Byron Tau

Legal memos filed in recent days in the case against a former lawyer for the 2016 Clinton campaign, Michael Sussmann, reignited disputes over special counsel John Durham’s continuing probe into the origins of the FBI’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Durham said in a filing that his office would show at Sussmann’s trial

Congress is poised to shield a $42 billion broadband grant program from federal transparency and privacy laws, hampering oversight of money expected to flow mostly to telecommunications companies. In a bid to cut through red tape and speed delivery of the broadband funds, the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and JOBS Act includes a provision that suspends certain rules the federal government ordinarily has to follow in administering programs.

The US government has built robust programs to track terrorists and criminals through warrantless access to commercial data. Many vendors now provide global location information from mobile phones to intelligence, military and law-enforcement organizations.

Apple and Google will ban the data broker X-Mode Social from collecting any location information drawn from mobile devices running their operating systems in the wake of revelations about the company’s national-security work. The two largest mobile-phone platforms told developers that they must remove X-Mode’s tracking software from any app present in their app stores or risk losing access to any phones running Apple’s or Google’s mobile operating systems. Both Apple and Google disclosed their decision to ban X-Mode to investigators working for Sen.

The National Security Agency issued new guidance for military and intelligence-community personnel, warning about the risks of cellphone location tracking through apps, wireless networks, and Bluetooth technology.

The Network Advertising Initiative, a national trade group representing the digital advertising industry, has advised member companies to put stricter controls on consumer mobile-phone location data they provide to government units such as public health authorities and law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Apparently, the Trump administration has bought access to a commercial database that maps the movements of millions of cellphones in America and is using it for immigration and border enforcement. The location data is drawn from ordinary cellphone apps, including those for games, weather and e-commerce, for which the user has granted permission to log the phone’s location. The Department of Homeland Security has used the information to detect undocumented immigrants and others who may be entering the US unlawfully, apparently.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee made public for the first time the full cache of more than 3,000 ads that Facebook said were purchased by a pro-Kremlin group, the Internet Research Agency. The ads, fewer than 50 of which had previously been revealed, offer the clearest window yet into the evolving tactics used by the group as it sought to amplify social and political tensions in the US. The Russian-backed pages initially deployed relatively simple techniques, buying ads targeted to reach large segments, such as all Facebook users living in the US.

Newly disclosed emails show top Obama administration officials were in close contact with Hillary Clinton’s nascent presidential campaign in early 2015 about the potential fallout from revelations that the former secretary of state used a private email server.

The previously unreported emails were obtained by the Republican National Committee as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of Clinton’s time in office. The RNC provided to The Wall Street Journal only some of the emails, leaving it unclear what was in the remaining documents. The RNC said it released only emails relevant to the communication between the White House and State Department. Meredith McGehee, chief of policy, programs, and strategy at the nonpartisan advocacy group Issue One and an expert on ethics and campaign finance, said the email exchange would probably raise no legal concerns because federal law permits members of the White House staff to engage in some political activity.

Many of the biggest players tasked with protecting the country after Sept 11 have a new mission, and one that pays: securing all of the data the corporate world collects on its customers.

Ex-Cabinet chiefs Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff count Fortune 500 companies among their clients anxious to secure computer systems and avoid the fate of Target, the victim of an epic data breach last fall.

Former Capitol Hill lawmakers and senior staff central to the last decade’s battles over privacy and security have traded their top-secret government clearances for lucrative jobs as consultants and lobbyists. Retired Gen Keith Alexander, the former National Security Agency director tarred by Edward Snowden’s leaks, launched his own firm this spring, just weeks after leaving government.

Lobbying on cybersecurity, privacy and other data issues has skyrocketed over the past decade, with a more recent hiring spree driven by the Snowden scandal and major security breaches at some of the country’s largest companies. Dozens of boutique firms and established K Street players are entering the red-hot market and touting their top recruits from the executive and legislative branches.