• Mar 27, 2019 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments,

AI-based predictive policing systems widely used in US and UK, despite concerns about privacy, and flaws in the approach

Back in 2017, Privacy News Online wrote about a massive police system being built in China that would allow “predictive policing” – the ability to spot criminals before they even commit a crime. As we warned then, China often turns out to provide an early glimpse of what will later happen in the West, and … Continue reading “AI-based predictive policing systems widely used in US and UK, despite concerns about privacy, and flaws in the approach”

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• Jan 19, 2019 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Cybersecurity, General Privacy News,

Deep fakes: how immutable blockchain-based life logs could combat them, and the implications for privacy

The idea of deep fakes – AI-assisted fake videos – first entered the mainstream around a year ago. After an initial burst of interest, people stopped searching for the term, although the technology behind the idea certainly hasn’t gone away. A couple of weeks ago, a video was circulating that appeared to show President Trump … Continue reading “Deep fakes: how immutable blockchain-based life logs could combat them, and the implications for privacy”

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• Jan 5, 2019 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Cybersecurity, General Privacy News,

What happens to identity and privacy when every biometric can be faked?

Identity and privacy are closely bound up. Typically, you use proof of your identity to access your private information. Alongside traditional approaches like passwords and hardware tokens, biometrics are increasingly employed to authenticate people, notably with smartphones, many of which now come with fingerprint sensors and facial recognition built in as standard. As well as … Continue reading “What happens to identity and privacy when every biometric can be faked?”

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• Dec 22, 2018 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

As facial recognition systems continue to spread, so do concerns about their deployment

Facial recognition is hardly new – Privacy News Online has been writing about the topic for years now. But it is becoming more and more the norm, as some recent news shows. For example, the following story from Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift fans mesmerized by rehearsal clips on a kiosk at her May 18th Rose … Continue reading “As facial recognition systems continue to spread, so do concerns about their deployment”

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• Nov 10, 2018 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments,

AI-based lie detection system will screen travellers to EU for ‘biomarkers of deceit’

As the borders between nations have become increasingly sensitive from a political point of view, so the threats to privacy there have grown. Privacy News Online has already reported on the use of AI-based facial recognition systems as a way of tightening border controls. As software improves, and hardware becomes faster and cheaper, it’s likely … Continue reading “AI-based lie detection system will screen travellers to EU for ‘biomarkers of deceit’”

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• Feb 5, 2018 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

The real Strava heatmap story is not threats to national security, but about privacy and de-anonymization

At the end of January, Nathan Ruser posted a tweet about Strava, a Website and mobile app used to track athletic activity via GPS coordinates. It concerned Strava’s global heatmap: “the largest, richest, and most beautiful dataset of its kind. It is a visualization of Strava’s global network of athletes,” as the company puts it. … Continue reading “The real Strava heatmap story is not threats to national security, but about privacy and de-anonymization”

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• Oct 18, 2017 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News,

Powerful and pervasive artificial intelligence is coming: now is the time to talk about its impact on privacy

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rather like the GNU/Linux desktop: every year is the one when it will finally take off. Indeed, this has been true for AI far longer than for the GNU/Linux desktop, since it is generally held that AI as a discipline was born back in 1956, whereas the GNU project only started … Continue reading “Powerful and pervasive artificial intelligence is coming: now is the time to talk about its impact on privacy”

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• Sep 27, 2017 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

Stunning: Taser wants to turn the public and their smartphones into its big data posse of police informants

Last month we wrote about the increasing application of big data analysis by police forces, often using software from the shadowy outfit Palantir. But it’s by no means the only company that sees this as a huge growth market: another is Axon. If that name is unfamiliar, that’s because it’s the new, rather anonymous branding … Continue reading “Stunning: Taser wants to turn the public and their smartphones into its big data posse of police informants”

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• Sep 15, 2017 |
• Glyn Moody |
• Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

The Chinese IT giant Huawei has big plans for the cloud in Western markets, with important implications for privacy

Some Chinese high-tech companies may be bigger than you think. The e-commerce giant Alibaba has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. The social media and gaming company Tencent is not far behind, and nearly a billion people use its WeChat messaging service. Baidu is the world’s second largest search engine, and is increasingly strong … Continue reading “The Chinese IT giant Huawei has big plans for the cloud in Western markets, with important implications for privacy”

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• May 22, 2017 |
• Glyn Moody |
• General Privacy News, Governments,

Detailed medical records of 61 million Italian citizens to be given to IBM for its “cognitive computing” system Watson

Last year, Italy’s prime minister at the time, Matteo Renzi, announced that IBM would invest $150 million dollars building a new research center in Milan for its Watson Health division, which applies “cognitive computing” techniques to healthcare. As usual, much was made of what was presented as a big win for Italy and its citizens, … Continue reading “Detailed medical records of 61 million Italian citizens to be given to IBM for its “cognitive computing” system Watson”

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