CHINA: POWER AND POSTERITY - Their 'People' Spying System and More

"How China’s high-tech ‘eyes’ monitor behavior and dissent" PBS NewsHour 9/30/2019

Right out of George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

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SUMMARY:  Technology is transforming China, helping improve life in some ways, but also collecting big data.  The government is beginning to convert that data and surveillance footage into social credit scores, which critics say can be used to penalize those who criticize the Communist Party.  Nick Schifrin reports as part of "China: Power and Prosperity," with support from the Pulitzer Center.

"Chinese tech makes cities ‘smart,’ but critics say it spreads authoritarianism" PBS NewsHour 10/1/2019

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SUMMARY:  Chinese 5G technology is designed to transmit huge amounts of data instantly, and deploy vast networks of surveillance cameras and facial recognition software.  While dozens of countries around the world plan to adopt the innovation, human rights advocates and the U.S. are sounding the alarm.  Nick Schifrin reports as part of "China: Power and Prosperity," with support from the Pulitzer Center.

"How China is driving the future of electric cars" PBS NewsHour 10/2/2019

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SUMMARY:  In China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, putting more electric vehicles on the road is critical.  Determined to become a world leader in the market, that nation has imposed a requirement that’s compelling international manufacturers to go more green.  Special correspondent Katrina Yu reports as part of "China: Power and Prosperity," with support from the Pulitzer Center.

"Why China’s art market is evolving from knockoffs to new works" PBS NewsHour 10/3/2019

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SUMMARY:  In the past, China was better known for producing 75 percent of the world’s art knockoffs than for its own creative innovation.  Today, that is changing, as Chinese artists are reviving what they call the country’s “cultural aristocracy” by producing original art.  Special correspondent Katrina Yu reports on the artistic, cultural and political implications of China’s creative resurgence.

"China calls it re-education, but Uighur Muslims say it’s ‘unbearable brutality’" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2019

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SUMMARY:  Uighurs are Muslims who trace their roots back thousands of years in Central Asia, most currently living in the Chinese province Xinjiang.  The group represents less than 1 percent of China's population, but they have endured what the U.S. calls one of the worst human rights crises of modern times.  Nick Schifrin reports on how Communist China has persecuted this religious and cultural minority.

GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE - Before eMail or Edward Snowden

"How an unlikely group changed the face of the FBI, retold in ‘The Burglary’" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Next, a look back at a different era of government surveillance, well before e-mail or Edward Snowden.

Jeffrey Brown has our book conversation.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  On March 8, 1971, a group of burglars entered a small FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania.  In the files they took away, they found evidence of wide-scale surveillance of U.S. citizens, particularly of anti-war and black civil rights activists.

It opened a window on the FBI that eventually led to the downfall of its leader, J. Edgar Hoover, and to major reforms of the bureau.  The perpetrators were never caught, but their identities and story are now told in the new book “The Burglary.”

Author Betty Medsger was one of the original journalists to receive and publish the information that came from the stolen files and she joins us now.

And welcome to you.

MICROSOFT - Microsoft Successfully Challenges FBI

"Microsoft Successfully Challenges FBI Order For User Info" by Amy Lee, Cruxial 5/23/2014

Documents related to Microsoft's successful challenge of a governmental request for information about one of the company's customers have been unsealed.

The order, a Federal Bureau of Investigation National Security Letter, sought "basic subscriber information" about one of Microsoft's enterprise customers, according to according to a post by Microsoft’s general counsel and executive VP of Legal and Corporate Affairs, Brad Smith on the company's TechNet blog.

A federal court in Seattle unsealed the documents on May 22 2014.

"This marks an important and successful step to protect Microsoft's enterprise customers regarding government surveillance," Smith wrote.

Microsoft challenged the nondisclosure provision of the Letter in June 2013, arguing that it would violate the First Amendment.

"It did so by hindering our practice of notifying enterprise customers when we receive legal orders related to their data," Smith wrote.

After the petition was filed, the FBI withdrew the Letter.  According to Smith, governmental requests for information related to enterprise customers are "extremely rare."

In the previous cases where similar requests for information occurred, Microsoft was able to obtain permission from the customer in question, or to ask directly.  In this case, the FBI was able to get the info from the customer, according to the notice of withdrawal.

Microsoft, along with major tech firms like Apple, Facebook and Google, have ramped up their efforts to gain greater abilities to disclose the government's requests for data to their customers.

"As more users migrate from locally installed software and locally stored data to cloud-based computing platforms, Microsoft increasingly is entrusted to store its customers' data safely and securely," the petition states.

In December 2013, Smith wrote a post on the TechNet blog reaffirming Microsoft's commitment to protecting customer data, and promising to inform customers of any legal orders Microsoft receives or to challenge any gag orders prohibiting them from doing so.

Smith also stated the company’s belief that when seeking information, government agencies should go directly to customers except in exceptional circumstances, "just as they did before customers moved to the cloud."

With cloud services, such as Microsoft's Office 365, customer data is stored in Microsoft data centers, rather than on the customer's own systems.

"As more users migrate from locally installed software and locally stored data to cloud-based computing platforms, Microsoft increasingly is entrusted to store its customers' data safely and securely," the petition states.

Earlier this month, Glenn Greenwald, who has been a key part of disclosures related to how the National Security Administration collects information, published documents including details of Microsoft's relationship with the agency.

Greenwald had previously claimed in July 2013 that Microsoft had worked with the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook and had also worked with the FBI to help them better collect information from OneDrive.  Microsoft responded to the allegations shortly after, with the basic message that the company complies with data requests only when legally necessary.

"This new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response [...] for our enterprise customers.  This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established," the recently revealed document states.