Tag: surveillance
  • May 28, 2018 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

In China’s footsteps: Amazon and US schools normalize automatic facial recognition and constant surveillance

Amazon has developed a powerful cloud-based facial recognition system called “Rekognition”, which has major implications for privacy. It is already being used by multiple US police forces to carry out surveillance and make arrests, the ACLU has learned. Amazon claims that Rekognition offers real-time face matching across tens of millions of individuals held in a … Continue reading “In China’s footsteps: Amazon and US schools normalize automatic facial recognition and constant surveillance”

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  • Nov 22, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Surveillance,

The latest threat to your online privacy: exfiltration of personal data by website session-replay scripts

Last week, Privacy News Online reported on a worrying trend of increased surveillance in the workplace. This kind of spying includes capturing every keystroke workers make. The practice is regarded in many jurisdictions as acceptable because people are working on equipment provided by their employer, and use it to carry out tasks for the company … Continue reading “The latest threat to your online privacy: exfiltration of personal data by website session-replay scripts”

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  • Nov 13, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Surveillance,

Welcome to the brave new world of workplace surveillance

Here on Privacy News Online, we write a lot about government surveillance and its impact on privacy. Sadly, constant spying has been normalized to such an extent that workplace surveillance is a thriving new business sector that startups and established companies are rushing to serve. For example, InterGuard promises “complete end-user auditing and control”, and … Continue reading “Welcome to the brave new world of workplace surveillance”

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  • Nov 6, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media, Surveillance,

US Senate hearing confirms Facebook is the perfect surveillance machine: what can we do about it?

Last week’s hearings before US lawmakers has provided us with new insights into the workings of companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, and how they have been subverted by Russia to further its political aims. In his opening remarks, the Vice Chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, Mark Warner, said that 120 Russian-backed pages on … Continue reading “US Senate hearing confirms Facebook is the perfect surveillance machine: what can we do about it?”

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  • Nov 2, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

Privacy is constantly under threat; here are ways communities can help to protect it locally

Stories about privacy have a depressing tendency to be about its loss, and the increasing threats to it in the future. Perhaps we need to spend more time thinking about how to protect it, to prevent the loss and head off the threats. That’s easier said than done, since the latter come from many quarters, … Continue reading “Privacy is constantly under threat; here are ways communities can help to protect it locally”

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  • Oct 27, 2017 |
  • Caleb Chen |
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Surveillance,

Unlike the USA Liberty Act, the USA RIGHTS Act could actually end warrantless surveillance on Americans by the NSA

The end of unwarranted NSA mass surveillance on US citizens may finally be in sight with the (for once) properly named USA RIGHTS Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Reforming and Improving the Government’s High-Tech Surveillance Act). The USA RIGHTS Act essentially reaffirms American constituional privacy rights in light of continued overreaches of the government’s … Continue reading “Unlike the USA Liberty Act, the USA RIGHTS Act could actually end warrantless surveillance on Americans by the NSA”

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  • Oct 26, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Cybersecurity, General Privacy News, Governments,

China is quietly building a national voiceprint database to allow automated speaker recognition

It’s hardly a secret that China conducts massive surveillance of all kinds, as Privacy News Online has reported many times. And yet it seems that the authorities there are still coming up with new ways to check on their 1.4 billion citizens. For example, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has just written a fascinating description of … Continue reading “China is quietly building a national voiceprint database to allow automated speaker recognition”

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  • Oct 17, 2017 |
  • David Meyer |
  • General Privacy News, Governments, Social Media,

British spies are collecting and sharing datasets of people’s social media activities

The British intelligence services have for years quietly claimed the right to collect so-called bulk personal datasets (BPDs) about people, most of whom may be innocent of any crime. The practice was only officially acknowledged in 2015, and last year’s Investigatory Powers Act was – for all its draconian elements – supposed to at least … Continue reading “British spies are collecting and sharing datasets of people’s social media activities”

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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 19, 2017 |
  • Glyn Moody |
  • Cryptocurrency, General Privacy News, Governments,

Me, my data and I: Decode and the future of the personal data economy

It’s no secret that personal data has become the key commodity of the online business world. The Internet giants – Facebook, Google, etc. – all provide their services “free”, but make money from the detailed profiles they create of our activity as we use social networks and move around the Web. Since we don’t have … Continue reading “Me, my data and I: Decode and the future of the personal data economy”

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