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Telephone tapping

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Here’s a primer on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Global Politics

US District Court Judge Richard Leon has ruled that the NSA’s mass collection of millions of Americans’ phone records is likely unconstitutional. And that directly contradicts a ruling by the special court that Congress established to oversee surveillance.

Union army telegraph operators just after the battle of Gettysburg. The Civil War is sometimes described as the first information war. Intercepted messages landed on Abraham Lincoln's desk.

The history of electronic surveillance, from Abraham Lincoln’s wiretaps to Operation Shamrock

Conflict & Justice

Reuters: D.E.A. Conceals Evidence in Investigations of Americans

NSA accused of tracking wide range of phone conversations, Internet connections

Global Politics

British officials pushing for power to do basic monitoring of all U.K. electronic conversations

Global Politics

VIDEO: Hugh Grant leads parade of outraged U.K. phone hacking victims

Arts, Culture & Media

Hugh Grant, Sally Dower and other victims of the British media’s phone hacking testified before a British committee examining media excesses and bad behavior. It seems likely that new regulations will come from these actions.

Transparency, Secrecy and Freedom: The History of Privacy and Democracy

As we learn more about the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programs and leaker Edward Snowden, The Takeaway is looking at freedom in America, and freedom’s relationship to privacy. In a recent article for The New Yorker, staff writer and professor of American history at Harvard University  Jill Lepore explores the relationship between privacy, government transparency […]

Bush Era Surveillance Program Headed to Supreme Court

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens and others without a warrant.  The secret program first came to light in an  expose by our partner The New York Times  in December 2005. President Bush insisted that the warrantless wiretapping was essential for Americans’ […]

New Report Blasts Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch

British lawmakers who investigated phone hacking at the British newspaper News of the World have issued a damning report which concludes that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run a major international company. Speaking at a news conference last hour British committee member Tom Watson said both Rupert Murdoch and his son James, […]

Hacking Scandal Arrives in U.S.

Over 4,000 people have been identified as possible victims of phone hacking since the News of the World scandal first made headlines. The parent company News International has paid out millions in compensation settlements.  Now the storm is coming to American shores. Mark Lewis is an attorney in his native England. He has represented over 100 […]