ProPublica
Senior reporter at ProPublica and author of Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America; former senior technology editor at the Wall Street Journal
New Snowden Docs Show NSA Widened Its Spying on Hackers After weeks of political wrangling, the USA Freedom Act was enacted to limit domestic spying by the National Security Agency. Now it turns out that the Obama Administration has expanded the NSA's surveillance of Americans' international Internet traffic — without public notice or any debate. Julia Angwin is the author of Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance . She's also a senior reporter for ProPublica , which worked on this story in collaboration with the New York Times.
Police Flash Grenade Investigation Flashbang grenades produce blinding flashes of light and deafening booms without the explosions created by normal grenades, and police use them to distract and disorient suspects during home raids. But the military-style weapons can still severely burn and maim people who are hit by them. And, according to a recent investigation by ProPublica, there’s little oversight when it comes to who is using flahbangs, when, and why.
Uncle Sam Wants to Protect Your Data Host Madeleine Brand looks at news, culture and emerging trends through the lens of Los Angeles, weekdays at noon.
NSA Surveillance: Bad for Business and Personal Privacy Facebook, Microsoft, Google and other American tech giants are complaining to President Obama about threats to their bottom lines. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took his complaint to the White House on Friday, saying the President's not doing enough to reassure foreign clients or guarantee civil liberties. Foreign clients, including governments, are afraid they're being spied on by the National Security Agency — fears costing the industry 25 percent of its revenue , or some $180 billion a year. Now the NSA's revealed that US companies knew what was happening even when they denied it. It takes draconian steps for individual Americans to protect their privacy. Is the value of NSA's intelligence gathering worth the economic and personal cost?
The Price for Privacy Each time you go online, you leave a little part of yourself behind - a trail of breadcrumbs, eagerly gobbled up by data brokers and advertisers. But there’s a bigger question at play when it comes to the idea of privacy: Is it increasingly becoming a luxury item - something only the wealthy can afford?
Wikipedia: The Wisdom and the Folly of Crowds According to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, it's "one of the greatest triumphs of the Internet." But is Wikipedia all that it claims to be? The operating principle is that anybody can contribute, that a crowd of contributors can reach a consensus superior to what's handed down by designated experts. The risks are obvious, and as the site became vastly popular, it became more vulnerable to "virtual vandals." New rules were adopted, for accuracy and to protect reputations, but they discouraged contributors from helping to build "the wisdom of the crowd." We hear more about how Wikipedia actually works and whether it can continue to grow.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
President Trump: US to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord Trump says he was elected to serve Pittsburgh, not Paris.
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.
