US Ruling Sets Troubling Precedent for Social Media Privacy

From http://owni.eu/2011/11/22/us-ruling-sets-troubling-precedent-for-so...

On November 10 a US district court judge upheld a ruling that cleared the way for the US government to compel Twitter to release “private” information related to three of its users. The ruling, which brings an end to a protracted year-long series of appeals, may have set a disturbing precedent. It would appear that from now on sites with servers in the US will be obliged to hand over your information to the US government without the need for a warrant. Furthermore, you have no right to access the documents that the US government has provided as evidence that they need to see your “private” information.

From http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/us-judge-upholds-twitter-subpoena-...

While the defence argued that the First Amendment rights were at risk, the judge ruled: “The sealed affidavit clearly sets forth specific and articulable facts showing reasonable grounds to believe that the information sought by the government was relevant and material to the investigation”.

Agreeing with a similar ruling earlier in March, the federal district judge ruled late yesterday that the: “Twitter order did not violate the Constitution”, adding that there was no evidence to show that the order violated federal privacy laws.

While the court order does not seek the content of the tweets themselves — arguably in most cases, this is public information anyway — but instead requests the IP addresses associated with the accounts, and any email address information held by Twitter.

The Stored Communications Act allows prosecutors to seek information held electronically without the need of a search warrant, or even probable cause. The government must show that it has belief that the content it seeks holds some relevance to an ongoing criminal investigation.

We all like our privacy and anonymity. I know I do.

http://pastebin.com/Mendi5CU

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Comment by Anonymiss Express on November 23, 2011 at 6:34pm: Oh yea, well, it's too late for me too. I am wayyyy too humane, am proving (AS A WOMAN) that living off the grid is possible, interdependent with local nature and peoples but independent of "the system", and probably considered dangerous for that. Gosh, if they all go do that! :D

So, too late for me too. But that doesn't mean I am going to make it easy for 'em! I'm already dead, have little attachments ... I don't care what people think of me or how they react, yet care deeply. Yowsa! here we go!

American Censorship: Round 2

Congress is trying to use the jobs crisis as an excuse to censor the internet. Tell them NO WAY, sign up now for the massive call-in day next week.

Comment by Anonymiss Express on November 23, 2011 at 6:27pm: @TheLaserShadow Yea, rogue exit nodes are explicitly mentioned. Not the fingerprinting issues with Tor tho. And thanks for the suggestions. Didn't know about smoothwall. Going to check that out.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on November 23, 2011 at 4:40pm: P.S. I do run a a good fascist firewall on each pc I have just not a linux or BSD virtualbox, that would be over kill for my needs.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on November 23, 2011 at 4:29pm: Yea I wish I had that guide a few years ago LOL It's too late for me by now the Gov knows my political views and who I am.

I don't know if it is mentioned in that guide but TOR exits can see the unencrypted traffic so If you were to check a non https web mail account or use other non-encrypted services your liable to be intercepted by a hacker or gov. It's a roll of the dice really. http://www.smh.com.au/news/security/the-hack-of-the-year/2007/11/12...

Also you can setup a pre-network stand alone firewall if you have more than one PC so that you don't have to run a virtualbox on each machine taking up resources. I also think its safer due to it being independent and not running on an OS that can be hacked. Monowall(bsd), smoothwall(linux) are good candidates. Smoothwall is a piece of cake to setup but needs a 800mhz+ machine to run effectively with out bottlenecking.

Comment by Anonymiss Express on November 23, 2011 at 3:38pm

How to secure your computer and surf fully Anonymous BLACK-HAT STYLE: http://www.cyberguerrilla.info/?p=3322

=== The Ultimate Guide for Anonymous and Secure Internet Usage v1.0.1 ===

Table of Contents (Links go to cyberguerilla site):

Er, I don't know about BTGuard. I'm not on Windoze.

In general, if you don't chain, do not use free VPN, and only use services in countries that have signed up for Net Neutrality, in their ToS (Terms of Service) state they do not log IP OR session data, and allow you to pay anonymously by coupon (Note: Bitcoin is NOT anonymous last I checked, which I admit was months ago)

Oh, and for VPN chaining free services will do (with similar requirements, just without the anonymous payment option).

Comment by TheLasersShadow on November 23, 2011 at 3:08pm: BTguard is a good company for VPN I don't use it but I know they're most def legit and they don't save IP's so If ever presented with a subpena it wouldn't be possible for them to comply. They're also in Toronto, Canada so it's not US based. I can guarantee If that censorship bill gets through the VPN industry is going to explode, likely quadrupling over night and every week there after. The next bill I'm sure after the censorship bill (protect IP) if it passes would be one banning VPN's.

Comment by Anonymiss Express on November 23, 2011 at 1:34pm: Yea. Or set up a VirtualBox with OpenVPN inside a VPN connected machine, and then chain the VPN's and work from within the VirtualBox. Bothersome indeed, but will work.

Comment by TheLasersShadow on November 22, 2011 at 7:29pm: I'd like to believe there was some anonymity on the net but anymore to be assured of true anonymity you really have to go all out. You need to be on a linux live cd like backtrack 4 change your mac addy and use a high gain long range wifi antenna to borrow someones internet or go to the local coffee shop, minding cameras. As well as making sure not to sign into any websites or even visit your regular sites.... Yea thats about the lengths you need to go through to be have real anonymity. Anything less and it's a roll of the dice whether your leaving tracks. This type of anonymity isn't needed yet but I can imagine as the situation gets worse in this country this may become essential for expressing political views and or communicating like this on the net between awakened patriots.

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