Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Google Search is Truly Dead
May 20th, 2026This is not new. Google/Screwgle/Poogle is changing the appearance of the front end to a bot interface. This is from four years ago: Of course, people like me (and probably you), noticed that Google search went off the rails long before that. Via: TechLinked: — Via: Samtime:
“Utah Datacenter Could Dump 23 Atomic Bombs Worth of Energy Per Day” [???]
May 20th, 2026Via: The Register: A proposed mega-scale datacenter in the US state of Utah has caused controversy after a physics professor estimated that the facility and its associated power generation could dump 23 atomic bombs’ worth of energy per day. But the real question is whether it will actually ever get built. The datacenter is part […]
FBI Seeks US-Wide Access to License Plate Cameras, Wants “Data in Near Real Time”
May 20th, 2026Via: Ars Technica: The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced plans to buy nationwide access to a network of license plate readers, saying it will award contracts to one or more vendors that can offer “near real time” information from cameras across the US. The proposed contract is for the FBI Directorate of Intelligence. “To evaluate […]
“Removing the Modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 Hybrid”
May 14th, 2026Via: Arkadiy Tetelman: Modern cars are computers on wheels – they have more sensors than you can count and are constantly phoning home with telemetry data like your location, speed, fuel levels, sudden accelerations/decelerations, video footage, driver attention data from eye monitoring systems, and hundreds of other data points. Cars have inward- and outward-facing cameras. […]
Google Chrome Downloading 4GB AI Model to Your Device Without Asking, Re-Downloads When You Delete It
May 5th, 2026Firefox has a single kill switch for all AI features. Go to Settings – AI Controls – Toggle on, “Block AI enhancements.” Via: Techspot: Google started turning Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, into an AI browser last year in response to threats from popular AI-native rivals such as OpenAI. Recent reports have uncovered […]
The Car That Watches You Back
May 5th, 2026Via: Nobody Asked For This: This is a story about how a machine most people still think of as property became something else: a platform with monetized inventory and a data feed pointed back at the manufacturer. It is also about the sequence of technical decisions that made that transformation possible. The story starts, depending […]
Lufthansa Cuts 20,000 Summer Flights as Fuel Prices Surge
April 22nd, 2026Via: BBC: German airline Lufthansa will cut 20,000 European short-haul flights over the summer, saying soaring fuel prices have made many journeys “unprofitable” for the firm. Jet fuel has doubled in price since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran as the conflict has slowed its production and transportation across the Middle East. Several […]
Meta to Start Capturing Employee Mouse Movements, Keystrokes for AI Training Data
April 22nd, 2026In other news, Meta Tells Staff It Will Cut 10% of Jobs in Push for Efficiency. Via: Reuters: Meta is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes for use in training its artificial intelligence models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform […]
TPM – The Microsoft Choke Point – Age Verification and Identity Control
April 8th, 2026Most people don’t know (or care) about any of this. Most will comply with everything asked of them without concern or complaint. Financial services and government issued IDs will be how this comes down for people who are trying to resist. It will simply become impossible to exist without compliance with these systems. I can […]
CIA “Ghost Murmur”
April 8th, 2026The alleged story about the rescue of a U.S. F-15 weapon system officer makes no sense at all. So, for whatever it’s worth… Via: New York Post: The CIA used a futuristic new tool called “Ghost Murmur” to find and rescue the second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran, The Post has […]
