Surveillance News
A major flaw has been detected in the newly-unveiled Google Home Mini speaker that allows it to secretly record conversations without users knowing. Last week, Google showed off its next-generation smart speakers at an event in San Francisco. Following the event, it sent members of the press home with a review unit of the Google Home Mini, expected to... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
Among the 140 laws going into effect in Connecticut today is one that aims to regulate cellphone tracking by police agencies. Unfortunately, the law gives cops too much discretion to use the cell site simulator devices that make phone tracking possible. Specifically, the law permits police to use such devices for 48 hours without a court... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
With every click and swipe, we are contributing to massive databases compiled by shadowy corporate and government entities. We are telling them where we live, the status of our health and finances, our political views, our sexual proclivities and interests. Mobile phones are now tracking devices, logging permanent records of our movements. Surveillance... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
Government requests for the mass disclosure of every caller who connected to a particular cellphone tower have spiked during the first half of 2017, according to Verizon’s latest transparency report. Law enforcement seek so-called tower dumps to try to identify a suspect in a crime, compelling tower operators to provide the phone numbers of all devices... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
For decades, Americans have forfeited their privacy rights for a false sense of safety. Broad, sweeping surveillance law have given the federal government carte blanche in the realm of surveillance. Thankfully, a recently introduced bipartisan Senate bill would restore some vital protections to Americans’ privacy. The ECPA Modernization Act, introduced... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
A single threat actor has aggressively bombarded Android users with more than 4,000 spyware apps since February.... Behind the scenes, Soniac had the ability to surreptitiously record audio, take phones, make calls, send text messages, and retrieve logs, contacts, and information about Wi-Fi access points.... "What's commonly seen in all SonicSpy... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
Researchers at the security firm Lookout have identified a family of malicious smartphone apps, referred to as SonicSpy. At least three versions of the malware, which is able to remotely control infected phones, made it onto Google’s Play store. Anyone who installs the compromised apps will find they have full messaging functionality. But in the... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
A federal appeals court panel has ruled that the wiretapping practices of some Arizona prosecutors violated U.S. law. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery did not personally review and approve electronic-surveillance warrants as required and instead relied on a state statute that is less... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
BlackBerry said on Thursday it has won the right to sell tools for encrypting phone calls and text messages to the US federal government, garnering an endorsement from the National Security Agency for the products.... The fear that eavesdroppers are listening in to government communications has risen sharply in recent years, with an unencrypted mobile... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News
First came the revelation that prominent Mexican anti-corruption fighters, human rights activists and other government critics were targeted for surveillance with sophisticated spyware sold to the Mexican government for combating crime and terrorism. Now comes the shocking addendum that an international team charged with investigating the disappearance of... Read More »
Category : Surveillance News