Privacy & Surveillance News

Stay current on government and institutional surveillance, monitoring technology, and privacy policy, including facial recognition, license plate readers, Flock cameras, biometric systems, and government data collection. Keep general cybersecurity or consumer-tech stories elsewhere unless surveillance or privacy is the core issue.
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  • opinion

    FBI’s Misuse of Surveillance Tool Underscores Need for Conservative Oversight
    Recent disclosures have plunged the FBI back into a storm of controversy due to its abuse of the robust surveillance tool Section 702, with almost 300,000 incidents recorded in 2020 and early 2021. The unsettling instances of misuse encompass searches connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, and the Black Lives…
    Armstrong Williams
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  • news

    Biden’s Pick for FTC Commissioner Called ICE ‘Out-of-Control Domestic Surveillance’
    President Joe Biden’s nominee to fill the empty seat on the Federal Trade Commission has a history of opposing immigration authorities’ use of data to enforce the law. Alvaro Bedoya, a Georgetown Law professor and privacy advocate who is scheduled to have his committee nomination hearing Wednesday, is a staunch proponent of limiting the ability of immigration…
    Ailan Evans
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  • opinion

    China’s Surveillance State Has Killed Privacy
    The Chinese Communist Party’s system of mass surveillance is like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, destroying any semblance of privacy in the country for both individuals and businesses. In a recent international incident, popular job networking site LinkedIn shut down operations in China after the strain of working with the authoritarian government became…
    Douglas Blair
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  • opinion

    Infrastructure Bill’s ‘Unworkable’ Cryptocurrency Surveillance Mandate Must Be Amended
    Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, introduced a measure into the infrastructure bill last week intended to increase financial surveillance that could backfire and simply drive an entire industry offshore while putting the personal data of tens of millions of Americans at risk. The measure was intended to assuage Republican concerns about the bill’s mammoth price tag,…
    Peter St. Onge
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  • opinion

    Coming to America: Africans, Caribbeans Flock to ‘Systemically Racist’ US
    If AmeriKKKa is so bigoted, why do Africans and Caribbeans leave black-run, predominantly black nations and come to the United States of America, which the Democrat left condemns as Earth’s headwaters of “systemic racism” and white supremacy? According to the most recent Department of Homeland Security data, 548,891 African immigrants became permanent U.S. residents between…
    Deroy Murdock
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  • opinion

    An Open Letter to Congress on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Reform
    As former national security officials, we write to express our deep concerns about the current debate over suggested amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.  Contrary to popular narratives making the rounds on the extremes of both sides of the political aisle, the fact is that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is a critical…
    Ed Meese | Cully Stimson
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  • news

    GOP Senators ‘Increasingly Concerned’ Surveillance of Trump Associates Began Earlier Than Previously Known
    Two Republican senators dramatically expanded their request for so-called Obama administration unmasking records on Tuesday, saying in a letter to the U.S. government’s top spy chief that they are “increasingly concerned” that surveillance of Trump campaign aides began earlier than the FBI has previously acknowledged. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson sent a letter to…
    Chuck Ross
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  • news

    Sen. Lindsey Graham Sets Vote to Subpoena Comey, Brennan, Others Involved in FBI Surveillance
    The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on June 4 whether to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony from more than 50 current or former government officials, including James Comey and John Brennan, as part of the panel’s investigation into abuse of the surveillance process during Crossfire Hurricane. The committee will debate and vote June 4…
    Chuck Ross
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  • news

    Christian Missionary’s ‘Hold the Line’ Group Aims to Engage the Flock Politically
    Only about 20% to 30% of America’s churchgoers practice their constitutional right to vote, according Sean Feucht, the founder of Hold the Line.  The mission of Hold the Line is to engage and educate both the church and young people on policy issues, encouraging them to vote their values and become politically active in their…
    Virginia Allen
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  • news

