The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, “The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution,” makes for very scary reading. It is not so much because of what he and co-author Jared Cohen, the
- Computer chips will take control of home appliances when energy is low. - Sensors will detect spikes in demand for power and when grid struggles to meet it, will temporarily shut off appliances. - Can shut down supply without
The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a controversial data-sharing bill that would authorize e-mail and Internet providers to share confidential information with the federal government. By a 288-127 vote today, the House adopted the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act,
We’re used to being watched when we shop. Cookies track our every move online, and salespeople follow us around high-end stores. But many walk-in retailers are taking spying to a new level. Video cameras record your every move. Your face
According to a newly released report by The Business of Federal Technology website, the USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the company Amazon are about to sign a ‘cloud computing’ contract priced $600 million. The FCW article states that the CIA Chief
Location data may not seem personal in a crowded place – but a mobile user’s path can give identity away… Scientists say it is remarkably easy to identify a mobile phone user from just a few pieces of location information.
Just days after the CIA inked a $600-million cloud computing contract with Amazon, chief technology officer Gus Hunt admitted that the agency is trying to amass as much data as it can, hold it indefinitely and use it for analysis
More than a decade after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Transportation Security Administration is reassessing airline safety with an eye toward identifying the most likely threats. On Thursday, TSA Administrator John Pistole made his first appearance before Congress since last week’s
Research shows that intimate personal attributes can be predicted with high levels of accuracy from ‘traces’ left by seemingly innocuous digital behaviour, in this case Facebook Likes. Study raises important questions about personalised marketing and online privacy. New research, published
Your digital footprint could be getting a whole lot bigger: Pentagon scientists are searching for a way to transcribe every real-world conversation that happens into computer-readable files. Robert Beckhusen of Wired’s Danger Room says it wouldn’t be unlike a real-life Twitter feed
They hover over Hollywood film sets and professional sports events. They track wildfires in Colorado, survey Kansas farm crops and vineyards in California. They inspect miles of industrial pipeline and monitor wildlife, river temperatures and volcanic activity. They also locate
A couple of weeks ago, Chicago Transit Authority president Forrest Claypool announced that the agency would install high-definition surveillance cameras in 850 rail cars. There are already more than 3,600 cameras throughout the rail system, in stations and on trains, and the CTA spent
They can record video images and produce heat maps. They can be used to track fleeing criminals, stranded hikers — or just as easily, political protesters. And for strapped police departments, they are more affordable than helicopters. Drones are becoming a
In a major step toward opening U.S. skies to thousands of unmanned drones, federal officials Thursday solicited proposals to create six drone test sites around the country. The Federal Aviation Administration also posted online a draft plan for protecting people’s
As drones become increasingly common tools of war and surveillance on the battlefield and in our cities, how are architects and designers responding? Previously, we’ve looked at personal counter-surveillance measures, but it’s likely that future designers will move beyond the scale of
All personal information stored by British internet users on major “cloud” computing services including Google Drive can be spied upon routinely without their knowledge by US authorities under newly-approved legislation, it can be disclosed. Cloud computing has exploded in recent
A sinister airborne surveillance camera gives the U.S. military the ability to track movements in an entire city like a real-time Google Street View. The ARGUS-IS array can be mounted on unmanned drones to capture an area of 15 sq/miles
Cell phones that can identify you by how you walk. Fingerprint scanners that work from 25 feet away. Radars that pick up your heartbeat from behind concrete walls. Algorithms that can tell identical twins apart. Eyebrows and earlobes that give
Scientifically speaking, it’s only a matter of time before drones become self-aware and kill us all. Now the Air Force is hastening that day of reckoning. Buried within a seemingly innocuous list of recent Air Force contract awards to small businesses are
The most powerful company on the Internet just got a whole lot creepier: a new service from Google merges offline consumer info with online intelligence, allowing advertisers to target users based on what they do at the keyboard and at
Newly released FBI files on Marilyn Monroe reveal the names of some of the movie star’s communist-leaning friends who drew concern from government officials and her entourage. But the records, which previously had been heavily redacted, do not contain any
