Showing posts with label surveillance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surveillance. Show all posts

Chinese Police Are Now Using Facial-Recognition Eyewear To Screen Faces


Quartz: Chinese police are wearing sunglasses that can recognize faces

In the Matrix series, Keanu Reeves wears futuristic sunglasses to look cool when fighting against machines. But in China, police are now wearing sunglasses equipped with facial-recognition technology to catch criminal suspects.

Railway police in Zhengzhou, a central Chinese city, are the first in the country to use facial-recognition eyewear to screen passengers during the Lunar New Year travel rush, Chinese state media reported (link in Chinese) this week. The devices have already helped nab seven fugitives related to major criminal cases such as human trafficking and hit-and-runs, and 26 others who were traveling with fake identities.

Read more ....

CSN Editor: I can see the day when this is not only being used by police forces around the world .... but also by the military in war zones or within their bases..
Read More

Poll: 55% Believe The Obama White House Spied On The Trump Campaign

,


Investors Business Daily: Most Think Obama White House Spied On Trump Campaign, Want Special Counsel: IBD/TIPP Poll

Spying On Trump: Americans overwhelmingly believe the Obama administration "improperly surveilled" Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and a majority say they would like to see a special prosecutor appointed to look into possible misconduct by the FBI and Department of Justice in spying on Trump, the latest IBD/TIPP poll shows.

One fact emerges from the poll of 900 people conducted from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2: The public doesn't necessarily buy into the Democratic narrative that the Trump campaign "colluded" with Russia to tamper with the 2016 presidential election.

The poll also suggests that many Americans think the roots of the allegations made against Trump extend beyond the two major party campaigns in the last presidential election and deep into the Obama era's intelligence and law enforcement bureaucracies, and may involve active political bias on the part of supposedly nonpartisan employees of both the Justice Department and FBI.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The sample size for this poll is 900 .... which is very small. As for the 55% who believe that the Obama White House spied on the Trump campaign .... I find that number to be very high, especially since much of the media has either been ridiculing these allegations, or flat-out denying it.
Read More

US House voted to allow NSA keep spying on Americans

,
Read More

China Now Has The World's Biggest Camera Surveillance Network (Video)



From the BBC: China has been building what it calls "the world's biggest camera surveillance network". Across the country, 170 million CCTV cameras are already in place and an estimated 400 million new ones will be installed in the next three years.

Many of the cameras are fitted with artificial intelligence, including facial recognition technology. The BBC's John Sudworth has been given rare access to one of the new hi-tech police control rooms.

WNU Editor: You can run, but you definitely cannot hide.
Read More

Improper Obama-Era NSA And FBI Spying Detailed In Latest Declassification Of Memos

Image from Slashgear

The Hill: Newly declassified memos detail extent of improper Obama-era NSA spying

The National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama years by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts, according to newly declassified memos that provide some of the richest detail to date on the spy agencies’ ability to obey their own rules.

The memos reviewed by The Hill were publicly released on July 11 through Freedom of Information Act litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Kudos to the Trump administration's decision to not fight this ACLU request thereby having these memos released now instead of at some later date. As to the memos themselves .... according to the ACLU these memos are a bombshell because they reveal how much the law was disregarded by the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies. This is something to remember about when we hear former President Obama intel chiefs carping and complaining about President Trump .... Former Intelligence Chiefs Criticise President Trump. Former CIA Director Brennan Encourages Government Officials To Not Follow President Trump's Orders On Robert Mueller (July 25, 2017) .... or when former FBI Director and now Special Counsel Robert Mueller makes his report on his Russian collusion investigation.
Read More

The FBI's Power To Spy On Journalists Is Raising Concerns

The Intercept: Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy For The FBI To Spy On Journalists

Rules governing the use of national security letters allow the FBI to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the targeted news organization.

SECRET FBI RULES allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures.

The classified rules, obtained by The Intercept and dating from 2013, govern the FBI’s use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form.

Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists’ information.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: This is an update to the story from last year.
Read More

AT&T Is Doing NSA-Style Work For Law Enforcement

Daily Beast: AT&T Is Spying on Americans for Profit, New Documents Reveal

The telecom giant is doing NSA-style work for law enforcement—without a warrant—and earning millions of dollars a year from taxpayers.

On Nov. 11, 2013, Victorville, California, sheriff’s deputies and a coroner responded to a motorcyclist’s report of human remains outside of town.

They identified the partially bleached skull of a child, and later discovered the remains of the McStay family who had been missing for the past three years. Joseph, 40, his wife Summer, 43, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, had been bludgeoned to death and buried in shallow graves in the desert.

Investigators long suspected Charles Merritt in the family’s disappearance, interviewing him days after they went missing. Merritt was McStay’s business partner and the last person known to see him alive. Merritt had also borrowed $30,000 from McStay to cover a gambling debt, a mutual business partner told police. None of it was enough to make an arrest.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: It makes you wonder on what else can they do with your cell phone when it comes to tracking your movements and behaviour.

Update: No kidding .... Big tech-media mergers raise fresh privacy concerns (Phys.org).
Read More

How 8,000 Cameras In New York City Helped In The Capture Of Bombing Suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami



NBC: Ahmad Rahami's Capture: More Than 8,000 Cameras Helped Snare Bomb Suspect

The black-and-white image that caught Ahmad Khan Rahami near the site of a Manhattan explosion Saturday night and helped investigators identify him as a bombing suspect comes from one of more than 8,000 cameras added to New York streets since the September 11 terror attacks as part of the city's "Ring of Steel."

The number of cameras in New York City has been growing steadily in the 15 years since the attack on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan as law enforcement's ability to monitor the city has grown ever more sophisticated.

"That's the world we're living in now. Any street, any incident in New York City you get to -- most of the time -- that gets captured on video surveillance," New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill said at a press conference on Monday.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: What also probably helped was this .... New York police use virtual 'wanted poster' to help catch bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami (NYT). More here .... New York police use virtual 'wanted poster' to help catch bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami (ABC News Online).

8,000 cameras .... and counting. This trend of putting cameras in urban centres is growing worldwide .... and one can only imagine the world will be like 20 or 30 years from now.
Read More

All U.S. Government Wiretap Applications Were Approved In 2015


Kevin Collier, Vocativ: US Government Approved 100% Of Wiretap Applications In 2015

A 10-year study shows the U.S. wiretaps increasingly often and effectively

A ten-year study of how state and federal law enforcement wiretaps suspects shows that the government is extremely efficient at the practice, and is only getting better.

The new report, conducted by the Federal Judiciary, looked at the prevalence of the FBI and state and local police petitioning for a warrant to surveil someone. Methods range from tracking their computer activity to bugging a home telephone or a room, though it overwhelmingly—96 percent of the time 2015—meant tracking or listening to their cell phone calls. It has become a common enough practice that in a ten-year span, a wiretap request has been denied only eight times, and never more than twice in a year. According to the report, “No wiretap applications were reported as denied in 2015.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Can someone say "rubber-stamp".
Read More

FBI Rules Make It Easier To Spy On Journalists

Reuters / Joe Skipper / Reuters

Cora Currier, The Intercept: Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy For The FBI To Spy On Journalists

SECRET FBI RULES allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures.

The classified rules, obtained by The Intercept and dating from 2013, govern the FBI’s use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form.

Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists’ information.

The rules stipulate that obtaining a journalist’s records with a national security letter (or NSL) requires the signoff of the FBI’s general counsel and the executive assistant director of the bureau’s National Security Branch, in addition to the regular chain of approval. Generally speaking, there are a variety of FBI officials, including the agents in charge of field offices, who can sign off that an NSL is “relevant” to a national security investigation.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: These rules are from 2013 .... I am willing to bet that these rules have probably been updated post-Edward Snowden to make it even more easier.
Read More

Russian Spy Tech Is Raising Privacy Fears In Russia (And I Predict Soon In The West).

