Apple can now track you indoors
Still recovering from the backlash to its flawed Maps app, Apple is looking to beef up the iPhone’s indoor location capabilities by acquiring WiFiSlam. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal, Apple paid $20 million to scoop up the two-year-old startup based in Silicon Valley. As per usual for Apple, which [...]
In the online world – for now, at least – it’s the advertisers that make the world go round. If you’re Google, they represent more than 90% of your revenue and without them you would cease to exist. So how do you reconcile the fact that there is a finite amount of data to be [...]
Google will pay $7 million to settle complaints from dozens of U.S. states about its unauthorized collection of personal data transmitted over Wi-Fi networks. The money will be paid to 37 states and the District of Columbia, which had gone after Google after it admitted that its Street View cars had collected the data inadvertently [...]
EVERY time you purchase an app on Google Play, your name, address and email is passed on to the developer, it has been revealed today. The “flaw” – which appears to be by design – was discovered this morning by Sydney app developer, Dan Nolan who told news.com.au that he was uncomfortable being the custodian [...]
Massive security hole lets hackers control millions of cameras, printers and routers
January 31, 2013 3 Comments
A newly discovered exploit in a technology standard known as “universal plug and play” (UPnP) is big enough that hackers on the Internet could remotely access and control “millions” of compatible devices like cameras, printers and routers, security researchers said Tuesday. Researchers working for the security firm Rapid7 said they found bugs in the UPnP [...]
1 million terabytes a day saved forever. The ARGUS array is made up of several cameras and other types of imaging systems. The output of the imaging system is used to create extremely large, 1.8GP high-resolution mosaic images and video. The U.S. Army, along with Boeing, has developed and is preparing to deploy a new [...]
Clad in a stylish, black zip-up top and coolly holding the gaze, he could be an upmarket hitman researching his next job. One columnist likened him to “an assassin.” But that was just mischief, since the New York Times knew the bearded, beanie-wearing man on the New York subway was Google’s Sergey Brin, who, given [...]
What the Mossad’s female agents do — and don’t do — for the sake of Israel
January 16, 2013 8 Comments
For female Mossad agents, life is like a spy-movie — though not always as glamorous. Theirs is a world of intrigue, sleepless nights and, sometimes, flirtation, in conditions of ever-lurking danger, all for the sake of the state, with immense strains on their families. For the first time, five female Mossad agents went public this [...]
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to [...]
UPPER EAST SIDE — Drones might eventually be used for surveillance in New York City, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly revealed Thursday. Kelly said the eyes in the sky — which have worried civil rights activists — could prove useful when sizing-up demonstrations, adding to an NYPD arsenal that already includes 3,000 cameras and high-powered anti-aircraft [...]
Chris Hedges: New Documents on Activist Surveillance May Be “Just the Tip of the Iceberg”
January 11, 2013 No Comment
Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45-year-old married mother of two young children. She is a homeowner, a taxpayer and a safe driver. She votes in every election. She attends a Unitarian Universalist church on Sundays. She is also, like nearly all who have a relationship with the Occupy movement in the United States, being [...]
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed into law a five-year extension of the U.S. government’s authority to monitor the overseas activity of suspected foreign spies and terrorists. The warrantless intercept program would have expired at the end of 2012 without the president’s approval. The renewal bill won final passage in the Senate on Friday. [...]
Government officials installing audio surveillance systems on public buses
December 11, 2012 No Comment
The era of private conversations on city buses — and even on San Francisco’s iconic streetcars — may be coming to an end. Government officials are quietly installing sophisticated audio surveillance systems on public buses across the country to eavesdrop on passengers, according to documents obtained by The Daily. Plans to implement the technology are [...]
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to record and store information about Americans’ private text messages for at least two years, according to a proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress. CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups has asked the U.S. Senate to require that [...]
Homeland Security adds underwater drones to their arsenal with robots based on fish
November 30, 2012 No Comment
Meet Robocod, the latest weapon in Homeland Security’s increasingly high-tech underwater arsenal, a robotic fish designed to safeguard the coastline of America and bring justice to the deep. Well almost. The new robot, named BioSwimmer, is actually based not on a cod but a tuna which is said to have the ideal natural shape for [...]
