Privacy

What if you could privately use an application and manage its permissions to keep ill intending apps from accessing your data? That’s exactly what Steve Kondik at CyanogenMod—the aftermarket, community-based firmware for Android devices—hopes to bring to the operating system.

It’s called Incognito Mode, and it’s designed to help keep your personal data under control. Kondik, a lead developer with the CyanogenMod team, published a post on his Google Plus profile last week about Incognito Mode.

We all know that Prism is most likely just the tip of the snooping iceberg. While some of us may run Tor on our PC or Mac, there may be times when when we are working on a device that is not our own, or perhaps even a Chromebook, tablet or phone.

Enter the stalwart Raspberry Pi, which can be transformed into a portable Tor device for browsing on the go.

The U.S. government searched for detailed information on calls involving fewer than 300 phone numbers last year, according to an unclassified document circulated Saturday.

The paper said such searches -- part of two controversial U.S. intelligence gathering programs -- led to two men allegedly plotting to attack New York City's subway system, Reuters reported. The data, which the Associated Press reported is destroyed every five years, thwarted terrorist plots in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries.

Facebook and Microsoft each fielded thousands of requests for user data as part of law enforcement investigations from U.S. authorities in the second half of last year, they said late Friday.

Australian intelligence agencies have reportedly recieved "huge volumes" of "immensely valuable" intelligence data from the US, including from its PRISM program.

The PRISM programme came to light after a US Booz Allen staffer leaked a powerpoint presentation to the Washington Post and the Guardian which detailed how the US was spying on the communications of foreigners without use of a warrant.

We seem to have learned three important lessons in the wake of the latest NSA leak. First off, the US and Chinese government have an uncomfortable number of things in common.

Second, the US government hires way too many kids (remember Bradley Manning?) into high security spots that shouldn’t be in high security spots. Third, Blackberry may be the only platform that is actually secure (for two big reasons). So yes, it might be nice to have a secure cell phone - especially if you are a politician or celebrity living in the US or China. Let me explain.

BIG BROTHER really is watching you. A series of revelations over the past week has revealed the extent of the US government's snooping. But there are ways that the average citizen can avoid the prying eyes of the state.

Last week, whistleblower Edward Snowden – a former contractor with the National Security Agency (NSA) – told UK newspaper The Guardian that the NSA not only has details of phone calls made by millions of Verizon customers, it also has some form of access to its citizens' internet activity as part of a programme named Prism.

"NO ONE is listening to your calls," soothed President Barack Obama last week, following the revelation that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been collecting data about telephone and online communications on a truly epic scale. But Obama's pledge is nothing like as reassuring as it might sound.

If reports are to be believed, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has had “direct access” to systems run by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Apple. While all the companies named have used similar words to deny those claims, the alleged scale of the surveillance, its sophistication and the lack of independent oversight are still very alarming.

All of the above points to a worrying breakdown in procedures that have been around for decades – for good reason – in the area of lawful interception.

This morning Google sent the following letter to the offices of the Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Dear Attorney General Holder and Director Mueller

Google has worked tremendously hard over the past fifteen years to earn our users’ trust. For example, we offer encryption across our services; we have hired some of the best security engineers in the world; and we have consistently pushed back on overly broad government requests for our users’ data.