Body camera manufacturer Axon requested a contract for face recognition software from an artificial intelligence startup, the Wall Street Journal reports, which stands to further fears from privacy advocates about the state of surveillance in America.
Where do you go to tell a secret? Probably depends on the secret. What you’d feel comfortable murmuring to a friend in a private meeting is likely not what you’d say loudly to a coworker while your boss is in earshot. Online, we not only communicate, we calculate—based on who we’re speaking to, or what platform we’re…
Apoidea, welcome to the resistance.
Researchers at Purdue University have found a new way to get surveillance cameras to “talk” to the people they see. The system is called PHADE, which stands for “private human addressing,” and it enables cameras to send messages to people’s devices when they’ve entered a specific area without collecting their personal…
The Australian government is ending its plans for a national biometric database meant to help police departments track suspects and other persons of interest, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission announced Friday. Surveillance and security company NEC was awarded the contract in 2016, but after a…
The Chinese government, in its ongoing pursuit to create the dystopian police state dreamed up in many a science fiction tale, is reportedly readying a new vehicle identification system that will be capable of monitoring the movement of citizens.
Beginning in August, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin piloting a new face recognition system at the Mexican border. Using a series of cameras, the CBP plans to use face recognition to remotely check the identifies of both drivers and passengers.
This weekend, news broke in the New York Times that Facebook’s habit of giving extensive user data to third parties extended to “at least 60 device makers” who were granted access to private Facebook APIs over the past decade. The social media giant has been trying to quash the story by insisting developers were only…
On Tuesday, Axon announced it is partnering with dronemaker DJI to sell surveillance drones to U.S. police departments through a program dubbed “Axon Air.” The Taser and body camera manufacturer will work with DJI to offer drones linked to Evidence.com, Axon’s proprietary cloud-based data management system. The…
Law students in India were horrified to learn CCTV surveillance cameras had been installed in men’s bathrooms at Dharam Samaj Degree College. The college installed them in men’s rooms nearest the classrooms conducting entrance exams for law and business degrees.
Injury lawyers have historically used catchy jingles and memorable slogans to entice recovering patients to secure their services. Now, the 20-second TV or radio spot might soon be replaced with ads sent directly to the phones of patients as they sit in emergency rooms.
Across the country, law enforcement agencies are teaming up with data firms to bring facial recognition to public spaces, including airports, schools, and even protests. Most of these efforts remain clouded in secrecy, but newly released documents from Oregon officials using Amazon’s facial recognition offer our…
The most advanced technology in schools is no longer found only in classrooms, computer labs, and libraries. It’s in the networked cameras angled for maximum visibility, the weapons detectors at entrances, and soon, in an advanced surveillance system designed to identify threats—and it may be turned on students as…
When you imagine the American police officer of the future, what do you see? In the 1980s, one police officer saw “supercops”—a highly trained force of professionals who had the most high-tech toys at their disposal and almost never killed people.
At least one school in China is trying out face recognition software that scans students’ faces to check if they’re paying attention in class, Epoch Times reports.
A privacy watchdog group in the UK is calling for a ban on automated face recognition technologies after a report revealed staggeringly high false-positive rates. Big Brother Watch has released a report, titled “Face Off: The Lawless Growth of Facial Recognition in UK Policing,” detailing abuses of the tech, which the…
If you use PGP or S/MIME for email encryption you should immediately disable it in your email client. Researchers have discovered a critical vulnerability they’re calling EFAIL that exposes the encrypted emails in plaintext, even for messages sent in the past.
A case in which a Missouri sheriff is accused of illegally tracking citizen’s cellphone location for personal reasons is putting the spotlight on a little-known service that allows police to gain people’s location data with little oversight. The complex scheme involves the practices of telemarketers, inmate call…
Australia’s Liberal Party government has announced that it will soon be illegal to purchase anything over $10,000 AU ($7,500 US) with cash. The government says it’s, “encouraging the transition to a digital society,” and cracking down on tax evasion. But not everyone is happy with the move.
Analysts with the Los Angeles Police Department are reportedly using Palantir software to direct officers to surveil “probable offenders” throughout the city, many of whom are not criminal suspects but have been spotlighted by the company’s predictive technology, according to LAPD documents.