Surveillance

In a first, appeals court raises privacy questions over government searches for Americans’ emails

The government’s warrantless collection of emails and other Internet data for national security purposes is lawful, but searching that information for Americans’ communications raises constitutional privacy questions, a federal appeals court in New York ruled. At issue is an appeal by a former Brooklyn man who pleaded guilty to supporting a foreign terrorist group and now is seeking to overturn his conviction, saying the evidence against him was obtained through warrantless surveillance that violated the Fourth Amendment.

Striking Tech Findings From 2019

Every year, Pew Research Center publishes hundreds of reports, blog posts, digital essays and other studies on a wide range of topics. At the end of each year, we compile a list of some of our most noteworthy findings. These are a few striking findings related to tech policy:

Phone records from AT&T and Verizon obtained in impeachment inquiry spark controversy

Phone logs subpoenaed from Verizon and AT&T put a spotlight on the powerful tools at lawmakers' disposal as they seek to investigate President Donald Trump in the impeachment inquiry. The records were some of the strongest circumstantial evidence included in the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment report, revealing extensive contact between President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and the Trump administration during critical points of the Ukraine saga.

New lawsuit challenges Trump administration policy to collect foreigners’ social media accounts

Free-speech advocates are challenging the Trump Administration’s policy of requiring foreigners to list their social media accounts as part of their visa applications, alleging in a lawsuit filed Dec 5 that the policy violates federal law and runs afoul of the Constitution.

Freedom on the Net 2019: The Crisis of Social Media

Internet freedom is increasingly imperiled by the tools and tactics of digital authoritarianism, which have spread rapidly around the globe. Repressive regimes, elected incumbents with authoritarian ambitions, and unscrupulous partisan operatives have exploited the unregulated spaces of social media platforms, converting them into instruments for political distortion and societal control.

Experts Optimistic About the Next 50 Years of Digital Life

1969 was the year that saw the first host-to-host communication of ARPANET, the early packet-switching network that was the precursor to today’s multibillion-host internet. Heading into the network's 50th anniversary, Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked 530 of technology experts how individuals’ lives might be affected by the evolution of the internet over the next 50 years. Some 72% of these respondents say there would be change for the better, 25% say there would be change for the worse, and 3% believe there would be no significant change.

Trump Administration Asks Congress to Reauthorize NSA’s Deactivated Call Records Program

Breaking a long silence about a high-profile National Security Agency program that sifts records of Americans’ telephone calls and text messages in search of terrorists, the Trump administration acknowledged for the first time that the system has been indefinitely shut down — but asked Congress to extend its legal basis anyway. In a letter to Congress, the administration urged lawmakers to make permanent the legal authority for the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans’ domestic communications, the USA Freedom Act.

Cities track citizens' sentiment through social media

Monitoring social media feeds is a common practice for major brands and companies trying to keep up with consumer sentiment and tastes. City governments are now tapping into those data streams to keep tabs on residents' chatter and complaints about what's happening around town.  Social media creates a wide-ranging sensor network of sorts that helps cities direct resources to what residents actually care about.

Coalition presses to change surveillance law

A coalition of nearly 40 privacy and civil liberties groups is demanding changes when lawmakers weigh whether to renew Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which allows for the collection of information about US phone calls and text messages. The provision, and two others that were reauthorized in the 2015 USA Freedom Act following the leaks by former federal contractor Edward Snowden, are slated to expire on Dec. 15 unless lawmakers act.

President Trump's pretzel-logic tech policy

The Trump administration's policy toward big tech moved in two opposite directions recently, as the White House sought the big platforms' help in predicting mass shootings while it was also reportedly drafting plans to punish them for perceived bias. On Aug 9, the administration invoked the help of Google, Facebook and other companies to detect and deter mass shooters before they act. Meanwhile, the White House has circulated a draft of a new executive order aimed at imposing new restrictions on tech platforms' freedom to moderate the content users contribute.