Security and Privacy in a Surveillance State

YouTube's new 'nocookie' feature continues to serve cookies

Chris Soghoian — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:18:00 PST

A recently implemented "delayed cookie" privacy feature at YouTube begs the question: When is a cookie not a cookie?

Is the White House changing its YouTube tune?

Chris Soghoian — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:00:00 PST

The White House has quietly moved away from the use of YouTube videos on the president's official home page.

Recovery.gov blocked search engine tracking

Chris Soghoian — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 05:41:00 PST

update After Google seemingly ignored restrictive search engine-blocking code built into the Obama administration's new stimulus-related site, the robots.txt code is removed.

Obama's BlackBerry brings personal safety risks

Chris Soghoian — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:27:00 PST

The U.S. president's insistence on keeping his RIM device creates a number of risks, chief among them: attacks against his location privacy and physical security.

White House expands use of search-blocking code

Chris Soghoian — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:22:00 PST

Whitehouse.gov's administrators silently triple the number of Web pages that it forbids Google and other search engines from accessing. Is this a bad omen or much ado about nothing?

Activists call for a mashup-friendly Recovery.gov

Chris Soghoian — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:06:00 PST

Transparency activists demand that the government provide data on the $825 billion stimulus package in a format conducive to user-generated mashups and remixes.

White House yanks 'YouTube' from privacy policy

Chris Soghoian — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:17:00 PST

For the third time in six days, the Obama administration modifies its site's privacy policy--this time expanding a cookie exemption to companies other than the video-sharing site.

White House acts to limit YouTube cookie tracking

Chris Soghoian — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:38:00 PST

Just 12 hours after I highlighted privacy problems with the White House's new Web site, the Obama team has deployed a fix that provides significant protection to many (but not all) of the site's visitors.

White House exempts YouTube from privacy rules

Chris Soghoian — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:09:00 PST

The Obama White House has quietly granted YouTube an exemption from strict federal rules that prohibit the use of cookies to collect information from visitors to federal agency Web sites.

Tech policy predictions for 2009

Chris Soghoian — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:00:00 PST

Surveillance State's predictions for 2009 include bad news for Net neutrality and privacy, but good news for AT&T and Comcast.