Conspiracy CFRG

EFF Urges Appeals Court to Protect Forums Allowing Users to Speak Online

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (rebecca) — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:14:00 +0000

Speculative Claims Against Yelp Barred by Federal Law

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging a federal appeals court to block an attempt by disgruntled businesses to make an end-run around the federal law that protects Yelp and other online forums from liability for their users' reviews. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Friday, EFF argues that the strong protections for hosts of forums in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) must be upheld to foster free speech online.

CDA 230 protects online service providers from liability and lawsuits over user-generated content, except in very narrow circumstances where the providers created or developed content themselves. In this case, several businesses filed suit against Yelp, claiming without factual support that the popular review site manipulated and manufactured reviews in order to coerce businesses to advertise on the website. A lower court already found that mere speculation of interference with public reviews was insufficient to evade the broad protection Congress created for online forums, and granted Yelp's motion to dismiss the case. In its amicus brief, EFF argued that lowering the standards for when a forum like Yelp has to be dragged through litigation would effectively chill online speech.

"The broad protections provided by CDA 230 are one of the main reasons we have so much speech online," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "If online service providers like Yelp could be held liable for material posted by any one of their millions of users merely upon thin claims of 'manipulation,' providers would feel pressured to censor or eliminate forums altogether. The result is fewer places for people to participate online and a loss all of us who rely on user reviews and other user-generated material."

"The goal of Congress in enacting CDA 230 was clear: to ensure the Internet is a robust platform for users' free speech," said Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "Users post millions of reviews on Yelp each year, but sites like this wouldn't exist without CDA 230's protections. We're asking the appeals court to make sure that sites like Yelp continue to thrive and remain vigorous forums for Internet users to share opinions and recommendations."

For the full amicus brief in Levitt v. Yelp:
https://www.eff.org/document/amicus-brief-7

Contacts:

Matt Zimmerman
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
mattz@eff.org

Marcia Hofmann
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
marcia@eff.org

From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities and Beyond

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (rebecca) — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:41:00 +0000

New White Paper from EFF and the Immigration Policy Center Outlines Privacy and Security Concerns

San Francisco - Today the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) release "From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities and Beyond." The paper outlines the current state of U.S. government collection of biometric information and the problems that could arise from these growing databases of records. It also points out how immigrant communities are immediately affected by the way this data is collected, stored, and shared.

There is a growing push to link biometric collection with immigration enforcement. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) takes approximately 300,000 fingerprints per day from non-U.S. citizens crossing the border into the United States, and it collects biometrics from noncitizens applying for immigration benefits and from immigrants who have been detained. In addition, state and local law enforcement officers regularly collect fingerprints and DNA, as well as face prints and even iris scans. All of these government databases are growing and are being increasingly interconnected. For example, the Secure Communities program takes the fingerprints of people booked into local jails, matches them to prints contained in large federal immigration databases, and then uses this information to deport people.

"Some people believe biometrics and databases are the silver-bullets that will solve the immigrant enforcement dilemma. But biometrics are not infallible, and databases contain errors. These problems can result in huge negative consequences for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants mistakenly identified," said Michele Waslin, Senior Policy Analyst at the IPC.

"Biometric data collection can lead to racial profiling and can disproportionately affect immigrants," said EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch. "It also gives the government a new way to find and track people throughout the United States. The government needs to act now to limit unnecessary biometric collection and address the serious privacy issues regarding the amount and type of data collected, as well as what triggers that data collection, with whom the data is shared, and the security of that data."

For the full white paper "From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities":
https://www.eff.org/document/fingerprints-dna-biometric-data-collection-us-immigrant-communities-and-beyond

For "From Fingerprints to DNA: By the Numbers":
https://www.eff.org/document/fingerprints-dna-numbers

For more on biometrics:
https://www.eff.org/issues/biometrics

Contacts:

Jennifer Lynch
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jlynch@eff.org

A Bookseller in Kabul

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (Administrator) — Fri, 25 May 2012 06:17:00 +0000

Authors: Administrator

The Shah M Book Co.^[1] sits on the corner of a dusty street in central Kabul that’s lined with stationary shops. At first glance, only a keen eye would spot this nondescript storefront, which looks as if it has remained unchanged for years. The blue paint on the door has faded, while the glass at either side of the main entrance is covered in dust, obscuring the view of what’s inside.

