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Above the South China Sea (CNN)The Chinese navy issued warnings eight times as a U.S. surveillance plane on Wednesday swooped over islands that Beijing is using to extend its zone of influence. Seeking to further challenge China's military build-up in the South China Sea, the plane conducted a reconnaissance mission over a contested military installation being constructed on a manmade series of islands. A CNN team was given exclusive access to fly onboard the P8-A Poseidon, America's most advanced surveillance and submarine-hunting aircraft, as it flew over the islands. READ: China cautions U.S. Navy on patrols The U.S. is considering...

Everyone who cares at all (one way or the other) about government surveillance should watch the documentary 1971 tonight, on the PBS show Independent Lens. Everyone who has an opinion on the Edward Snowden revelations should watch this film. Everyone who has an opinion on the USA PATRIOT Act should tune in. I say all this, mind you, before I've even seen the film. Full disclosure: I'm not being paid or compensated for this plug in any way, either. But I know that however the subject matter is handled by the director, it is significant enough and important enough to...

“Here in front of Independence Hall, I call for the president to obey the law,” Paul said when he took the microphone, as hundreds of his supporters shouted “President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!” outside Independence Hall after a separate event inside the Constitution Center across the street. The crowd went wild. “The court said last week that it is illegal to collect all of your phone records all of the time without a warrant with your name on it,” Paul said. “I call on the president today to immediately end the bulk collection of our phone records.”

Even though Edward Snowden is in exile in Moscow, he's still hard at work — although he won't reveal what exactly he is working on quite yet because he believes in being judged on the results. Whatever he's working on, the former NSA contractor who exposed controversial US surveillance practices, says it's much tougher than his last gig. "The fact is I was getting paid an extraordinary amount of money for very little work with very little in the way of qualifications. That's changed significantly," Snowden said in an event at Stanford University on Friday, via teleconference from Moscow. "I...

A 21-year-old woman says she was attacked in her Overland Park home and her security system caught it on camera. Katie O'Connor is too frightened to go back to her own apartment and feels partly responsible because she trusted a friend.

He says the American public should be less worried about privacy and should back increased collection as a means of foiling terrorist attacks. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said Wednesday that "it's beyond belief how little data is a part of the program."...Senate leaders have introduced a bill that would allow the NSA to continue collecting phone records.

A California woman claims she was fired after disabling an app with a GPS function that was required to run on her company iPhone and tracked her 24 hours a day. Myrna Arias was working for money transfer service company, Intermex, last year when she claims her boss, John Stubits, 'bragged that he knew how fast she was driving' at certain times after she had installed the app, Xora, according to the lawsuit. She then objected to being monitored during non-work hours claiming it was an invasion of her privacy and 'likened the app to a prisoner's ankle bracelet'. Arias...

On Thursday a federal appeals court ruled that the NSA’s wholesale collection of Americans’ phone and Internet communications actually is not authorized by the controversial USA Patriot Act, as current and prior administrations have argued. As reported by The Wall Street Journal: The ruling greatly increases the pressure on Congress to make significant changes—or end outright—the surveillance program. The judges not only ruled against the phone program, but sharply criticized many of the legal theories upon which the U.S. government has built out its surveillance capabilities since the 2001 terror attacks.The Obama and Bush White Houses have used the Patriot...

Beginning March 31, 2018, all new vehicles sold in the European Union will be required to carry an emergency call system that automatically dispatches assistance to the scene of a crash. The "auto SOS" system, dubbed eCall, was approved by European Parliament yesterday after two years of debate over privacy concerns, reports BBC News. In the event of a crash, the device calls the E.U.'s 911 equivalent (112) and transmits to authorities important information including location, time, and number of passengers in the vehicle. An in-car button will also be installed in all vehicles. The eCall requirement will add an...

The use of drones to photograph people on their own property could soon be illegal in the Sunshine State. On Tuesday, the Florida Legislature sent a bill to Gov. Rick Scott that places limits on the use of remote-controlled drones... ....drones could not be used to photograph or record images of people or their property from the air. The restrictions would also apply to state and local governments. The legislation does not call for any criminal penalties...

