HOWTO FOIA the NSA

The good news? The NSA isn't the slowest agency to get info out of: It manages to be speedier than the FBI, the TSA and U.S Forest Service.

It's difficult, but not impossible, to get info the old fashioned way from the NSA, using the Freedom of Information Act. Here's MuckRock's guide to getting as much as you can with as little hassle as possible, and a few requests to follow and play along with at home:

7 years later, US court of appeals rules that NSA program leaked by Snowden was illegal after all From The Guardian, where the Snowden revelations were originally published in 2013: Seven years after the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful – and that the US intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were […] READ THE REST

How to look cute on your webcam that the government is definitely spying on View this post on Instagram sorry for posting my face twice in a row but here's an old one that seems relevant rn 💅 A post shared by Aiden :) (@aidenarata) on Mar 24, 2020 at 4:49pm PDT Image via EFF / Flickr (CC 2.0) READ THE REST

Ingenious Cold War keylogger the Russians used to bug Selectric typewriters in the US embassy In the 1970s, the Soviets managed to intercept top secret communications in the US embassy in Moscow and nobody could figure out how. While an antenna was eventually found hidden in the embassy's chimney, it took years to determine how what data was being collected for transmission and how. As a last resort, all equipment […] READ THE REST

The UniLid is a one-size-fits-all cover that'll guarantee you never buy plastic wrap again Be honest. How many plastic lids are stashed away in your kitchen? No, seriously…how many? Go ahead and check that black hole of a cupboard down there and find out. We'll wait… Was the number up over 20? Over 30? More? Now the second question is…could you even guess at which containers actually fit half […] READ THE REST

Pianu Pro turns learning the piano into a game and it's on sale for over 40% off Music is hugely liberating. And whether you love rock, classical, country, rap or any other genre, there's a real sense of accomplishment when you can sit down in front of a keyboard and hammer out a note-perfect version of a favorite tune. Of course, the only way to get to that point is usually after […] READ THE REST