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548 pointsil35 comments

Also, you may want to support this new bill that will be introduced by Sen. Paul, tomorrow (call your senator to vote for it, etc):

http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/06/rand-paul-to-introduce-fou...

http://www.paul.senate.gov/files/documents/4thAmdtRestoratio...

One page, straight to the point. Nice.

It actually seems a bit roundabout to me. He's proposing that Congress pass a rule of construction for the courts to interpret, in hopes that this will indirectly result in the offending statute being struck down or constrained. But a more direct route would be: propose repealing or amending the FISA authorizing statute.

That would also be more in line with Congress's constitutional duties. It's true that the courts should enforce a robust 4th amendment. But Congress does not need to force them to do so: it could simply not pass laws that violate the 4th amendment, or if it realizes it has done so, it can repeal those laws.

Actually, it isn't. Ambiguity in existing laws is exactly what has allowed the NSA to do what they've been doing.

If the linked PDF is actually the text of the bill then it does nothing. Searching, it will be argued, is the active analysis of collected phone calls/internet logs still currently illegal without a warrant. The passive archiving will be unaffected.

Paul, I'd assume -though that assumption in turn assumes he's smart enough to tie his own shoes- knows or was told this already.

So... PR stunt?

His entire career is a PR stunt. That doesn't mean it isn't meaningful.

Total dick move too trying to corner the issue while it's hot without consulting with Wyden and Udall who've been working on this for years.

@il, thanks for posting this.

I'm now donating $10 per month, and consider it money well spent.

@Everyone: Tag along and sign up for a monthly donation!

I might be cynical but you cannot lobby against this. The only way you can avoid being watched is to actually take technical countermeasures to prevent being watched.

What good is donating to the EFF when they have no power to stop the CIA/NSA from doing this?

We need to do both, and since I'm not a lawyer, donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation means I can be fighting on two fronts. Legal and technical.

They promote personal security and are loud and reputable activists. Good enough for me.

So what do you do? Sit there in your room and just type you can't do anything about this. EFF at least represents your voice - they might not be as effective as we would like but they are trying none the less. It is still better than being cynical and not doing anything about it.

I specifically said in my post that you have to take technical countermeasures to avoid being watched (browse the web with Tor, don't signup with services that require PII, use fake PII, that kind of thing).

Donating to the EFF doesn't change the fact that the CIA/NSA are actively monitoring you now. What the NSA/CIA is doing is arguably illegal, yet they're still doing it.

Do you really think that that is going to be the long term solution? Think about an average consumer - will you expect him to log in through tor or do not register with Google/Yahoo since they require your name/phone number. Secondly it is more than just PII (the govt already has those if you are in US) - I view this more along the lines that govt is now getting more context around EACH individual. And a lot of that is personal. All your email info, your files on Dropbox, your chats, your videos are readily accessible to them.

The long term solution has to be institutional. EFF is committed to help out there. I am not saying that EFF is the only solution (or even the best solution). But, at this point, unfortunately I feel there are few other options.

Thanks for the reminder to get this set up again (they could probably use some help getting payment expired emails set up, or if they have them, I never saw them). In for $25/mo.

If I were to donate to EFF, I'd want to do so anonymously. Like very anonymously. So bitcoin is an interesting option - depending on how easy it is to get bitcoin anonymously. I don't want other charities or political organisations to hound me for years afterwards. And I don't want a donation to be used against me if/when some overblown official in my country decides that EFF is a terrorist organisation.

I found the humble bundle is a good way of donating to EFF, because that way at least it looks like a game purchase rather than a donation. If I were interested in donating of course.

The most anonymous way to get bitcoin is to mine it.

I already donate, but I feel suddenly like donating more...

Great idea!

I've also just added EFF as a charity option on my activism site [1]. I donated as a bounty for my favorite task championing Score Voting for national elections, which I incidentally feel is a necessary reform to get some alternative voices heard and potentially elected.

[1] https://www.brianstaskforce.com/blog/electronic-frontier-fou...

What about donations to Wikileaks? Or maybe even the ACLU. I'm not convinced the EFF has been a consistent critic of the administration. The problem is organizations that have a partisan bias which makes their advocacy suspect.

They are not and should not be a consistent critic of any administration. I see them as a non-partisan voice of the people for and against policies which otherwise are without a voice. When the administration issues a call against bad patents, the EFF supports and promotes that call When the administration issues a call to silence all discussion of warrantless wiretapping they denounce that call.

If they were entirely partisan or entirely anti-government they'd be a lot less effectual. By being issue-specific and in helping the government properly codify their own laws in addition to just slamming them for bad laws the EFF is a much more powerful and respectable entity worthy of our support.

They take bitcoin now (again).

Is EFF an international organization? Do they fight for the rights of everybody or are they mostly US-centered? On their about page they mention going up against the US government and large corporations but I see nothing about any international effort. I suppose this could be because of how much of the internet live in the US, so I was wondering if anyone could shed any more light on this.

https://www.eff.org/issues/eff-europe

Thanks, I guess I'll be donating then :)

It's not just about the internet. Most other western countries blindly copy most US laws - whether they be good or bad. There's a vested interest for us all to support the EFF.

Running a remailer or Tor node, or somehow deploying crypto (opportunistic crypto if you can't do anything better) is a lot more useful than donating to the EFF, at this point.

Remember that EFF funded Tor for a year[1] to help it get started, and currently codes and releases HTTPS Everywhere [2] to increase opportunistic crypto for everyone. Your donation[3] will fund open source technological solutions, as well as legal work and activism.

(Disclosure: I work for EFF)

[1] http://www.onion-router.net/History.html (2004) [2] https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere [3] https://supporters.eff.org/donate

Yes, but I think an individual spending 1-2h/yr running a tor node or remailer is a far greater impact than donating a marginal $25-50 to EFF. An additional node both makes the network stronger and sends a message/educates the operator on privacy issues.

I'm not convinced a marginal dollar donated to the EFF does that much right now -- EFF is great, but fairly well funded.

The page mentions what they do but not WHERE they do it ...

We work primarily in the US, but also have an international section (which I help run). For instance, we just had two staffers in Peru fighting TPP, we advised the UN on a key report highlighting the dangers of collecting metadata without due process (topical), and I'm just going to go to Cambodia to help bring local journalists up to speed there on Internet policy and their own digital security (via Tokyo, where I'm trying to persuade the W3C to drop their DRM proposals).

We have to be selective in what we do and we can't be everywhere, but fortunately there are many other digital rights organizations across the world that we help. If you have a local one, please support it. If you don't have one, start one, and then talk to us about helping you!

Oh great. postal money order through the mail?

go bitcoin!

Done and Done.

Funny thing, while talking about donating to EFF I just came to know two of my friends here in India who donate to many causes in the USA and Turkey, which is of course commendable but never to any cause back here at home!

When I simply asked, why(curiosity)? One of them said, "well, you know..hmm..whatever man. It's just a choice". He stopped at that. And then countd a few Indian charities he had donated to and that included INR 51000 at an Andhra temple(his home state) and then was quick to add "that temple does a lot of charity work". I guess it was one of those US Visa God temples.

Another was clearer in her response. She said, "I've done my masters there and plan to settle there".

I guess I'll start actively donating to AAP[1] now, along with WikiLeaks and WikiPedia and few others.

[1]https://www.google.co.in/search?q=aam+aadmi+party

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