2025-05-20
We went full black mirror. Tracking anyone, anywhere, at any time using their face is simply incompatible with democracy. Terrified to think how cops will weaponize this against protesters, religious groups, and anyone else law enforcement wants to target. www.washingtonpost.com/business/ 202...
Washington Post
Investigation: for two years, New Orleans police secretly scanned city streets using 200+ facial recognition cameras, seemingly violating a 2022 city ordinance
www.washingtonpost.com/business/ 202... Important investigative work by @douglasmac.bsky.social & @aaronschaffer.com: Mary Branscombe / @marypcbuk : “every minute of every hour of...
2025-04-04
As someone who fights surveillance, I wish I could be gleeful about so many intel leaders losing their jobs, but truly the only thing that terrifies me more than our surveillance arsenal in the hands of the NSA is putting it in the hands of Elon Musk. 😢 www.washingtonpost.com/national- sec...
Washington Post
US officials say NSA director and Cyber Command head Timothy Haugh was fired on April 3, along with his civilian deputy Wendy Noble and at least five aides
The director of the NSA, the powerful wiretapping and cyber espionage service, was fired Thursday, according to U.S. officials. — just now
2024-08-27
This is your periodic reminder the Telegram really is NOT securely encrypted... https://www.nytimes.com/... #telegram
New York Times
A profile of Pavel Durov, a devout techno-optimist who trolled authorities online, started social network VKontakte in 2006, and left Russia in 2014 for Dubai
Pavel Durov's anti-establishment streak helped him create one of the world's biggest online platforms, which emphasizes free speech.
This is your periodic reminder the Telegram really is NOT securely encrypted... https://www.nytimes.com/... #telegram
New York Times
French prosecutors: Pavel Durov's arrest is part of a probe “against person unnamed” into CSAM, drug sales, and more on the app and not working with authorities
A case was opened last month to investigate child pornography, drug sales, fraud and other criminal activities on the platform.
2022-03-14
This is grotesque. As I told @JLDastin at @Reuters, this is going to be a deadly mistake. When police #FacialRecognition makes mistakes we see innocent people wrongly arrested. When military face scans are wrong, civilians will get killed. #Ukraine https://www.reuters.com/...
Reuters
Clearview AI CEO says Ukraine is using its facial recognition tech, with 2B+ images from Russia's VKontakte, for free to identify Russian attackers and the dead
Ukraine's defense ministry on Saturday began using Clearview AI's facial recognition technology, the company's chief executive told Reuters …
2022-02-11
Enraging that after so many years of pushback by so many people around the world, the US Senate continues to drive us towards laws that would destroy the Internet as we know it. This isn't about what platforms have earned, it's about the open Internet that we all need #EarnItAct
The Verge
The Senate Judiciary Committee advances the EARN IT Act, targeting Section 230 sexual exploitation content protections, despite numerous free speech concerns
Russell Brandom / The Verge :
Enraging that after so many years of pushback by so many people around the world, the US Senate continues to drive us towards laws that would destroy the Internet as we know it. This isn't about what platforms have earned, it's about the open Internet that we all need #EarnItAct
Techdirt
Senator Blumenthal admits the EARN IT Act won't “offer a blanket exemption to using encryption as evidence”, after denying for two years it targets encryption
Senator Richard Blumenthal has now admitted that EARN IT is targeting encryption, something he denied for two years, and then just out and said it.
2022-02-09
“This is too little too late,” Fox Cahn told Gizmodo. “If https://id.me/ agrees that facial recognition is too invasive for some customers, why can't they agree it's wrong for all Americans?” https://gizmodo.com/...
Gizmodo
ID.me says it will make automated facial recognition verification optional for its government partners and let users delete their face scans starting on March 1
Great new piece from @samfbiddle and @MaraHvistendahl at @theintercept about growing government cellphone hacking. It's 8 years since the Supreme Court held cellphone searches are one of the most invasive acts imaginable, but the abuse continues to grow. https://theintercept.com/...
The Intercept
Purchase records and docs show that 14 of the 15 US Cabinet departments and several other federal agencies bought Cellebrite phone hacking tools in recent years
The Intercept :
2022-02-02
How did anyone think this was a good idea?! People need to be able trust crisis lines in their darkest moments, not worry their data will be sold to the highest bidder. https://www.politico.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Politico
Nonprofit suicide chat service Crisis Text Line ends its data sharing relationship with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai and asks the company to delete existing data
and it's striking to be offered so much inside info about the CTL/Loris debacle — but it also doesn't fully connect the dots. A few thoughts/questions: https://www.zephoria.org/......
