Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Software Can Identify You from Your Online Habits
May 23rd, 2007In a comment on The Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity, Cryptogon reader, cryingfreeman, wrote: I’ve long been aware that I could be identified from anywhere on the globe due to my surfing pattern. Taking a fictional example derived loosely from my own: 1. Each day, citizen X visits a site for a small German soccer […]
They’re Sensors in Them Thar Hills
May 22nd, 2007Heading for the hills? Planning on taking a rifle with you? With the system described below, and currently available armed/unmanned drone technology, a lethal and autonomous response to trespassers/intruders/enemy combatants/etc. is easily possible. Right now. Autonomous acquisition and engagement of human targets is old news. See Israel’s robotic gun turrets. Picking out individuals for termination […]
UK: Police Using Surveillance Drones Designed for Military
May 21st, 2007Via: thisislondon: The UK’s first police “spy drone” took to the skies today. The remote control helicopter, fitted with CCTV cameras, will be used by officers in Merseyside to track criminals and record anti-social behaviour. The drone is only a metre wide, weighs less than a bag of sugar, and can record images from a […]
British Police Chief on “Orwellian Situation”
May 20th, 2007Via: BBC: A senior police officer has said he fears the spread of CCTV cameras is leading to “an Orwellian situation”. Deputy chief constable of Hampshire Ian Readhead said Britain could become a surveillance society with cameras on every street corner. He told the BBC’s Politics Show that CCTV was being used in small towns […]
In Ashcroft’s Darkened Hospital Room…
May 17th, 2007Like they’ve never soared before! Via: NPR: One senator called it some of the most dramatic testimony he’s heard in 25 years as a legislator. Comey was the only witness at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where for the first time, he publicly told the story of a dramatic confrontation at a hospital bedside between […]
National ID: Biometrics Pinned to Social Security Cards
May 15th, 2007Via: Wired: The Social Security card faces its first major upgrade in 70 years under two immigration-reform proposals slated for debate this week that would add biometric information to the card and finally complete its slow metamorphosis into a national ID. The leading immigration proposal with traction in Congress would force employers to accept only […]
Reminder: Monday Is Wiretap the Internet Day
May 13th, 2007In The Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity, I wrote that, “I made irrationally negative assumptions,” about how pervasive the network surveillance was. As it turns out, my threat assessment was just about right. Via: Wired: May 14th is the official deadline for cable modem companies, DSL providers, broadband over powerline, satellite internet companies and some […]
UK: Spy Plane Searches for Energy Wasters
May 10th, 2007People are cracking up. Via: Muswell Hill Journal: EVERY home in the borough has been photographed from a “spy plane” – to help Haringey Council wage a war against householders wasting energy. The council has compiled a “heat map” which can identify how much energy is escaping from each property. … The colour coded map […]
Verizon Says Phone Record Disclosure is Protected Free Speech
May 8th, 2007Via: Arstechnica: Verizon is one of the phone companies currently being sued over its alleged disclosure of customer phone records to the NSA. In a response to the court last week, the company asked for the entire consolidated case against it to be thrown out—on free speech grounds. The response also alleges that the case […]
Bush Wants Phone Companies Immune to Privacy Suits
May 5th, 2007Via: Washington Post: The Bush administration is urging Congress to pass a law that would halt dozens of lawsuits charging phone companies with invading ordinary citizens’ privacy through a post-Sept. 11 warrantless surveillance program. The measure is part of a legislative package drafted by the Justice Department to relax provisions in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence […]
