Privacy

Dear Creepers: You Can Buy a Smartphone Pre-Loaded With Spyware Now

Are you a jealous lover, helicopter parent, or otherwise neurotic human being with crippling trust issues? Then we’ve got the answer to all your problems right here. No, it’s not therapy (although, you know, good idea); it’s a top-of-the-line smartphone that comes pre-loaded with all the spyware an overbearing human could ever hope for. The…

Surprise: Phone Metadata Gives Away The Most Secret of Your Secrets

If you’re one of the masses who inexplicably thinks that NSA phone surveillance doesn’t matter, you’re in for a shock: new research reveals that simple analysis of cellphone metadata can reveal masses about you, from medical conditions to firearm ownership. A study by Jonathan Mayer and Patrick Mutchler from Stanford probed data from 546 volunteers…

How International Human Rights Law Should Be Applied to NSA Spying

This past Monday, the Human Rights Committee commenced its one hundredth and tenth session in Geneva from March 10-28. During this session, the Committee will review the reports of several countries on how they are implementing the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), an international human rights treaty and one…

The NSA Has a Secret Advice Column for Its Paranoid Employees

Even having access to (nearly) all the information in the world doesn’t mean you have all the answers. Which is, apparently, why the NSA created its very own, accessible-through-private-intranet-only agency-wide advice column. Because when you’re working for the NSA, you can bet you’re going to be paranoid as hell. The Dear Abby ripoff entitled “Ask…

Lost Password Leaves Police Dept Complaints Unchecked…For 8 Years

Until recently, the Delhi police department in India had been enjoying a baffling long streak totally free of complaints. Of course, it’s a lot easier to keep a clean slate when you never check the complaint database in the first place. Because someone lost the password. Eight years ago. You can imagine the officers who…

Police Hid Use of Cell Phone Tracker Because Manufacturer Asked Nicely

It appears that at least one police department in Florida has failed to tell judges about its use of a cell phone tracking device because the department got the device on loan and promised the manufacturer to keep it all under wraps. But when police use invasive surveillance equipment to surreptitiously sweep up information about…

Why Congress Has to Update Email Privacy Law

It’s time for Congress to follow the Sixth Circuit’s lead and update one of the main online privacy laws—the Electronic Privacy Communications Act (ECPA). In the past, the Department of Justice has used the archaic law to obtain private online communications without obtaining a probable cause warrant as the Fourth Amendment requires. A bill co-sponsored…

British Spies Captured Millions of Webcam Images from Yahoo Users

It’s been a while since we’ve had a shocking NSA revelation, so you probably thought all the madness was over. Welp, you were wrong. Very, very wrong. News just emerged that GCHQ, the British counterpart to our NSA, ran a program codenamed “Optic Nerve” from 2008 to 2010 that involved capturing webcam images from internet…

WSJ: Obama Weighing Four Alternatives to NSA Phone Surveillance

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Obama administration has been presented with “four options for revamping NSA phone surveillance”—including one which would scrap it for good. The report from the Wall Street Journal cites officials “close to the matter,” explaining that the four suggestions for NSA reform have all been submitted ahead of…

The Hijacked $50,000 @N Twitter Username Is Back In Its Owners Hands

Remember how Naoki Hiroshima lost his amazing $50,000 @N Twitter username? Well, for once some good news: he got it back! https://gizmodo.com/how-i-lost-my-50-000-twitter-username-1511578384 While the username was hijacked last month, Naoki Hiroshima has once again regained control of the account. Last night he tweeted: It’s not clear yet exactly how he regained full control of @N,…

The Privacy-Pimping Blackphone Is Here to Lock Up Your Data

Paranoid? Privacy conscious? Somewhere in between? Well there’s now an unlocked (forked) Android phone for you. Blackphone is on the scene and it looks as discrete as it keeps all your juicy info. We heard about Blackphone a while ago, but now SilentCircle and Geeksphone have officially unveiled it at Mobile World Congress with a…

Homeland Security Wants To Build a System To Track Every License Plate

Coming not even a month after the official implementation of the Real ID program (which some have likened to a National ID card), The Washington Post has discovered that the Department of Homeland Security is currently working on a National License Plate Recognition (NLPR) database. Although from the looks of it, this isn’t just a…

How an American Sued the Ethiopian Government for Spyware Infection

An American citizen living in Maryland sued the Ethiopian government today for infecting his computer with secret spyware, wiretapping his private Skype calls, and monitoring his entire family’s every use of the computer for a period of months. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is representing the plaintiff in this case, who has asked the court…

Finally, an App That Lets Strangers Listen to Your Phone Calls

While you were busy worrying about the NSA spying on you, artist -slash- software developer Lauren McCarthy made an app called Crowdpilot. It lets everybody spy on you. Actually, Crowdpilot is a little more specific than that. The basic idea behind the iPhone app is to let people listen in on your phone calls so…

In the latest unsurprising privacy news, it appears that the NSA and the UK’s GCHQ spied on people who viewed the WikiLeaks website.

If You Use Steam, Valve Might Be Tracking Every Website You Visit

Here’s a fun fact: If you use Steam for your games—let’s face it, you do—there’s a chance Valve’s Anti-Cheat System been taking a look at all the websites you visit and sending a list back to home base. Why? No one knows for sure. The discovery comes by way of SHG_Nackt who claims to have…

The History of Surveillance and the Black Community

February is Black History Month and that history is intimately linked with surveillance by the federal government in the name of “national security.” Indeed, the history of surveillance in the African-American community plays an important role in the debate around spying today and in the calls for a congressional investigation into that surveillance. Days after…

How Your Body’s Unique Biosignatures Are Used for Surveillance

Not long ago, fingerprints were the cutting edge of biometric profiling. Today, the use of biosignatures to identify individuals has expanded to include everything from iris and facial scans right through to DNA profiling and even the unique shape of a person’s ass. Here’s what you need to know about how companies and governments are…

This Anti-Snooping App Catches People Who Spy on Your iPhone

Have you ever wondered if people are spying on you? Not to be paranoid or anything, but we all leave our phones unattended sometimes. It’s not hard for a friend—or foe—to take a quick look at your text messages. But don’t fret. Catchr ($2) does one thing, and it does it pretty well. Once you…

Today Is the Day the Internet Fights Back to Protect Privacy

Mass surveillance of electronic communications is a vast, new, government intrusion on the privacy of innocent people worldwide. It is a violation of International human rights law. Without checks and balances, its use will continue to spread from country to country, corrupting democracies and empowering dictators. That’s why, today, on February 11th, around the world,…