FBI Investigates Breach That May Have Hit Its Wiretapping Tools
The FBI is investigating a breach affecting systems tied to wiretapping and surveillance warrant data, after abnormal logs revealed possible unauthorized access to law-enforcement-sensitive information. “The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond,” a spokesperson … ⌘ Read more
Anthropic Sues the Pentagon After Being Labeled a Threat To National Security
Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense after the Trump administration labeled the company a “supply chain risk” and canceled its government contracts when Anthropic refused to allow its AI model Claude to be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons. Fortune reports: The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. … ⌘ Read more
OpenAI Amends Pentagon Deal As Sam Altman Admits It Looks ‘Sloppy’
OpenAI is amending its Pentagon contract after CEO Sam Altman acknowledged it appeared “opportunistic and sloppy.” On Monday night, Altman said the company would explicitly restrict its technology from being used by intelligence agencies and for mass domestic surveillance. The Guardian reports: OpenAI, which has more than 900 million users of Ch … ⌘ Read more
Anthropic’s Claude Leaps to #2 on Apple’s ‘Top Apps’ Chart After Pentagon Controversy
Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant “jumped to the No. 2 slot on Apple’s chart of top U.S. free apps late on Friday,” reports CNBC:
The rise in popularity suggests that Anthropic is benefiting from its presence in news headlines, stemming from its refusal to have its models used for mass domestic surveillance or for f … ⌘ Read more
US Threatens Anthropic with ‘Supply-Chain Risk’ Designation. OpenAI Signs New War Department Deal
It started Friday when all U.S. federal agencies were ordered to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s AI technology after contract negotiations stalled when Anthropic requested prohibitions against mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. But later Friday there were ev … ⌘ Read more
Sam Altman Says OpenAI Shares Anthropic’s Red Lines in Pentagon Fight
An anonymous reader shares a report: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic and the Pentagon: no AI for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons. If other leading firms like Google follow suit, this could massively complicate the Pentag … ⌘ Read more
Four Convicted Over Spyware Affair That Shook Greece
A Greek court has convicted four individuals linked to the marketing of Predator spyware in the wiretapping scandal that shook the country in 2022. The BBC reports: In what became known as “Greece’s Watergate,” surveillance software called Predator was used to target 87 people – among them government ministers, senior military officials and journalists. The four who had … ⌘ Read more
Americans Are Destroying Flock Surveillance Cameras
An anonymous reader shares a report: Brian Merchant, writing for Blood in the Machine, reports that people across the United States are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras, amid rising public anger that the license plate readers aid U.S. immigration authorities and deportations.
Flock is the Atlanta-based surveillance startup valued at $7.5 billion a yea … ⌘ Read more
Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans To Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs
Ring’s AI-powered “Search Party” feature, which links neighborhood cameras into a networked surveillance system to find lost dogs, was never intended to stop at pets, according to an internal email from founder Jamie Siminoff obtained by 404 Media.
Siminoff told employees in early October, shortly after the featu … ⌘ Read more
Ring Cancels Its Partnership With Flock Safety After Surveillance Backlash
Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company that works with law enforcement agencies, Ring has announced it is canceling the integration. From a report: In a statement published on Ring’s blog and provided to The Verge ahead of publication, the company said: “Following a co … ⌘ Read more
With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet
Ring’s Super Bowl ad on Sunday promoted “Search Party,” a feature that lets a user post a photo of a missing dog in the Ring app and triggers outdoor Ring cameras across the neighborhood to use AI to scan for a match. 404 Media argues the cheerful premise obscures what the Amazon-owned company has become: a massive, consumer-deployed surveillance network.
Rin … ⌘ Read more
Anthropic’s $200M Pentagon Contract at Risk Over Objections to Domestic Surveillance, Autonomous Deployments
Talks “are at a standstill” for Anthropic’s potential $200 million contract with America’s Defense Department, reports Reuters (citing several people familiar with the discussions.“) The two issues?
