Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
New Research Could Mean Cellphones That Can See Through Walls
April 19th, 2012Via: University of Texas at Dallas: Comic book hero superpowers may be one step closer to reality after the latest technological feats made by researchers at UT Dallas. They have designed an imager chip that could turn mobile phones into devices that can see through walls, wood, plastics, paper and other objects. The team’s research […]
Homeland Security’s ‘Pre-Crime’ Screening Will Never Work
April 18th, 2012Via: The Atlantic: Chances are, you’ll snag the wrong people, and when you do, how can you tell? How do you clear suspects of crimes that haven’t happened? Pre-crime prevention is a terrible idea. Here is a quiz for you. Is predicting crime before it happens: (a) something out of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report; […]
Wal-Mart Nominates Google Vice President to Board
April 17th, 2012Via: AP: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday that it nominated Google Inc. Vice President Marissa Mayer to its board of directors, a move that the discount retailer says will help it sell more products through mobile devices. Mayer, 36, is vice president of Google’s “local and maps” division, which means she oversees products and software […]
Companies Pass IT Staff Emails Through Monitoring Software Designed to Spot ‘The Enemy Within’
April 16th, 2012Mmmkay? Via: IT World: The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on how IT departments are coping these days with the biggest threat to data security — namely, employees in the IT department. That the “enemy within” is the biggest threat to an enterprise is nothing new, but buried in the article was something […]
Google’s Sergey Brin: Web Freedom Faces Greatest Threat Ever
April 16th, 2012You know that we’re in deep shit when Sergey Brin sounds like he’s been reading Cryptogon. Via: Guardian: The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned […]
Royal Canadian Mint to Create Digital Currency
April 12th, 2012It’ll be anonymous, will it? So people will be using smartphones, which amount to the most awesome goddamned deployment of mass surveillance technologies in history, to anonymously buy and sell things? Don’t look at me. I just work here. Via: TheStar: The Royal Canadian Mint wants to get rid of pocket change — and it’s […]
Oh Sure: ‘This Internet Provider Pledges to Put Your Privacy First. Always.’
April 12th, 2012Alternate headline: Supposedly Privacy Focused ISP Has Former NSA Technical Director on Advisory Board. Have a nice day. Via: Cnet: Step aside, AT&T and Verizon. A new privacy-protecting Internet service and telephone provider still in the planning stages could become the ACLU’s dream and the FBI’s worst nightmare. Nicholas Merrill is planning to revolutionize online […]
Obama Administration’s Backdoor Wiretap Bills
April 11th, 2012Via: Antifascist Calling: Under the guise of “cybersecurity,” the new all-purpose bogeyman to increase the secret state’s already-formidable reach, the Obama administration and their congressional allies are crafting legislation that will open new backdoors for even more intrusive government surveillance: portals into our lives that will never be shut.
A New Microchip Knows Just Where You Are, Indoors and Out
April 10th, 2012Via: MIT Technology Review: Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out. The unprecedented accuracy of the Broadcom 4752 chip results from the sheer breadth of sensors from which it can process information. It can receive […]
Britain: Proposed Law Would Require ISPs and Device Makers to Filter Internet by Default
April 6th, 2012Will VPNs be outlawed? *chortle* Via: PC Pro: A new bill presented to the House of Lords demands both ISPs and device makers filter adult content. The Online Safety Bill, raised in the Lords by Baroness Howe of Ildicote, asks for ISPs and mobile operators to “provide a service that excludes pornographic images” and for […]
