Last month, we wrote about a wave of startups like Nuro, Starship, and Marble that are building autonomous delivery vehicles. It’s a promising concept. Designers of these vehicles don’t need to worry about passenger comfort or safety (since there are no passengers). And vehicles can be slow—about 25 mph (40 kph) for Nuro, even slower […]
Surveillance & Technology
Latest News
Facebook Wants to Spy on You Via Hidden Inaudible TV Ad Messages…
Social media giant Facebook continues to ramp up the creepy factor. According to a recently filed patent, Facebook wants to spy on you by hiding inaudible messages in TV ads. Facebook has filed a patent for a system that hides audio clips in TV commercials. These sounds would be so high-pitched that they are inaudible […]
Boeing Unveils Hypersonic 4,000mph Airliner…
Aerospace firm Boeing have joined the race for a new Concorde as they announced development of the aircraft at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The unnamed aircraft is theoretically capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5 – which is nearly 4,000mph. And this is almost three times faster than the legendary supersonic […]
Facial Recognition Software Is Not Ready for Use by Law Enforcement…
Recent news of Amazon’s engagement with law enforcement to provide facial recognition surveillance (branded “Rekognition”), along with the almost unbelievable news of China’s use of the technology, means that the technology industry needs to address the darker, more offensive side of some of its more spectacular advancements. Facial recognition technologies, used in the identification of […]
NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner Will Likely Be Sentenced to Five-Plus Years in Prison…
Former NSA contractor Reality Winner pled guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act when she disclosed an NSA report that claimed Russian hackers targeted United States voter registration systems in the 2016 election. The guilty plea was part of a change of plea hearing in federal court in Augusta, Georgia, and the result […]
Google.Gov…
Google exists to answer our small questions. But how will we answer larger questions about Google itself? Is it a monopoly? Does it exert too much power over our lives? Should the government regulate it as a public utility — or even break it up? In recent months, public concerns about Google have become more […]
Uber Driver Was Streaming Hulu Just Before Fatal Self-Driving Car Crash…
Tempe, Arizona, police have released a massive report on the fatal Uber vehicle crash that killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in March. The report provides more evidence that driver Rafaela Vasquez was distracted in the seconds before the crash. “This crash would not have occurred if Vasquez would have been monitoring the vehicle and roadway conditions […]
The Wiretap Rooms: The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities…
The secrets are hidden behind fortified walls in cities across the United States, inside towering, windowless skyscrapers and fortress-like concrete structures that were built to withstand earthquakes and even nuclear attack. Thousands of people pass by the buildings each day and rarely give them a second glance, because their function is not publicly known. They […]
Huge Win for Everyone with a Cellphone (and for the Fourth Amendment) at the Supreme Court…
In a blockbuster 5-4 decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that warrantless government tracking of cellphone users via their cellphone location records violates the Fourth Amendment. “A person does not surrender all Fourth Amendment protection by venturing into the public sphere,” declared the majority opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts. “We decline to […]
Related
Forget Facebook, Google. Here’s What I Worry About Much, Much More by John Stossel…
Upset because Facebook and Google invade your privacy? Be glad you don’t live in China. Facebook and other Western apps are banned there. The government views their openness as a threat. So the Chinese use platforms like WeChat and Alibaba. Now the Chinese government takes data from those platforms to assign all people who use […]
The IT Guy and Wasserman Schultz…
Allegations of fraud, theft, bigamy, and violence surround Imran Awan. It’s a story reminiscent of a spy novel. But the scandal surrounding Imran Awan has plenty of elements of the surreal and the farcical, too. Awan was a congressional IT staffer. Numerous members of his family joined him on the congressional payroll. Now he is […]
EU Votes for Law That Digital Rights Org Says Would ‘Destroy the Internet As We Know It’…
The European Parliament took its first step Wednesday in passing a law that would, as a digital rights coalition says, “destroy the the Internet as we know it.” The vote is likely to be the European Parliament’s official position unless the general assembly forces another vote on the legislation next month, Reuters reports. Article 13 […]
The Government’s Creepy Obsession with Your Face…
The government is obsessed with your face. Do not be flattered. This is more of a creepy stalker fixation. From the federal Department of Homeland Security down to local police departments, governmental use of biometric facial recognition software has gained a startling amount of traction in recent years. And these agencies are getting help from […]
Trump’s Space Council Orders a Traffic Control System for Objects in Space…
The US government is moving to tackle the problem of space junk. Shortly after he announced his intentions to create a “space force” wing of the military on Monday, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD3) at the third meeting of the newly revived National Space Council. It’s the most concerted effort by the US […]
Elon Musk: ‘I Am a Socialist’…
Tesla CEO and PayPal billionaire Elon Musk surprised many Friday when he declared on Twitter that he is a socialist. Conservative critics, however, may well have agreed, given his companies’ reliance on the state. Musk tweeted his declaration Friday after first tweeting that socialists have no sense of humor: Those who proclaim themselves “socialists” are […]
The Government Agency That Made Silicon Valley…
One of the major legacies of WW2 – on both sides of the Atlantic – was a profound awareness that science and technology matter. They played a huge role in winning the war, and they must have an equal place in winning the peace. In the United States, President Roosevelt’s wartime science guru, Vannevar Bush, […]
Australian Cybersecurity Expert: Facebook Listens to Conversations, Serves Ads Based on What it Hears…
“You’re talking about this conspiracy theory that gets passed around, that we listen to what’s going on on your microphone and we use that for ads. We don’t do that,” Mark Zuckeberg said after Senator Gary Peters asked whether Facebook listens to its users, according to the Independent. Yet, seemingly everyone – Senator Gary Peters […]
Senators Ask Jeff Bezos Just How Many Complaints Amazon’s Received About Eavesdropping Echoes…
Lawmakers in the U.S. have taken a greater interest in the failures of tech companies lately but most of the focus has been on Facebook and Google while Jeff Bezos has been busy making a reported $230,000 a minute. Now it’s Amazon’s turn in the barrel. On Thursday, Senators sent a list of questions regarding […]
Twitter to Face Claims by ‘White Advocate’ Over Banned Accounts…
Twitter Inc. lost its bid to dismiss a lawsuit by a “white advocate” who was banned from the site in a challenge to the company’s ability to exclude users it deems objectionable. California Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn in San Francisco rejected Jared Taylor’s claims that Twitter violated his free speech rights and discriminated against […]
Disgraced Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes Indicted on Criminal Charges…
Federal prosecutors have indicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and the company’s former president Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors claim that the pair defrauded investors, doctors, and patients while promoting and running their now disgraced blood-testing startup. In the new court filing—submitted […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- …
- 159
- Next Page »