- Using AI to surveil Americans
- Safeguards against deployin … ⌘ Read more
Samsung Hit with Restraining Order Over Smart TV Surveillance Tech in Texas
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a temporary restraining order against Samsung, blocking the company from continuing to collect data through its smart TVs’ Automated Content Recognition technology.
The ACR system captured screenshots of what users were watching every 500 milliseconds, according to the state’s la … ⌘ Read more
Founder of Spyware Maker PcTattletale Pleads Guilty To Hacking, Advertising Surveillance Software
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The founder of a U.S.-based spyware company, whose surveillance products allowed customers to spy on the phones and computers of unsuspecting victims, pleaded guilty to federal charges linked to his long-running operation. pcTattle … ⌘ Read more
Inside Uzbekistan’s Nationwide License Plate Surveillance System
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Across Uzbekistan, a network of about a hundred banks of high-resolution roadside cameras continuously scan vehicles’ license plates and their occupants, sometimes thousands a day, looking for potential traffic violations. Cars running red lights, drivers not wearing their seatbelts, and unlicens … ⌘ Read more
Welcome To America’s New Surveillance High Schools
Beverly Hills High School has deployed an AI-powered surveillance apparatus that includes facial recognition cameras, behavioral analysis software, smoke detector-shaped bathroom listening devices from Motorola, drones, and license plate readers from Flock Safety – a setup the district spent $4.8 million on in the 2024-2025 fiscal year and considers necessary given the scho … ⌘ Read more
Chinese Whistleblower Living In US Is Being Hunted By Beijing With US Tech
A former Chinese official who fled to the U.S. says Beijing has used advanced surveillance technology from U.S. companies to track, intimidate, and punish him and his family across borders. ABC News reports: Retired Chinese official Li Chuanliang was recuperating from cancer on a Korean resort island when he got an urgent call: … ⌘ Read more
Berlin Approves New Expansion of Police Surveillance Powers
Berlin’s regional parliament has passed a far-reaching overhaul of its “security” law, giving police new authority to conduct both digital and physical surveillance. From a report: The CDU-SPD coalition, supported by AfD votes, approved the reform of the General Security and Public Order Act (ASOG), changing the limits that once protected Berliners from int … ⌘ Read more
India Reviews Telecom Industry Proposal For Always-On Satellite Location Tracking
India is weighing a proposal to mandate always-on satellite tracking in smartphones for precise government surveillance – an idea strongly opposed by Apple, Google, Samsung, and industry groups. Reuters reports: For years, the [Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s] administration has been concerned its agencies do no … ⌘ Read more
Still the #DigitalOmnibus :
Tech Policy says “What all of these changes point to is a shift away from empowering people and towards granting discretion to business. What makes the GDPR truly disruptive is that its rights-based approach puts power into the hands of data subjects, of people, and gives them tools to fight back against tech giants, powerful government agencies, and anyone else who uses their data to surveil, track or control them. In a broad sense, shifting towards a risk-based approach to digital regulation tends to allow discretion to powerful actors and creates a maze of loopholes, exemptions, and exceptions that all, ultimately, function as ways for powerful actors to avoid accountability.”
@accessnow.social@accessnow.social says “The new Commission’s decision to prioritize deregulation and securitization above all else is taking the EU in a dangerous direction; one where human rights, once seen as fundamental for the European project, are being sidelined. This will not make people’s lives easier, nor keep them safer. Rather it will transform the EU into a digital dystopia, and ultimately undermine the foundations of European democracy.”