2021-08-10
Why are Congressional Democrats trying to fund AI experiments on people in prison? No, AI CAN'T create a crystal ball and predict pre-crime. This biased tech is going to get BIPOC individuals falsely accused of crimes and normalize racist tech. https://www.reuters.com/...
Reuters
US prisons are exploring the use of AI to analyze inmates' phone calls, a practice privacy advocates say could amplify racial bias in the justice system
Reuters : Tweets: @aaschapiro , @lanceulanoff , @onekade , and @foxcahn Tweets: Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro : Prisons & jails are quietly deploying tech to transcribe, & anal...
2021-08-09
This is grotesque. No one should be allowed to pressure their employees into having a surveillance camera in their bedroom. The potential for abuse here is endless. https://twitter.com/...
NBC News
Call center operator Teleperformance, used by Apple, Amazon, and Uber, wants to monitor staff working from home in Colombia using AI-powered webcams
again — that Apple is fundamentally just as contemptuous of working people as the rest of corporate America. (Amazon and Uber have long been known for this.) https://twitter.com/.....
2021-08-06
So, Apple makes its entire iOS ad campaign about “privacy”, but then starts scanning your photos, messages, and searches? Not only does this normalize this mass surveillance, but it's only a matter of time before the algorithm makes a huge mistake. https://www.apple.com/...
TechCrunch
In addition to scanning for known child abuse photos, Apple will also begin using on-device ML to warn parents and kids of sexually explicit photos in Messages
Apple later this year will roll out new tools that will warn children and parents if the child sends or receives sexually explicit photos through the Messages app.
So, Apple makes its entire iOS ad campaign about “privacy”, but then starts scanning your photos, messages, and searches? Not only does this normalize this mass surveillance, but it's only a matter of time before the algorithm makes a huge mistake. https://www.apple.com/...
Financial Times
Security experts voice privacy concerns over Apple's new plan to scan users' devices for child abuse images, saying governments will likely increase its scope
Security researchers raise alarm over potential surveillance of personal devices — Apple intends to install software …
2021-04-14
@OversightBoard And how do you stop this from being co-opted by the right wing groups that Facebook has empowered for years? How long before this is used to take down posts from BLM activists and BIPOC leaders? We don't need a speech Board, we need antitrust enforcement. https://twitter.com/...
Oversight Board
Facebook Oversight Board will now accept appeals to remove content from Facebook and Instagram; previously, users were only able to appeal to restore content
“The NYPD is turning New Yorkers into surveillance guinea pigs,” Cahn said. “We keep hearing the same rhetoric from Mayor de Blasio that he believes in community based policing, but I don't see any community that's calling for these creepy robots.” https://gothamist.com/...
Gothamist
Since October, the NYPD has deployed a quadruped robot called Spot to a handful of crime scenes and hostage situations, raising fears of unwanted surveillance
The NYPD's robot dog is once again stirring privacy concerns and cyberpunk prophesies of some New Yorkers, after the four-legged machine …
2021-04-11
@mims But why are we assuming micro targeting actually works? Growing evidence that businesses aren't actually getting much of an upside at all. https://www.wired.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Wall Street Journal
Some SMB owners who advertise heavily online say Facebook is speaking the truth about how iOS privacy changes might disproportionately affect such businesses
With big changes coming to iPhones, small online merchants are bracing for lost sales. ‘Why is Apple now the decider?’
2021-03-29
Like I mentioned, there are issues with #EXCELSIORpASS...lots of issues: “It's really just high-tech hydroxychloroquine...my jaw hit the floor when I read how poorly this [privacy] policy was written.” https://gothamist.com/... https://twitter.com/...
USA Today
NY State launches first US “vaccine passport” app, Excelsior Pass, built on IBM's blockchain-based health pass platform, to be used initially at large venues
USA Today :
2021-01-29
Facebook's oversight board is chillingly opaque. If this were a real court, we could see the briefs and judges would sign their names. But here, we just get an anonymous ruling from 5 unspecified board members, and we don't even know if there are dissents. https://oversightboard.com/...
NBC News
Facebook's Oversight Board issues first-ever rulings, which Facebook said it will abide by, overturning four out of the five cases it reviewed
Dylan Byers / NBC News :
2021-01-10
Great, but it's somewhat disconcerting that we've developed digital infrastructure that requires completely unaccountable corporations to protect us from the radicalization they enabled. https://twitter.com/...
Axios
Google suspends Parler from the Play Store over moderation and enforcement policies, citing an “ongoing and urgent public safety threat”
Shawna Chen / Axios :