Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Airport Body Scanners
October 11th, 2010Via: Lew Rockwell: I understand now why the scanners aren’t mandatory. There doesn’t seem to be a need for the authoritarians to officially force everyone through. Everyone around me went through of their own volition. Research Credit: Pookie
Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back
October 8th, 2010“Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car.” Via: Wired: A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether […]
One Program to Watch Them All: DARPA’s INSIGHT
October 4th, 2010Yet again, it’s the Information Awareness Office by another name. Via: Wired: No surprise that Darpa, the military’s blue-sky research arm, is the agency behind the lofty five-year program, called Insight. The agency’s goal is to replace “largely manual exploitation and…chat-based operator interactions” with a system that mines different inputs, including drone footage and on-the-ground […]
“Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car.”
October 4th, 2010Update: FBI Demands Return of the Device Via: Wired: A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was […]
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI): New Computers Will Boot in Seconds
October 4th, 2010I wonder what surveillance hell lurks inside this… Via: Daily Tech: Microsoft reportedly plans to unleash a new PC firmware interface called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) in 2011. Microsoft is rumored to be coming out with the successor to Windows 7 next year, dubbed “Windows.NEXT”. That successor may support the new interface. While UEFI […]
The U.S. Government has Deployed Mobile X-Ray Technology to Scan Cars and Trucks at Internal Checkpoints
October 1st, 2010Via: Christian Science Monitor: As an antiterror measure, the US government has deployed mobile X-ray technology to randomly scan cars and trucks. But the measure is riling privacy proponents. For many living in a terror-spooked country, it might seem like a great government innovation: Use vans equipped with mobile X-ray units to scan vehicles at […]
Researchers Find Phone Apps Sending Data Without Notification
September 30th, 2010Via: PhysOrg: Publicly available cell-phone applications from application markets are releasing consumers’ private information to online advertisers, according to a joint study by Intel Labs, Penn State, and Duke University. Flicking through a wallpaper app with backgrounds of Mickey Mouse and a tropical waterfall, Peter Gilbert gets a plain, black and white text notification on […]
Pre-Crime Magic 8 Ball Uses “Resentment” in Spoken and Written Information to Identify “The Terrorists”
September 29th, 2010I like Tony’s commentary on this over at Technofascism Blog. He offers a couple of quotes from 1984: “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, […]
U.S. Government Wants All Providers of Encrypted Internet Services to Implement Key Escrow
September 27th, 2010Wikipedia has an entry on key escrow, if you aren’t familiar with the concept. Via: New York Times: Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of […]
Army Reveals Afghan Biometric ID Plan; Millions Scanned, Carded by May
September 24th, 2010Via: Wired: Scanning prisoners’ irises is just Step 1. In Afghanistan, local and NATO forces are amassing biometric dossiers on hundreds of thousands of cops, crooks, soldiers, insurgents and ordinary citizens. And now, with NATO’s backing, the Kabul government is putting together a plan to issue biometrically backed identification cards to 1.65 million Afghans by […]
