Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
German Court Rules Facebook Use of Personal Data Illegal
February 12th, 2018Via: Reuters: A German consumer rights group said on Monday that a court had found Facebook’s use of personal data to be illegal because the U.S. social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users. The verdict, from a Berlin regional court, comes as Big Tech faces increasing scrutiny in Germany […]
Satire: FBI Warns Republican Memo Could Undermine Faith In Massive, Unaccountable Government Secret Agencies
February 6th, 2018Via: The Onion: “If we take away the people’s faith in this shadowy monolith exempt from any consequences, all that’s left is an extensive network of rogue, unelected intelligence officers carrying out extrajudicial missions for a variety of subjective, and occasionally personal, reasons.” At press time, Wray confirmed the massive, unaccountable government secret agencies were […]
U.S. Government Owned 5G Network?
January 29th, 2018Update: Trump Team Idea to Nationalize 5G Network to Counter China Is Rejected — Via: Reuters: President Donald Trump’s national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on U.S. phone calls that include the government building a super-fast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official said on Sunday. The […]
Artificial Intelligence Is Going to Supercharge Surveillance
January 29th, 2018Via: The Verge: Artificial intelligence is giving surveillance cameras digital brains to match their eyes, letting them analyze live video with no humans necessary. This could be good news for public safety, helping police and first responders more easily spot crimes and accidents and have a range of scientific and industrial applications. But it also […]
ICE Is About to Start Tracking License Plates Across the U.S.
January 27th, 2018Via: The Verge: The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians. […]
When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”
January 23rd, 2018Via: The Intercept: These and other classified documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reveal that the NSA has developed technology not just to record and transcribe private conversations but to automatically identify the speakers. Americans most regularly encounter this technology, known as speaker recognition, or speaker identification, when they wake up Amazon’s Alexa […]
Trump Signs Bill Renewing NSA’s Internet Surveillance Program
January 19th, 2018Via: Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he signed into law a bill renewing the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program, sealing a defeat for digital privacy advocates.
Does the SR-72 Already Exist?
January 16th, 2018A missing trillion here, a missing trillion there… Via: Bloomberg: For years, Lockheed Martin Corp. has been developing a successor to one of the fastest aircraft the world has ever seen, the SR-71 Blackbird, the Cold War reconnaissance craft that the U.S. Air Force retired almost three decades ago. Lockheed officials have said the hypersonic […]
Democrats Just Handed Trump More Domestic Surveillance Powers
January 13th, 2018Mmm hmm. Via: NBC: Democrats have been all over the airwaves recently accusing Donald Trump of abusing the Justice Department to go after his political enemies —most notably his former opponent Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, which the Department of Justice is reportedly currently investigating based on allegation made during the 2016 presidential campaign. […]
GM Drops the Steering Wheel and Gives Robot Driver Control
January 12th, 2018Via: Bloomberg: Next year, General Motors Co. will no longer need an engineer in the front seat babysitting the robot brain that controls its self-driving Chevrolet Bolt. The steering wheel and pedals will be gone, giving total control to the machine. When GM starts testing its autonomous electric sedan in San Francisco ride-sharing fleets, it’ll […]