Apple To Resist India Order To Preload State-Run App As Political Outcry Builds
Apple does not plan to comply with India’s mandate to preload its smartphones with a state-owned cyber safety app that cannot be disabled. According to Reuters, the order “sparked surveillance concerns and a political uproar” after it was revealed on Monday. From the report: In the wake of the criticism, India’s tel … ⌘ Read more
‘Big Brother cannot watch us’: Indian government phone app plan sparks outrage
New Delhi wants a government app installed on all of the country’s mobile phones, but opposition MPs and privacy advocates have voiced concerns about surveillance. ⌘ Read more
Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers To Build Its Surveillance AI
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Flock, the automatic license plate reader and AI-powered camera company, uses overseas workers from Upwork to train its machine learning algorithms, with training material telling workers how to review and categorize footage including images people and vehicles in the United States, according to material … ⌘ Read more
Shark attack highlights need for remote first aid kits, drone surveillance
A makeshift tourniquet may have made the difference between a shark attack on the NSW Mid North Coast this week claiming one life not two. The attack has put a spotlight on how fatalities may be prevented. ⌘ Read more
Court Ends Dragnet Electricity Surveillance Program in Sacramento
A California judge has shut down a decade-long surveillance program in which Sacramento’s utility provider shared granular smart-meter data on 650,000 residents with police to hunt for cannabis grows. The EFF reports: The Sacramento County Superior Court ruled that the surveillance program run by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) … ⌘ Read more
ACLU and EFF Sue a City Blanketed With Flock Surveillance Cameras
An anonymous reader shares a report: Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the city of San Jose, California over its deployment of Flock’s license plate-reading surveillance cameras, claiming that the city’s nearly 500 cameras create a pervasive database of residents movements in a s … ⌘ Read more
Password to Louvre video surveillance system was ‘Louvre’, according to employee
Comments ⌘ Read more
The Louvre’s Video Surveillance Password Was ‘Louvre’
A bungled October 18 heist that saw $102 million of crown jewels stolen from the Louvre in broad daylight has exposed years of lax security at the national art museum. From trivial passwords like ‘LOUVRE’ to decades-old, unsupported systems and easy rooftop access, the job was made surprisingly easy. PC Gamer reports: As Rogue cofounder and former Polygon arch-jester Cass … ⌘ Read more
The surveillance state is here—and it’s bleak
Lisa Needham, Staff Writer - Daily Kos
_Stephan: I wonder how many Americans realize that dictator Trump is spending hundreds of millions of dollars of your tax dollars to pay the costs of putting the National Guard and his ICE Gestapo in American cities to harass and detain thousands of men, women, and children. The stories coming out of this military takeover of American civilian society get more horrific day by day. Only a thug … ⌘ Read more
ICE contract could bring controversial surveillance tech to American streets
Ja’han Jones, - MSBNC
_Stephan: Dictator Trump has now authorized ICE to take the next step in its Gestapo tactics. Trump has authorized ICE to use a spyware programn called Pegasus on the phones of people who oppose him. You won’t know it has happened to your phone, but ICE will then have access to everything on your phone, and everthing your phone is connected to. IC … ⌘ Read more
ICE Is Mounting a Mass Surveillance Campaign on American Citizens
Autumn Billings , Assistant Editor - reason
_Stephan: In every country ruled by an authoritarian dictator, one of the hallmarks of such societies is the surveillance of the citizenry, to control any resistance to the leader’s authority. Well, now that reality has come to the United States. I’m not sure how I will get to my daughter’s wedding. I have been warned not to fly or go through any g … ⌘ Read more
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That was a very non-fun day at work.
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@prologic@twtxt.net That sounds horrible. 😅 I wouldn’t want to own such a car. (My plan is not to buy a new car after my current one finally broke down entirely.)
@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org First time I heard about eCall. I don’t think I like this. 🫤 Feels like another attempt at going for complete surveillance. Yes, yes, it’s about “security”/“safety” … it always is.
It frustrates me that people who refuse to deal with Google, Apple or Microsoft for reasons of privacy or freedom are seen as the weird ones. The level of tracking, surveillance, advertising, hedonism, and societal fear being imposed on us is not normal. Those who reject the modern digital dystopia are not being radical or extreme; they’re trying to return to what should be normal.
