Tag Archives: unwarranted surveillance
Department stores tracking customer behavior with wi-fi
When Nordstrom posted a sign telling customers it was tracking them, shoppers were unnerved. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/business/attention-shopper-stores-are-tracking-your-cell.html?pagewanted=all Nordstrom wanted to learn more about its customers — how many came through the doors, how many were repeat visitors — the kind of information that e-commerce sites like Amazon have in spades. So last fall the company started testing […]
US plays constitutional shell game with surveillance
Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the Obama administration’s top appellate lawyer, argued that a challenge to a 2008 surveillance law should be dismissed. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/us/double-secret-surveillance.html?pagewanted=all He said, a little comically in retrospect, that the human rights groups, lawyers and reporters who sought to challenge the law had no particular reason to think that their communications […]
US secret surveillance program becomes public
The Obama administration is secretly carrying out a domestic surveillance program under which it is collecting business communications records involving Americans under a hotly debated section of the Patriot Act. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/us/us-secretly-collecting-logs-of-business-calls.html?hp The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in April, directs a Verizon Communications subsidiary, Verizon Business Network Services, […]
German drones and the anti-surveillance state
Germany’s national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, plans to test small drones to try to reduce the amount of graffiti being sprayed on its property. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22678580 The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night. But it is not yet clear […]
Judge criticizes NY Stop and Frisk
“A lot of people are being frisked or searched on suspicion of having a gun and nobody has a gun,” Judge Scheindlin, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, said on Monday during closing arguments in the trial. “So the point is: the suspicion turns out to be wrong in most of the cases.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/nyregion/judge-skeptical-of-new-york-police-stops-effectiveness.html?hp Observing […]
Face recognition fully implemented
The odds are you are not just a face in the crowd any longer. Even if your picture isn’t plastered all over social networking and photo-sharing sites, facial recognition technology in public places is making it harder if not impossible to remain anonymous. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57584887/big-brother-is-big-business/ CBS reports on the new ways this technology is being used […]
Some US lawmakers wary of Google Glass
Eight members of Congress on Thursday formally demanded that Google address a range of privacy concerns about its new wearable technology device, Google Glass.“We are curious whether this new technology could infringe on the privacy of the average American,” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/technology/lawmakers-pose-questions-on-google-glass.html?ref=technology The glasses, which are not yet for sale to the public, connect to the Internet […]
Drones in America under guise of drug war
The U.S. Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that officials say will make it easier to detect, track and videotape drug smugglers in action. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/04/27/world/americas/ap-cb-caribbean-drug-drones.html?ref=world One of the devices on display aboard the navy test ship is a type of drone that can be […]
Dirty Babylon 