Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Astronomers Concerned About Starlink Light Pollution
May 27th, 2019Well, it’s not just me. Via: Forbes: SpaceX had kept the logistics of each satellite under wraps prior to the launch, but following the launch it was revealed that each satellite had a relatively large solar panel, perfect for not only gathering but reflecting sunlight back to Earth. This means anyone looking up at the […]
Starlink: Say Goodbye to the Night Sky As You Knew It
May 25th, 2019My children and I like to look at the stars on most clear nights. There is no ambient light pollution where we are so the views are breathtaking. I’ll have to tell them to try to remember the sky as it is now, because it will soon be crisscrossed by thousands of satellites. Ironically, we’ve […]
U.S. Military to Trawl Through 350 Billion Social Media Messages
May 25th, 2019“Individual users won’t be identified in the research, according to the Navy.” Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. military plans to analyze 350 billion social-media posts from around the world to help it track how popular movements evolve. A tender for the project, based at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, calls for screening messages from […]
Robots Conduct Daily Health Inspections of Schoolchildren in China
May 23rd, 2019Wow! Via: New Scientist: Please stand in front of Walklake for your examination. This health checking robot takes just 3 seconds to diagnose a variety of ailments in children, including conjunctivitis, and hand, foot and mouth disease. Over 2000 preschools in China, with children aged between 2 and 6, are using Walklake every morning to […]
Amazon Is Working on a Device That Can Read Human Emotions
May 23rd, 2019This strikes an interesting balance. It’s right on the line between cringe inducing and hilarious. Via: Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotions. The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg. It’s a collaboration between Lab126, the hardware development […]
Chicago and Detroit Have Bought Real-Time Facial Recognition Systems
May 19th, 2019Via: Wired: Civil liberties activists trying to inspire alarm about the authoritarian potential of facial recognition technology often point to China, where some police departments use systems that can spot suspects who show their faces in public. A report from Georgetown researchers on Thursday suggests Americans should also focus their concern closer to home. The […]
Britain: Police Fine Pedestrian £90 for Disorderly Behaviour After Hiding His Face from Facial Recognition Camera
May 16th, 2019Via: Daily Mail: Police fined a pedestrian £90 for disorderly behaviour after he tried to cover his face when he saw a controversial facial recognition camera on a street in London. Officers set up the camera on a van in Romford, East London, which then cross-checked photos of faces of passers-by against a database of […]
Man Makes Videos Critical of New Zealand Government, Gets Visits by Armed Police
May 15th, 2019Here are the videos that attracted the attention of the police. This is a Facebook post with the video of one of the police visits. In case you don’t use Facebook, someone mirrored the video on YouTube: Via: Cross the Rubicon:
Monsanto ‘Compiled Dossier’ on Political Opponents
May 13th, 2019Via: BBC: French officials are investigating after revelations that agro-chemicals firm Monsanto compiled a potentially illegal file on critics on chemicals and genetically modified crops. The document was made by a PR agency working for Monsanto, which makes the controversial weed killer glyphosate. Marketed as Roundup by Monsanto, the weed killer has come under fire […]
All Four Major Wireless Carriers Hit With Lawsuits Over Sharing, Selling Location Data
May 13th, 2019Via: TechDirt: We’ve noted repeatedly that if you’re upset about Facebook’s privacy scandals, you should be equally concerned about the wireless industry’s ongoing location data scandals. Not only were the major carriers caught selling your location data to any nitwit with a checkbook, they were even found to be selling your E-911 location data, which […]
