Congress plans to expand Patriot Act with DOJ access to your web browsing and search activity without a warrant

The infamous Patriot Act, which uses the threat of terrorism to expand surveillance over American citizens, is up for renewal under the USA FREEDOM Reauthorization Act – which is set to be voted on soon. Specifically, Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the government to ask record keepers for records relating to ongoing investigations. As if the original phone metadata siphoning provisions of the Patriot Act aren’t enough, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has introduced an amendment which would allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to have access to anybody’s web browsing and search history under Section 215.

The impetus of the reauthorization amendment is the ongoing investigation into President Trump and possible collusion with the Kremlin. Essentially, the amendment allows Attorney General Bill Barr to look at the web browsing history of any American without a warrant – citizen or not – if he simply claims that it is related to the ongoing investigation. Senator Rob Wyden (D-OR) explained to The Daily Beast:

“Under the McConnell amendment, Barr gets to look through the web browsing history of any American—including journalists, politicians, and political rivals—without a warrant, just by saying it is relevant to an investigation.”

👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/congress-plans-to-expand-patriot-act-with-doj-access-to-your-web-browsing-and-search-activity-without-a-warrant/

#USA #Congress #patriotact #DOJ #phone #metadata #surveillance #privacy #why #thinkabout
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv

The US Senate just voted to let the FBI access your browser history without a warrant

In a major blow to citizens’ privacy, the US Senate voted today to give law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and CIA the power to look into your browser history without a warrant. Thanks, Mitch McConnell.

Senators Ron Wyden from Oregan and Senator Steve Daines of Montana led the charge to insert privacy protections into the Patriot Act, which gives law enforcement agencies power for surveillance in order to maintain national security. However, the privacy protection amendment fell short by just one vote, as many senators who may have voted in favor of it didn’t show up.

[Read: Using ‘personalized AI’ to end coronavirus lockdown is a stupid, cruel idea]

This vote is a setback to the privacy of citizens at multiple levels. There’s already a growing level of concern among privacy advocates as governments around the world are using the coronavirus pandemic as a shield to insert new surveillance measures without any guardrails.

Evan Greer, the deputy director of Fight For The Future, a non-profit digital advocacy group, told Motherboard that the Patriot Act should be repealed in its entirety:

"The Patriot Act should be repealed in its entirety, set on fire, and buried in the ground. It’s one of the worst laws passed in the last century, and there is zero evidence that the mass surveillance programs it enables have ever saved a single human life."

👉🏼 Read more:
https://thenextweb.com/security/2020/05/14/the-us-senate-just-voted-to-let-the-fbi-access-your-browser-history-without-a-warrant/

#USA #Congress #patriotact #DOJ #phone #metadata #surveillance #privacy #why #thinkabout
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_DE
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@BlackBox_Archiv

Signal to move away from using phone numbers as user IDs

https://www.zdnet.com/article/signal-to-move-away-from-phone-numbers-as-user-ids

https://signal.org/blog/signal-pins


#signal #id #phone #numbers

Your Phone Is a Goldmine of Hidden Data for Cops. Here's How to Fight Back

https://gizmodo.com/your-phone-is-a-goldmine-of-hidden-data-for-cops-heres-1843817740


#phone #police #gov #Android #how

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Cell Phone Surveillance at Protests

As uprisings over police brutality and institutionalized racism have swept over the country, many people are facing the full might of law enforcement weaponry and surveillance for the first time. Whenever protesters, cell phones, and police are in the same place, protesters should worry about cell phone surveillance.

Often, security practitioners or other protesters respond to that worry with advice about the use of cell-site simulators (also known as a CSS, IMSI catcher, Stingray, Dirtbox, Hailstorm, fake base station, or Crossbow) by local law enforcement. But often this advice is misguided or rooted in a fundamental lack of understanding of what a cell-site simulator is, what it does, and how often they are used.

