For weeks, thousands of Sudanese have taken to the streets, protesting austerity policies enacted by President Omar al-Bashir and his regime, which has been in power since 1989. Journalists covering the story have faced challenges, including detention and—for foreign correspondents—deportation. In June, Sudanese security services arrested Bloomberg reporter Salma El...

Yesterday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) revealed that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have made an astounding 1.3 million demands for user cell phone data in the last year, “seeking text messages, caller locations and other information.” The New York Times called the new findings proof of “an...

When Google released its new Copyright Transparency Report on takedown requests of its Search results, we got new insights into the massive number of complaints the search giant receives. We also saw that there are many requests that don't seem to meet the standard of a "good faith belief"...

In the latest twist in a bizarre lawsuit targeting The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman and his “BearLove Good, Cancer Bad” fundraising campaign in support of the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation, attorney Charles Carreon has run to court to try to stop...

Since last year, a few members of Congress—led by Senator Ron Wyden—have been trying to get the Obama administration to answer a simple question: how many Americans’ phone calls or emails have been and are being collected and read without a warrant under the authority of the FISA Amendments Act...

Senator Rockefeller dismisses "cybersecurity" claims as "red herring"
At a hearing yesterday, the Senate Commerce Committee took up the issue of online tracking, the browser-based Do Not Track flag, and, in an unlikely turn of events, cybersecurity. The hearing included testimony from Ohio State University Law School’s...

Crossposted from Techpresident
We are living in an era where transparency — be it from government, corporations, or individuals — has come to be expected. As such, social media platforms have come under scrutiny in recent years for their policies around content moderation, but perhaps none have received...

Several governments are pushing for proposals that seek to draw borders around the global Internet. With big decisions at stake, it’s critical that Internet users understand the threats and have a meaningful say in the final outcome. At a panel held in Washington, D.C. June 26 to highlight global threats...

Photo Tag Suggest, Tag My Face, Klik, FaceLook, Age Meter, FaceLock, and Visidon AppLock—the list grows by the day. These recent online and mobile applications apply face recognition technology to photos of individuals to identify or categorize them or to verify their...

Sudan may not have "pulled a Mubarak" and shut off the Internet, but that hasn't stopped the government's attempts to silence vocal citizens online. Four days after we first reported his arrest, Usamah Mohammed Ali (better known as @simsimt) remains in detention, his whereabouts unknown, while ...