But as you enter the shop, you’re transported into a different world. Books are stacked high on the shelves, and straight ahead stands a tall man bespectacled in a white cap with an Afghan scarf draped around his neck. He gets up from his chair to welcome you. My hesitant steps confirm his suspicion that I’m a first time visitor and foreigner.

“Are you an Indian?” he asks.

It’s a common question in Afghanistan. They want to be sure who they are talking to, and the response will steer the conversation in very different directions.

What appears to be a small shop from the outside is actually quite large on the inside. Everywhere except the where the owner and his young son sit is taken up by books, with the latest publications on Afghanistan dotting the front row of the shelves.

The owner, Shah Muhammad Rais, claims to have “the largest collection of books on Afghanistan, more than 3,000, not to be found anywhere in the world.”

A wooden staircase takes you to the first floor, where books in the local languages and on various subjects are spread across the shelves. A small door on the left leads you to the other side of the first
floor. Among the piles of books are some stacked in bundles to be delivered to different provinces around the country.

In the absence of a good public library, this bookstore also acts as “a research library containing over 17,000 titles of books about Afghanistan in a variety of different languages providing unparalleled information about the country,” proclaims the store’s website ^[2].

The store also contains rare manuscripts and monograms that are hard, if not impossible, to find in libraries. Afghan students are allowed to come here to study, free of charge. The shop also lends books to students studying in other parts of the province, and will send copies of books out on request, for free.

To fund such philanthropy, the owner admits to charging foreigners a little extra for their books. He complains that decades of conflict have deprived the Afghan people of the chance to develop regular reading habits.

Rais says all kinds of people come into his shop. Stanley McChrystal, the former head of the International Security Assistance Force, is said to have come here to buy books, and when Afghan President Hamid Karzai found out about the variety of books here, Rais says he sent some members of his staff to buy some.

“When I started the shop, society was calm…But unfortunately everything has changed – and all for the negative, nothing positive has happened,” Rais says.

Jailed twice during communist control, Rais also recalls having to close his shop for a month during the Taliban era.

“For one month the Taliban closed the bookstore. But my business was shut for a year during the communist time,” he says. “The communists were more rigid than the Taliban. They suspected everyone to be a Western agent, and they arrested me twice.”

For Rais, the Taliban simply represented yet another extreme of behavior. “Life came to a standstill during that time. The city became deserted, business was completely down. It was a terrible time.”

But 10 years on, and Rais is still unhappy, with the hope sparked by the fall of the Taliban having been dashed by a decade of conflict.

“We don't have a clear future in Afghanistan. I don't see any light coming to Afghanistan. The West should have won the war against terrorism and they should have stopped the war by this time. NATO is a powerful force, but they are failing in front of a tiny group of Taliban,” says Rais, who has also penned a book, “Once Upon A Time There was a Bookseller in Kabul ^[3],” as a rejoinder to the Norwegian
journalist Asne Seierstad’s depiction of him ^[4], which mostly dealt with his personal life.

“At least when the Soviets left the country there was a system and administration in place,” he says. “The government machinery was working properly, we had a national army we could trust. Now everything is disturbed. You have mafia-style corruption in the country.”

Such skepticism is rife as Afghans mull the withdrawal of international troops scheduled for 2014 ^[5].

Regardless, though, Rais says he doesn’t want such uncertainty to affect his commitment to the shop and the society it serves. Ultimately, he hopes simply that he and his shop will do what they have always done: endure.

Sanjay Kumar is reporting from Kabul.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/the-diplomat/~3/KZZarxq4ePk/

Priest Claims Missing Teenage Girl Had Been Kidnapped ‘For Sex Parties by a Gang Involving Vatican Police and Foreign Diplomats’

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (BlackListedNews.com) — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Source: BlackListedNews.com

Source: Telegraph

A teenage girl whose disappearance in Rome has remained a mystery for 30 years was kidnapped for sex parties by a gang involving Vatican police and foreign diplomats, the Roman Catholic Church’s leading exorcist has claimed.