Russian authorities and members of the public have lashed out at recent inventions such as a phone call interception system and a face recognition app as breached of law or infringement of privacy (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)

AFP: Russian hi-tech spy devices under attack over privacy fears

Moscow (AFP) - New Russian technologies, including phonecall interception and a facial recognition app, have stirred a fierce debate about privacy and data monitoring.

Infowatch, a Moscow-based IT security company managed by businesswoman Natalya Kasperskaya, found itself in hot water last month after it revealed it had invented a system that companies can use to intercept employees' mobile phone conversations.

Companies outside Russia have also devised call interception software, and Infowatch already markets products that monitor employees' e-mails, USB keys and printers.

But Kasperskaya says she was taken aback by the storm that surrounded the mobile phone innovation.

"We weren't expecting this. For us it was only another channel of communication," Kasperskaya told AFP in an interview.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: To begin .... Kaspersky Lab security software company is an impressive company. I was asked years ago if I could do some marketing for them in Canada/the U.S. .... but I declined because of other projects. But I have always followed the company ... and over the years the tech and the calibre of the people that they have always been able to recruit has been beyond impressive .... so I am not surprised that what they are now marketing is causing a huge stir in Russia .... and (I predict) will soon cause a stir in the West.

As to the new Russian smartphone app known as FindFace, where it allows users to photograph strangers on the street and then identify their pages on Russia's social network site VK .... when I first heard about it I said to myself "wow" .... the possibilities on what that tech can do (and reveal) should concern all of us who are worried about our privacy and who value our anonymity. The app is not here yet, but it is only a matter of time. The link to FindFace is here.
Read More

A Look At The Gadgets That U.S. Agencies Use To Spy And Track Cellphones

BGR: The 7 scariest gadgets the NSA uses to spy on cellphones

Yesterday, The Intercept published an extensive catalog detailing the innumerable gadgets and technologies used by the military, law enforcement authorities, and U.S. governmental agencies like the NSA to track down and spy on targeted users via their cellphones.

The entire product listing is eye-opening, but given how extensive it is (53 items in total), we’ve compiled a list of some of the scariest and more worrisome devices on the list. Note: when compiling this list, we didn’t include tracking devices and technologies typically affixed to UAVs. Instead, we opted to focus on devices that enable local law enforcement authorities to conduct surveillance, listen in on phone calls, track user location, jam cellphones, obtain deleted text messages, and even zap up data from seized laptops or smartphones.

WNU Editor: These gadgets are not cheap!!!! The catalogue is here.
Read More

The Booming Business Of Surveillance Technology

New York Times: Battle Heats Up Over Exports of Surveillance Technology

WASHINGTON — Ayman Ammar and Rashid Albuni claimed to be computer technology distributors, operating through multiple corporations in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The United States government, though, charged them with smuggling — of illegally shipping American equipment to the Syrian government that can help it monitor Internet traffic and spy on dissidents.

The Syrian case, in which the two men were fined last month for violating American economic sanctions against Syria, is one of the few the Obama administration has pursued to limit authoritarian governments from acquiring technology that enables censoring, spying and hacking.

That is largely because many of the same tools that repressive governments seek from Western companies are vital for social media and other communications by political protesters and grass-roots organizers throughout the world. The software and other equipment are also used by American and other law enforcement agencies to track criminals or disrupt plots, and are needed to filter out unwanted content from most commercial and governmental networks and to keep them secure.

WNU Editor: The surveillance technology used in George Orwell's 1984 appears lame now.
Read More

President Obama Signs Bill That Reforms NSA Surveillance



VOA: Obama Signs Bill Reforming Lapsed Surveillance Program

CAPITOL HILL - President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a bill to reform and restart the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records, a program that expired earlier this week.

The president said the USA Freedom Act "protects civil liberties and our national security."

The legislation mandates that private telecommunications companies, rather than the National Security Agency, will collect and retain phone records nationwide. Federal authorities will need a court order to review those records and look for points of contact with known or suspected terrorists abroad.

