Meanwhile Avril Haynes becomes the new Carnegie Endowment president.
Spencer Ackerman
@attackerman.bsky.social
91K followers 1.6K following 3.1K posts
Journalist & author of REIGN OF TERROR, contributor to Zeteo. New comic book series: NO ONE ESCAPES THE DIALECTIC, from Boom! Studios. Subscribe to FOREVER WARS for ‘natsec’ journalism: www.forever-wars.com Signal: attackerman.81
![Although VPNs are often recommended by Federal agencies and advertised as a way to protect a user’s privacy, using a VPN may seriously impact an American’s rights, the members wrote. The U.S. government’s rules for surveillance under Section 702 of FISA and under Executive Order 12333 specify that when the country a user is in is unknown, the government may assume that user is a foreigner. Because foreigners outside of the United States don’t have Fourth Amendment rights, VPNs that hide the country in which a user is located could impact an American’s privacy rights.
“[Americans should] be told if these VPN services, which are advertised as a privacy protection, including by elements of the federal government, could, in fact, negatively impact their rights against U.S. government surveillance,” the members wrote. “To that end, we urge you to be more transparent with the American public about whether the use of VPNs can impact their privacy with regard to U.S. government surveillance, and clarify what, if anything, American consumers can do to ensure they receive the privacy protections they are entitled to under the law and Constitution.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nx2hxdrsv3mivqwwvkq7xlqx/bafkreibde2n6jk3kksrgbsmuysznqiyhgpemivqqmgq56qa6g6ojqogi3q)
![After the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, and now in the strangulation of Cuba and the seemingly imminent move against Teheran, the far-right imagination is running wild. Rubio's speech is in one sense full of euphemism, leaving unsaid just what the implications are of an unapologetic U.S.-European hegemony, but in another sense it's obvious for those who are willing to look Rubio's agenda in the face. The Europeans should join MAGA in "not maintain[ing] the polite pretense that our way of life is just one among many," but rather insisting that it is superior, and ought to command the lower orders of the world. I doubt this man, this man who would tell foreign-policy elites in Munich that they belong to a heritage of superior beings, uses a bidet.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nx2hxdrsv3mivqwwvkq7xlqx/bafkreiheqxwqzea2phnloh6cvaz23fdqkpkxn37l7qmhcrl7xoua2bzs4m)