Father Gabriele Amorth, who was appointed by the late John Paul II as the Vatican’s chief exorcist and claims to have performed thousands of exorcisms, said Emanuela Orlandi was later murdered and her body disposed of.

In the latest twist in one of the Holy See’s most enduring mysteries, he said the 15-year-old schoolgirl was snatched from the streets of central Rome in the summer of 1983 and forced to take part in sex parties.

“This was a crime with a sexual motive. Parties were organised, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the ‘recruiter’ of the girls.

“The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle,” Father Amorth, the honorary president of the International Association of Exorcists, told La Stampa newspaper.

The debate over who kidnapped Emanuela and what became of her has raged in Italy for three decades.

Read More... 

FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (BlackListedNews.com) — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Authors: BlackListedNews.com

The FBI has recently formed a secretive surveillance unit with an ambitious goal: to invent technology that will let police more readily eavesdrop on Internet and wireless communications.

The establishment of the Quantico, Va.-based unit, which is also staffed by agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency, is a response to technological developments that FBI officials believe outpace law enforcement's ability to listen in on private communications.

While the FBI has been tight-lipped about the creation of its Domestic Communications Assistance Center, or DCAC -- it declined to respond to requests made two days ago about who's running it, for instance -- CNET has pieced together information about its operations through interviews and a review of internal government documents.

DCAC's mandate is broad, covering everything from trying to intercept and decode Skype conversations to building custom wiretap hardware or analyzing the gigabytes of data that a wireless provider or social network might turn over in response to a court order. It's also designed to serve as a kind of surveillance help desk for state, local, and other federal police.

Read More...

The Future of Sustainable Agriculture at Disney EPCOT: GMO and Styrofoam

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (BlackListedNews.com) — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Authors: BlackListedNews.com

Sponsors of “Living With The Land” at Disney EPCOT:

Kraft:

The Sierra Club has launched a campaign against genetically engineered foods. We’re targeting Kraft Foods, which is the largest packaged food producer in America.

We’re asking Kraft to remove all genetically engineered products from their foods. This includes not using milk from rBGH-treated cows (the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that permits this practice) and not using genetically engineered (GE) corn, potatoes, soy and so forth.

Nestlé:

The Nestlé boycott is a boycott launched on July 7, 1977, in the United States against the Swiss-based Nestlé corporation. It spread quickly throughout the United States, and expanded into Europe in the early 1980s. It was prompted by concern about the Nestle’s promotion of breast milk substitutes (infant formula), particularly in less economically developed countries (LEDCs), which campaigners claim contributes to the unnecessary suffering and even deaths of babies, largely among the poor.[1] Among the campaigners, Professor Derek Jelliffe and his wife Patrice, who contributed to establish the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), were particularly instrumental in helping to coordinate the boycott and giving it ample visibility worldwide.

Chiquita:

The United Fruit Company was frequently accused of bribing government officials in exchange for preferential treatment, exploiting its workers, paying little by way of taxes to the governments of the countries in which it operated, and working ruthlessly to consolidate monopolies. Latin American journalists sometimes referred to the company as el pulpo (“the octopus”)…

The piece below is from 2007.

Via: Inhabitat:

I spent the majority of my time at EPCOT hovering around the LAND exhibit and going on behind-the-scenes tours of EPCOT’s greenhouses. The entire agri-tech research center area has been re-branded under the rubric of “sustainability” and now includes a public exhibition on agricultural technology and global ecology called ‘Living With Land’ – a rousing exhibit on farming and agricultural innovation which takes the very 1950?s-esque position that humanity can solve its food shortages and environmental problems by improving agricultural technology. I’m not really sure that I buy this, but the exhibit was certainly a fascinating romp through the history of “the future”.

