In a troubling expansion of government snooping, a New York judge ruled Thursday that Microsoft has to open its servers to federal investigators. What’s concerning in this case is that the servers in question are not on U.S. soil—they are located in Ireland. In pursuit of information from Microsoft, the federal government pulled Microsoft into court to argue over the government's power to act through a warrant to access information stored on the company’s overseas servers.

A recent Washington Post investigation has made its rounds across major U.S. news outlets, revealing more information about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) massive surveillance efforts. Fears of privacy rights activists are further confirmed by the study, which used intercepted intelligence attained by whistleblower Edward Snowden to show that the NSA gathers significantly more data from non-targets than legitimately sanctioned national security targets:

On Saturday, the Washington Post published a detailed exposé on the spying practices of the National Security Administration during the four year period from 2009-2012. By now, it is no longer any secret that the NSA has been up to no good with its surveillance of innocent people, but the sheer extent of these violations is shocking, even in light of what we already knew.

This Independence Day, millions of Americans will gather to watch fireworks, grill some burgers and dogs, and celebrate the hard-fought freedoms of our forefathers. But in the heady rush of red, white, and blue patriotism, it’s important to remember what those freedoms actually mean, and to examine whether they still remain intact today.

Personal Freedom and Prosperity 110: The Rule of Law The law prevails, not the proclamation or arbitrary decision of a ruler, a government bureaucr the enforcer (e.g., policeman) or judge.

The U.S. National Security Agency knew for years about the Heartbleed bug and exploited it against Americans, according to Bloomberg.

Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli addressed the assembly at FreePAC Kentucky 2014. Cuccinelli is helping FreedomWorks and Senator Rand Paul sue the federal government to protect the privacy of all Americans against the massive NSA domestic spying program.