July 26, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Over two dozen advocacy groups on Monday sent a letter urging members of Congress to back a measure that, if enacted, would close the so-called “backdoor search” loophole that allows warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens’ data by Read more…
January 22, 2021 by Ethics In Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Digital rights advocates reacted with alarm to a report published Friday detailing how Defense Intelligence Agency analysts in recent years bought databases of U.S. smartphone location data without first obtaining warrants. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Read more…
January 20, 2021 by Ethics In Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Former President Donald Trump was roundly condemned by advocates of free speech and government transparency on Wednesday for failing to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden before leaving office, even as he Read more…
December 3, 2020 by Ethics In Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams The Trump administration recently used one of the most controversial surveillance provisions in U.S. history to record an unidentified person or group’s visit to an unspecified website, the New York Times revealed Thursday. The Times reports Director of National Intelligence John Read more…
By Brett Wilkins The current wave of deadly civil unrest sparked by police and white supremacist killings of unarmed black people including Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have brought increased scrutiny of tech companies’ business dealings with law enforcement agencies. This, in turn, has resulted in some leading Read more…
By Brett Wilkins There are few surer signs of a democracy in danger than permanent states of emergency. One could reasonably argue that such a state existed in the immediate smoldering aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when Congress rushed to approve the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening Read more…
By Brett Wilkins In times of great crisis, it is often necessary for governments to curtail civil liberties for the sake of security. This is especially true when the crisis at hand is a global pandemic in which swiftly identifying and isolating disease carriers saves countless lives. Conversely, failure to Read more…
Countless thousands of progressive San Franciscans have long lamented that Nancy Pelosi, while technically representing the city in Congress, does not truly represent them or their values. Hopes and hearts across the City by the Bay were lifted on Wednesday, however, when Shahid Buttar, a constitutional lawyer, online privacy advocate Read more…