Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
The New Mind Control
March 14th, 2016Don’t let this one slip down the page without clicking through! This piece doesn’t mention virtual reality, but VR is going to be an integral part of this, “unseen dictatorship.” It’s easy to pass off clunky RV tech demos as some sort of passing fad. Yep, I remember the 1990s too. But it’s different this […]
$1400 Device Can Cause LTE Mobile Phones to Use Compromised 2G Networks
March 13th, 2016Via: Bloomberg: Phones now operate on more sophisticated 3G and 4G (also known as LTE) networks. In theory, IMSI catchers can pinpoint only the location of these phones, not listen to calls or read texts. But none of that matters if the IMSI catcher in question can just knock a phone call back down to […]
The Secrets of Surveillance Capitalism
March 12th, 2016Via: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Governmental control is nothing compared to what Google is up to. The company is creating a wholly new genus of capitalism, a systemic coherent new logic of accumulation we should call surveillance capitalism. … “Most Americans realize that there are two groups of people who are monitored regularly as they move […]
No, Turning On Your Phone Is Not Consenting to Being Tracked by Police
March 6th, 2016Via: The Intercept: The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Wednesday upheld a historic decision by a state trial court that the warrantless use of cell-site simulators, or Stingrays, violates the Fourth Amendment. The trial court had suppressed evidence obtained by the warrantless use of a Stingray — the first time any court in the […]
MIT’s New 5-Atom Quantum Computer Could Make Today’s Encryption Obsolete
March 6th, 2016“all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer” So the only thing preventing a more general purpose quantum computer is money and enough engineers… Hmm… Via: PC World: Much of the encryption world today depends on the challenge of […]
Billboards to Track People via Mobile Phones
March 2nd, 2016“All data is anonymous and aggregated, they say, meaning individual consumers cannot be identified.” Oh sure. Via: New York Times: Pass a billboard while driving in the next few months, and there is a good chance the company that owns it will know you were there and what you did afterward. Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, […]
Google Unveils Neural Network with “Superhuman” Ability to Determine the Location of Almost Any Image
February 28th, 2016Via: MIT Technology Review: Here’s a tricky task. Pick a photograph from the Web at random. Now try to work out where it was taken using only the image itself. If the image shows a famous building or landmark, such as the Eiffel Tower or Niagara Falls, the task is straightforward. But the job becomes […]
Virtual Reality and Zuckerberg’s, “Rictus Grin”
February 22nd, 2016Har! Via: The Verge: The image above looks like concept art for a new dystopian sci-fi film. A billionaire superman with a rictus grin, striding straight past human drones, tethered to machines and blinded to reality by blinking plastic masks. Golden light shines down on the man as he strides past his subjects, cast in […]
‘See Something Suspicious Online? Homeland Security Wants to Know About It’
February 18th, 2016Via: NextGov: The Department of Homeland Security wants an extra $1 million next year to develop a public-service campaign designed to increase awareness of online threats. The new initiative will be modeled on the “If You See Something, Say Something” effort rolled out after the Sept. 11 attacks. The new cyber PSA “will look to […]
The NSA’s SKYNET Program May be Killing Thousands of Innocent People
February 16th, 2016Via: Ars Technica: In 2014, the former director of both the CIA and NSA proclaimed that “we kill people based on metadata.” Now, a new examination of previously published Snowden documents suggests that many of those people may have been innocent. Last year, The Intercept published documents detailing the NSA’s SKYNET programme. According to the […]