…

The 6-year-old then asked our guide about genetic experimentation, and pretty quickly we all learn that most of the crops within the “Living With The Land” greenhouses are genetically modified. At this point in the tour I’m starting to think that perhaps EPCOT needs to give media training to their interns – because lots of talk about genetically modified crops and copious use of styrofoam “because its cheap and disposable” doesn’t exactly paint the rosiest of pictures for an exhibit supposedly about “Living With The Land”

Read more

FCC-Required Political Ad Data Disclosures Won’t Be Searchable

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (ProPublica) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:17:00 +0000

Authors: ProPublica

(4/27/12): This post has been updated.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 this morning to require broadcasters to post political ad data on the Web, making it easier for the public to see how as much as $3.2 billion will be spent on TV advertising in this election.

The files, which detail the times ads aired, how much they cost and whether stations rejected ad buy requests from campaigns, among other things, are currently available only on paper at each station.

The FCC rejected an industry push to water down the measure. But the adopted rule also has serious limits. For example, the data will not be searchable or uploaded in a common format.

The rule will first apply to affiliates of the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in the top 50 TV markets. All other stations will have until July 2014 to comply.

“[L] arge areas of some swing states, like Virginia, Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan, could see an influx of advertising in markets outside of the top 50,” the Sunlight Foundation noted in an analysis today.

(ProPublica has invited readers and other journalists around the country to retrieve the paper political ad files so we can post them online for all to see. We’ll continue to collect files from key markets not covered by the ruling. Sign up if you would like to contribute. )

Then there’s the crucial question of the format in which the files will be available. FCC spokeswoman Janice Wise told ProPublica that the commission is not creating a searchable database of the political ad files.

"We'll accept whatever [file] format they provide," she said in an email.

That will make it much more difficult to analyze the information.

Wise said there are no specific plans to make the database searchable.

By opting to allow stations to submit political data in any format, the commission departed from a recommendation made last year in an FCC working group report. The report called for the political ad files to be put online and that “as much data as possible [be] in a standardized, machine-readable format” that “could also enhance the usefulness and accessibility of the data.”

Also unclear is how the broadcast industry, which vigorously lobbied against the rule, will react.

“[W]e will be seeking guidance from our Board of Directors regarding our options,” the National Association of Broadcasters said in a statement decrying the vote.

In March, the industry group submitted a supplemental statement to the commission raising “serious questions about the FCC’s authority” to require stations to put political ad data online.

“That was written as a legal memorandum, which is code for ‘we’ve lawyered up, and we’re ready to sue over this,’” says Andrew Schwartzman, a longtime FCC watcher at the Media Access Project.

The broadcasters’ group declined to comment beyond its statement.

On a Thursday earnings call for Belo Corp., one of the companies that has been fighting the disclosure measure, CEO Dunia Shive suggested that broadcasters would continue to fight the new disclosure rule.

“I don't think the conversation is over with respect to being able to continue talking about if we will ultimately have to include ad rates online," she said, Broadcasting & Cable reported.

Belo spokesman R. Paul Fry told ProPublica that the company merely “want[s] to continue the dialogue on this subject.”

The FCC also said today it would review the new rule after a year to see whether any changes need to be made before all stations are required to come into compliance in July 2014.

Wise, the FCC spokeswoman, said stations in the top 50 markets will have to start posting files 30 days after the Office of Management and Budget approves the rule. She said the FCC does not expect approval to take long.

In an analysis sent to clients and obtained by ProPublica, political ad tracking firm Kantar Media says the new rule will cover “about 60 percent of expected 2012 advertising on local spot TV, where the vast majority of televised political ads air. The remaining 40 percent will occur in smaller media markets and thus remain offline this year.”

The 60 percent figure amounts to $1.8 billion out of an expected total of $3 billion in local spot TV spending.

Among the significant stations that will not have to post ad data this year: local CW and independent affiliates and Spanish-language TV like Univsion. (The Obama campaign has already released Spanish TV ads.)

Source http://feeds.propublica.org/~r/propublica/main/~3/vUrJeq1fbbQ/

Woman in Jail for Shooting at Abusive Husband: Why Didn't Stand Your Ground Laws Apply to Her?

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (Maurice Garland, The Loop 21) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Authors: Maurice Garland, The Loop 21

There are major inconsistencies in applications of "Stand Your Ground" laws.

