Why Congress is fighting over a central tool of American surveillance : NPR

But a number of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are concerned that FISA 702 allows for the federal government to spy on the communications of American citizens without a warrant, violating their constitutional right to privacy…

 https://www.npr.org/2026/04/14/nx-s1-5768270/what-to-know-about-section-702-surveillance

 

Hostile powers sending spies to west’s universities, says former security chief

"In the world we are in now, and the world we foresee for the future, data is going to be absolutely critical. So how do you make sure that you know you have a level of sovereignty over your data to protect your citizens, your national securities?"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/07/hostile-powers-spying-universities-canada-former-security-chief

 

The money trail between Twitter and Saudi Arabia

…By the second Obama administration, Saudi Twitter had become a place for the kingdom's rulers to propagandise, track dissident thought and identify victims for Prince Mohammed's personal team of enforcers. Many Saudis knew better than to post on Twitter under their real names. But the Saudi government was able to unmask pseudonymous accounts and trace their owners, who were then arrested. For a long time, dissident Saudis wondered how exactly government security forces had unmasked their friends and family members, and whether there were any countermeasures they could take. They assumed the Saudi government had access to the finest western security contractors and advanced spyware software. They didn't yet know that Prince Mohammed and his henchmen had something better: a spy ring inside Twitter itself…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/09/twitter-saudi-arabia-deep-ties-elon-musk-prince-mohammed

 

Report says Americans undertook influence operations in Greenland

Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen following a news report that claims Americans connected to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration planned covert influence operations in Greenland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy13HTxGooY 

Trump NEW Top Pick HUMILIATES Himself Already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsWVRD-m5EQ

The Spy Inside Your Smartphone (Reveal podcast)

Around the world, governments are spying on journalists with hacking software originally designed to capture criminals.

Around the globe, journalists, human rights activists, scholars and others are facing digital attacks from Pegasus, military-grade spyware originally developed to go after criminals. Some of the people targeted have been killed or are in prison.

In this episode, Reveal partners with the Shoot the Messenger podcast to investigate one of the biggest Pegasus hacks ever uncovered: the targeting of El Faro newspaper in El Salvador.

In the opening story, hosts Rose Reid and Nando Vila speak with El Faro co-founder Carlos Dada and reporter Julia Gavarrete. El Faro has been lauded for its investigations into government corruption and gang violence. The newspaper is no stranger to threats and intimidation, which have increased under the administration of President Nayib Bukele.

Reid and Vila also speak with John Scott-Railton of Citizen Lab, a Toronto-based digital watchdog group. Scott-Railton worked to identify the El Faro breach, and it was one of the most obsessive cases of spying Citizen Lab has ever seen.
Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/podcast/the-spy-inside-your-smartphone-update-2024/

The latest incredible depths of evil of Facebook

This week a court case revealed Facebook and Zuck used Onavo VPN to spy on users and decrypt encrypted traffic from Snapchat, YouTube and Amazon....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRXyRnmJJbk

How G.M. Tricked Millions of Drivers Into Being Spied On (Including Me) - The New York Times

This privacy reporter and her husband bought a Chevrolet Bolt in December. Two risk-profiling companies had been getting detailed data about their driving ever since...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors-spying-driver-data-consent.html

Explainer: what is Volt Typhoon and why is it the ‘defining threat of our generation’?

FBI director has publicly identified the risk posed by a Chinese cyber operation that is believed to have compromised thousands of internet-connected devices…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/13/volt-typhoon-what-is-it-how-does-it-work-chinese-cyber-operation-china-hackers-explainer

Chinese balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive US military sites – report

"The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images," NBC's report cited the officials as saying.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/03/china-spy-balloon-us-military-intelligence

Russian Assassinations a Growing Worry as War Nears Second Year: Sources

One U.S. intelligence source familiar with Russia's spy capabilities—who was not authorized to speak to the media—said the "reach" of their operations is vast and global. The source also noted that Russian-aligned entities with the capacity to undertake lethal operations are thought to be present on U.S. soil. The same source did temper those fears, saying a stateside Kremlin-sanctioned hit on a dissident or an American would be an escalatory and bold move. According to them, while Russia's foreign intelligence arm (the SVR) likely doesn't "have the bandwidth right now" for planning an "elaborate and complicated covert action" in the U.S. (something VICE News also heard from an expert on Russian intelligence), past plots in the U.K. and Germany shows they do have the appetite for operations in Europe writ-large…

