Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
IDair’s New Fingerprint Reader Captures Prints from 6 Meters Away
June 21st, 2012Via: Huntsville Times: Forget the key card to your office building? Just wave your hand at the door, and you’re in. “You don’t have to stop at a station. Nobody checks your ID. You just walk through,” explains Clemson-educated physicist Joel Burcham of his new Huntsville company called IDair. IDair makes a machine that Burcham […]
Reddit Cofounder Says Site Was Built By Horde of Fake Accounts
June 21st, 2012Have you ever wondered how Reddit’s shit-for-brains Hive Mind formed? Read on. Via: Slashdot: “How, exactly, did Reddit get so big? Well, according to Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman, in the early days the Reddit crew just faked it ’til they made it.’ In a video for Udacity, Huffman describes how the first Redditors populated the […]
‘Checkpoint of the Future’ Takes Shape at Texas Airport
June 21st, 2012Via: USA Today: After checking their luggage, passengers would identify themselves not with driver’s licenses and paper boarding passes, but by scanning fingerprints or irises to prove they have an electronic ticket.
Acxiom Corp
June 21st, 2012Via: The Week: What is Acxiom Corp., and what does it do? The company fits into a category called database marketing. It started in 1969 as an outfit called Demographics Inc., using phone books and other notably low-tech tools, as well as one computer, to amass information on voters and consumers for direct marketing. Almost […]
NSA Claims It Would Violate Americans’ Privacy To Say How Many Of Us It Spied On
June 20th, 2012Via: Network World: How many Americans had their privacy violated via the NSA warrantless wiretap powers granted under the FISA Amendment Act of 2008? The NSA Inspector General said they can’t tell us as that would violate Americans’ privacy.
Britain: Communications Data Bill Authorises Collection of Information from the Outside of Physical Mail
June 18th, 2012Via: BBC: The Home Office says it has no current plans to force the Royal Mail to store data on all letters and postcards passing through its system. The provision is included in the government’s draft communications data bill, published this week. But the Home Office said the bill would just maintain existing powers relating […]
Ottawa Airport Wired with Microphones to Record Travelers’ Conversations
June 17th, 2012Update: Public Safety Minister Orders End to Airport Eavesdropping Pending Privacy Review Via: Calgary Herald: Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has ordered officials to halt the planned electronic eavesdropping on air travellers’ conversations until a full privacy review is completed. “We have heard concerns from Canadians regarding the privacy impact of this practice,” Public Safety […]
U.S. Outsources Its Africa Spying
June 15th, 2012Via: Danger Room: Africa is important enough to the United States to spy on. Just not with official U.S. military personnel. The military’s Africa Command is outsourcing dramatic amounts of surveillance missions. And if something should go wrong, the contractors are on their own.
U.S. Needs Another 600 Humans to Fly Its Robot Planes
June 15th, 2012Via: Wired: The Pentagon doesn’t have nearly enough people to operate its growing fleet of flying robots. Right now, the US Air Force is short nearly 600 drone pilots and sensor operators. And that’s before the military carries out its plans to more than double its armada of remotely operated Reaper aircraft by 2015. Air […]
Apple’s Siri to Ride Shotgun in Cars From Nine Major Auto Manufacturers
June 14th, 2012Via: Gizmag: As part of its keynote speech on the opening day of this year’s WWDC, Apple mentioned that Siri will be featured in vehicles from no less than nine major global automakers. Not only will Siri be making her much anticipated iPad debut, but she’ll also be joining you on your daily commute. Apple […]
