September 4, 2021

FTC: FTC Bans SpyFone and CEO from Surveillance Business and Orders Company to Delete All Secretly Stolen Data

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.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
March 2, 2021

Washington Post: Home-security cameras have become a fruitful resource for law enforcement — and a fatal risk

Washington Post: Home-security cameras have become a fruitful resource for law enforcement — and a fatal risk. “Police forces across the U.S. made more than 20,000 requests last year for footage captured by Ring’s ‘video doorbells’ and other home-security cameras, underscoring how the rapid growth of inexpensive home surveillance technology has given American law enforcement an unprecedented ability to monitor neighborhood life.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
August 25, 2020

CNET: License plate tracking for police set to go nationwide

CNET: License plate tracking for police set to go nationwide. “Police often rely on automatic license plate readers to track the movement of cars in their jurisdiction. A surveillance company’s new initiative looks to expand those capabilities nationwide. On Tuesday, Flock Safety, which makes a license plate reader, announced the ‘Total Analytics Law Officers Network,’ or TALON. The network looks to connect the 400 law enforcement agencies using its cameras, allowing agencies that opt in to view camera data from other regions.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
July 12, 2020

TechCrunch: CBP says it’s ‘unrealistic’ for Americans to avoid its license plate surveillance

TechCrunch: CBP says it’s ‘unrealistic’ for Americans to avoid its license plate surveillance. “U.S. Customs and Border Protection has admitted that there is no practical way for Americans to avoid having their movements tracked by its license plate readers, according to its latest privacy assessment. CBP published its new assessment — three years after its first — to notify the public that it plans to tap into a commercial database, which aggregates license plate data from both private and public sources, as part of its border enforcement efforts.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
January 30, 2020

Techdirt: Puerto Rico’s Justice Department Demanded Info From Facebook About Journalists Who Livestreamed Protests

Techdirt: Puerto Rico’s Justice Department Demanded Info From Facebook About Journalists Who Livestreamed Protests. “While the DOJ and FBI have dealt with some limited repercussions due to their targeting of First Amendment activities (which includes targeting Muslims because they’re Muslims), it really hasn’t promised to stop doing this. Nor has it been told to stop doing this. Instead, the DOJ has simply made it slightly more difficult for investigators to violate people’s rights. The Intercept has done some investigating of its own and discovered the FBI actively engaged in First Amendment violations for years during its partnership with Puerto Rican law enforcement agencies.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 18, 2019

MIT Technology Review: Most Americans think they’re being constantly tracked—and that there’s nothing they can do

MIT Technology Review: Most Americans think they’re being constantly tracked—and that there’s nothing they can do. “It’s not just that Americans (correctly) think companies are collecting their data. They don’t like it. About 69% of Americans are skeptical that companies will use their private information in a way they’re comfortable with, while 79% don’t believe that companies will come clean if they misuse the information.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 18, 2019

New York Times: A Paranoid Guide to Fighting the ‘Bugging Epidemic’

New York Times: A Paranoid Guide to Fighting the ‘Bugging Epidemic’. “Tiny cameras have been found in places where they shouldn’t be, like Airbnb rentals, public bathrooms and gym locker rooms. So often, in fact, that security experts warn that we are in the throes of a ‘bugging epidemic.’ It is not paranoid to take precautions. A lot of spy gear is detectable if you know what to look for, said Charles Patterson, president of Exec Security, a firm in Tarrytown, N.Y., that specializes in corporate counterespionage.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 3, 2019

Brookings: 10 actions that will protect people from facial recognition software

Brookings: 10 actions that will protect people from facial recognition software. “Facial recognition (FR) software inspires intense reactions from many people. On the one hand, a number of individuals worry that FR will usher in an Orwellian nightmare of mass surveillance and privacy intrusions. They see FR combined with ubiquitous video cameras, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics as a formula for harming humanity and restricting individual freedom…. In this paper, I propose 10 actions that will protect people from the greatest risks associated with FR software; these include limiting data storage and sharing, mandating accuracy standards, instituting third-party assessments, and more.”

Research & Opinion 0
November 1, 2019

MSN News: Citing ‘unprecedented’ surveillance, ACLU sues federal agencies over facial-recognition scans

MSN News: Citing ‘unprecedented’ surveillance, ACLU sues federal agencies over facial-recognition scans . “The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday sued the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the FBI for records detailing their use of facial-recognition software, arguing the agencies have secretly implemented a nationwide surveillance technology that threatens Americans’ privacy and civil rights.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
August 17, 2019

CNET: Trump administration reportedly wants to extend NSA phone surveillance program

CNET: Trump administration reportedly wants to extend NSA phone surveillance program. “The Trump administration has reportedly asked Congress to permanently reauthorize all provisions of the USA Freedom Act, including a controversial National Security Agency program that collects and analyzes records on millions of Americans’ calls and texts in an attempt to thwart terrorists.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
August 7, 2019

Ars Technica: Police can get your Ring doorbell footage without a warrant, report says

Ars Technica: Police can get your Ring doorbell footage without a warrant, report says. “Hundreds of police departments around the country have partnerships with Amazon’s home surveillance brand Ring. The relationship benefits both sides: the company provides tech and software to law enforcement, and the cops both provide data to Amazon and also help sell the product to local homeowners. That alone raises troubling issues, but according to a pair of new reports, Ring also gets access to real-time 911 data, and the company helps police work around a need for search warrants when looking for footage.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
July 18, 2019

EurekAlert: Emotion-detection applications built on outdated science, report warns

EurekAlert: Emotion-detection applications built on outdated science, report warns. “The authors note that the general public and some scientists believe that there are unique facial expressions that reliably indicate six emotion categories: anger, sadness, happiness, disgust, fear, and surprise. But in reviewing more than 1,000 published findings about facial movements and emotions, they found that typical study designs don’t capture the real-life differences in the way people convey and interpret emotions on faces. A scowl or a smile can express more than one emotion depending on the situation, the individual or the culture, they say.”

Research & Opinion 0
June 10, 2019

The Verge: Facial recognition smart glasses could make public surveillance discreet and ubiquitous

The Verge: Facial recognition smart glasses could make public surveillance discreet and ubiquitous. “From train stations and concert halls to sport stadiums and airports, facial recognition is slowly becoming the norm in public spaces. But new hardware formats like these facial recognition-enabled smart glasses could make the technology truly ubiquitous, able to be deployed by law enforcement and private security any time and any place.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

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