April 26, 2012 |

Nowadays the words "Stand Your Ground" have almost become synonymous with "no fair" and "unjust," due mostly to the non-arrest of George Zimmerman the night he shot Trayvon Martin and that law that protected him up until just last week.

But the cases of John McNeil and now Marissa Alexander have highlighted the inconsistencies in the law's application.

According to a blogsite pleading her case, in 2010, Alexander found herself in a violent confrontation with her husband. Her husband already had a history of abuse towards her and other women in the past, causing Alexander to place an injunction for protection against violence on him.

On this day in particular Alexander says that her husband, unprovoked, assaulted her in the bathroom of her home. She managed to get out of his grasp and ran to her car in the garage to leave, but realized that she didn't have her keys. She was also unable to open the garage door to get out because of a mechanical malfunction.

At this point, she was very fearful for her life, but knew that she had to at least get her cell phone to call for help. That's when she grabbed a gun, for which she had a concealed weapon permit. When she walked back into the kitchen area, she saw her husband again, who was supposed to be leaving through another door with his two sons (her stepsons). When he saw her, she says he screamed "bitch, I'll kill you" and charged at her. She then pointed her weapon at the ceiling, turned her head and shot in the air. That scared her husband off.

But, he promptly called the police and told them that she shot the gun at him and his sons. She was taken to jail where she has been sitting ever since.

Alexander has been trying to use Florida's Stand Your Ground laws to defend her actions, but to no avail. A judge ruled that Alexander was actually in the wrong, saying that she could have exited to safety through one of the other doors or windows in the house instead of crossing paths with her husband in the kitchen.

"I am a law abiding citizen and I take great pride in my liberty, rights, and privileges as one," pleads Alexander on the blogsite telling her story. " I have vehemently proclaimed my innocence and my actions that day. The enigma I face since that fateful day I was charged through trial, does the law cover and apply to me too?"

Corporate Legal Rights Grow As Courts Block Pro-Consumer Class Action Suits

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (Negah Mouzoon, Public Citizen) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Authors: Negah Mouzoon, Public Citizen

Consumer activists find a 2011 Supreme Court ruling has blocked dozens of class action suits, instead forcing consumers into arbitration.

April 27, 2012 |

One year after a U.S. Supreme Court decision gave corporations free rein to block class action lawsuits, judges have used the decision to prevent at least 76 potential class-action suits from going forward, a new report by Public Citizen and the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) has found.

The report, “Justice Denied,” tracks the anti-consumer effects of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, in which the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could block consumers’ rights to sue collectively—even in the 19 states that have laws protecting such rights.

What began as a dispute over $30 between Vincent and Liza Concepcion and AT&T has turned into a legal monster worth millions of dollars to corporate bottom lines. The corporate lawyers and the court put profits before people, and a year later, we are seeing the ripple effects, as people seeking fairness are losing their legal rights.

The report details three cases in which consumers have felt the direct impact of the ruling:

• Class Actions Against Career Education Corporation (CEC). Before Concepcion, thousands of students collectively sued Career Education Corp., a company that owns a chain of for-profit culinary schools, for misrepresenting the potential earning power of its graduates. The misleading numbers enticed many students to enroll and thus take on debilitating student loans to finance their education. According to the lawsuits, students attending the schools typically emerged with debts in excess of $40,000 and were not able to obtain jobs that paid enough to provide a reasonable chance of repaying their loans. At the time of the lawsuits, CEC did not include a class-action ban in its contracts with students. The collective cases proceeded in court and resulted in payments of up to $20,000 per student. While these cases, filed before Concepcion, achieved a meaningful settlement, other cases are still pending. In a post-Concepcion era, however, students with similar collective claims may not be able to pursue redress because it would be too difficult to overcome the class-action ban the company now includes in its contracts.

• Putative Class Action Against Nissan. Matthew Wolf, a member of the Army reserves, returned an automobile before the expiration of his lease because he was deployed overseas. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) clearly permits service members to terminate car leases without penalty and to recoup the pro-rated share of payments they have made in advance. But Nissan refused to reimburse the prepaid amount to the reservist. He sought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of an estimated 1,000 service members in similar situations. But, citing Concepcion, a judge ruled that he could pursue redress only for himself, not on behalf of a class.