Earlier Tuesday, the Senate voted 67-32 to approve the measure and send it to Obama, after days of intense and heartfelt debate about protecting national security and safeguarding civil liberties

More News On President Obama Signing Bill That Reforms NSA Surveillance

Obama signs bill reforming surveillance program -- Reuters
US Congress curbs NSA surveillance; Obama signs into law -- AFP
Obama Signs Bill Remaking NSA Phone Records Program -- AP
USA Freedom Act passed by Senate and signed by President Obama, limiting NSA surveillance -- Euronews
Barack Obama signs into law Bill reforming electronic surveillance programme -- IBTimes
US Secret Surveillance Reinstated as Obama Signs USA Freedom Act Into Law -- Sputnik
President Obama signs bill curbing NSA powers into law -- The Verge
Read More

The CIA Is Giving It's Surveillance Tech Secrets To The U.S. Justice Department To Spy On Americans



Wall Street Journal: CIA Aided Program to Spy on U.S. Cellphones

Marshals Service uses airborne devices that mimic cell towers to scan data on thousands of cellphones

WASHINGTON—The Central Intelligence Agency played a crucial role in helping the Justice Department develop technology that scans data from thousands of U.S. cellphones at a time, part of a secret high-tech alliance between the spy agency and domestic law enforcement, according to people familiar with the work.

The CIA and the U.S. Marshals Service, an agency of the Justice Department, developed technology to locate specific cellphones in the U.S. through an airborne device that mimics a cellphone tower, these people said.

Today, the Justice Department program, whose existence was reported by The Wall Street Journal last year, is used to hunt criminal suspects. The same technology is used to track terror suspects and intelligence targets overseas, the people said.



More News On Reports That the CIA Gave Surveillance Tech Secrets To The U.S. Justice Department To Spy On Americans

CIA Aided Program to Spy on U.S. Cellphones -- WSJ
CIA aided domestic phone spying -- The Hill
CIA reportedly helped Justice Department develop technology to access cell phone data -- FOX News
CIA Gave Cops Secret Technology to Spy on Cell Phones -- Sputnik
CIA, US Marshals engaged in domestic phone spying – report -- RT
CIA Helped Justice Department Develop Technology To Secretly Slurp Thousands Of Cellphone Data At Once -- Tech Times
The CIA is giving its surveillance tech to US law enforcement -- Endgadget
CIA secretly helped build phone scanning tech for US operations -- ZDNet
Read More

The Rise Of The Surveillance State In England



Vice News: In Wake of Paris Attacks, David Cameron Calls For New Powers to Break Encrypted Communications

WNU Editor: To impose and enforce such a ban on apps .... while running a massive bureaucracy dedicated to surveillance .... this is a nightmare situation that (1) will not work because it cannot be enforced, (2) punish the innocent and those who are dependent on such technologies, and (3) destroy any expectation of privacy.

More News On PM Cameron's Proposals To Expand The U.K.'s Surveillance Laws

Britain debates whether security agencies need increased surveillance powers -- Washington Post
David Cameron: Empower U.K. Spies to Read All Communications -- The Atlantic
David Cameron: If government can't snoop on it, you shouldn't be allowed to use it -- CNN
Privacy Groups Pan Cameron’s Encryption Proposals as Unworkable -- WSJ
U.K. PM Backpedals On ‘Encryption Ban’, Sort Of -- Tech Crunch
Whatsapp and Snapchat Could be Banned Under Cameron's New Surveillance Laws -- Newsweek
WhatsApp, iMessage face ban in terror crackdown -- CNBC
Cameron threat to block WhatsApp and Snapchat in battle against terror to stop fanatics using encrypted messaging -- Daily Mail
UK Prime Minister Wants to Ban Messaging Apps Without Backdoor Access -- Gizmodo
David Cameron's web spying proposals are terrifying - here's why -- Olivia Solon, Mirror
David Cameron preying on our fears after Charlie Hebdo massacre with encryption ban calls -- David Gilbert, IBTimes
David Cameron in 'cloud cuckoo land' over encrypted messaging apps ban -- The Guardian
Read More

Every Government Can Now Track Where Cellphone Users Go Around The Globe

Dado Ruvic, Reuters

For Sale: Systems That Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone Users Go Around The Globe -- Washington Post

Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent.

