The documents, handed over by the government only after months of litigation, are the attorney general’s 2010 and 2011 reports on the use of “pen register” and “trap and trace” surveillance powers.
The reports show a dramatic increase in the use of these surveillance tools, which are used to gather information about telephone, email, and other Internet communications. The revelations underscore the importance of regulating and overseeing the government’s surveillance power. (Our original Freedom of Information Act request and our legal complaint are online.)
Pen register and trap and trace devices are powerfully invasive surveillance tools that were, twenty years ago, physical devices that attached to telephone lines in order to covertly record the incoming and outgoing numbers dialed. Today, no special equipment is required to record this information, as interception capabilities are built into phone companies’ call-routing hardware.
More...
Six months after approving the largest sexual abuse settlement in US history, officials in Los Angeles...
In 2021, the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, finally removed the Confederate statues that had inspired a...
Following D'Angelo's shocking death at 51, fellow musicians and stars are reflecting on the soul singer's...