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vwa9/russia-assassinations-putin-ukraine-war

Chinese Balloon Had Tools to Collect Communications Signals, U.S. Says - The New York Times

China's surveillance balloons have flown over more than 40 countries and are directed by the Chinese military, the State Department said. The F.B.I. is studying recovered debris...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/us/politics/china-spy-balloon-program.html

U.S. charges five Russians, two Americans with conspiracy on behalf of Russia | Reuters

The indictment alleges the defendants unlawfully purchased and exported highly sensitive and heavily regulated electronic components, some of which can be used in the development of nuclear and hypersonic weapons, quantum computing and other military applications...

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-charges-five-russians-two-americans-with-conspiracy-behalf-russian-government-2022-12-13/

Mike Pompeo & CIA Sued for Spying on Americans Who Visited Julian Assange in Embassy in U.K. - YouTube

 Lawyers and journalists sued the CIA and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo Monday for spying on them while they met Julian Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had political asylum. The lawsuit is being filed as Britain prepares to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We speak with the lead attorney in the case, Richard Roth, who details how a private security company stationed at the London Embassy unknowingly sent images from Assange's visitors' cellphones and laptops as well as streamed video from inside meetings to American intelligence. He says the offenses breach a range of client privileges and could sway a U.S. judge to dismiss the case if Assange is successfully extradited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2XlGS_9obo

PolitiFact | In Durham filing, Scott exaggerates proof of Clinton campaign spying on Trump

…The filing from Durham is more tentative than Scott presents. It states that an attorney for an internet company that was collecting data related to White House communications from 2016 to early 2017 also served as an attorney for the Clinton campaign. It does not say that the Clinton campaign directed these activities. And it does not assert that the data was gathered illegally or that it was collected while Trump was president…

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/21/rick-scott/durham-filing-scott-exaggerates-proof-clinton-camp/

PolitiFact | Jesse Watters spins facts beyond recognition with claims Hillary Clinton paid to hack, frame Trump

…Watters said, "Durham's documents show that Hillary Clinton hired people who hacked into Trump's home and office computers before and during his presidency, and planted evidence that he colluded with Russia ... fabricated evidence connecting Trump to Russia." None of that is backed up by Durham's filing, a motion over a conflict-of-interest matter in the case against an attorney linked to the Clinton campaign who was charged for lying to the FBI…

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/17/jesse-watters/jesse-watters-spins-facts-beyond-recognition-claim/

Durham court filing doesn't say Hillary Clinton spied on Trump

…Sounds shady, but Durham's filing doesn't leave the impression that this was any kind of "wiretap," as Trump had claimed, or hacking to "infiltrate" his campaign, as Fox News' headline put it. Even former Trump appointee John Ratcliffe had to admit on Fox News that there was nothing really illegal about how that data was obtained…

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/durham-court-filing-doesn-t-say-hillary-clinton-spied-trump-n1289097

The new ‘spying’ story is clearly not what Trump thinks it is

… when your weird uncle who consumes conservative media all day sent you all-caps emails about Trump being "spied" on, he was pushing a story with no real basis in fact…

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/new-spying-story-clearly-not-trump-thinks-rcna16370

Jim Jordan Goes Off on Clinton Over John Durham Report

…Durham's new filing alleges that Sussman had, in fact, billed the Clinton campaign months before the 2016 election for his work. The filing went on to claim Sussman was also working with an internet company to watch the internet traffic from servers connected to Trump Tower and the Executive Office of the President of the United States...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/jim-jordan-says-trump-right-on-target-with-statement-suggesting-clinton-campaign-operatives-should-be-executed/

Erik Prince Helped Raise Money for Conservative Spy Venture - The New York Times

… Mr. Seddon's recruitment of Mr. Prince to help him secure funding is just one of the new details about Mr. Seddon's operation revealed in documents obtained by The Times and interviews with people familiar with his plans. They provide additional insight into the ambition of the operation to use undercover operatives to target Republicans seen as insufficiently conservative, as well as to, as one document describes it, "research, penetrate and infiltrate the radical left networks."…

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/erik-prince-spy-operation-trump-democrats.html