Two current issues need a great deal more transparency - the GCSB legislation and the Trans- Pacific Partnership negotiations, writes Gerald McGhie.

Thousands of people gathered at marches across NZ today to protest extensions to the powers of the Government's spy agency.

Kim Dotcom joined academics, civil libertarians and lawyers at a meeting to oppose the proposed new spy law which will allow more surveillance of NZers.

Protecting the identity of girls captured in covert recordings by a man would have been an important factor in the judge's decision to grant permanent name suppression.

It's "rushed, ill-conceived and downright dangerous" says a QC, and changes to the GCSB bill secured by Peter Dunne don't address its flaws.

Former Foreign Minister Phil Goff says "tweaking" of the GCSB bill by John Key won't be enough to overcome the suspicions of a wide cross-section of Kiwis.

How would these so-called experts feel if their attitudes paved the way for the extermination of all the world's kittens by masked terrorist gangs, asks Toby Manhire.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff is calling for a delay in the passage of the GCSB legislation.

The head of the Human Rights Commission says Prime Minister John Key has misrepresented its highly critical report on his two controversial spy bills and wider surveillance issues.

John Key appears to have made another concession over the bill expanding GCSB powers - this time requiring it to have regard to the Bill of Rights Act.

Internal Affairs Minister and Napier MP Chris Tremain has requested a report into how a British killer managed to obtain a New Zealand passport issued in the name of a severely brain-damaged Hastings man.

To share these capabilities with agencies charged with routine law enforcement is to abuse that acceptance, writes Damien Rogers. Part of the problem is that there is no agreed meaning of national security.

Prime Minister John Key has handed the Labour Party an olive branch over the GCSB bill.

France's Government spies on its own citizens in the same way as the United States, it was claimed yesterday.

Several correspondents have taken me to task for presuming to speculate on what writer George Orwell of Animal Farm and 1984 fame would have made of American whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Here are 10 simple ways you can minimise the likelihood of the NSA (and other organisations) monitoring your internet and voice traffic.

Any traveller who has experienced a glacier-slow wait in an international transit lounge might have some sympathy for American defector Edward Snowden.

John Key last night described Kim Dotcom as a 'conspiracy theorist' after he claimed the PM knew about him before the January 2012 raid.

German internet tycoon Kim Dotcom says Prime Minister John Key is lying about what he knew about him before police raided his Coatesville home in January 2012. Video / Mark Mitchell

A crucial term in the GCSB amendment bill was singled out for clarification yesterday by Appeal Court Judge Sir Grant Hammond.

Charges that the United States spied on the European Union and three friendly nations have unleashed one of the most public rows in transatlantic history.

Prime Minister John Key has made a second top-level intelligence and security appointment, as a Parliamentary committee starts hearings on the GCSB.

Under the promise of protection we surrender privacy, writes Chris Barton. Once given up, it's a freedom we may never get back.

Civil libertarians and privacy rights activists have legitimate reason to oppose the GCSB bill in its present form, writes Paul Buchanan. "The definition of threat to national security under which the GCSB would act is too nebulous."