• Putative Class Action Against T-Mobile. Trent Alvarez’s frequent use of his so-called “unlimited” data plan triggered T-Mobile to slow down his service. T-Mobile had inserted a forced arbitration agreement into the contract it required Alvarez to sign when he bought the phone, but he said he never saw it and filed a class-action complaint against T-Mobile in 2009. The company convinced the judge to suspend the case until Concepcion was decided; the court then rejected Alvarez’s argument that the class-action ban in the arbitration agreement was unenforceable.

Tracked, Detained at Gunpoint? 3 Americans Assaulted By Our Surveillance State

cfrgconspiracy@gmail.com (Amy Goodman, AlterNet) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Authors: Amy Goodman, AlterNet

A career government intelligence official, a filmmaker and a hacker have all been targeted by the state, despite not having been charged with a crime.

April 26, 2012 |

Three targeted Americans: A career government intelligence official, a filmmaker and a hacker. None of these U.S. citizens was charged with a crime, but they have been tracked, surveilled, detained—sometimes at gunpoint—and interrogated, with no access to a lawyer. Each remains resolute in standing up to the increasing government crackdown on dissent.

The intelligence official: William Binney worked for almost 40 years at the secretive National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. spy agency that dwarfs the CIA. As technical director of the NSA’s World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group, Binney told me, he was tasked to “see how we could solve collection, analysis and reporting on military and geopolitical issues all around the world, every country in the world.” Throughout the 1990s, the NSA developed a massive eavesdropping system code-named ThinThread, which, Binney says, maintained crucial protections on the privacy of U.S. citizens demanded by the U.S. Constitution. He recalled, “After 9/11, all the wraps came off for NSA,” as massive domestic spying became the norm. He resigned on Oct. 31, 2001.

Along with several other NSA officials, Binney reported his concerns to Congress and to the Department of Defense. Then, in 2007, as then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was being questioned on Capitol Hill about the very domestic spying to which Binney objected, a dozen FBI agents charged into his house, guns drawn. They forced aside his son and found Binney, a diabetic amputee, in the shower. They pointed their guns at his head, then led him to his back porch and interrogated him.

Three others were raided that morning. Binney called the FBI raid “retribution and intimidation so we didn’t go to the Judiciary Committee in the Senate and tell them, ‘Well, here’s what Gonzales didn’t tell you, OK.’ ” Binney was never charged with any crime.

The filmmaker: Laura Poitras is an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, whose recent films include “My Country, My Country,” about the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and “The Oath,” which was filmed in Yemen. Since 2006, Poitras has been detained and questioned at airports at least 40 times. She has had her computer and reporter’s notebooks confiscated and presumably copied, without a warrant. The most recent time, April 5, she took notes during her detention. The agents told her to stop, as they considered her pen a weapon.

She told me: “I feel like I can’t talk about the work that I do in my home, in my place of work, on my telephone, and sometimes in my country. So the chilling effect is huge. It’s enormous.”

The hacker: Jacob Appelbaum works as a computer security researcher for the nonprofit organization the Tor Project (torproject.org), which is a free software package that allows people to browse the Internet anonymously, evading government surveillance. Tor was actually created by the U.S. Navy, and is now developed and maintained by Appelbaum and his colleagues. Tor is used by dissidents around the world to communicate over the Internet. Tor also serves as the main way that the controversial WikiLeaks website protects those who release documents to it. Appelbaum has volunteered for WikiLeaks, leading to intense U.S. government surveillance.

Appelbaum spoke in place of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, at a conference called Hackers on Planet Earth, or HOPE, as people feared Assange would be arrested. He started his talk by saying: “Hello to all my friends and fans in domestic and international surveillance. I’m here today because I believe that we can make a better world.” He has been detained at least a dozen times at airports: “I was put into a special room, where they frisked me, put me up against the wall. ... Another one held my wrists. ... They implied that if I didn’t make a deal with them, that I’d be sexually assaulted in prison. ... They took my cellphones, they took my laptop. They wanted, essentially, to ask me questions about the Iraq War, the Afghan War, what I thought politically.”