· March, 2013

Stories about Surveillance from March, 2013

South Korean Politician Moves to Repeal Biased Copyright Law

  28 March 2013

On Friday, South Korea's National Assembly will meet with supporters and opponents of the country's "three strikes" law, including Assembly Member Mr. Choi Jae-Cheon, who has moved to repeal provisions of the law that allow authorities to disable a person's web service account or shut down his or her website for violating copyright regulations.

Victory for Transparency: Microsoft Reports on Government Requests for User Data

  27 March 2013

Last week Microsoft released its first transparency report, which covers all requests for user data from law enforcement and judicial authorities received in 2012. The report offers specific data on Skype, a particularly important step towards building trust with users who may be vulnerable to government surveillance, describes Microsoft's approach to complying with US law, as well as law enforcement and privacy laws in other countries.

Digital Freedom: Principles and Concepts

  25 March 2013

The Egyptian Institute for Freedom of Thought and Expression recently issued its first statement on digital freedom, a simplified research paper to propose definitions for digital rights and related principles. This post offers a brief description of the paper, which focuses on universal access, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to privacy, and the right to creativity, development and innovation.

China: Researchers Uncover Microblog Filtering Mechanisms

  18 March 2013

In a recent paper entitled "The Velocity of Censorship: High-Fidelity Detection of Microblog Post Deletions," a group of computer scientists describes their study of censorship practices on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging service. Sina Weibo employs a large number of site moderators to monitor and, when necessary, stop the flow of dissenting ideas on the social media platform.

Venezuela: Twitter user detained for spreading “destabilizing” information

  14 March 2013

On March 14, Lourdes Alicia Ortega Pérez was detained by Venezuelan authorities for allegedly having "usurped the identity of an official of the Autonomous Service of Registries and Notaries" and having sent messages on Twitter that were "destabilizing [to] the country." An official press release stated that police also seized Ortega's personal computer as part of their investigation.

About our Surveillance coverage

Stories about surveillance, whether digital or analogue.