News & Commentary

The Guardian recently revealed that Britain's version of our NSA, the GCHQ, has been intercepting, storing and processing webcam images of millions of Internet users from 2008 through 2012.  The program, called Optic Nerve, was an attempt to apply facial recognition technology to web images in order to identify intelligence targets.  However, the information was gathered in bulk at staggering levels, reportedly 1.8 million people in a six month period alone.  It has also reportedly been fed into the NSA's XKeyscore system.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.

Ever wonder exactly how your cell phone can be used against you?

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.

February 11th is a big day in mass surveillance. No, the government isn’t debuting round-the-clock aerial surveillance – although that could be coming soon. Rather, Tuesday is a big day because it’s a chance for us all to fight back against the idea that we should be watched and spied upon by our own government for no reason.

In 2008, the ACLU challenged the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) — the surveillance law that gives the NSA virtually unfettered access to the international phone calls and emails of U.S. citizens and residents — on behalf of a coalition of human rights, media, labor, and legal organizations in Clapper v. Amnesty.  Last year, a divided Supreme Court held, 5 to 4, that the Amnesty plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the law because they couldn't prove that their communications had been monitored under it. That, of course, was before the world learned from Edward Snowden that the government was using the FAA exactly as the Amnesty plaintiffs had alleged.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.

Reports suggest that President Obama has no intention of making substantive changes to entrenched spying programs and will instead call on Congress to decide the way forward.  Given a recent poll indicating clear support for reigning in these programs, it appears to be another opportunity lost for Obama to live up to his bold words from 2007.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.