In my book Data and Goliath, I write about the value of privacy. I talk about how it is essential for political liberty and justice, and for commercial fairness and equality. I talk about how it increases personal freedom and individual autonomy, and how the lack of it makes us all less secure. But this … Read More “How Surveillance Inhibits Freedom of Expression” »
Category: surveillance
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The US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is looking for a director. Among other things, this board has some oversight role over the NSA. More precisely, it can examine what any executive-branch agency is doing about counterterrorism. So it can examine the program of TSA watchlists, NSA anti-terrorism surveillance, and FBI counterterrorism activities. The … Read More “The PCLOB Needs a Director” »
The Israeli Defense Force mounted a botched raid in Gaza. They were attempting to install surveillance gear, which they ended up leaving behind. (There are photos — scroll past the video.) Israeli media is claiming that the capture of this gear by Hamas causes major damage to Israeli electronic surveillance capabilities. The Israelis themselves destroyed … Read More “Israeli Surveillance Gear” »
IoT devices are surveillance devices, and manufacturers generally use them to collect data on their customers. Surveillance is still the business model of the Internet, and this data is used against the customers’ interests: either by the device manufacturer or by some third party the manufacturer sells the data to. Of course, this data can … Read More “Are the Police Using Smart-Home IoT Devices to Spy on People?” »
Bloomberg has another story about hardware surveillance implants in equipment made in China. This implant is different from the one Bloomberg reported on last week. That story has been denied by pretty much everyone else, but Bloomberg is sticking by its story and its sources. (I linked to other commentary and analysis here.) Again, I … Read More “Another Bloomberg Story about Supply-Chain Hardware Attacks from China” »
The Five Eyes — the intelligence consortium of the rich English-speaking countries (the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand) — have issued a “Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption” where they claim their needs for surveillance outweigh everyone’s needs for security and privacy. …the increasing use and sophistication of certain … Read More “Five-Eyes Intelligence Services Choose Surveillance Over Security” »
Yet another way of eavesdropping on someone’s computer activity: using the webcam microphone to “listen” to the computer’s screen. Powered by WPeMatico
Google is tracking you, even if you turn off tracking: Google says that will prevent the company from remembering where you’ve been. Google’s support page on the subject states: “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.” That isn’t true. Even with … Read More “Google Tracks its Users Even if They Opt-Out of Tracking” »
The Diqee 360 robotic vacuum cleaner can be turned into a surveillance device. The attack requires physical access to the device, so in the scheme of things it’s not a big deal. But why in the world is the vacuum equipped with a microphone? Powered by WPeMatico
The Intercept has a long story about the NSA’s domestic interception points. Includes some new Snowden documents. Powered by WPeMatico