Sean Vitka
The Hill
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Past articles by Sean:
Democrats should take the initiative in ending warrantless surveillance
Progressives will hold Democrats who support the continuation and expansion of surveillance authority to account in 2018. → Read More
Congress poised to jam through reauthorization of mass surveillance
The public deserves a chance to fight for its Fourth Amendment right to privacy, and to know the names of those working to enhance surveillance. → Read More
Government plays a dangerous game with mass surveillance
OPINION | The government has no right to violate this reasonable expectation of privacy. Unfortunately, that's not the America we live in today. → Read More
The Government Probably Did Spy on Trump, Because It Surveils Almost All Americans
President Trump caused more trouble than he probably bargained for when he accused former President Obama of wiretapping him during the 2016 presidenti ... → Read More
Drawing a Line on Mass Surveillance: How Congress Must Reform Section 702
On Monday, members of the House Intelligence Committee held an open hearing into Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election that → Read More
Opinion: What some lawmakers still don't get about encryption
A congressional report says encryption makes America safer. Why are these two Representatives refusing to sign on? → Read More
Opinion: A bold move in Congress to protect privacy
Members of Congress on Wednesday launched the Fourth Amendment Caucus to defend privacy in an era of increasingly pervasive surveillance. → Read More
Opinion: Burr-Feinstein antiencryption bill a firing offense
Sens. Richard Burr (R) of North Carolina and Dianne Feinstein (D) of California should be stripped of their positions for introducing a bill that would endanger American digital security and privacy. → Read More
This Meaningful Surveillance Reform Had Bipartisan Support. It Failed Anyway.
At a time when Americans are frustrated over legislative gridlock, Congress has outdone itself. Congressional leadership is has killed the rarest of birds: legislative reform of surveillance with overwhelming bipartisan support. At issue is an anti-surveillance amendment that passed the House of Representatives in June by a vote of 293... → Read More
BlackBerry's New CEO Has Raised the Dead Before. Can He Do It Again?
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. BlackBerry’s in a bad place. It seems to have been unsuccessful when it pitched itself to Facebook. On Monday, it abandoned a deal to be bought out by Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion (and its stock dropped from about $8 to about $6.50). BGR says... → Read More
How Lego Is Making 3-D Printing Accessible
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. Lego is thriving over its competitors, and 3D printing may have just crossed a critical threshold. Here’s how they’re related. When I was in middle school, a friend and I became obsessed with BattleBots, which aired on Comedy Central from 2000-2002 and existed only to... → Read More
Uneaten Cake Lurking in Today’s Jobs Report
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced 204,000 jobs were added to the economy in October, surprising analysts, many of whom anticipated only 120,000. And it comes just after a better-than-expected third quarter, in which GDP grew by 2.8 percent. Interesting highlights: Leisure and hospitality... → Read More
Where Do Twitter's Next Users Live?
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. Did Twitter’s stock price skyrocket? Sure did. Will it stay high? God only knows. Did some people make a ton of money? Yes. Should you feel bad for not buying it? No. The IPO price tags, which were as low as $17 a share and... → Read More
Starbucks Has Big Plans to Help Unemployed Veterans
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. Just ahead of Veterans Day on Monday, the Seattle Times reported that Starbucks is planning on hiring “at least 10,000 military veterans and active-duty spouses over the next five years.” It’s part of a plan to expand the number of Starbucks employees by 200,000 to... → Read More
How Somali Pirates Are Like Wall Street Investors
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. What has investors, a corporate structure, and a great return on investment? Piracy. That is according to a new report from the World Bank, Interpol, and the United Nations. The report, which was developed after extensive research and interviews of people in the pirate economy,... → Read More
Saturday Becomes Caturday at Goldman Sachs
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. Junior bankers at Goldman Sachs just got some good news. According to Dealbreaker, a new rule says that “[a]ll analysts and associates are required to be out of the office from 9 p.m. on Friday until 9 a.m. on Sunday,” beginning this weekend. The finance... → Read More
Here's Why the Dow Jones Had a Record Close Today
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record today at 15,747. There’s really no good reason for the high, except that investors are expecting continued quantitative easing. It would not be terribly surprising for the Federal Reserve to continue the stimulus—contrary to some earlier... → Read More
Online Drug Dealers Have a New Dread Pirate Roberts
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. The venerable Andy Greenberg over at Forbes is reporting that Silk Road 2.0 is now live on the dark web. He says it already has "close to 500 drug listings, ranging from marijuana to ecstasy to cocaine." The administrator of the new site is even... → Read More
Apple Brings 2,000 New Jobs to Arizona—Sort Of
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. Apple is expected to create 2,000 jobs in America in connection with a new factory it’s building in Arizona. The Guardian is reporting that the facility will produce “laboratory-grown sapphire crystals of the kind used in the iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner.” Sapphire, by the way,... → Read More
No, Obamacare Hasn't Led Small Businesses to Cut Employees' Health Care
Matthew Yglesias is on vacation. The National Federation of Independent Business, a lobbying organization and the named plaintiff behind the Supreme Court case that upheld the individual mandate, has released a survey that says small businesses that plan to add health care coverage outnumber those planning on dropping it. According... → Read More