Ed Felton at Freedom to Tinker reports that Secure Flight, the government program for screening airline passengers, has been mothballed by the Transportation Security Administration. The AP story cites security concerns; apparently Congress & the agency weren't confident that the…
Tag: Surveillance
Google Desktop 3.0 Copies Your Hard Drive
Google released a new version of their Desktop software, which includes a feature allowing users to search their files across computers. The service is not activated by default, and (savvy) users can opt to block certain files from being accessible…
Federal Government Considered Web-surveillance Project
ComputerWord reports that the government was approached by the data-aggregation firm Acxiom to conduct widespread surveillance of web sites discussing topics such as “abortion, racial superiority, politics, religion, immigration, and foreign affairs,” using technology designed to extract business contact information…
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How to triangulate location data, privacy and profit
OUT-LAW.COM posts about an opinion on privacy compliance from the EU's Article 29 Working Party on Data Protection. The issue at hand is the growing ability to triangulate location data with the plethora of data services/devices we use in everyday…
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Speed Cameras Used To Charge People With Other Crimes
Techdirt points to this (inevitable) example of function creep in the use of traffic cameras:A motorist who made V-signs [equivalent to the middle finger -mz] at a police speed camera has been convicted of dangerous driving and banned for a…
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Gore to Speak About Domestic Spy Program
With end of semester craziness, the holidays, and the transition to this new website, I wasn't able to blog about the revelations that the President authorized the NSA to engage in domestic surveillance without proper warrants. [See Bruce Schneier's excellent…
Universal Automobile Surveillance in the UK
Bruce Schneier points us to the latest steps the UK is taking to embark on wholesale surveillance of citizens driving on the public roads: Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles…
More Driving Big Brother
Declan McCullagh at CNET offers his commentary on the latest example of "driving big brother": GPS tracking of vehicles in support of mileage-based road user fees. From his commentary:In principle, the idea of what bureaucrats like to call "value pricing"…
More Cellphone Surveillance
Examples of surveillance and tracking via cellphone are emerging at a rapid pace lately. Business Week reports on several cell-phone tracking services available in Korea. According to the article, more than four million Koreans have signed up for services that…
MIT Tracks Students’ Movements Via Network Connections
MIT seems to like to experiment with ways of tracking its students. LawMeme reports that MIT has granted students access to information about its network traffic perviously available only to network administrator's. Students can now log in and view the…
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