Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Chinese-Style ‘Digital Authoritarianism’ Grows Globally
November 2nd, 2018Via: AFP: Governments worldwide are stepping up use of online tools, in many cases inspired by China’s model, to suppress dissent and tighten their grip on power, a human rights watchdog study found Thursday. The annual Freedom House study of 65 countries found global internet freedom declined for the eighth consecutive year in 2018, amid […]
U.S. Intel Budget Soars Under Trump
October 31st, 2018Draining the swamp? Via: AFP: US spending on intelligence has soared under President Donald Trump, figures released on Tuesday showed, as the government stepped up cyber warfare activities and boosted spying on North Korea, China and Russia. Spending on civilian and military intelligence jumped by 11.6 percent to $81.5 billion in fiscal 2018, which ended […]
More Robots to Hit the Aisles at Schnucks Grocery Stores in St. Louis Area
October 30th, 2018Via: St. Louis Post Dispatch: In at least 15 Schnuck Markets stores, the future is now. Aisle-scanning retail inventory robots, known as Tally, will soon be wheeling around in a growing number of locations as the St. Louis area’s leading grocer expands its partnership with San Francisco firm Simbe Robotics. The robot, which moves around […]
TSA Announces “Biometrics Vision for All Commercial Aviation Travelers”
October 27th, 2018Via: Papers, Please: Today the US Transportation Security Administration released a detailed TSA Biometric Roadmap for Aviation Security & the Passenger Experience, making explicit the goal of requiring mug shots (to be used for automated facial recognition and image-based surveillance and control) as a condition of all domestic or international air travel. … It’s a […]
NSA Has Top Secret Documents on Seth Rich
October 26th, 2018I contacted @Ty_Clevenger to confirm that he made a FOIA request to NSA, as described in the piece below. He did: Via: Sic Semper Tyrannis: But now there is new information that may corroborate what the human sources quoted in the Fox article claimed about Seth’s role in getting the DNC documents to Wikileaks. Borne […]
Google’s Smart City Dream Is Turning Into a Privacy Nightmare
October 26th, 2018Via: Engadget: Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet division focused on smart cities, is caught in a battle over information privacy. The team has lost its lead expert and consultant, Ann Cavoukian, over a proposed data trust that would approve and manage the collection of information inside Quayside, a conceptual smart neighborhood in Toronto. Cavoukian, the former […]
Smart Home Surveillance: Governments Tell Google’s Nest To Hand Over Data 300 Times
October 15th, 2018Shocker. Via: Forbes: Anyone pumped for this week’s launch of Google’s Home Hub might want to temper their excitement. A smart home is a surveilled home. That’s been the concern of privacy activists since citizens started lighting up their abodes with so-called “smart” tech in recent years. Take Google’s current smart home division, Nest Labs. […]
How An Amateur Rap Crew Stole Surveillance Tech That Tracks Almost Every American
October 12th, 2018Via: Forbes: Today TransUnion says TLO is capable of “processing trillions of records at sub-second speeds.” It can quickly uncover relevant data like individuals’ family members and social media profiles. One of the most important features for law enforcement combines photos from surveillance cameras with a huge trove of license plate numbers to nearly instantly […]
Richard Dolan on the Digital Strip Search – New Zealand
October 12th, 2018Via: Richard Dolan:
China’s Dystopian Social Credit System
October 8th, 2018Interesting take. In short, everything is so F-ed up in China, the implementation of the social credit system will be no different. The good news is that it might never work, or, if it does work in some capacity, it will quickly break down, like everything else in China. To me, the most horrifying aspect […]