One of the most glaring myths propagated by Washington — especially the two parties’ media loyalists — is that bipartisanship is basically impossible, that the two parties agree on so little, that they are constantly at each other’s throats over everything. As is so often the case for Washington partisan propaganda, the reality is exactly the opposite: from trade deals to Wall Street bailouts to a massive National Security and Penal State, the two parties are in full agreement on the bulk of the most significant D.C. policies (which is why the leading candidates of the two parties (from America’s...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night to extend through 2020 a controversial surveillance authority under the Patriot Act. The move comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers is preparing legislation to scale back the government’s spying powers under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

As Tyrone Lyles lay dying from a gunshot wound on an East Oakland street in 2007, he let out a few last words that would ultimately help authorities convict his killer. “Why you done me like that, Ar?” he pleaded. “Ar, why you do me like that, dude?” The exchange, which was used in court, was recorded by ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system that has been installed in over 90 cities across the country. By placing a series of microphones around high-crime neighborhoods, the system is able to pinpoint the location of where a gunshot took place with surprising accuracy,...

CHICAGO -- When you sit down to watch television, you probably don't imagine that your TV is also watching you. But Consumer Reports says that new models of some popular brands of smart TVs can record and share information about everything you watch. It's likely you don't think you've invited a spy into your home when setting up a new TV. But this Samsung can record and share everything that's viewed, whether it's a broadcast or streaming from the Internet. And some smart TVs can even track what DVD you're watching.

A Texas lawmaker's proposal to establish a 25-foot "buffer zone" around police engaged in keeping the peace is drawing fire from both legal experts and law enforcement groups, but for different reasons. Dallas-area House representative Jason Villalba introduced HB 2918, which would make it a misdemeanor to photograph police within 25 feet -- raising serious concerns that the bill, if passed, would violate the First Amendment and prevent individuals from holding police accountable. For Texans legally carrying a firearm, the buffer zone required would be 100 feet under Villalba's proposal. Villalba reportedly said police approached him about creating the legislation,...

Most of the likely Republican presidential candidates are supportive of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. But Americans who identify as Republican or lean that way appear to disagree. That’s according to a new survey from Pew Research, released on Monday, gauging post-Snowden attitudes on digital privacy and surveillance. Of respondents who were familiar with the NSA spying revelations, 70 percent of Republicans and those leaning Republican said they were losing confidence that the agency’s surveillance programs served the public interest. Just 55 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic said they had lost faith.... But the strong majority of...

The Truth About Cars has followed the use of license plate recognition and storage technology by local law enforcement agencies, a practice that has raised alarms from civil liberties activists because of constitutional concerns over broad surveillance and the ability to reconstruct one’s movements from license plate data. Now it appears that United States Postal Inspection Service, the USPS’ own law enforcement agency has also, at least at one post office in Colorado, been collecting similar data from drivers. Though the device had apparently been operating for at least a few months, within an hour of Chris Halsne, of Denver’s...

DENVER — Within an hour of FOX31 Denver discovering a hidden camera, which was positioned to capture and record the license plates and facial features of customers leaving a Golden Post Office, the device was ripped from the ground and disappeared.FOX31 Denver investigative reporter Chris Halsne confirmed the hidden camera and recorder is owned and operated by the United State Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement branch of the U.S. Postal Service.The recording device appeared to be tripped by any vehicle leaving the property on Johnson Road, but the lens was not positioned to capture images of the front door,...

Within an hour of FOX31 Denver discovering a hidden camera, which was positioned to capture and record the license plates and facial features of customers leaving a Golden Post Office, the device was ripped from the ground and disappeared. FOX31 Denver investigative reporter Chris Halsne confirmed the hidden camera and recorder is owned and operated by the United State Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement branch of the U.S. Postal Service. The recording device appeared to be tripped by any vehicle leaving the property on Johnson Road, but the lens was not positioned to capture images of the front door,...