Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Police and Stingray
March 22nd, 2014Via: AP: Police across the country might be intercepting phone calls or text messages to find suspects using a technology tool known as Stingray. But they’re refusing to turn over details about its use or heavily censoring files when they do. Police say Stingray, a suitcase-size device that pretends it’s a cell tower, is useful […]
Drone Advertises Fake WiFi Access Points, Steals Information
March 20th, 2014This type of exploit has been around forever. Now it’s just taking to the sky on a remote controlled toy. Via: CNN: The next threat to your privacy could be hovering over head while you walk down the street. Hackers have developed a drone that can steal the contents of your smartphone — from your […]
Los Angeles Cops Argue That All Cars Are Under Investigation
March 20th, 2014Via: EFF: Do you drive a car in the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area? According to the L.A. Police Department and L.A. Sheriff’s Department, your car is part of a vast criminal investigation. The agencies took a novel approach in the briefs they filed in EFF and the ACLU of Southern California’s California Public Records […]
How Virtual Gaming Worlds Are Revealing the Nature of Human Hierarchies
March 20th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: The way players form into groups in online games reveals that hierarchies are an inevitable product of the human condition, say complexity scientists.
U.S. Tech Giants Knew of NSA Data Collection, Agency’s Top Lawyer Insists
March 19th, 2014Via: Guardian: The senior lawyer for the National Security Agency stated unequivocally on Wednesday that US technology companies were fully aware of the surveillance agency’s widespread collection of data, contradicting months of angry denials from the firms. Rajesh De, the NSA general counsel, said all communications content and associated metadata harvested by the NSA under […]
Facebook’s New ‘DeepFace’ Program Is Just As Creepy As It Sounds
March 19th, 2014Via: Huffington Post: Facebook owns the world’s largest photo library, and it now has the technology to match almost all the faces within it. Yes, even the ones you don’t tag. Facebook announced last week that it has developed a program called “DeepFace,” which researchers say can determine whether two photographed faces are of the […]
NSA Capable of Recording Audio from 100% of Unnamed Country’s Phone Calls
March 18th, 2014The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, CEO of CIA contractor Amazon.com, is working with U.S. Government censors to conceal the name of the country in question. Even if we did know the country, this is a ridiculous limited hangout. My guess is that the same thing is happening in the U.S. and that the […]
Los Angeles Times Software Automatically Published Earthquake Story
March 18th, 2014Via: BBC: The Los Angeles Times was the first newspaper to publish a story about an earthquake on Monday – thanks to a robot writer. Journalist and programmer Ken Schwencke created an algorithm that automatically generates a short article when an earthquake occurs. Mr Schwencke told Slate magazine that it took around three minutes for […]
UK Government Wants ‘Unsavoury’ Web Content Censored
March 18th, 2014Via: Wired: The UK minister for immigration and security has called for the government to do more to deal with “unsavoury”, rather than illegal, material online. James Brokenshire made the comments to the Financial Times in an interview related to the government’s alleged ability to automatically request YouTube videos be taken down under “super flagger” […]
The One About Satellites Beaming Power Down to Earth Is Making the Rounds Again
March 17th, 2014*roll eyes* Via: Wired: For decades, the Pentagon has been the world’s largest oil consumer, and as global petroleum prices continue to rise, the military has been searching for feasible energy alternatives. Now they’re looking in space. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is building technology that will allow the military to capture solar power […]
