Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Visa’s Secret Data Center
March 26th, 2012Via: USA Today: Prisons are easier to enter than Visa’s top-secret Operations Center East, its biggest, newest and most advanced U.S. data center. The 8-acre facility looks like any other industrial park in a sleepy suburb. But the serene setting masks hundreds of cameras and a crack team of former military personnel. Hydraulic bollards beneath […]
Holy Rollers
March 25th, 2012I backed Holy Rollers on Kickstarter, and I just got to download and watch the film. You guys might be wondering why I would support a film about Christians, but the fact is that I’m just interested in stories about people who attempt to find cracks in The Matrix, whether they believe in a vengeful […]
Hitachi Surveillance System Can Recognize a Face From 36 Million Others in One Second
March 24th, 2012Via: Mashable: Face-recognition technology is rapidly evolving as evidenced by this new surveillance camera system. It can not only recognize specific faces, but is able to compare a single face to 36 million others in just one second. The system, made by Hitachi Kokusai Electric and reported by DigInfo TV, was shown at a security […]
Intelligence Community Can Keep Data On Americans With No Ties To Terrorism For Up To 5 Years
March 23rd, 2012Via: AP: The U.S. intelligence community will now be able to store information about Americans with no ties to terrorism for up to five years under new Obama administration guidelines. Until now, the National Counterterrorism Center had to immediately destroy information about Americans that was already stored in other government databases when there were no […]
Google Gets Patent for Using Background Noise, Other Environmental Conditions, to Target Ads
March 23rd, 2012Via: PC World: Google, on Tuesday, was awarded a patent for “advertising based on environmental conditions.” In other words, Google has patented the technique of using environmental factors gathered through a device’s sensors to target ads at users. “When determining what ads to serve to end users, the environmental factors can be used independently or […]
And Now… ‘Sarkozy: Jail Those Who Browse Terror Websites’
March 23rd, 2012Via: AP: France’s president proposed a sweeping new law Thursday that would jail those who visit extremist web sites — one of several tough new measures floated in the wake of a murderous shooting spree. The proposed rules, unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy after the death of an Islamist fanatic wanted for a horrifying series of […]
Australia: Greens Attempt to Access Government’s Secret Discussions On Internet Piracy
March 22nd, 2012Via: Delimiter: The Australian Greens have filed a motion in the Senate requesting that the Government release documents regarding its closed door meetings on Internet piracy which the Attorney-General’s Department has blocked from being released under Freedom of Information laws. On 8 February this year, major Australian ISPs sat down with the representatives of the […]
New Samsung TVs Have Built-In HD Camera, Microphones, Face and Speech Recognition
March 22nd, 2012Here’s a bit of context that most people won’t consider when purchasing these quasi telescreens: Avi Rubin – All Your Devices Can Be Hacked: — CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher: More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to […]
MIT: A Camera that Peers Around Corners
March 21st, 2012Via: MIT: A new imaging system could use opaque walls, doors or floors as ‘mirrors’ to gather information about scenes outside its line of sight. In December, MIT Media Lab researchers caused a stir by releasing a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a plastic bottle. But the experimental setup […]
The One About Jim Rawles and the FBI Cookie Caper
March 20th, 2012Several people have submitted this one, and, as usual when non technical people offer technical advice on their blogs, I hold my head in my hands and ask, “When is this going to stop?” Rawles saying that using a VPN, “Will allow you to surf the Internet anonymously,” is VERY reckless. He goes on to […]