EU is proposing a new mass surveillance law and is asking the public for feedback news ⌘ Read more
A threat model for opposing authoritarianism
A decade ago, I published a book on privacy “Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance.” In the book, and since then, in articles and speeches, I have been dispensing advice to people on how to protect their privacy. But my advice did not envision the moment we are in – where the government would collaborate with a tech CEO to strip-mine all of our data from government databases and use i … ⌘ Read more
EM1103B Board Integrates 0.5 TOPS NPU and 8MP ISP with RV1103B SoC
The EM1103B is a compact single-board computer built around the Rockchip RV1103B SoC. Designed for vision-based AIoT tasks, it targets applications like smart cameras, doorbells, and battery-powered surveillance devices, combining processing, AI acceleration, and imaging features in a small footprint. As the name suggests, the board is powered by the Rockchip RV1103B, similar to the […] ⌘ Read more
I asked police to send me their public surveillance footage of my car
Article URL: [https://cardinalnews.org/2025/03/28/i-drove-300-miles-in-rural-virginia-then-asked-police-to-send-me-their-public-surveillance-footage-of-my-car-heres-what-i-learned/](https://cardinalnews.org/2025/03/28/i-drove-300-miles-in-rural-virginia-then-asked-police-to-send-me-their-public-surveillance-footage-of-my-car-heres-wha … ⌘ Read more
[ANN] MoneroTop - Spasm-powered XMR forum
Most Monero-related discussions happen on slave tech platforms, which are vulnerable to censorship and surveillance. It’s time to embrace freedom tech. You can now sign messages with your private keys and submit them to different networks at MoneroTop forum, which is powered by Spasm - the future of social media.
Links:
degenrocket (Session) ⌘ Read more
Pokemon Go, the Surveillance Game Financed by the CIA, now Owned by Saudi Arabia
Pokemon Go has been 3D mapping your homes for years, and now it is owned by the Wife-Beating, Jeff Bezos Hacking, Journalist Murdering Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. ⌘ Read more
[ANN] MT #343: Marketing Monero to Save Souls from Technological Totalitarianism w/ Monero Master
In this episode Douglas Tuman interviews Sean Bradford about Monero, Christianity, and privacy-focused marketing initiatives. Sean Bradford, who recently emerged in the Monero community, discusses his various projects including the Monero Masters podcast and surveillance resistance campaign.
Links:
Age Verification Laws: A Backdoor to Surveillance
Article URL: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/first-porn-now-skin-cream-age-verification-bills-are-out-control
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43292820
Points: 500
# Comments: 332 ⌘ Read more
ESP32-S3 IR Thermal Imaging Camera Module with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Connectivity
Waveshare recently launched the ESP32-S3 IR Thermal Imaging Camera Module which is a wireless infrared thermal imaging device based on the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 chip. Designed with a compact form factor of 29 × 29mm, this module is intended for applications such as thermal monitoring, security surveillance, and industrial diagnostics. The product page does not mention […] ⌘ Read more
ASRock Industrial Updates iEP-6010E Series with Super Mode for NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX and Nano
ASRock Industrial has upgraded the iEP-6010E Series and Developer Kit with Super Mode for NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX and Orin Nano, improving AI inference and efficiency. Optimized with NVIDIA JetPack 6.2 SDK, the system supports real-time processing for automation, surveillance, robotics, and smart infrastructure. According to the company, Super Mode enables the … ⌘ Read more
Monero Observer Artistic Saturday Top 5 - Week 3, 2025
Previous Artistic Saturday weekly reports can be found in the [art] 1 section.
Monero Observer Artistic Saturday Top 5 - Week 49, 2024
Previous Artistic Saturday weekly reports can be found in the [art] 1 section.
![‘Monero … ⌘ Read more
Jeffrey Paul: Apple OSes Are Insecure By Design To Aid Surveillance: https://sneak.berlin/20231005/apple-operating-system-surveillance/
Murray’s 100 million bees are finally on the move after an ‘anxious’ week stuck in a varroa mite surveillance zone
After playing a crucial role in pollinating Victorian almond orchards and a week caught in a varroa mite surveillance zone, Queensland’s Murray Arkadieff and his 1,000 beehives are finally heading home. ⌘ Read more
Queensland beehives allowed across the border from NSW amid varroa mite concerns
Queensland beekeepers are cleared to bring their hives back home but face 12 months of increased surveillance to ensure their bees are varroa mite free. ⌘ Read more