    Mark Meadows: GOP Will Appeal to Surveillance Court Over Choice to Oversee FBI Reforms
    Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said Monday that congressional Republicans plan to appeal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) over its choice to oversee the FBI’s surveillance reforms in the wake of a damning inspector general’s report regarding the bureau’s wiretapping of Carter Page. In an interview with journalist Sara Carter, Meadows criticized the FISC’s pick of…
    Chuck Ross
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  • news

    Surveillance Footage Outside Jeffrey Epstein’s Jail Cell Goes Missing
    Surveillance footage showing the outside of alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s jail cell the night he first tried to commit suicide is missing, prosecutors say. >>> Update: The missing footage actually was preserved and has been found, the New York Daily News reported Thursday night. Epstein, arrested in July, died in an apparent suicide while…
    Shelby Talcott
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  • news

    DOJ Watchdog Finds ‘Significant Inaccuracies’ in Surveillance Warrants Against Trump Aide
    The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General found “significant inaccuracies” in the FBI’s applications for warrants to conduct surveillance against a Trump campaign adviser, according to a report released Monday. Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, said that the FBI’s decision to open investigations against Trump campaign advisers in July 2016, as well as to…
    Chuck Ross
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  • news

    4 Big Questions About the IG Report on FBI Surveillance of Trump Campaign
    An internal watchdog’s report on Justice Department surveillance of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign is slated to arrive in early December—about the same time as a likely House vote on whether to impeach the president.  “Now what you’re going to see, I predict, will be perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country,”…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    In Opposing Trump Disclosure Order on Campaign Surveillance, Liberals Support Cover-Up
    Acting in the interests of transparency and justice, President Donald Trump took exactly the right action Thursday night when he gave Attorney General William Barr new authority to disclose information dealing with what Barr has called “spying” on the Trump election campaign in 2016. The president issued a memorandum authorizing Barr to “declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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  • news

    Blue State Refugees Flock to Conservative Florida
    While most attention has been focused on immigrants trying to enter the United States over America’s southern border, there is legal migration taking place that has been largely ignored, though it may have at least as much economic and political impact as the other. People are moving out of high-tax states to Florida and other…
    Cal Thomas
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  • opinion

    Release the Florida School Shooting Surveillance Videos
    Open government isn’t just good government. It’s the public’s right. In Florida, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and Broward County school district are fighting to keep exterior surveillance video from the day of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hidden from view. As journalists and citizens who’ve waged uphill battles against secrecy…
    Michelle Malkin
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  • news

    ‘Lack of Candor’ Cited Before in Surveillance Requests by Obama Administration
    A judge who is part of a secret court system criticized the Obama administration for “an institutional lack of candor” in seeking warrants to spy on U.S. citizens. This scrutiny came in the form of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court report, issued last spring in an investigation that began well before most of the public…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Senator Explains Why the Susan Rice Surveillance Allegations Are a Big Deal
    Hearings are being planned to find out more about whether Obama political officials obtained intelligence to use against President Donald Trump’s associates during the campaign. News reports recently alleged President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, asked to see names of U.S. citizens captured incidentally in surveillance—names normally “masked” for privacy reasons. I recently…
    Sharyl Attkisson
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  • news

    Alleged Surveillance of Trump Team Fuels Debate Over Government Spying
    The chairman of the House intelligence committee surprised colleagues by saying he has evidence suggesting intelligence agencies may have misused and spread information legally obtained through surveillance of President Donald Trump or those close to him as they communicated with foreigners after the election. The disclosure Wednesday fed a debate over the government’s surveillance powers…
    Josh Siegel
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  • news

    Who Knew What About Trump Surveillance? New Details Raise More Questions
    The chairman of the House intelligence panel acknowledged Wednesday that President Donald Trump and members of his team were likely under surveillance, at least incidentally, between Election Day and the presidential inauguration. Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also refused to rule out the involvement of senior Obama administration…
    Fred Lucas
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