surveillance

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

Even If No One Is Looking For You, Yes You Are Being Watched – Surveillance Is Pervasive

The U.S. has the largest number of surveillance cameras per person in the world. Cameras are omnipresent on city streets and in hotels, restaurants, malls and offices. They’re also used to screen passengers for the Transportation Security Administration. And then there are smart doorbells and other home security cameras. Most Americans are aware of video surveillance of public spaces. Likewise, most people know about online tracking – and want Congress to do something about it. But as a researcher who studies digital culture and secret communications, I believe that to understand how pervasive surveillance is, it’s important to recognize how physical and digital tracking work together. Databases can correlate location data from smartphones, the growing number of private cameras, license ...

Could Surveillance Of Students In Schools Via Laptops Do More Harm Than Good

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGY

Could Surveillance Of Students In Schools Via Laptops Do More Harm Than Good

Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro Ever since the start of the pandemic, more and more public school students are using laptops, tablets or similar devices issued by their schools. The percentage of teachers who reported their schools had provided their students with such devices doubled from 43% before the pandemic to 86% during the pandemic, a September 2021 report shows. In one sense, it might be tempting to celebrate how schools are doing more to keep their students digitally connected during the pandemic. The problem is, schools are not just providing kids with computers to keep up with their schoolwork. Instead – in a trend that could easily be described as Orwellian – the vast majority of schools are also using those devices to keep tabs on what students are d...

Under New Surveillance Laws Facebook Or Twitter Posts Can Now Be Quietly Modified By The Government

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA, VIDEO REELS

Under New Surveillance Laws Facebook Or Twitter Posts Can Now Be Quietly Modified By The Government

James Jin Kang, Edith Cowan University and Jumana Abu-Khalaf, Edith Cowan University A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security. The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes. The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has insufficient safeguards for free speech and press fre...

What Is Genomic Surveillance And Why We Need More Of It To Track Coronavirus Variants And Help End The COVID-19 Pandemic

31Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

What Is Genomic Surveillance And Why We Need More Of It To Track Coronavirus Variants And Help End The COVID-19 Pandemic

“You can’t fix what you don’t measure” is a maxim in the business world. And it holds true in the world of public health as well. Sequencing the genetic code of virus samples taken from COVID-19 patients reveals how SARS-CoV-2 is spreading and changing. Nate Langer/UPMC, CC BY-ND Early in the pandemic, the United States struggled to meet the demand to test people for SARS-CoV-2. That failure meant officials didn’t know the true number of people who had COVID-19. They were left to respond to the pandemic without knowing how quickly it was spreading and what interventions minimized risks. Now the U.S. faces a similar issue with a different type of test: genetic sequencing. Unlike a COVID-19 test that diagnoses infection, genetic sequencing decodes the genome of SARS-CoV-2 virus in samples ...

How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of ‘ghosting’ in the age of surveillance

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of ‘ghosting’ in the age of surveillance

Drones of all sizes are being used by environmental advocates to monitor deforestation, by conservationists to track poachers, and by journalists and activists to document large protests. The federal government has used military-grade border patrol drones like this one to monitor protests in US cities. _ Jonathan Cutrer/Flickr, CC BY-SA As a political sociologist who studies social movements and drones, I document a wide range of nonviolent and pro-social drone uses in my new book, “The Good Drone.” I show that these efforts have the potential to democratize surveillance. But when the Department of Homeland Security redirects large, fixed-wing drones from the U.S.-Mexico border to monitor protests, and when towns experiment with using drones to test people for fevers, it’s time to think ...

High-tech surveillance amplifies police bias and overreach

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

High-tech surveillance amplifies police bias and overreach

Video of police in riot gear clashing with unarmed protesters in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has filled social media feeds. Meanwhile, police surveillance of protesters has remained largely out of sight. Police forces have a wide range of options for monitoring individuals and crowds. Nicholas Kaeser/Flickr, CC BY-NC Local, state and federal law enforcement organizations use an array of surveillance technologies to identify and track protesters, from facial recognition to military-grade drones. Police use of these national security-style surveillance techniques – justified as cost-effective techniques that avoid human bias and error – has grown hand-in-hand with the increased militarization of law enforcement. Extensive research, in...

Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data

22Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data

The claim that COVID-19 and its associated medical and social responses do not discriminate belies the history of how pandemics work and who is most impacted by them. States of emergency show that citizenship privileges some, is partial for others and disappears others. In our early analysis of national media coverage, those experts sharing the grim statistics of infections and deaths, those front-line workers seen as risking their lives and those who have lost loved ones are predominantly white. Black, Indigenous and racialized people, and many whose lives have been further imperilled by this pandemic, remain virtually disappeared from the Canadian landscape. That makes collective care for members across our communities untenable. We take pause and reflect on how this will impact Black ...

Addressing Racial And Gender Bias In Facial Recognition Surveillance

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

Addressing Racial And Gender Bias In Facial Recognition Surveillance

The dystopian surveillance state of science fiction media is within reach—and some privacy activists argue that it’s already here. Facial recognition advancements have spiked fear and uncertainty over misuse and civil liberties infringements, but with the alarm comes a wave of activists bringing solutions. What is facial recognition? Facial recognition is a form of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence broadly refers to the development of computers to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence. If you have an email, you are indebted to AI for directing spam to a separate folder instead of flooding your inbox—the computer learned to recognize the pattern of spam and filter it accordingly. If you have a YouTube account or music streaming service, your personalize...

How to secure your home surveillance cameras

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

TECHNOLOGY

How to secure your home surveillance cameras

The easiest way for a hacker to gain access to something is to guess the username and password of the device’s administrative account Hackers are breaking into home security cameras, and the process isn’t always as difficult as you may think. In December, there were reports of hackers gaining access to Ring security cameras in Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida and Texas. And cybersecurity experts say incidents like these aren’t very complex to execute because people often use passwords that are easily guessed. “The easiest way for a hacker to gain access to something is to guess the username and password of the device’s administrative account,” said Brian Vecci, chief technology officer at the data protection company Varonis. “That’s the most common way to get hacked.” He said bad acto...