A British surveillance oversight authority known as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has ruled that Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the U.K.'s equivalent of America's National Security Agency (NSA), has engaged in illegal activity for the past ten years and longer in accessing vast troves of data from telecommunications companies. The IPT said that "successive foreign secretaries … Continue reading GCHQ broke the law for over a decade
Tag: privacy
Face recognition technology, something that seemed like science fiction just a few years ago, is becoming an increasingly key component of America's mass surveillance network. Even as plans for high-tech mass-scale facial recognition systems in places like China raise privacy concerns, the U.S. government was reportedly looking to develop face recognition tech capable … Continue reading Army develops face recognition that sees in the dark
Last week, tech company NVidia announced a new partnership with AI developer AnyVision to develop automatic face recognition technology for closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras in so-called "smart cities." "AnyVision claims the technology enables cameras that can continuously scan for faces 24/7, automatically identifying and tracking individuals within a large crowd with 99% accuracy," writes … Continue reading The dystopian auto-face recognition plan for ‘smart cities’
While mass monitoring of internet and phone communications, along with image- or video-based technologies such as automated license plate readers and facial recognition, have received increasing media coverage in recent years, one area of surveillance -- iris recognition -- has gotten less attention. But that is starting to change. Earlier this month The Intercept, which … Continue reading Iris scanning on the rise
Officials from the so-called "Five Eyes" group of English-speaking countries, which closely cooperate on surveillance and intelligence matters, are pushing to work even more closely not only with each other, but with major private sector players in the tech industry. Following a conference late last month in Ottawa, official representatives of the countries involved -- … Continue reading Five Eyes look to ‘engage’ with tech companies
The U.S. spy world's high tech research agency, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity or IARPA, has launched a new face-recognition challenge, as Atlantic Media's government tech news site NextGov reports this week. Unlike the procession of so-called "artificial intelligence" algorithms that have emerged in recent years for the purpose of identifying faces in photos … Continue reading Govt. wants face recognition for ‘non-cooperative’ subjects ‘in the wild’
James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence who resigned at the end of President Obama's administration -- and who once controversially denied that the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy collects data on its own citizens just months before leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden showed that to be untrue -- is seemingly willing … Continue reading Former spy chief comments on ‘broken’ clearance system, ‘too much Big Brother’
In the wake of high-profile leaks of government secrets in recent years such as those by Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, and most recently the CIA revelations from Wikileaks, the "insider threat" has become a prominent concern in national security circles. It is not surprising, then, that someone has now suggested another popular buzzword -- … Continue reading Automation suggested as ‘insider threat’ solution
Thousands of Android smartphone applications "have secretly been colluding to mine our information," according to researchers at Virginia Tech, who released a new study funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) this week. The study looked at more than 110,000 pairs of Android apps, "including 100,206 of Google Play’s most popular apps and … Continue reading Android apps ‘colluding’ to share data without permission, study says
In the wake of Wikileaks' bombshell "Year Zero" disclosures on Tuesday, former Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden, a frequent defacto spokesman for the intelligence establishment, appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, of all places, to awkwardly attempt to explain the stunning revelations. Hayden cracked a joke or two … Continue reading Plausible deniability surrounding surveillance abuse wears thin
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