Category Archives: Surveillance technology

NYTimes: As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets by Natasha Singer and Choe Sang-Hun:

lawfare: Is ICE’s Use of a Maryland Facial Recognition Database Lawful? by Nathaniel Sobel (“The Washington Post reported recently that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have accessed, without obtaining judicial process, a Maryland facial recognition database that contains … Continue reading →

EFF: Unchecked Smart Cities are Surveillance Cities. What We Need are Smart Enough Cities. By Jamie Williams (“Cities across the U.S. are forcing operators of shared bikes and scooters to use dangerous and privacy invasive APIs developed by the Los … Continue reading →

EFF: Hundreds of New Yorkers Demand a Ban on NYPD Face Surveillance by Nathan Sheard (“Over two hundred New York City residents—including workers, parents, students, business owners, and technologists—have signed a petition calling to end government use of face surveillance … Continue reading →

The Hill: Ring gets ‘dinged’ for its video doorbell privacy by Joel Schwarz (“IoT devices have also given rise to a number of new privacy concerns. For example, Ring has taken heat for sharing users’ video with over 600 law enforcement … Continue reading →

WaPo: My car was in a hit-and-run. Then I learned it recorded the whole thing. by Geoffrey A. Fowler (“The car is becoming a sentry, a chaperone, and a snitch”)

WaPo: ICE has run facial-recognition searches on millions of Maryland drivers by Drew Harwell & Erin Cox (“The agency’s unlimited access to drivers’ photos has alarmed immigration and privacy activists, who fear it is being used to target immigrants who … Continue reading →

IEEE Spectrum: AI Deception: When Your Artificial Intelligence Learns to Lie by Heather Roff (“We need to understand the kinds of deception an AI agent may learn on its own before we can start proposing technological defenses”)

The Guardian: Rules urgently needed to oversee police use of data and AI – report (“Report warns that technology, uptake of which has largely been driven by cuts, could lead to discrimination”)

techdirt: Ring Continues To Pitch Facial Recognition To Law Enforcement While Claiming It Won’t Be Adding Facial Recognition To Its Cameras by Tim Cushing (“Ring continues to insist it is not adding facial recognition to its sadly super-popular doorbell cameras. … Continue reading →

Mother Jones: California Cops Are Collecting Info on Millions of Drivers Who Have Done Nothing Wrong (“With few rules and no oversight, California’s biggest law enforcement agencies are sharing millions of driver records.”)

Vice: This Senate Bill Would Ban Federal Use of Facial Recognition by Edward Ongweso Jr. (“Jeff Merkley and Cory Booker have introduced a Senate bill to place a moratorium until regulations are passed by Congress.”)

WaPo: Ring and Nest helped normalize American surveillance and turned us into a nation of voyeurs by Drew Harwell (“For all the worries about hacking, owners of Internet-connected cameras say they love watching people silently from afar — often their … Continue reading →

HuffPost: The NYPD May Be Secretly Using Facebook Photos In Its Facial Recognition Searches by Mike Hayes (“In two recent cases, however, official documents from the NYPD Facial Information Section (FIS) obtained by HuffPost indicate that social media photos were … Continue reading →

NBC News: Cute videos, but little evidence: Police say Amazon Ring isn’t much of a crime fighter by Cyrus Farivar (“Hundreds of police departments have signed agreements with Ring to gain access to footage filmed on home surveillance cameras.”)

NYTimes: Activate This ‘Bracelet of Silence,’ and Alexa Can’t Eavesdrop by Nathaniel Hill (“Microphones and cameras lurk everywhere. You may want to slip on some privacy armor.”)