TRACKING IN TRANSIT
Your Face Is Now Your Boarding Pass. And That's A Problem
What's face recognition at the airport really about? Immigration policy and efficiency.
Surveillance
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DO BRANDS NEED TO KNOW WHEN YOU'RE SAD?
Big Mood Machine
Spotify's enormous access to mood-based data is a pillar of its value to brands and advertisers, allowing them to target ads on Spotify by moods and emotions. Further, since 2016, Spotify has shared this mood data directly with the world's biggest marketing and advertising firms.
NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OF THIS
DIY Facial Recognition For Porn Is A Dystopian Disaster
Someone is making dubious claims to have built a program for detecting faces in porn and cross-referencing against social media, with 100,000 identified so far.
IF YOU DO, YOU'RE PROBABLY SPOOKED
It's The Middle Of The Night. Do You Know Who Your iPhone Is Talking To?
Apple says, "What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone." Our privacy experiment showed 5,400 hidden app trackers guzzled our data — in a single week.
THEY (STILL) SEE YOUR EVERY MOVE
Mark Zuckerberg Has A Different Definition Of 'Privacy' Than You And Me
Zuck is basically aiming to make Facebook more "private" — the way you might refer to a "private party" or your "private parts" — while claiming the company really cares about "privacy."
YOU CAN ALWAYS HACK HUMANS
Stalkers And Debt Collectors Impersonate Cops To Trick Big Telecom Into Giving Them Cell Phone Location Data
In several cases, a stalker impersonated a US Marshal and reported a fake kidnapping in order to get telecom companies to give them real-time cell phone location data.
HEY JEFF, WHAT DO YOU NEED THAT FOR?
Amazon Recorded Video Of A Seller For Identification Purposes
"We will record a 5-second video of your face. To proceed, enable access to your webcam."
THEY'RE WATCHING
Dozens Of Cities Have Secretly Experimented With Predictive Policing Software
Documents obtained by Motherboard using public information requests verify previously unconfirmed police department contracts with predictive policing company PredPol.
Apple’s power over Facebook ought to worry the rest of us
Social networks aren’t the only big platforms that need scrutiny
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING
'Fortnite' Addiction? China Has The Answer
In the 21st century, liberal democracy will face a challenge of an entirely new kind. Here's one powerful signal of that future.
YOU BRITS MADE 'BLACK MIRROR,' REMEMBER?
British Cops Are Building An AI That Flags People For Crimes That Haven't Happened Yet
Dubbed the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS), the system pulls data from local and national police databases.
Be Warned: Customer Service Agents Can See What You're Typing in Real Time
Next time you’re chatting with a customer service agent online, be warned that the person on the other side of your conversation might see what you’re typing in real time. A reader sent us the following transcript from a conversation he had with a mattress company after the agent responded to a message he hadn’t sent yet.
YOU MAY KNOW, BUT FACEBOOK KNOWS MORE
'People You May Know:' A Controversial Facebook Feature's 10-Year History
Perhaps now, though, in its time of privacy reckoning, Facebook will reconsider the mandatory nature of this particular feature. It’s about time, because People You May Know has been getting on people’s nerves for over 10 years.
RAKING ZUCK'S MUCK
Facebook Wanted Us To Kill This Investigative Tool
Last year, we launched an investigation into how Facebook's People You May Know tool makes its creepily accurate recommendations. By November, we had it mostly figured out: Facebook has nearly limitless access to all the phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and social media handles most people on Earth have ever used.
PUTTING THE 'COP' IN 'COPTER'
Here Come The Drone Police
The Los Angeles County Sheriff has deployed a quadcopter drone for rescue and reconnaissance. But will the public accept that these aerial officers come in peace?
Facebook content is convenient evidence for prosecutors, but not for defendants
There's a difficult tension between users' right to privacy, and defendants' right to a fair trial.
SEING SPY TO SPY
How The NSA Built A Secret Surveillance Network For Ethiopia
Amid concerns about Ethiopia's human rights abuses, the NSA forged a secret relationship with the country that expanded exponentially over the years.
THEY SAW YOUR USHER DOWNLOAD
NSA Broke The Encryption On File-Sharing Apps Kazaa And eDonkey
The spy agency didn’t care about copyright violations; it was trying to determine if it could find valuable intelligence.
THEY'RE WATCHING YOU
This Shadowy Company Is Flying Spy Planes Over US Cities
It has tracked cell phones for military training and flown a camera that can watch over a city for hours at a time.
CONTRACT PROTECTORS
How A Private Surveillance Firm Watching Standing Rock Spread Fear To Keep Contracts
As law enforcement began evicting residents of North Dakota’s Oceti Sakowin camp, the private security company reached for ways to stay in business.
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