The Guardian: ‘Every message was copied to the police’: the inside story of the most daring surveillance sting in history . “Billed as the most secure phone on the planet, An0m became a viral sensation in the underworld. There was just one problem for anyone using it for criminal means: it was run by the police.”
The Conversation (Australia): Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws. “A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security.”
The Guardian: Revealed: LAPD officers told to collect social media data on every civilian they stop . “Copies of the ‘field interview cards’ that police complete when they question civilians reveal that LAPD officers are instructed to record a civilian’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media accounts, alongside basic biographical information. An internal memo further shows that the police chief, Michel Moore, told employees that it was critical to collect the data for use in ‘investigations, arrests, and prosecutions’”, and warned that supervisors would review cards to ensure they were complete. The documents, which were obtained by the not-for-profit organization the Brennan Center for Justice, have raised concerns about civil liberties and the potential for mass surveillance of civilians without justification.”
Dallas Morning News: Texas schools are surveilling students online, often without their knowledge or consent. “Texas schools are rapidly scaling up the use of technology that monitors email, web history and social media posts of potentially millions of students, often without their knowledge or consent, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. Legal and privacy experts have long raised concerns about this technology and questioned its effectiveness in detecting potential threats. Despite those worries, Texas’ schools have spent millions of tax dollars on these services since 2015.”
ProPublica: How Facebook Undermines Privacy Protections for Its 2 Billion WhatsApp Users. “WhatsApp assures users that no one can see their messages — but the company has an extensive monitoring operation and regularly shares personal information with prosecutors.”
FTC: FTC Bans SpyFone and CEO from Surveillance Business and Orders Company to Delete All Secretly Stolen Data. “Today, the Federal Trade Commission banned SpyFone and its CEO Scott Zuckerman from the surveillance business over allegations that the stalkerware app company secretly harvested and shared data on people’s physical movements, phone use, and online activities through a hidden device hack. The company’s apps sold real-time access to their secret surveillance, allowing stalkers and domestic abusers to stealthily track the potential targets of their violence.”
Mashable: Apple delays controversial plan to check iPhones for child exploitation images. “Apple said Friday that it is delaying the previously announced system that would scan iPhone users’ photos for digital fingerprints that indicated the presence of known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The change is in response to criticism from privacy advocates and public outcry against the idea.”
9to5Mac: Apple already scans iCloud Mail for CSAM, but not iCloud Photos. “Apple has confirmed to me that it already scans iCloud Mail for CSAM, and has been doing so since 2019. It has not, however, been scanning iCloud Photos or iCloud backups. The clarification followed me querying a rather odd statement by the company’s anti-fraud chief: that Apple was ‘the greatest platform for distributing child porn.’”
Wired: Millions of Web Camera and Baby Monitor Feeds Are Exposed. “A VULNERABILITY IS lurking in numerous types of smart devices—including security cameras, DVRs, and even baby monitors—that could allow an attacker to access live video and audio streams over the internet and even take full control of the gadgets remotely. What’s worse, it’s not limited to a single manufacturer; it shows up in a software development kit that permeates more than 83 million devices, and over a billion connections to the internet each month.”
Ars Technica: Apple photo-scanning plan faces global backlash from 90 rights groups. “More than 90 policy groups from the US and around the world signed an open letter urging Apple to drop its plan to have Apple devices scan photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM).”
The Guardian: Gun licence applicants in UK face social media checks after Plymouth attack. “Applicants for permission to own a firearm or shotgun will be subject to social media checks after the Plymouth mass shooting, ministers have said. Questions have been asked about how the Keyham gunman Jake Davison, 22, obtained a firearms licence and carried out his attack, in which he killed five people before turning the gun on himself.”
Engadget: Homeland Security may use companies to find extremism on social media. “The Department of Homeland Security might not rely solely on in-house systems to spot extremist threats on social media. Intelligence officer and initiative leader John Cohen told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that Homeland Security is looking at hiring companies to analyze social networks for signs of impending terrorism and other extremist violence. The department had been studying social media before, but the outside partners would help “dramatically” expand these efforts, Cohen said.”
Reuters: After Criticism, Apple to Only Seek Abuse Images Flagged in Multiple Nations. “After a week of criticism over a its planned new system for detecting images of child sex abuse, Apple Inc said on Friday that it will hunt only for pictures that have been flagged by clearinghouses in multiple countries.”
EFF: It’s Time for Google to Resist Geofence Warrants and to Stand Up for Its Affected Users. “Authorities send Google geofence warrants precisely because Google’s devices, operating system, apps, and other products allow it to collect data from millions of users and to catalog these users’ locations, movements, associations, and other private details of their lives. Although Google has sometimes pushed back in court on the breadth of some of these warrants, it has largely acquiesced to law enforcement demands—and the number of geofence warrants law enforcement sends to the company has dramatically increased in recent years. This stands in contrast to documented instances of other companies resisting law enforcement requests for user data on Fourth Amendment grounds.”
Washington Post: China’s mental health system has long been inadequate. Can AI change that?. “Before dying by suicide in 2012, a student from Nanjing in eastern China made a final post on Weibo saying goodbye. It quickly became an online gathering place for the depressed, garnering millions of responses. Users called it a ‘shudong,’ or ‘tree hole,’ for things they couldn’t say out loud. And nine years on, it still draws new comments every day. Each of these comments is a data point for the Tree Hole Rescue Project, an organization that uses artificial intelligence to scan Weibo posts and identify users at risk of hurting themselves.”
