Tag: Edward Snowden

Good Tuesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent requests for information to 81 agencies, individuals and entities tied to President Trump, opening a broad investigation into possible obstruction, corruption and abuse of power in Mr. Trump’s administration and business empire. • The National Security Agency has quietly shut down a system used to analyze the logs of Americans’ phone records and text messages to search for terrorists. The program’s disclosure by Edward J. Snowden in 2013 set off intense discussions about privacy and the rule of law. But how big will the margin be? • Representative Ilhan Omar’s statement that money drives support for Israel brought her wide reproach, but it also raised a question: Is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee too powerful? _____________________ What to Expect When You’re Expecting Mueller It’s expected that the Mueller report will be handed down shortly. What will we learn? But will it be for governor, senator or president?

Leveraging the fact that more than 2 billion people around the world have Facebook accounts and allow the company to track their location and even realtime location through their IP addresses and smartphone app, Facebook uses this information to track users it believes pose a threat to the company, creating geofencing alerts when they come near Facebook facilities. Asked about the ethics of using user location data, the company noted that users consent to allow the company to do whatever it wishes with their realtime location information, per its Data Policy: “Data from device settings: information you allow us to receive through device settings you turn on, such as access to your GPS location, camera or photos.” It is worth noting that that the line above, which Facebook cited in defense of its location tracking program, also permits it to access the user’s camera and photos stored on their phone. Asked whether it has ever tracked journalists that have exposed confidential business practices or policymakers that have threatened legislation that would curtail the company’s business activities, a spokesperson reiterated that it has very specific policies governing how it decides to use location tracking and that location tracking is permitted for physical threats. Asked to state for the record that Facebook has never tracked the location of a journalist in order to determine their confidential sources or a policymaker to determine who they are meeting with, a company spokesperson responded that the company would not be commenting. Facebook’s ability to use user location data for its own purposes suggests governments are likely using the same capability to track dissidents and others they dislike. Asked whether Facebook has complied with lawful court orders from the US or foreign governments to track individuals around the world for any purpose, the company noted that it has an obligation to comply with legal requests and did not deny doing so. A dissident fleeing a repressive government can no longer escape surveillance, with their government able to turn to Facebook not only to track them around the world, but observe who they meet with. Even if the dissident does not use Facebook, anyone they meet with who does will be tracked. Putting this all together it is nothing short of extraordinary that Facebook not only is secretly mapping the locations of users it considers “threats” but that it refuses to deny on the record having used that capability to track journalists and policymakers that pose a threat to its business activities rather than a physical threat. With a flip of a switch, Facebook could create a map that tracks the location of every policymaker and their aides, every journalist and every business leader that has installed the Facebook app, tracking them worldwide in every country and watch them travel around the world, having a global intelligence map rivaling that of the NSA.