The bottom line is this:
there is very little concrete evidence of cell site simulators being used against protesters in the U.S. The threat of cell site simulators should not stop activists from voicing their dissent or using their phones. On the other hand, given that more than 85 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies around the country have some type of CSS (some of which are used hundreds of times per year), it’s not unreasonable to include cell site simulators in your security plan if you are going to a protest and take some simple steps to protect yourself.

💡 Surveillance Self-Defense - Your Security Plan:
https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/your-security-plan

👉🏼 Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/quick-and-dirty-guide-cell-phone-surveillance-protests

#surveillance #police #usa #defence #phone #CSS #SecurityPlan
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📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_EN
📡@cRyPtHoN_INFOSEC_ES

UBports GSI brings Ubuntu Touch to any Project Treble-supported Android device

https://www.xda-developers.com/ubports-gsi-brings-ubuntu-touch-to-any-project-treble-supported-android-device


XDA Discussion Thread
https://forum.xda-developers.com/project-treble/trebleenabled-device-development/gsi-ubuntu-touch-ubports-t4110581


Ubuntu Touch (UBports) GSI Download 
https://build.lolinet.com/file/halium/GSI


#ubports #ubuntu #mobile #phone #tablet #os #alternatives

How Cops Can Secretly Track Your Phone

A guide to stingray surveillance technology, which may have been deployed at recent protests.

Since May, as protesters around the country have marched against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, activists have spotted a recurring presence in the skies: mysterious planes and helicopters hovering overhead, apparently conducting surveillance on protesters. A press release from the Justice Department at the end of May revealed that the Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Marshals Service were asked by the Justice Department to provide unspecified support to law enforcement during protests.

https://theintercept.com/2020/07/31/protests-surveillance-stingrays-dirtboxes-phone-tracking/

#us #phone #tracking #surveillance

NSA urges military personnel to turn off cellphone location data

The National Security Agency is urging US military and intelligence personnel to turn off location-sharing services on their cellphones to prevent security breaches.

The secretive intelligence agency warned in a bulletin Tuesday that the common app feature can pose a real threat to national security, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Location-sharing can be critical for the function of apps like Google Maps, but the information it collects about users’ whereabouts is also collected by tech companies that then sell the anonymized data to marketers and advertisers.

https://nypost.com/2020/08/04/nsa-presses-military-to-turn-off-cell-phone-location-data/

#us #NSA #military #phone #location

Thousands of Cheap Android Phones in Africa Were Pre-Installed With Malware

The hard-to-remove Triada malware was getting preinstalled on thousands of Tecno W2 handsets from a Chinese company called Transsion, according to security research from Upsteam Systems.

Thousands of cheap Android smartphones were getting sold in Africa with malware already pre-installed onboard, according to new security research.

On Monday, the mobile company Upstream Systems published a report on how a nasty malware strain known as Triada has been preying on low-income consumers in over a dozen African countries.

Usually malware ends up on an Android device after the owner installs a fake third-party app that contains malicious code. However, Upstream noticed the Triada malware was getting preinstalled on thousands of Tecno W2 handsets from a Chinese company called Transsion before getting sold to local consumers in countries such as Ethopia, Cameroon and Egypt.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/thousands-of-cheap-android-phones-in-africa-were-pre-installed-with-malware

#Africa #Transsion #Android #phone #malware

How Your Phone Is Used to Track You, and What You Can Do About It

Smartphone location data, often used by marketers, has been useful for studying the spread of the coronavirus. But the information raises troubling privacy questions.

As researchers and journalists try to understand how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting people’s behavior, they have repeatedly relied on location information from smartphones. The data allows for an expansive look at the movements of millions of people, but it raises troublesome questions about privacy.

In several articles, The New York Times has used location data provided by a company called Cuebiq, which analyzes data for advertisers and marketers. This data comes from smartphone users who have agreed to share their locations with certain apps, such as ones that provide weather alerts or information on local gas stations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/technology/smartphone-location-tracking-opt-out.html

#phone #location #privacy #surveillance