Freedom in the Balance

By Lorenzo

The Bill of Rights is under attack.

Databases
WikiLeaks Dump Reveals a Creepy CIA Location-Tracking Trick
WIRED - Lily Hay Newman
How many people specifically know where you are right now? Some friends and family? Your coworkers, maybe? If you're using a Windows laptop or PC you …
Music (UK)
Surveillance fears grow after Taylor Swift uses face recognition tech on fans
The Guardian - Gabrielle Canon in San Francisco
Taylor Swift secretly surveilling her fans using facial recognition technology might sound like science fiction – but Rolling Stone reported on Thursday that the pop star has been doing exactly that in
Liberal View
Worse than hypocrisy: Americans are living in the shadow of tyranny
alternet.org - Joe Conason, The National Memo
Are Americans currently under the rule of law? Not likely.Those old enough to recall the presidential politics of the 1990s may still hear a certain …
Internal Revenue Service
'We have nothing': IRS audits people making $20,000 more than those making $400,000
alternet.org - Paul Kiel, Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica
Taxpayers who make $20,000 a year are more likely to face IRS scrutiny than someone making 20 times as much.When Natassia Smick, 28, filed her …
Journalism
Nigerian immigrant alleges nightmare of abuse by border officers at D.C. airport
publicintegrity.org - Sameea Kamal
Ikechukwu “Ike” Owunna had no reason to expect trouble when he landed at Dulles International Airport on the morning on Dec. 7, 2016. A U.S. citizen …
Technology
Border Agents Fail to Delete Personal Data of Travelers After Electronic Searches, Watchdog Says
Gizmodo - Matt Novak
Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) searched through the electronic devices of more than 29,000 travelers coming into the country. …
Opinion
New Continuous Background Checks Will Take A Deeper Look At Your Personal Life
Forbes - Jessica Baron
Background checks are becoming big business, and two relatively new innovations are changing the employment landscape for anyone with a history of…well, just about anything. The use of artificial intelligence
Opinion (UK)
Republicans are undermining democracy state by state
The Guardian - Russ Feingold
Republicans making their power grabs around the country are particularly emboldened right now What Republican legislators just did in Wisconsin – passing bills to strip key powers from the governor-elect,
Technology
FCC chairman admits Russia meddled in net neutrality debate
Engadget - Kris Holt
Around 500,000 comments were linked to Russian email addresses. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has admitted that around 500,000 comments submitted during the net neutrality public
Justice
Wisconsin no longer has democratic legislative elections thanks to the Supreme Court
ThinkProgress - Ian Millhiser
Residents of the Badger State have the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy to thank for this calamity. One of the most striking graphics emerging from the …
Chinese surveillance technology is expanding the reach of repressive regimes:
slate.com - Mia Armstrong
Prepare to scan your “fatherland card.”
Surveillance
Here's the secret details of 200 cities' license-plate tracking programs
boingboing.net - Cory Doctorow
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Muckrock teamed up to use the Freedom of Information Act to extract the details of 200 US cities' Automated …
Why is no one talking about the uncounted, suppressed votes in Florida?
The Guardian - Carol Anderson
Florida is, once again, in an election debacle that is straining the bonds of credibility and democracy. Governor Rick Scott has actually called in the state police to investigate “voter fraud” (none found),
Expert: Acosta Video Distributed by White House Was Doctored
haaretz.com - The Associated Press
A video distributed by the Trump administration to support its argument for banning CNN reporter Jim Acosta from the White House appears to have been …
Britain funds research into drones that decide who they kill, says report
The Guardian - Jamie Doward
Technologies that could unleash a generation of lethal weapons systems requiring little or no human interaction are being funded by the Ministry of Defence, according to a new report. The development autonomous
Covert cameras installed in streetlights across nation by DEA, ICE; contractor touts constant spying
TheBlaze - Teri Webster
The DEA and ICE are hiding covert surveillance cameras inside an undisclosed number of streetlights around the nation, an investigation by Quartz has revealed. What is going on? Records show the U.S. Enforcement
Homeland Security
The DEA and ICE are hiding surveillance cameras in streetlights
Quartz - By Justin Rohrlich & Dave Gershgorn
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have hidden an undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights around the country, federal
Sarah Sanders accused of sharing doctored Infowars video to justify Acosta ban
AOL - Ed Mazza
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was accused on Wednesday night of sharing a doctored video to defend the administration’s decision to revoke the press credentials of CNN reporter Jim
U.S. Politics
White House press secretary uses fake Infowars video to justify banning CNN reporter
Vox - Aaron Rupar
Scenes from a dystopia. Press secretary Sarah Sanders shared an altered video on Wednesday evening that appears to have originated with far-right conspiracy site Infowars to justify banning CNN reporter
Internet freedom continues to decline around the world, a new report says
The Verge - Casey Newton
Governments are reining in liberty for the eighth consecutive year, Freedom House reports Digital authoritarianism is on the rise, according to a new report from a group that monitors internet freedoms.
Technology
Google is hosting a global contest to develop AI that’s beneficial for humanity
The Verge - Nick Statt
The company is pledging up to $25 million to groups that want to use AI to solve big problems Some of the biggest hurdles in the field of artificial intelligence are preventing such software from developing
Trump borrows from the old tricks of fascism
The Guardian - Timothy Snyder
The governing principle of the Trump administration is total irresponsibility, a claim of innocence from a position of power, something which happens to be an old fascist trick. As we see in the president’s
South African Politics
Exclusive: Trump targeting birthright citizenship with executive order
Axios - Jonathan Swan,
President Trumpplans to sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants …
We’re witnessing a massive surge in far-right violence. It’s unlikely to end soon.
ThinkProgress - Luke Barnes
The month shows how real the threat of violent extremist attacks has become. A far-right mob brutally beating counter-protesters while yelling …
California's net neutrality law has been put on hold
TechSpot - Isaiah Mayersen
A hot potato: After the battle over net neutrality was lost, California bravely decided to take the matter into their own hands and craft what is …
Liberal View
Robert Bowers' synagogue attack is only one of 18 cases of white-supremacist killings since Trump was inaugurated
rawstory.com - Arun Gupta
President Donald Trump is a terrorism-generating machine. In one week, America has been hit by three separate terrorist attacks directly connected to …
'The President Is a Terrorist Sympathizer': MSNBC Guest Accuses Trump of 'Fomenting' Domestic Terrorism | Alternet
alternet.org - Cody Fenwick, AlterNet
Click here for reuse options! The president seemed to have little interest in the attacks on Democrats and CNN.Even while he occasionally pretended …
California Will Pause Net Neutrality Law for Federal Suit
WIRED - Klint Finley
Last month California passed the country's strongest net neutrality law. But it will be a while before it takes effect. The same evening Governor …
Why Walmart Is Investing In A Startup Founded By Former Leaders Of Israel's Top Intelligence Unit
Forbes - Andria Cheng
With the global cybersecurity battle growing increasingly sophisticated, and with merchants’ demand for personalized customer data only rising, Walmart and other corporate giants including Airbus and have