Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said today that the Senate is "very close" to introducing legislation that would encourage the private sector to share information with federal agencies. A counterpart to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that passed the House in April of this year, the as-of-yet unnamed bill would also provide blanket immunity to corporations that share data so they wouldn't have to worry about getting sued by customers.

While lawmakers, feeling the heat from constituents back home (or deeply disturbed by reports on spying well before the public became outraged), consider reforms to U.S. surveillance programs operated by the National Security Agency, NSA Director Keith Alexander is asking the public for help in defending them.

The head of the top spying agency in the country urges citizens to remain stalwart in their support of the program, lest something bad happen to them on the scale of what happened in Kenya earlier this week.

No matter what side of the issue you are on, the looming government shutdown over raising the debt ceiling in Washington D.C. may shut down some important services but it will never stop the Nation Security Agency's (NSA) spying programs. At least that's what this report in The Hill notes. A government shutdown is imminent on Oct.

On October 26 organizers of StopWatchingUs will hold a rally in Washington D.C. on the anniversary of the Patriot Act. StopWatchingUs is a nonpartisan coalition of organizations, individuals, and companies that oppose the unconstitutional mass surveillance being conducted by the National Security Agency. The collective seeks "a full Congressional investigation of America’s surveillance programs, reform to federal surveillance law, and accountability from public officials responsible for hiding this surveillance from lawmakers and the public."

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (and others related to the Megaupload case) has filed a lawsuit against the New Zealand government over its illegal spying activities against him and the subsequent raid on his house in early 2012. A New Zealand Court granted him the right to sue earlier this year. New court documents published this week by the New Zealand Herald show that Dotcom is seeking NZ$8.55 million ($6.9 million) in damages.

According to newly declassified documents, a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge slammed the National Security Agency in 2009 for what he called "flagrant violations" of the privacy rights of U.S. citizens over a three-year period of searches of telephone records.

When the smart phone revolution began five years ago, the National Security Agency began looking for ways to crack the myriad of devices that were hitting the market including iPhones, Android devices, and Black Berry devices. Black Berry devices were the most popular among politicians and business people at the time.

Earlier this week we reported that Patriot Act chief author Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) had come out against the NSA in ACLU v. NSA, a lawsuit that seeks an immediate injunction that would halt all spying activity on American citizens, among other things. But what we didn't report is that a former Presidential candidate (and former Senator) and a former Vice-President have also sided with the ACLU.

If you believe that you have a right as an American citizen to your privacy online and on your mobile phone, then this ProPublica story will alarm you.

President Barack Obama will soon choose members of a panel that will "independently review" the National Security Agency's surveillance policies. The President announced the plan to form such a committee earlier this month at a press conference, and promised that it would be comprised of "high level group of outside experts." But early indications of his possible picks for this committee show that some of the choices are anything but outsiders. In fact, several have worked in past administrations, and at least one worked in two administrations.

Earlier today, we reported that the White House had appointed the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, a guy who has by his own admission lied to Congress about the NSA spying on Americans, to "establish a Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies" to assess the NSA's surveillance efforts.

On Friday President Barack Obama promised to create an outside and independent review board to look into the NSA's surveillance efforts. Today we have learned that the person who has been selected to oversee this undertaking is less than credible. In a letter obtained by TechDirt (thanks EZK), we learn that it's the same old same old in D.C.

You've heard of "tiger moms," "helicopter parents," and "soccer moms," but writer Mathew Ingram is what I'm going to call an "NSA parent." In part two of a series on keeping tabs on your children's online activities ("Snooping on your kids: what I learned about my daughter, and how it changed our relationship"), Ingram details his decade-long surveillance of his three daughters' online

According to an Ars Technica report, Germany’s justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said on Monday that she favored even stronger European Union rules that would enhance data protection and that companies in the United States who don't abide by those standards should be barred from doing business in the European Market.

Worried about the NSA or the FBI snooping your favorite mobile device? Well then, this Kickstarter (thanks TechCrunch) for OFF Pocket is right up your alley. Off Pocket is described by its creators as a water-resistant metal-fabric pouch specifically designed to hold a smartphone and block all types of wireless signals.

When it comes to the NSA's overbroad surveillance activities, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) would be perfectly within his rights to say "I told you so." Wyden, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been talking - vaguely, because all the information was classified back then - about how the Patriot Act was being used in an overbroad way to keep tabs on American citizens. It used to be that spying on American citizens was outside the NSA's purview and jurisdiction, but the Patriot Act and other laws opened the flood gates.

According to a letter sent to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee from Judge Reggie Walton of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), Verizon and other companies have not fought orders to turn over records on all of their customers. Basically Judge Walton is saying that these companies have shown little to no resistance when it comes to government orders seeking information on their customers. Details about the letter were obtained by The Hill.

What do you get when you cross endless runner gameplay (think Temple Run) elements with an Edward Snowden escapade? You get an endless runner called Snowden Run 3D. The third-person perspective runner was created by Michele Rocco Smeets, who wanted to create a game that highlighted (for the sake of comedy) Snowden's whistle-blowing activities, the NSA's PRISM and mobile phone surveillance programs and his final real-world destination in Russia.

Former Texas Rep. and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul says that an amendment voted down on the floor of the House last week would not have made much of a difference - even if it had survived a floor vote - to stop the NSA from spying on Americans. The amendment, from Republican Michigan Rep. Justin Amash - which was attached to the defense budget - called for the NSA's spying programs to be defunded.

Last night in the United States House of Representatives the Amash Amendment was narrowly defeated by a vote of 217 - 205. Approximately 94 Republicans and 111 Democrats voted for the measure that would have put a stop to large scale domestic spying on Americans, while 134 Republicans and 83 Democrats voted against it. Six Republicans and 6 Democrats abstained from voting or were not present. The Amendment was a rider to the massive defense bill.

Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash is proving to be a worthy adversary against the Republican establishment and the White House when it comes to national security issues, and he seems to have no problem throwing his enthusiastic support behind causes to stop the NSA's clandestine spying programs, much to the chagrin of hawks on both sides of the aisle.