CBS New York | Source URL NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The security force of the future is already patrolling several neighborhoods in the Tri-State Area. The robotic protectors can see what you’re doing and even talk back to you, but the machines created by a New Yorker have prompted serious privacy […]
Police use electronic ticketing to fine more people and increase profits
Mass Private I | Source URL The opening seconds of the Saltus Technologies video says it all. Electronic tickets are about one thing, increasing productivity (profits). “The digiTICKET electronic ticketing solution is an innovative force multiplier for Public Safety – enabling officers to quickly create and submit tickets electronically. “ Enabling police […]
Smart Home Surveillance: Governments Tell Google’s Nest To Hand Over Data 300 Times
Thomas Brewster | Forbes | Source URL Anyone pumped for this week’s launch of Google’s Home Hub might want to temper their excitement. A smart home is a surveilled home. That’s been the concern of privacy activists since citizens started lighting up their abodes with so-called “smart” tech in recent years. Take […]
DARPA wants massive drone swarms
Next Big Future | Source URL DARPA OFFSET looks to empower dismounted units by transforming how humans and autonomous swarms interact in dynamic and complex urban operations. DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) envisions swarms of 250 collaborative autonomous systems providing critical insights to small ground military units in urban areas where […]
Fort Lauderdale airport is 26th airport in US to have Clear biometric security checks
ABC10 Ft. Lauderdale | Source URL FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is now the 26th airport in the country to have Clear biometric security checks. “They are using their fingerprints or their iris. Quick rapid scan, boarding pass pops down and is approved and they are done,” said Howard Kass, Clear Senior […]
Forensics company advises cops not to look at seized iPhones, to avoid facial-recognition lockouts
Cory Doctorow | Boing Boing | Source URL A leaked police-training presentation from digital forensics company Elcomsoft (a company that made history due to its early run-in with the DMCA) advises officers not to look at Iphones seized from suspects in order to avoid tripping the phones’ facial recognition systems […]
Police facial recognition body cams can be edited by law enforcement
Mass Private I | Source URL Soon nowhere will be safe from Big Brother’s prying eyes. Imagine walking down Main St., and seeing officer friendly approaching you. As the officer approaches you, he or she has already scanned your face against a 15 million person database and knows if you have any […]
The ‘Wild West’ of genetic privacy: New technology enables law enforcement to use DNA from sites like Ancestry.com to track down criminals by finding their relatives
Valerie Bauman | The Daily Mail | Source URL Scientists are expanding the methods by which law enforcement can use DNA information gathered through sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe to solve crimes – and they’re raising ethical questions along the way. California detectives have already used DNA obtained through public databases […]
Amazon Echo and Google Home Smart Assistants Scare Owners with Unprompted Statements
Charlie Nash | Breitbart | Source URL Amazon Echo and Google Home A.I. assistant devices are scaring their owners with unprompted statements. According to the Wall Street Journal, one Echo owner “was sitting on her bed crying one day after having just quit her job, listening to music, when she said […]
Walmart patents ‘big brother’ internet-connected shopping cart that can measure your heart rate, stress levels and even how fast you are moving through the store
The Daily Mail | Source URL Walmart wants to track how its customers are feeling as they peruse the snack aisle. The retail giant filed a patent for a internet-connected shopping cart that can measure and track biometric data. Not only can it keep track of your heart rate, but also […]
Will Governments Turn Our Smart Devices Into A Massive Surveillance Network?
Kalev Leetaru | Forbes | Source URL When Amazon announced its internet-connected Amazon Key camera last year, it declined to answer questions regarding how it would respond to law enforcement requests ordering it to remotely turn on units so that they could be used as government surveillance devices. When Facebook announced its Portal camera […]
THE GOOD CENSOR: Tech Companies Should ‘Police Tone’, Give Users ‘Positive Guidelines’
Breitbart | Source URL A 85-page briefing entitled “The Good Censor,” exclusively leaked to Breitbart News from within Google, advises tech companies to “police tone rather than content” and to not “take sides” when censoring users. The document, which can be read in full here, acknowledges that tech platforms including Google […]
Vietnam cyber law set for tough enforcement despite Google, Facebook pleas
Mai Nguyen | Reuters | Source URL HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam is preparing to strictly enforce a new cybersecurity law requiring global technology companies to set up local offices and store data locally despite pleas from Facebook, Google and other firms, a government document showed. Vietnamese lawmakers approved the new […]
Chicago Should Reject a Proposal for Private-Sector Face Surveillance
Shahid Buttar | EFF | Source URL A proposed amendment to the Chicago municipal code would allow businesses to use face surveillance systems that could invade biometric and location privacy, and violate a pioneering state privacy law adopted by Illinois a decade ago. EFF joined a letter with several allied privacy organizations […]
French spy used darknet to sell access to national mass-surveillance databases
Cory Doctorow | BoingBoing | Source URL A cop working for the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (the French national domestic surveillance agency) used the darknet marketplace Black Hand to sell access to France’s prodigious national surveillance apparatus to criminals: give him a phone number and he’d track its […]
