In December, Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was interviewed at the CATO Institute Surveillance Conference. One of the things he said, after talking about some of the security measures his company has put in place post-Snowden, was: “If you have important information, the safest place to keep it is in Google. And I can assure … Read More “Everyone Wants You To Have Security, But Not from Them” »
Category: surveillance
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AT&T is charging a premium for gigabit Internet service without surveillance: The tracking and ad targeting associated with the gigabit service cannot be avoided using browser privacy settings: as AT&T explained, the program “works independently of your browser’s privacy settings regarding cookies, do-not-track and private browsing.” In other words, AT&T is performing deep packet inspection, … Read More “AT&T Charging Customers to Not Spy on Them” »
The Intercept has an extraordinary story: the NSA and/or GCHQ hacked into the Dutch SIM card manufacturer Gemalto, stealing the encryption keys for billions of cell phones. People are still trying to figure out exactly what this means, but it seems to mean that the intelligence agencies have access to both voice and data from … Read More “NSA/GCHQ Hacks SIM Card Database and Steals Billions of Keys” »
Earlier this week, we learned that Samsung televisions are eavesdropping on their owners. If you have one of their Internet-connected smart TVs, you can turn on a voice command feature that saves you the trouble of finding the remote, pushing buttons and scrolling through menus. But making that feature work requires the television to listen … Read More “Samsung Television Spies on Viewers” »
Long New York Times article based on “former American and Indian officials and classified documents disclosed by Edward J. Snowden” outlining the intelligence failures leading up to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks: Although electronic eavesdropping often yields valuable data, even tantalizing clues can be missed if the technology is not closely monitored, the intelligence gleaned … Read More “Electronic Surveillance Failures Leading up to the 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks” »
In January, the National Academies of Science (NAS) released a report on the bulk collection of signals intelligence. Basically, a year previously President Obama tasked the Director of National Intelligence with assessing “the feasibility of creating software that would allow the Intelligence Community more easily to conduct target information acquisition rather than bulk collection.” The … Read More “National Academies Report on Bulk Intelligence Collection” »
In the latest article based on the Snowden documents, the Intercept is reporting that the NSA and GCHQ are piggy-backing on the work of hackers: In some cases, the surveillance agencies are obtaining the content of emails by monitoring hackers as they breach email accounts, often without notifying the hacking victims of these breaches. “Hackers … Read More “NSA Using Hacker Research and Results” »
In the latest example of a military technology that has secretly been used by the police, we have radar guns that can see through walls. Powered by WPeMatico
Late last year, in a criminal case involving export violations, the US government disclosed a mysterious database of telephone call records that it had queried in the case. The defendant argued that the database was the NSA’s, and that the query was unconditional and the evidence should be suppressed. The government said that the database … Read More “US Law Enforcement Also Conducting Mass Telephone Surveillance” »
It’s called SnoopSnitch: SnoopSnitch is an app for Android devices that analyses your mobile radio traffic to tell if someone is listening in on your phone conversations or tracking your location. Unlike standard antivirus apps, which are designed to combat software intrusions or steal personal info, SnoopSnitch picks up on things like fake mobile base … Read More “Surveillance Detection for Android Phones” »