The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them. Surveillance systems are secretly collecting these records to map people’s travels over days, weeks or longer, according to company marketing documents and experts in surveillance technology.

Read more ....

My Comment: So much for privacy and anonymity.

WNU Editor: Here's how cellphone tracking works.
Read More

Former Technical Director Of The NSA: NSA Records 80% Of All Phone Calls

Photo: Former technical director of the National Security Agency (NSA) William Binney (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Whistleblower: NSA Stores 80% Of All Phone Calls, Not Just Metadata - Full Audio -- RT

At least 80 percent of all audio calls are gathered and stored by the NSA, whistleblower William Binney has revealed. The former code-breaker says the spy agency’s ultimate aim is no less than total population control.

The National Security Agency lies about what it stores, said William Binney, one of the highest profile whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA, at a conference in London organized by the Center for Investigative Journalism on July 5. Binney left the agency shortly after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center because he was disgusted at the organizations move towards public surveillance.

“At least 80 percent of fiber-optic cables globally go via the US,” Binney said. “This is no accident and allows the US to view all communication coming in. At least 80 percent of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the US. The NSA lies about what it stores.”

Read more ....

More News On The NSA's Former Technical Director Claiming That The NSA Records 80% Of All Phone Calls

NSA Whistleblower Binney: NSA Recording 80% of U.S. Phone Calls -- New American
NSA stores 80% of Americans' phone conversations, claims NSA whistleblower Binney -- Network World
80% of All Calls Stored By NSA Says Whistleblower -- Android Headlines
The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control -- Antony Loewenstein, The Guardian

My Comment: William Binney has been a thorn on the side of the NSA for a very long time .... NSA Scandal: ‘Just The Tip Of The Iceberg’.
Read More

China Labels Apple's iPhone5 A Security Threat



China Labels iPhone a Security Threat -- WSJ

Broadcast by State-Run CCTV Cites Researchers Who Say Tracking App Could Expose 'State Secrets'

BEIJING—China's influential state broadcaster on Friday called a location-tracking function offered by Apple Inc. AAPL +0.19% 's iPhone a "national security concern," in the latest sign of a backlash in the country against U.S. technology firms.

In its national noon broadcast, state-run China Central Television criticized the "frequent locations" function in Apple's iOS 7 mobile operating system, which records time and location for the owner's movements. The report quoted researchers who said that those with access to that data could gain knowledge of China's economic situation or "even state secrets."

Apple didn't respond to requests for comment. The company describes the tracking function as an aid to iPhone users, for example by providing efficient travel routes. The feature can disabled in the device's settings.

Read more ....

More News On China Labeling Apple's iPhone5 A Security Threat

Apple iPhone a danger to China national security: state media -- Reuters
China thinks the iPhone's tracking features are a risk to national security (update: Apple responds) -- Endgadget
Apple Denies China Assertions on IPhone as Security Risk -- Bloomberg
Apple tells China it doesn't monitor iPhone users' locations -- CNet
Apple quickly counters China claim of iPhone spying -- Computer World
Huawei's Revenge; Chinese State Media Brands Apple's iPhone Security Risk -- Jim Worstall, Forbes
Read More

The U.S. Government Has Collected And Shared Data With The CIA, IRS, NSA, And Other Agencies

Image: Melina Yingling and Danny Dougherty, MCT

Americans’ Personal Data Shared With CIA, IRS, Others In Security Probe -- McClatchy News

WASHINGTON — U.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people – along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions – to nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Read more ....

Update #1: Confirmed: CIA, NSA, IRS collected and shared Americans' personal information -- RT
Update #2: Government Investigation Ended Up Sharing Thousands of Americans’ Data With CIA, NSA & IRS -- The Blaze

My Comment: I suspect that this sharing is just the "tip of the iceberg".
Read More