7 ms·

Electronic surveillance up 5x in DC area since 2011, almost all sealed cases

150 points by Jerry2 10y ago

wyldfire 10y ago
Seems odd that they didn't define the term "pen register" beyond the "(outbound messages)" in the graphic. From Wikipedia: "A pen register, or dialed number recorder (DNR), is an electronic device that records all numbers called from a particular telephone line." > ... warrant appeared to authorize the FBI to secretly place code, or malware, on all computers that logged in to an anonymous email service... I keep thinking of the parallels between the actions of spearphishing criminals and these law enforcement agencies.
zaroth 10y ago
Uncovering secret surveillance enabled by the courts? Easy to read graphs that have a y-axis starting at zero? Paywall free, informative content? I clicked a few ads to say thanks. When only 1 of 4,100 cases over five years in a particular district has the public record unsealed, I think it's safe to call this a cover-up. > Yet the listings of how often law enforcement applied to judges to conduct covert electronic surveillance — a list that itself is usually sealed... The information about what are known as pen register and trap and trace orders was made public after litigation by the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), journalists and others, including some service providers. You know, when the press operates as it should, as nonpartisan fact finder and uncovering truth through hard-fought FOIA battles, well first your sick about whatever you just read, then at least you feel a bit better knowing that at least someone is trying to shine some light on it.
- zitterbewegung 10y ago
  Its not paywall free. You are limited to a set of free articles every month.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    You missed the link at the bottom of the page that links to the page with the form for the free pony.
- sfrailsdev 10y ago
  Actually went back and clicked a few ads myself. Good point.
- jsprogrammer 10y ago
  >Paywall free, informative content? Funny; a literal opaque wall asking me to login or view offers came down over the content when I loaded it up (with no apparent way of dismissing it).
- nastynate 10y ago
  Now you know why Bezos descended from the heavens and saved us <3 seriously though WaPo is awesome and I'm super proud of the paper as a Washingtonian.
dailyrorschach 10y ago
One thing worth noting here, is that it's unclear if this means electronic surveillance is up 5x in the DC area (as the area of investigation). As the article notes, these courts routinely handle requests for nationwide investigations. It would be interesting to repeat this process with other federal districts, especially in major cities.
QUFB 10y ago
Every time I see Northern Virginia and these volumes of requests from the government, I think Amazon and us-east-1.

150 points by Jerry2 10y ago

Seems odd that they didn't define the term "pen register" beyond the "(outbound messages)" in the graphic. From Wikipedia: "A pen register, or dialed number recorder (DNR), is an electronic device that records all numbers called from a particular telephone line." > ... warrant appeared to authorize the FBI to secretly place code, or malware, on all computers that logged in to an anonymous email service... I keep thinking of the parallels between the actions of spearphishing criminals and these law enforcement agencies.

zaroth 10y ago

Uncovering secret surveillance enabled by the courts? Easy to read graphs that have a y-axis starting at zero? Paywall free, informative content? I clicked a few ads to say thanks. When only 1 of 4,100 cases over five years in a particular district has the public record unsealed, I think it's safe to call this a cover-up. > Yet the listings of how often law enforcement applied to judges to conduct covert electronic surveillance — a list that itself is usually sealed... The information about what are known as pen register and trap and trace orders was made public after litigation by the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), journalists and others, including some service providers. You know, when the press operates as it should, as nonpartisan fact finder and uncovering truth through hard-fought FOIA battles, well first your sick about whatever you just read, then at least you feel a bit better knowing that at least someone is trying to shine some light on it.

zitterbewegung 10y ago
Its not paywall free. You are limited to a set of free articles every month.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  You missed the link at the bottom of the page that links to the page with the form for the free pony.
sfrailsdev 10y ago
Actually went back and clicked a few ads myself. Good point.
jsprogrammer 10y ago
>Paywall free, informative content? Funny; a literal opaque wall asking me to login or view offers came down over the content when I loaded it up (with no apparent way of dismissing it).
nastynate 10y ago
Now you know why Bezos descended from the heavens and saved us <3 seriously though WaPo is awesome and I'm super proud of the paper as a Washingtonian.

dailyrorschach 10y ago

One thing worth noting here, is that it's unclear if this means electronic surveillance is up 5x in the DC area (as the area of investigation). As the article notes, these courts routinely handle requests for nationwide investigations. It would be interesting to repeat this process with other federal districts, especially in major cities.

QUFB 10y ago

Every time I see Northern Virginia and these volumes of requests from the government, I think Amazon and us-east-1.