Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Snowballing DigiNotar Situation: Rogue SSL Certificates Were Also Issued for CIA, MI6, Mossad
September 5th, 2011SSLLOL. Via: HelpNetSecurity: The number of rogue SSL certificates issued by Dutch CA DigiNotar has balooned from one to a couple dozen to over 250 to 531 in just a few days. As Jacob Appelbaum of the Tor project shared the full list of the rogue certificates, it became clear that fraudulent certificates for domains […]
DARPA Researchers Rig Cyborg Beetles to Capture Energy That Powers Neuro Control Electronics
September 3rd, 2011The creature flaps its wings and generates power for the electronics that the remote operators use to control its flight. Sound familiar? Governments figured out this model long ago: Income tax, property tax, sales tax, fuel tax, fart tax, etc. They’ve got everyone coming and going, the system feeds on our activity through taxes and […]
Microsoft Sued Over Phone Tracking
September 2nd, 2011Via: Information Week: Microsoft on Wednesday was sued in a district court in Seattle for allegedly tracking Windows Phone users without consent. Plaintiff Rebecca Cousineau claims in the complaint that Microsoft is racing to develop a targeted location-based advertising system and has to map the locations of cell towers, wireless routers, mobile phones, and computers […]
Documents Reveal New Details About DHS Development of Mobile Body Scanners; Not Certified “People Scanners”
September 1st, 2011Too much radiation. No consent. Via: EPIC: EPIC has obtained more than one hundred fifty pages of documents detailing the Department of Homeland Security’s development of mobile body scanners and other crowd surveillance technology. The documents were obtained as a result of a Freedom Information Act lawsuit brought by EPIC against the federal agency. According […]
‘Smart’ CCTV Could Track Rioters
August 31st, 2011Yeah, in other words, ‘smart’ CCTV could track anyone. I’d be shocked if it turned out to be the case that this wasn’t already operational for the British equivalent of MAIN CORE, assuming there is one (which I do). Via: BBC: CCTV that can automatically monitor criminal behaviour and track suspects is being developed by […]
Obama DOJ: John Yoo Memos on Spying Must Stay Secret
August 31st, 2011Via: The Atlantic: What was Bush Administration lawyer John Yoo thinking when he wrote various legal memos declaring that the president has the power to spy on American citizens without getting a warrant or telling anyone about it? The Obama Administration isn’t telling: The Obama administration has refused to declassify a secret memo from the […]
Google Wants to Become an Identity Service
August 30th, 2011Oh sure. Via: Business Week: Ever since Google (GOOG) launched its new Google+ social network, we and others have pointed out that the search giant clearly has more in mind than just providing a nice place for people to share photos of their pets. For one thing, Google needs to tap into the “social signals” […]
Google Explores +1 Button to Influence Search Results
August 30th, 2011I’ll re-post my commentary on this from 2008: Google Planning to Enable Mob Rule Ratings for Search Results. Fill it to the rim, with grim: Get Ready for New and Improved Google Results: Now Powered by the Zombie Consumer Death Cult! I have to make jokes because this is very, very grim. If you want […]
Appeals Court to Weigh NSA Dragnet Surveillance
August 30th, 2011Via: Wired: Whether the federal government and the nation’s telecommunication companies can be held accountable for allegedly funneling every American’s electronic communication to the National Security Agency without warrants is the subject of oral arguments scheduled for a federal appeals court Wednesday. At issue is a Jan. 31, 2006 lawsuit, and others that followed, alleging […]
Scared Mexicans Turn to Bogus Tracking Chip Implants
August 29th, 2011Via: Washington Post: Of all the strange circumstances surrounding the violent abduction last year of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, the Mexican power broker and former presidential candidate known here as “Boss Diego,” perhaps nothing was weirder than the mysterious tracking chip that the kidnappers allegedly cut from his body. Lurid Mexican media accounts reported that […]
