unknown activities. Wyden said he recently learned that Homeland Security…


FBI ‘Secret Spy Plane Surveillance Program’ Detailed in Court Records

The FBI’s so-called “secret spy plane surveillance program” is under scrutiny in a Florida terrorism case, where the defendant has asked a U.S. judge to toss evidence from the bureau’s aerial surveillance activities. The FBI’s aerial surveillance program was first revealed in June 2015 by the Associated Press, which reported that the bureau maintained a civilian air…


Post Office Claims Surveillance Powers Under Same Law Used to Curb Cops

The same law used by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) as the basis for a sweeping intelligence program has also been interpreted to be highly restrictive on postal policing activities—raising questions among some critics about the legitimacy of USPS surveillance power. When Postal Police Officers Association president Frank Albergo first read a leaked U.S. Postal…


DHS Sees No Rise in Violence Against Educators, but Federal Probe Continues

Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism coordinator John Cohen said Nov. 3 that the DHS has not found evidence of rising violence against educators—refuting the ostensible reason that Attorney General Merrick Garland launched an ongoing investigation into the matter. Cohen’s remarks came during a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on domestic terrorism in response…