Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Facebook Wants You To Snitch on Friends Using Pseudonyms
September 22nd, 2012Via: Paul Bernal’s Blog: A story about Facebook went around twitter last night that provoked quite a reaction in privacy advocates like me: Facebook, it seems, is experimenting with getting people to ‘snitch’ on any of their friends who don’t use their real names. Take a look at this…
DARPA’s Mentats: EEG Data Used for Threat Detection
September 20th, 2012During a recent email conversation about a related technology with a friend of mine, who, shall we say, knows more than a little about this subject, he wrote something that you might find interesting: Interesting approach. It sounds like they’ve given up on computers processing images and instead they’re trying to create a mentat. Maybe […]
iTravel: Apple’s Secret Plan to Join iPhones with Airport Security
September 20th, 2012If you have been waiting for a good one for the top of your Not-The-Onion pile, this is it. Via: CNN: Apple is releasing a mobile wallet app called Passbook which could lead to some of the ideas suggested in these iTravel patent schematics, which were submitted in 2008. The patent was granted last July. […]
New Cameras to Watch Cameras That Watch You
September 14th, 2012This practice is common in Britain. Via: WTOP: Many people find speed cameras frustrating, and some in the region are taking their rage out on the cameras themselves. But now there’s a new solution: cameras to watch the cameras. One is already in place, and Prince George’s County Police Maj. Robert V. Liberati hopes to […]
House Approves Sweeping, Warrantless Electronic Spy Powers
September 13th, 2012Via: Wired: The House on Wednesday reauthorized for five years broad electronic eavesdropping powers that legalized and expanded the George W. Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The FISA Amendments Act, (.pdf) which is expiring at year’s end, allows the government to electronically eavesdrop on Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant so long […]
Some Sort of Tracking Data Injected Into World of Warcraft Graphics
September 12th, 2012Via: Tom’s Hardware: One World of Warcraft gamer has discovered that his screenshots secretly contain user info like the current server IP address, and the time the shot was taken. ZoomThere’s indication that Activision Blizzard has been watermarking screenshots captured with World of Warcraft’s in-game client application since at least 2008. There’s also indication that […]
‘What if Dickens Had Analytics?’
September 12th, 2012I’d still never finish reading Little Dorrit. Via: FastCompany: In addition to the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon introduced a subscription book format at a press conference in Los Angeles Thursday. These books, called “Kindle Serials,” will be released in segments instead of in their entirety. Updates, or “episodes,” automatically appear at […]
You Might Be a Terrosist If You Prepare for The Zombie Apocalypse
September 10th, 2012*chortle* One for your Mixed Signals file folder. Via: Network World: Homeland Security warned, “The zombies are coming!” FEMA says get your emergency preparedness kit ready, but the LAPD adopted 15 of the DOJ’s ridiculous lists regarding ‘Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities.’ The question morphs from how will we survive the zombie apocalypse, to how […]
Sniffing Open WiFi Networks Is Not Wiretapping
September 9th, 2012I don’t know why anyone would use unencrypted wi-fi at this point, but it’s the privacy equivalent of standing on a soap box with a bullhorn. Via: Ars Technica: A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that intercepting traffic on unencrypted WiFi networks is not wiretapping. The decision runs counter to a 2011 decision that […]
Next Generation Identification (NGI) System: FBI Launches $1 Billion Nationwide Biometric Database
September 8th, 2012Via: ExtremeTech: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun rolling out its new $1 billion biometric Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. In essence, NGI is a nationwide database of mugshots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples, and other biometrics, that will help the FBI identify and catch criminals — but it is how this […]
