Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Dozens More Mystery Drone Incursions Over U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Revealed
September 8th, 2020Via: Forbes: I recently described how a swarm of drones flew in a restricted area at Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant on two successive nights last September. A new cache of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) reveals how 24 nuclear sites suffered at least 57 drone incursions from 2015 to 2019 […]
U.S. Government Asks Mitre Corp to Build Creepy Surveillance Technologies
September 7th, 2020Via: Forbes: Among the government’s wilder Mitre orders: a prototype tool that can hack into smartwatches, fitness trackers and home thermometers for the purposes of homeland security; software to collect human fingerprints from social media websites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the FBI; support in building what the FBI calls the biggest database of […]
Florida: Pasco County Sheriff Terrorizes Citizens
September 3rd, 2020Via: Tampa Bay Times: Deputies gave the mother of one teenage target a $2,500 fine because she had five chickens in her backyard. They arrested another target’s father after peering through a window in his house and noticing a 17-year-old friend of his son smoking a cigarette inside. As they make checks, deputies feed information […]
Mass Surveillance Program Exposed by Snowden Was Illegal
September 3rd, 2020Via: Reuters: Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful – and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth. In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, […]
Police Across Canada Are Using Predictive Policing Algorithms
September 1st, 2020Via: Vice: Police across Canada are increasingly using controversial algorithms to predict where crimes could occur, who might go missing, and to help them determine where they should patrol, despite fundamental human rights concerns, a new report has found. To Surveil and Predict: A Human Rights Analysis of Algorithmic Policing in Canada is the result […]
California: Tell Your Senators That Ill-Conceived “Immunity Passports” Won’t Help Us
August 26th, 2020The crazy is coming very fast now. Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation: Californians should not be forced to present their smartphones to enter public places. But that’s exactly what A.B. 2004 would do, by directing the state to set up a blockchain-based system for “immunity passports”: a verified health credential that shows the results of someone’s […]
Researchers Can Duplicate Keys from the Sounds They Make in Locks
August 19th, 2020Via: kottke: Researchers have demonstrated that they can make a working 3D-printed copy of a key just by listening to how the key sounds when inserted into a lock. And you don’t need a fancy mic — a smartphone or smart doorbell will do nicely if you can get it close enough to the lock.
Michigan College Requires Students to Stay Within 5 Miles of Campus or Face Suspension, Tracks Them by App
August 18th, 2020Crazier by the day. Via: Newsweek: Michigan’s Albion College is attempting to create a “COVID bubble” on its campus as students return for the fall semester. Students are being required to download a smartphone app that tracks their location and ongoing health data to help contain the spread of the virus on campus, according to […]
This Smartphone Has Physical Kill Switches for Its Cameras, Microphone, Data, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi
August 17th, 2020Via: Android Police: Once you open up the PinePhone, you get access to six induvidual dip switches that control the modem, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microphone, rear camera, front camera, and even the headphone jack.
Security Leak Reveals Chinese Government Surveillance of More Ethnic Minorities
August 17th, 2020Via: Sky News Australia:
