drones Archives : PIA VPN Blog

Mar 24, 2022 |
Glyn Moody |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Surprisingly, the UK Has a Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner: He’s Rather Good

CCTV surveillance has been covered many times on PIA blog. Most of the stories are depressing tales of increased surveillance and loss of privacy. One of the worst offenders in the CCTV camera stakes is the UK. An estimate from 2020 put the number of cameras there at over 5 million, while London enjoyed the … Continue reading “Surprisingly, the UK Has a Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner: He’s Rather Good”

Apr 5, 2021 |
Glyn Moody |
Censorship, Encryption, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Dual-use digital surveillance technologies finally get regulated – a little

Privacy News Online frequently writes about surveillance conducted by governments on their populations, or by companies on their users. Less well-known is the connection between governments that wish to spy and the companies that provide the means to do so. Within most Western nations, there are various ways to find out the names of suppliers … Continue reading “Dual-use digital surveillance technologies finally get regulated – a little”

Dec 15, 2020 |
Glyn Moody |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Should we worry about the possibility of police surveillance using autonomous drones with added AI ? Too late: it’s already here

A couple of weeks ago, Privacy News Online wrote about France’s controversial Global Security Law. One striking element was the authorization of drones for routine police surveillance. These particular “eyes in the sky” have been discussed a number of times on this blog. But a recent article in the New York Times shows that we … Continue reading “Should we worry about the possibility of police surveillance using autonomous drones with added AI ? Too late: it’s already here”

Dec 1, 2020 |
Glyn Moody |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

France rocked again by demonstrations against the new “Global Security Law”, which includes mass surveillance by police drones

For the second time in a week, demonstrations took place across France against a new “Global Security Law”. The proposed legislation would bring in wide-ranging police surveillance in France, but the main concern of demonstrators is Article 24, which is designed to penalize the “malicious” dissemination of images of French police officers: Pending legislation in … Continue reading “France rocked again by demonstrations against the new “Global Security Law”, which includes mass surveillance by police drones”

Jul 31, 2019 |
Glyn Moody |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Eyes in the sky will soon see everything – even what happened in the past; is it too late to worry about privacy?

Earlier this year, Privacy News Online wrote about a new generation of nanosatellites that are starting to fill the sky. The same continuing advances in technology that have made these small but powerful systems possible are also operating at the other of the satellite spectrum. It means that traditional satellites now pack even more power … Continue reading “Eyes in the sky will soon see everything – even what happened in the past; is it too late to worry about privacy?”

Aug 18, 2017 |
Glyn Moody |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Leak of proposed US law reveals plans for widespread use of multiple surveillance technologies at borders

Here on Privacy News Online, we often write about the impact on privacy of technologies such as facial recognition, iris scans, DNA databases, and drones. Individually, those powerful and rapidly-advancing technologies all pose different challenges to the protection of our privacy. Imagine how dangerous it would be if they were brought together in a complete, … Continue reading “Leak of proposed US law reveals plans for widespread use of multiple surveillance technologies at borders”

Jul 3, 2017 |
Glyn Moody |
General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Our surveillance future: pervasive, continuous facial recognition from wandering robo-cars and hovering drones

Last month, Privacy News Online wrote about the first arrest by UK police using an automatic facial recognition system mounted on a vehicle to scan people in a crowd. But things move quickly in the world of surveillance technologies: the police in Dubai have announced that they will be deploying facial recognition systems mounted on … Continue reading “Our surveillance future: pervasive, continuous facial recognition from wandering robo-cars and hovering drones”