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The FBI has partnered with US Border Patrol, the Pentagon and local law enforcement agencies to collect hundreds of thousands of iris scans, which can be captured in a fraction of a second. The Verge By Colin Lecher and Russell Brandom As a modestly sized department — policing 2 million citizens with just over 1,800 … Continue reading
Finally, some good news! The Hill’s Cristina Marcos reports: The House failed to pass legislation on Monday to enhance a provision of the Patriot Act that encourages banks to tip off federal authorities to suspected cases of terrorist financing. Many libertarians warned of potential privacy violations if the measure went into effect, which helped prevent … Continue reading
Jennifer Lynch Electronic Frontier Foundation Today the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) finally published its exhaustive report on the FBI’s face recognition capabilities. The takeaway: FBI has access to hundreds of millions more photos than we ever thought. And the Bureau has been hiding this fact from the public—in flagrant violation of federal law and … Continue reading
Omar Mateen, the suspected gunman behind the Orlando Pulse Nightclub massacre, appears to have an entry in the Internet Movie Database. The entry gives him credit for appearances in two movies. In 2012 he appeared as himself in The Big Fix, a documentary that examines the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico … Continue reading
The rising technocratic elite is getting cozy with beltway bureaucratic power. This is in spite of high profile showdowns between the government and technology companies over encryption. Silicon Valley, much like Wall Street, will become an important part of maintaining the system’s control over us all. For further reading on Google’s relationship with the government, … Continue reading
NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden spoke to an audience of more than 3,000 at President Petter’s Dream Colloquium on Big Data. The Peak reports: Snowden argued that terrorism is used as a justification to the public for the existence of these programs. What are the true motivations of programs such as PRISM? According to Snowden … Continue reading
Alternet.org Sarah Lazare Under new guidelines, the FBI is instructing high schools across the country to report students who criticize government policies and “western corruption” as potential future terrorists, warning that “anarchist extremists” are in the same category as ISIS and young people who are poor, immigrants or travel to “suspicious” countries are more likely … Continue reading
The Week Samsung has confirmed that its “smart TV” sets are listening to customers’ every word, and the company is warning customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets. The company revealed that the voice activation feature on its smart TVs will capture all nearby conversations. The TV sets can share … Continue reading
Vice News A VICE News investigation has found evidence that sophisticated surveillance equipment that spies on people’s phones is being used across London, and uncovered a growing black market for the technology worldwide. Signs of IMSI catchers — also known as stingrays or cell-site simulators — were found at several locations in the British capital, … Continue reading
The Department of Homeland Security has released a December 18 update which changes the rules for passengers’ ability to “opt out” of body scanner screening. The update states: TSA is updating the AIT PIA to reflect a change to the operating protocol regarding the ability of individuals to opt out of AIT screening in favor … Continue reading
Truth Axis 