Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
U.S. Prosecutors Pull Encrypted Messages from Phones Seized in Cohen Raids
June 15th, 2018With regard to any application that claims to provide privacy: “The simple fact is that the platforms on which it runs are compromised from the operating systems down to the silicon.” I’m not saying to not encrypt. Encryption can prevent your data from falling into the hands of thieves, Google and maybe the local police. […]
Microsoft Takes Aim at Amazon with Push for Checkout-Free Retail
June 14th, 2018Via: Reuters: Microsoft Corp is working on technology that would eliminate cashiers and checkout lines from stores, in a nascent challenge to Amazon.com Inc’s automated grocery shop, six people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is developing systems that track what shoppers add to their carts, the people say. Microsoft […]
AT&T Buys Time Warner for $85 Billion
June 12th, 2018Insane, anticompetitive, Soviet-style vertical integration. So it goes… Via: Los Angeles Times: In the aftermath of a federal judge’s approval Tuesday of the mega-merger between AT&T and Time Warner, you’ll be reading about how this deal will vastly remake the entertainment and information landscape, most likely at consumers’ expense. That take is absolutely true. What’s […]
U.S. Intelligence Exploring Polymers for Future of Data Storage
June 12th, 2018Via: Nextgov: The U.S. intelligence community wants to unlock more efficient ways to store the trove of data humans generate every day, and it believes our DNA holds the key. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity last month issued a broad agency announcement seeking research teams for the agency’s Molecular Information Storage program, which aims […]
Homeland Security’s Massive New Database Will Include Face Recognition, DNA, and Peoples’ “Non-Obvious Relationships”
June 10th, 2018Via: EFF: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly building what will likely become the largest database of biometric and biographic data on citizens and foreigners in the United States. The agency’s new Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) database will include multiple forms of biometrics—from face recognition to DNA, data from questionable sources, […]
Homeland Security to Compile Database of Journalists, Bloggers
June 5th, 2018Via: Bloomberg Government: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.” It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and […]
Footsteps, Pressure Sensors, and AI: The Next Step in Airport Security
May 31st, 2018Via: EETimes: The University of Manchester’s school of electrical and electronic engineering, in collaboration with the University of Madrid, has developed a behavioral biometric verification system that can measure a human’s individual gait or walking pattern, enabling successful identification of a person simply as they walk on a pressure pad in the floor and analyzing […]
California: Digital License Plates Track Vehicles
May 28th, 2018Via: Sacramento Bee: California’s dramatic new license plate is hitting the streets — a digital display board that allows changeable messages controlled by the driver or remotely by fleet managers. The new plates use the same computer technology as Kindle eBook readers, along with a wireless communication system. They come with their own computer chips […]
Woman Says Her Amazon Device Recorded Private Conversation, Sent It Out to Random Contact
May 24th, 2018I can’t believe people pay to have these things in their homes. Via: KIRO 7: A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon’s Alexa — the voice-controlled smart speaker — and that the recorded audio was sent to the phone of a random […]
Pentagon Worked with “Private-Sector Organizations” on Plan to Verify Identity with Mobile Phones
May 23rd, 2018Via: Nextgov: The Defense Department is funding a project that officials say could revolutionize the way companies, federal agencies and the military itself verify that people are who they say they are and it could be available in most commercial smartphones within two years. The technology, which will be embedded in smartphones’ hardware, will analyze […]
