Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
Google’s Earth: How the Tech Giant Is Helping the State Spy On Us
December 20th, 2018Via: Guardian: The purchase of Keyhole was a milestone for Google, marking the moment the company stopped being a purely consumer-facing internet company and began integrating with the US government. When Google bought Keyhole, it also acquired an In-Q-Tel executive named Rob Painter, who came with deep connections to the world of intelligence and military […]
Signal App to Australia: Good Luck with That Crypto Ban
December 17th, 2018Via: Ars Technica: Signal, one of the most secure messaging apps, essentially told Australia this week that its attempts to thwart strong crypto are rather cute. “By design, Signal does not have a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles, or group avatars,” Joshua […]
Affect Recognition: Face Scanning Combined with Insane Pseudoscience
December 14th, 2018You’ll love this one. Via: The Intercept: Facial recognition has quickly shifted from techno-novelty to fact of life for many, with millions around the world at least willing to put up with their faces scanned by software at the airport, their iPhones, or Facebook’s server farms. But researchers at New York University’s AI Now Institute […]
Amazon’s Disturbing Plan to Add Face Surveillance to Doorbell Cameras
December 14th, 2018Via: ACLU: Recently, a patent application from Amazon became public that would pair face surveillance — like Rekognition, the product that the company is aggressively marketing to police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — with Ring, a doorbell camera company that Amazon bought earlier this year. While the details are sketchy, the application describes a […]
Australia Passes Cyber Snooping Laws with Global Implications
December 6th, 2018Via: AFP: Australia Thursday passed controversial laws allowing spies and police to snoop on the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists and criminals, as experts warned the “unprecedented powers” had far-reaching implications for global cybersecurity. There has been extensive debate about the laws and their reach beyond Australia’s shores in what is seen as the latest […]
5G + AI
December 6th, 2018Via: EE Times: SAN FRANCISCO — Qualcomm launched a $100 million venture fund at an event here where the level of enthusiasm for machine learning ran high. China’s SenseTime alone talked about taking in $3 billion for its platform, and others gave examples of AI quadrupling productivity and saving lives. The combination of 5G and […]
Mastercard and Microsoft Have a Frightening Plan to Create Universal “Digital Identities”
December 4th, 2018Via: FastCompany: Sometimes a business inadvertently drops the pretense and just tells the world its real intentions. We saw this yesterday, when Amazon bragged about how it “allowed” an employee to lose 100 pounds by endlessly delivering boxes. Amazon saw this as a heartwarming tale about how great it is to work for the e-commerce […]
The US Military Is Genetically Engineering New Life Forms To Detect Enemy Subs
December 3rd, 2018Via: Defense One: How do you detect submarines in an expanse as large as the ocean? The U.S. military hopes that common marine microorganisms might be genetically engineered into living tripwires to signal the passage of enemy subs, underwater vessels, or even divers. It’s one of many potential military applications for so-called engineered organisms, a […]
Chinese Government Gets Real Time Location Tracking Data On Electric Vehicles
November 29th, 2018Via: East Bay Times: When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn’t know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government. Tesla is not alone. China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers in […]
Google Pays $1 Billion for Huge Mountain View Business Park
November 26th, 2018“All the better to see you with, my dear.” Via: The Mercury News: In a head-spinning mega-deal, Google has paid $1 billion for a huge Mountain View business park, the Bay Area’s largest real estate purchase this year. It is also the second-largest property purchase in the United States this year, eclipsed only by another […]
