Oaklanders will have a say in the city’s use of surveillance technologies like license-plate readers, cellphone trackers and surveillance cameras under a new city ordinance. The ordinance, introduced at Tuesday’s city council meeting, creates a public approval process for surveillance technologies used by the city. The rules also lay a groundwork for the City Council […]
Surveillance & Technology
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Cambridge Analytica Forced to Shut Down Following Facebook Data Scandal…
The British company denied any wrongdoing, despite Facebook saying up to 87 million users had their data breached. In a statement, Cambridge Analytica said the negative media coverage has left it unable to continue. ‘Over the past several months, Cambridge Analytica has been the subject of numerous unfounded accusations and, despite the company’s efforts to […]
Conservative Publishers Hit Hardest by Facebook News Feed Change…
Facebook’s January 12 announcement that it would begin to de-prioritize news publishers and their posts in users’ News Feeds has had a surprisingly profound and partisan impact. According to The Outline’s analysis of Facebook engagement data obtained from research tool BuzzSumo, conservative and right-wing publishers (such as Breitbart, Fox News, and Gateway Pundit) were hit […]
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New Analysis by the Forensicator Examines ‘Russian Fingerprints’ Left by Guccifer 2.0…
The Forensicator’s article, Did Guccifer 2 Plant his Russian Fingerprints?, analyzes the first five Word documents that Guccifer 2.0 published on his WordPress.com blog the day after the DNC alleged that it had been hacked by Russian state-sponsored operatives. The first of those documents, which Guccifer 2.0 labeled 1.doc, also known as the “Trump opposition […]
Facebook Co-Founder Calls for Tech Firm ‘Data-Tax’ to Fund ‘Data-Dividend’ for All Americans…
Some of Facebook’s harshest critics – since the company first came under pressure for purportedly not doing enough to stanch the flow of fake news on its platform and allowing Russian troll farms to post disingenuous advertisements – have been former employees and investors who have acknowledged that the company’s unchecked expansion has come at […]
Facebook to Offer to Users to Opt Out of Browsing History Data Collection…
Facebook announced Tuesday it will allow users to opt out of letting the social media giant collect browsing history data. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement on his personal page, adding he will discuss the control in detail during Facebook’s annual developer conference later Tuesday. The change — called “Clear History” — is the […]
Amazon Alexa Has Got Some Serious Skills–Spying on Users!…
“Alexa, are you spying on me?” — aaaa…..mmmm…..hmmm…..maybe!!! Security researchers have developed a new malicious ‘skill’ for Amazon’s popular voice assistant Alexa that can turn your Amazon Echo into a full-fledged spying device. Amazon Echo is an always-listening voice-activated smart home speaker that allows you to get things done by using your voice, like playing […]
Memo Shows YouTube Is ‘A Threat to This Country’…
Tucker Carlson reported that an exclusive YouTube internal memo obtained by his staff shows its censorship guidelines are “totally subjective” and are designed with “maximum political intent.” Carlson said YouTube is a “digital video monopoly” owned by “digital search monopoly” Google. Carlson recalled a case where conservative group PragerU posted a video challenging the notion […]
Amazon Alexa Bug Let Hackers Turn Echo Speakers into Covert Listening Device…
Amazon’s Echo speakers featured a bug that could have allowed hackers eavesdrop on people in their homes. Security researchers found a way to listen in on and transcribe conversations taking place near a speaker, thanks to a flaw which has since been fixed. Amazon Echo speakers listen out for the word “Alexa”, the name of […]
Obama Bureaucracy Left Our Private Data More Vulnerable Than Ever…
Without your knowledge or permission, the Obama administration collected and warehoused your most private bank records and continued to sweep them up — despite repeated warnings the data wasn’t being properly protected. Now there’s a good chance your personal information could be in the hands of identity thieves or even terrorists. The government isn’t sure […]
Drew Cloud Is a Well-Known Expert on Student Loans. One Problem: He’s Not Real…
Drew Cloud is everywhere. The self-described journalist who specializes in student-loan debt has been quoted in major news outlets, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and CNBC, and is a fixture in the smaller, specialized blogosphere of student debt. He’s always got the new data, featuring irresistible twists: One in five students use extra […]
Google Search Manipulation Can Swing Nearly 80 Percent of Undecided Voters…
The lead author of the study, Dr. Robert Epstein, has previously conducted research into what he calls the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME). This research showed that the manipulation of results pages in search engines can shift the voting preferences of undecideds by anywhere between 20 and 80 percent, depending on the demographic. His latest […]
Facebook: A Mass Media Micro-Surveillance Monopoly…
By blowing the whistle on Cambridge Analytica’s dodgy dealings with political campaigners in the U.S. and the U.K., Canadian Chris Wylie has given the social-media anthill a well-deserved kick. We’re now getting a rare glimpse into the hyperactive but hidden world of online-data trafficking – with its myriad actors feverishly harvesting, aggregating, packaging, profiling, brokering, […]
Artificial Intelligence Is Too Powerful to Be Left to Facebook, Amazon and Other Tech Giants…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress made one thing clear: the government needs an Federal Artificial Intelligence Agency. Facebook FB, +0.36% is a canary in the proverbial AI coal mine. AI is going to play an enormous role in our lives and in the global economy. It is the key to self-driving cars, the […]
How Shoddy Reporting and Anti-Russian Propaganda Coerced Ecuador to Silence Julian Assange…
JULIAN ASSANGE HAS been barred from communicating with the outside world for more than three weeks. On March 27, the government of Ecuador blocked Assange’s internet access and barred him from receiving visitors other than his lawyers. Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, when Ecuador granted him asylum due to […]
CENSORSHIP: YouTube Deleted 8M Videos for Alleged Content Violations…
YouTube deleted over eight million videos during the fourth quarter of 2017 for violating their content policies, according to numbers released by the company on Tuesday. Over six million of these videos were deleted automatically before any viewers saw them. The company said that most of the deleted videos were spam or adult content. The […]
House Hacking Suspects’ Father Transferred Data to Pakistani Government, Ex-Partner Claims…
The father of Imran Awan — an IT aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz who investigators concluded made “unauthorized access” to House servers — transferred a USB drive to a Pakistani senator and former head of a Pakistani intelligence agency, the father’s ex-business partner, Rashid Minhas, alleged. Minhas told The Daily Caller News Foundation that […]
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Washington State Fusion Center Accidentally Releases Records on Remote Mind Control…
When you send thousands of FOIA requests, you are bound to get some very weird responses from time to time. Recently, we here at MuckRock had one of our most bizarre gets yet – Washington State Fusion Center’s accidental release of records on the effects of remote mind control. As part of my ongoing project […]
Teen Who Hacked Ex-CIA Director John Brennan Gets Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison…
A teenage hacker who rose to fame for hacking into the online accounts of former CIA director John Brennan, former director of intelligence James Clapper, and other high-profile US government employees, got sentenced to two years of prison on Friday. For a few months in late 2015 and early 2016, Kane Gamble, who went by […]
A Google Update Just Created a Big Problem for Anti-Censorship Tools…
App developers won’t be able to use Google to get around internet censorship anymore. The Google App Engine is discontinuing a practice called domain-fronting, which let services use Google’s network to get around state-level internet blocks. A recent change in Google’s network architecture means the trick no longer works. First spotted by Tor developers on […]
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