A Canary in the Data Mine: NSA Takes Another Bite Out of Apple

If the canary hasn’t died, it has definitely been winged.

Apple, Inc. has changed its privacy policy (you know, those things that almost no one reads) and according to gigaom.com it has removed what is known as a “warrant canary.” A warrant canary is a statement within a company’s privacy policy that indicates it hasn’t received certain communications from, oh, lets say the NSA. When removed, it indicates the company has been served a secret subpoena by an intelligence service (NSA, FBI) regarding information it is holding on behalf of some customers, but are gagged from telling its customers about it.

What do NSA Vans…

“What do NSA Surveillance Vans and rape vans have in common? Everything but the budget.”

Message in a Bottle

Ok, so I’ve always been a message>messenger type guy. I also can’t say that I haven’t gotten a little frosty when hearing this and that about Edward J. Snowden’s ego from the moth balls on MSNBCCNNFOX, (or worse, David Gregory) when what I REALLY want to hear is the message. I want to understand it. It’s complex, and I need honest information brokers to help me crack the code. So I was looking forward to finally hearing from the man himself on March 10, when he spoke via echoey intertubes through myriad proxies to a sometimes confused SXSW Interactive audience.

Unfortunately, It’s almost as if encryption is such an important part of Snowden’s life right now, he chose to employ multiple iterations of his own voice to encrypt his answers to the questions posed by ACLU’s Ben Wizner and Christopher Soghoian. It’s hard enough that this stuff is in orbit over my head, I didn’t really need to try to parse that understanding with only the help of every third word.

As an occasional “AV” guy myself, I can only guess what happened, without having been there. But I have an idea. Either way it is for some reason comforting for me to know that Mr. Snowden, the same guy who brilliantly whistle blew a tune we all needed to hear by doing things I couldn’t dream of not being bored learning how to do, still has to rely on a good sound guy to get his message across.

Snowden Is “Peacier” than Obama!

Considering the “Drone President” won the Nobel Peace Prize, I can’t help but wonder if Snowden hopes to get passed over.

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Two Norwegian lawmakers say they have jointly nominated former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

Socialist lawmakers Baard Vegard Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen said Wednesday the public debate and policy changes “in the wake of Snowden’s whistleblowing has contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order.”

Being nominated just means Snowden will be one of scores of names that the Nobel committee will consider for the prestigious award.

“Party at the NSA!” by Yacht

Live at the Stopwatching.us rally in October