Yesterday, the Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted 50 to 48 for violating the privacy of 325 million Americans so that Internet service providers could make even money ivering substandard broadband access than they already do. Next week the House of Representatives are planning on rushing through this legislation before the American consumers have a chance to realize their on privacy has just been wiped out. For twenty plus years we had a fundamental right to communicate in private. H.J. Res. 86 and S.J. Res 34 will destroy our …
VoIP blocked by Morocco’s mobile operators
In January Moroccans lost the use of , Whatsapp, and . Moroccan mobile operators Maroc Telecom, Meditel and Inwi, blocked over-the-top services. A press release Morocco’s telecoms regulatory agency, the ANRT, states that VoIP apps violated license agreements. In the eyes of the ANRT, Skyping someone is the same as phoning them. So they would need a telecommunications license to provide a legal phone service. Je going viral in #Morocco: following operators decision to ban VOIP, the post office has decided to clamp down on es! — HananeBoujemi (@HananeBoujemi) January 6, 2016 …
US Feeling the Safe Harbor Agreement Squeeze
In a role that is becoming increasingly common for Microsoft. They have again spen out about the state of privacy the US. A recent blog post by Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, he responded to the Safe Harbor ruling by the CJEU. In it, he made some radical declarations. The recent ruling of voiding the Safe Harbor agreement by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has put over 4,000 companies who deal with trans-Atlantic business in a tough spot. Safe Harbor Agreement Collapse is Dangerous …
The Democratic Debate Surveillance and Snowden
The first democratic debate last Tuesday was a far cry from the previous two debates staring a laundry list of Republicans. Just 5 candidates to the stage and were much successful at staying on topic than their republican counterparts. During the two hours they were on the stage (full transcript here) they were able to convey their varying policies on a range of issues. Gun control, foreign policy, racial tensions, the 2008 recession, and immigration were all discussed at length. Fortunately, even the topic of the NSA, mass surveillance, …
TPP: A Massive Shadow Agreement
There has been a lot of talk as of late about the TPP or Trans-Pacific Partnership. If you are out of the loop and don’t know what it is don’t worry- you aren’t alone. As of today nobody, save the large corporations and top level politicians, know what the TPP is actually about. Any details that we do know are vague or have been leaked by those in the inner circle. Which is especially telling given that this deal has been negotiated for ten years. The Facts About the TPP What …
China Makes Hacking Arrests on Behalf of US
A report by the Washington Post this week revealed a promising development between China and US. Ellen Nakashima and Adam Goldman’s article made the case that the Chinese government is indeed willing to play ball alongside the US in combating commercial cyber theft. For the past several years the US has repeatedly placed blame on the Chinese for several large hacking endeavors. Not the least of which is the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack in which attackers stole over 21 million federal workers information including than 5 million fingers earlier …
First FISA Court Amicus Curiae
After the unexpected sunsetting of the USA PATRIOT ACT in June, congress was able to take a step forward in public privacy by passing the USA FREEDOM ACT. However, in the end, the American people only got two changes to the way the NSA was conducting surveillance. Fortunately, one of those changes is finally beginning to take shape. Two Worthwhile Changes to NSA Surveillance The passing of the USA Freedom Act changed the US government’s surveillance program in essentially only two ways. The first of which was the handling of …
Net Neutrality in the Presidential Race
In the summer of re-emerging battles that netizens and activists have thought won, yet another materializes before our very eyes. Within the past few months I have written about defeated bills like the CISA bill (aka SOPA) and long defeated 90’s era cryptography policies. The newest resurrection is the net neutrality battle which although is ongoing has been given new supporters by way of the GOP. Net Neutrality in a Nutshell What net neutrality suggests is that all internet should be treated equally. As of now (for the most part), that …
Russian Censorship Growing More Audacious
We have outd before, here on LiquidVPN, that Russia is no stranger to bending the internet to suit its own will. Its (most likely) state-sanctioned internet hacking and trolling has grown to be a force to be reckoned with. It has been a long time resident on Reporters Without Borders’ ‘Enemies of the Internet’ list along with North Korea and China. Besides hacking and releasing well coordinated fake news events, Russian censorship has also gained notoriety. Russia Blocks Wikipedia After a prosecutor in Russia saw a Wikipedia article on charas- also known as …
Australian Censorship Hits a Snag
Back in June, we here at LiquidVPN brought you news that Australia passed a broad censorship bill similar to that of New Zealand. The new bill put it on track to compete with countries like China and North Korea for most suppressive censorship laws. The Copyright Infringement Amendments Act of 2015 gave Australia the title of having the most censored internet in the western world. The Australian censorship bill that was massively unpopular with the public passed the parliament with a near landslide bipartisan vote. The new law gives copyright holders the …