SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to. An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used a privacy […]
Lily Hay Newman | Wired | Source URL AS THEY PROLIFERATE, police body cameras have courted controversy because of the contentious nature of the footage they capture and questions about how accessible those recordings should be. But when it comes to the devices themselves, the most crucial function they need to perform—beyond recording footage […]
Joe Pinkstone | The Daily Mail | Source URL FBI agents have issued a warning about a new scam that targets instant messaging apps, including Facebook Messenger. The scam attempts to trick users into opening a malicious URL that harvests their personal data and login credentials for social networks, like Facebook. In a […]
Cory Doctorow | Boing Boing | Source URL Comcast Xfininty’s login page had an easily found bug that allowed anyone to gain access to the partial Social Security Numbers and partial home addresses of over 26.5 million customers. Comcast spokesapologist David McGuire says the company patched the bug quickly after […]
A local councilman proposed the idea of implanting microchips in criminals on house arrest—even if they are nonviolent offenders. John Vibes | The Free Thought Project | Source URL Toledo, Ohio – This Tuesday, Toledo City Councilman Rob Ludeman suggested that criminals be implanted with microchips so they can be […]
Mass Private I Last week I thought I saw it all when, I learned that Waldo Photos is trying to convince parents that “facial recognition at summer camps is fun.” I thought, things could not get any crazier. That was until I heard of a company called SmartDrive Systems (SDS). According to SDS’s own […]
Harry Petit | The Daily Mail | Source URL Police forces are being challenged over concerns they are using a controversial snooping technology capable of tracking your every movement via a smartphone. Rights charity are taking five UK police forces to court over their failure to confirm or deny whether […]
Camilla Turner | The Telegraph | Source URL Homeless people are wearing barcodes around their necks in an attempt to increase donations in a cashless society, under an Oxford University backed initiative. A new social innovation project, called Greater Change, hands homeless people a QR code, similar to the kind […]
The Daily Mail | Source URL A facial recognition system will be used across an Olympics for the first time as Tokyo organizers work to keep security tight and efficient during the 2020 Games. The NeoFace technology, developed by NEC Corp., will not be used on spectators. Instead, it will […]
Kate Larsen | ABC7 San Francisco | Source URL SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Four thousand security cameras record the platforms and parking lots of BART’s 48 stations and hundreds of trains as they travel throughout the Bay Area. “We need to be now using those cameras to the best of […]
Mass Private I | Source URL If you still value your privacy, I urge you to stay away from major league sporting events. Yesterday, CLEAR biometrics announced that they have installed biometric fingerprint scanners at Seattle’s CenturyLink and Safeco Fields concession stands. But the story does not end there. The video […]
Jennifer Bisset | cNet | Source URL Look! Up there! A pretty little bird gliding majestically through the sky, encapsulating the beauty of natu — oh wait. It’s a high-tech surveillance drone. Over recent years, more than 30 Chinese military and government agencies have reportedly been using drones made to look like birds […]
David Ruiz | EFF | Source URL Two reporters recently identified eight AT&T locations in the United States—towering, multi-story buildings—where NSA surveillance occurs on the backbone of the Internet. Their article showed how the agency taps into cables, routers, and switches that handle vast quantities of Internet traffic around the […]
Privacy SOS | Source URL Last week, the ACLU of Northern California revealed that Amazon’s Rekognition face surveillance software identified 28 members of Congress as people who have been previously arrested for a crime. The only problem? They were false matches. Unsurprisingly, the 28 members of Congress falsely matched to the mugshot […]
Mass Private I A non-profit association of law-enforcement personnel is being used to track where people drink and much more. Iowa is preparing to use the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association’s (NLLEA) “Place of Last Drink” or POLD to collect data on businesses and drivers. “Officials with the Iowa agency that approves liquor licenses […]
Patrick Tucker | Defense One | Source URL Machine-learning techniques promise to make biometric data far more useful for intelligence gathering. Researchers have used artificial intelligence to show that very subtle eye movements, of the sort you might pick up with a camera, can divine aspects of personality much better than […]
Ryan Gallagher | The Intercept | Source URL GOOGLE IS PLANNING to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal. The project – code-named Dragonfly – has been underway since […]
Nicholas West | Activist Post | Source URL It appears that, once again, the government narrative that TSA surveillance and groping is needed to keep Americans safe from the terrorists “over there” is nothing but a justification to violate the rights of everyone. Thanks to a group of federal air […]
Jana Winter | The Boston Globe | Source URL Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within […]
Dan Goodin | ArsTechnica | Source URL People often use ad blockers, disk-cleaners, and similar utilities to stop online trackers from monitoring their online activities. Now, researchers have uncovered a host of apps and browser extensions downloaded more than 11 million times that keep a list of every website ever […]
Phillip Schneider | Source URL On July 9th, President Trump’s announced Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee for the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, and who has already begun facing intense scrutiny over issues such as Roe V. Wade, the Second Amendment, and Net Neutrality. However, Kavanaugh’s stance […]
Kalev Leetaru | Forbes | Source URL Earlier this month it came out that among Facebook’s myriad algorithmically induced advertising categories was an entry for users whom the platform’s data mining systems believed might be interested in treason against their government. The label had been applied to more than 65,000 Russian citizens, […]
Crimson Hexagon suspended as concerns surface over company’s federal contracts and ties to Russia and Turkey Facebook has suspended a social media analytics firm from accessing user data while it investigates potential violations of its policy barring surveillance. The firm, Crimson Hexagon, boasts an impressive list of blue chip clients and […]
Techdirt | Source URL Leaving private voter or customer data easily accessible on a public-facing server is the hot new fashion trend. You’ll recall that it’s a problem that has plagued the Defense Department, GOP data firm Deep Root Analytics (198 million voter records exposed), Verizon’s marketing partners (6 million users impacted), Time Warner Cable (4 million users […]
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | Source URL New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed on Friday that facial recognition cameras installed at bridge and tunnel toll plazas across New York City are scanning every driver’s face and feeding them into a massive database designed to catch suspected criminals. “When it reads […]
Mass Private I | Source URL Golf fans will be happy to know that the Ladies Professional Golf Association ( LPGA) considers every fan a potential terrorist. Last week an article in Sport Techie revealed that the LPGA is using NEC’s biometric NeoFace facial recognition technology to identify every fan. Why would the LPGA use […]
Tim Collins | The Daily Mail | Source URL AI has moved a step closer to achieving human-like thought, after a new project developed machines capable of abstract thought to pass parts of an IQ test. Experts from DeepMind, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, put machine learning systems through their […]
David Cyranoski | Nature.com | Source URL Dozens of cities across China are applying an unusual forensic technique to monitor illegal drug use: chemically analysing sewage for traces of drugs, or their telltale metabolites, excreted in urine. One southern city, Zhongshan, a drug hotspot, is also monitoring waste water to evaluate […]
Privacy SOS |Source URL Last week, DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen celebrated US independence by publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post calling on Congress to pass an Orwellian surveillance law. The measure, Senator Ron Johnson’s “S.2836 – Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018,” would enable the government to arbitrarily shoot down drones, and wiretap communications […]
Tyler Durden | ZeroHedge | Source URL Beleaguered social media giant Facebook has removed “treason” from their database of the keywords assigned to users for advertising purposes, the company stated Wednesday after Danish state broadcaster DR reported its existence.