Slate: Is Hong Kong the Battleground for a New Cyber Cold War?. ” In Hong Kong, where Beijing’s political sovereignty does not come with direct control over the internet or local police, Beijing is reluctant to active the most draconian option: deployment of the People’s Liberation Army to keep order in Hong Kong’s streets. While this could be done lawfully, it would be catastrophic—for global investor confidence, the regime’s credibility, and the assets of party elites and state-backed firms that rely on Hong Kong’s financial institutions. Instead, Beijing is exploring other options.”
digital surveillance
Ars Technica: Activists’ phones targeted by one of the world’s most advanced spyware apps
Ars Technica: Activists’ phones targeted by one of the world’s most advanced spyware apps. “Mobile phones of two prominent human rights activists were repeatedly targeted with Pegasus, the highly advanced spyware made by Israel-based NSO, researchers from Amnesty International reported this week.”
ZDNet: Brazilian government to create single citizen database
ZDNet: Brazilian government to create single citizen database. “The Brazilian government will create a single citizen database that will contain a wide range of personal information about the country’s population of over 200 million people, to be fully shared across departments.”
Washington Post: Chinese app on Xi’s ideology allows data access to 100 million users’ phones, report says
Washington Post: Chinese app on Xi’s ideology allows data access to 100 million users’ phones, report says. “The Chinese Communist Party appears to have ‘superuser’ access to all the data on more than 100 million cellphones, owing to a back door in a propaganda app that the government has been promoting aggressively this year.”
CNBC: Florida is scooping up huge amounts of data on schoolchildren, including security camera footage and discipline records, and researchers are worried
CNBC: Florida is scooping up huge amounts of data on schoolchildren, including security camera footage and discipline records, and researchers are worried. “Researchers from the Aspen Institute are raising concerns about a Florida initiative meant to collect and collate huge amounts of data on schoolchildren in the state, according to a report released Thursday. Florida schools are now required to collect, store and crunch data on students in the name of predicting school shootings.”
Secret Court: FBI Warrantless Searches Were Illegal (The Daily Beast)
The Daily Beast: Secret Court: FBI Warrantless Searches Were Illegal. “Some of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s warrantless searches through the National Security Agency’s enormous troves of communications data violated the law and the Constitution, according to secret surveillance court rulings partially declassified on Tuesday.”
Ars Technica: Senator proposes mandatory labeling for products with mics, cameras
Ars Technica: Senator proposes mandatory labeling for products with mics, cameras. “Much in the same way that food labels are now required to disclose the potential presence of allergens such as peanuts, one Senator is proposing a law that would require tech companies to include a label on products disclosing the presence of recording devices.”