Leaked Transcript of Private Meeting Contradicts Google’s Official Story On China
Ryan Gallagher | The Intercept | Source URL “WE HAVE TO be focused on what we want to enable,” said Ben Gomes, Google’s search engine chief. “And then when the opening happens, we are ready for it.” It was Wednesday, July 18, and Gomes was addressing a team of Google employees […]
German Art Activists Get Passport Using Digitally Altered Photo of Two Women Merged Together
Motherboard | Source URL Last month, an activist from the German art collective Peng! walked into her local government office in Berlin and applied for a new passport. “I probably have broken the law,” the woman, a chemist living in the Western Saxony region, told Motherboard, “but our lawyers don’t […]
The Government Is Blacklisting People Based on Predictions of Future Crimes
Hina Shamsi | ACLU | Source URL Imagine: You’ve never been charged with any crime, yet the government blacklists you as a terrorism threat and bans you from flying indefinitely. You’re separated from family members, can’t get to weddings or funerals or religious obligations, and lose jobs because you can’t […]
Facebook wants people to invite its cameras into their homes
Yahoo News | Source URL SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is launching the first electronic device to bear its brand, a screen and camera-equipped gadget intended to make video calls easier and more intuitive. But it’s unclear if people will open their homes to an internet-connected camera sold by a […]
DEA Plans to Expand License Plate Surveillance Program
Mike Maharrey | Tenth Amendment Center | Source URL WASHINGTON (Oct. 8, 2018) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) plans to expand a surveillance program that tracks the location of millions of everyday people through pictures of their license plates. According to federal contracting data, the DEA will expand the footprint of […]
Creating National Biometric System for Patient Matching Will Threaten Privacy and Security
Citizen’s Council For Health Freedom | Source URL Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom Responds to New Pew Study on ‘Patient Matching’—Just Another Name for ‘National Patient ID’ ST. PAUL, Minn.—The Pew Research Center last week released a new public opinion report on “patient matching,” a term which is simply a less-offensive […]
Instagram tests controversial new privacy setting that shares your location with Facebook to serve targeted ads – even when the app is closed
Annie Palmer | The Daily Mail | Source URL Instagram is testing a tool that would allow it to share users’ location data with Facebook, even if the app has been shut down. The data, which could include a user’s exact GPS coordinates, would be shared with Facebook to help it serve […]
Cops Breaking Facebook Rules, Creating Fake Accounts to Watch You—Here’s How to Spot Them
Despite it being a violation of policy, law enforcement across the country continues to get busted creating fake social media accounts to monitor citizens. Matt Agorist | The Free Thought Project | Source URL A scathing new report shows that Facebook is teeming with face accounts—created by police officers to […]
Police-Grade Surveillance Technology Comes to the Playground
Sidney Fussel | The Atlantic | Source URL As other elementary schools across the country were preparing for the new school year by cleaning classrooms and training teachers, Hermosa Elementary in Artesia, New Mexico, was also installing a network of wireless microphonesthat could pick up the specific concussive audio signature of […]
Scientists Accuse DARPA of Genetically Modifying Insects for Bioweapon to Spread Agricultural Viruses
Matt Agorist | The Free Thought Project | Source URL In a scathing report issued this week, researchers with the Science Policy Forum have accused the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of creating a technology—ostensibly used to genetically modify crops with insects—but that could be converted into a […]
New FCC Ruling Gives Federal Government Control of 5G Rollout
Derrick Broze | The Conscious Resistance | Source URL On Monday October 1st, Sacramento, Houston, Indianapolis and Los Angeles became the first cities to gain access to Verizon’s 5G Wireless service. The City of Sacramento has become a focus of Verizon’s nationwide expansion of 5G, or 5th Generation Cellular technology. […]
Military and U.S. Law Enforcement Establishing Joint Communication Network for Biometric Databases
Nicholas West | Activist Post | Source URL Does anyone remember that it used to be considered a conspiracy theory to warn people about biometric databases? Well, now that it is an accepted reality, we should be looking even farther down the slippery slope for new signposts indicating even greater […]
Travellers refusing digital search now face $5000 Customs fine
Craig McCulloch | RNZ | Source URL Travellers who refuse to hand over their phone or laptop passwords to Customs officials can now be slapped with a $5000 fine. The Customs and Excise Act 2018 – which comes into effect today – sets guidelines around how Customs can carry out […]
FBI forces a suspect to unlock his iPhone with his FACE
Kayla Brantley | The Daily Mail | Source URL The FBI has ordered a suspect to unlock his iPhone X using the facial recognition feature in the first case known worldwide of authorities using Apple’s face ID technology to pry into devices. The incident occurred in Columbus, Ohio, when the FBI entered […]
Bizarre augmented reality app allows children to play in ‘smart playgrounds’ with virtual adventure games like hunting for dinosaur bones
Harry Petit | The Daily Mail | Source URL A series of ‘smart’ playgrounds that come packed with augmented reality adventures for children played via smartphone app have opened in New Jersey. The free app projects activities and games onto equipment within outdoor play areas in a bid to get […]