Category: privacy

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Regulating International Trade in Commercial Spyware

Posted on By infossl
marketing, privacy, Security technology, spyware, surveillance

Siena Anstis, Ronald J. Deibert, and John Scott-Railton of Citizen Lab published an editorial calling for regulating the international trade in commercial surveillance systems until we can figure out how to curb human rights abuses. Any regime of rigorous human rights safeguards that would make a meaningful change to this marketplace would require many elements, … Read More “Regulating International Trade in Commercial Spyware” »

More on Backdooring (or Not) WhatsApp

Posted on By infossl
artificialintelligence, backdoors, facebook, privacy, Security technology, whatsapp

Yesterday, I blogged about a Facebook plan to backdoor WhatsApp by adding client-side scanning and filtering. It seems that I was wrong, and there are no such plans. The only source for that post was a Forbes essay by Kalev Leetaru, which links to a previous Forbes essay by him, which links to a video … Read More “More on Backdooring (or Not) WhatsApp” »

How Privacy Laws Hurt Defendants

Posted on By infossl
academicpapers, courts, lawenforcement, laws, privacy, Security technology

Rebecca Wexler has an interesting op-ed about an inadvertent harm that privacy laws can cause: while law enforcement can often access third-party data to aid in prosecution, the accused don’t have the same level of access to aid in their defense: The proposed privacy laws would make this situation worse. Lawmakers may not have set … Read More “How Privacy Laws Hurt Defendants” »

Palantir’s Surveillance Service for Law Enforcement

Posted on By infossl
datacollection, foia, lawenforcement, nsa, police, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

Motherboard got its hands on Palantir’s Gotham user’s manual, which is used by the police to get information on people: The Palantir user guide shows that police can start with almost no information about a person of interest and instantly know extremely intimate details about their lives. The capabilities are staggering, according to the guide: … Read More “Palantir’s Surveillance Service for Law Enforcement” »

US Journalist Detained When Returning to US

Posted on By infossl
borders, email, lawenforcement, privacy, searches, Security technology, surveillance

Pretty horrible story of a US journalist who had his computer and phone searched at the border when returning to the US from Mexico. After I gave him the password to my iPhone, Moncivias spent three hours reviewing hundreds of photos and videos and emails and calls and texts, including encrypted messages on WhatsApp, Signal, … Read More “US Journalist Detained When Returning to US” »

Digital License Plates

Posted on By infossl
lawenforcement, privacy, Security technology, surveillance

They’re a thing: Developers say digital plates utilize “advanced telematics” — to collect tolls, pay for parking and send out Amber Alerts when a child is abducted. They also help recover stolen vehicles by changing the display to read “Stolen,” thereby alerting everyone within eyeshot. This makes no sense to me. The numbers are static. … Read More “Digital License Plates” »

Spanish Soccer League App Spies on Fans

Posted on By infossl
dataprotection, espionage, phones, privacy, Security technology, sports, spyware, surveillance

The Spanish Soccer League’s smartphone app spies on fans in order to find bars that are illegally streaming its games. The app listens with the microphone for the broadcasts, and then uses geolocation to figure out where the phone is. The Spanish data protection agency has ordered the league to stop doing this. Not because … Read More “Spanish Soccer League App Spies on Fans” »

iPhone Apps Surreptitiously Communicated with Unknown Servers

Posted on By infossl
apple, datacollection, iphone, privacy, Security technology

Long news article (alternate source) on iPhone privacy, specifically the enormous amount of data your apps are collecting without your knowledge. A lot of this happens in the middle of the night, when you’re probably not otherwise using your phone: IPhone apps I discovered tracking me by passing information to third parties ­ just while … Read More “iPhone Apps Surreptitiously Communicated with Unknown Servers” »

How Apple’s “Find My” Feature Works

Posted on By infossl
apple, cryptography, iphone, privacy, scams, Security technology, tracking, wifi

Matthew Green intelligently speculates about how Apple’s new “Find My” feature works. If you haven’t already been inspired by the description above, let me phrase the question you ought to be asking: how is this system going to avoid being a massive privacy nightmare? Let me count the concerns: If your device is constantly emitting … Read More “How Apple’s “Find My” Feature Works” »