MetaFilter posts tagged with surveillance

Be seeing you

sloe — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:12:13 -0800

iWatch PSA. The LAPD recently launched a new program named iWatch which encourages and establishes guidelines for citizen reporting of suspicious activity. There's also a 7 minute action movie playing out a fictional case study of the program. NPR interview with Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton regarding the program. Comments from ACLU policy counsel Mike German in this AP story. Related: PSA for Australia's National Security Hotline (via via) NYT report on the extent and wide ranging uses of government surveillance within Britain.

Etisalat's Trojan BlackBerries

acb — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:55:18 -0800

UAE phone company pushes BlackBerry update with embedded spyware. The United Arab Emirates phone company Etisalat recently sent out a firmware update to its BlackBerry-using customers, billed as a “performance enhancement patch”. After customers reported the patch degrading their handsets' performance and draining their batteries more rapidly, a programmer examined it and found that it contained spyware from a US company, which could be remotely activated to forward all emails and text messages to a third-party server. It is not clear who is behind the spyware. It could be the Emirati government plugging a hole in its surveillance capabilities (it is not clear whether BlackBerry emails are kept anywhere where the Emirati government can reach them). Alternatively, there are probably a lot of people in Dubai, from Iranian dissidents to radical Islamist fixers to ordinary dubious businessmen, who would be of interest to various parties across the world.

Nokia Siemens and the Iranian Government

HylandErickson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:46:36 -0800

In 2008, Nokia Siemens’ Networks sold Iran a program called Monitoring Centre, which allows the government not only to monitor all mobile communications, but also to alter their contents, possibly for disinformation purposes. Implementation of the deep-packet inspection technology that the program uses may be to blame for the halt in mobile service that occurred after the June 12th election. According the BBC, Nokia Siemens markets the Monitoring Center product to 150 countries around the world.

Pinwale

homunculus — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:33:51 -0800

NSA E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress. "Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns in Congress about the agency’s ability to collect and read domestic e-mail messages of Americans on a widespread basis, officials said. Supporting that conclusion is the account of a former N.S.A. analyst who, in a series of interviews, described being trained in 2005 for a program in which the agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation." [Via]

CCTV is progressive?

patricio — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:14:00 -0800

"The idea that the state is an unwarranted assault on individual freedom is not a progressive one. This kind of libertarianism works to protect privilege by cloaking the advantages of the rich in the garb of personal autonomy, individual freedom and the “human right” to privacy." Or so says Professor Gearty in an article in the New Statesman. Via David Miliband's blog, in which he also salutes the debunking of the 'myth' that people in Britain are captured "300 times a day on CCTV"

GhostNet

homunculus — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:55:33 -0800

Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network. "A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded. In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved." Another report does fault China: The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement

What Is And What Should Never Be

gman — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:57:58 -0800

The Pentagon plans to spend $400 million to develop a giant blimp that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, providing unblinking and intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below. I only used that first link because clicking on a 'print version' of an LA Times link reverts back to the original page.

Surveillance Self-Defense

homunculus — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:11:51 -0800

The SSD Project. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site to educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it." [Via]

The Play at Home Game!

cjorgensen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:30:21 -0800

Become a Virtual Texas Deputy! (via)

Lex Nokia

keijo — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:41:29 -0800

There's been quite a stir in Finland about the world's biggest cell phone maker, Nokia, after it was alleged yesterday that politicians had been pressured by the company in order for a law on electronic surveillance of its employees would to be passed. The company denies threats to leave the country if email monitoring laws are not introduced. Electric Frontier Finland is considering taking the case into the ECHR.

Who said what now?

blue_beetle — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:08:12 -0800

Wired: Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case. "The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants."

Three Opinions On What to Do With the Bush Administration's Misdeeds

homunculus — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:54:24 -0800

Bringing Justice to the War on Terrorism. 3 views on how the incoming administration should deal with the legal legacy of Bush Administration policies like torture, surveillance, and extraordinary rendition. Charles Fried makes the case against criminal prosecutions, Dahlia Lithwick makes the case for investigations followed by prosecutions, and Jack Balkin argues for truth commissions. [Via]

Stellar Wind

homunculus — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:21:36 -0800

The Fed Who Blew the Whistle: Is he a hero or a criminal? Three years after the New York Times first revealed the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, whistleblower Thomas Tamm has acknowledged his role in making it public. [Via]

Eyeborg

piratebowling — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:06:05 -0800

"If you lose your eye and have a hole in your head, then why not stick a camera in there?" Canadian Filmmaker Rob Spence plans to place a tiny camera in his false eye to film a documentary on the topic of surveillance. Local news feature on him. His blog. [Last link automatically plays footage of his eye surgery. May want to turn off.]

UAVs over Sadr City

odinsdream — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:31:23 -0800

A sanitized look at the use of UAVs 1.9 miles above Sadr City, Iraq. [print version] 60 Minutes is granted access to information about the use of Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs) over Sadr City as part of Ray Odierno's counterinsurgency strategy. The video includes footage from both unarmed and armed drones used to provide so-called "persistent surveillance" of the city and to execute direct attacks on groups identified and tracked over hours or days. Other parts of the strategy include a nearly two-mile long concrete wall separating the city:

"It seals off about a quarter of Sadr City and it's been beautified, with local artists painting murals of peaceful, happy scenes, that have to be approved by the U.S. Army. To get from one side of the wall to the other, the locals have to go through "entry points" and are checked when going back and forth."

~~Awakening Councils~~ ~~Concerned Local Citizens~~ Sons of Iraq [mefi], another component in the strategy, have had their salaries reduced from $300 per day the U.S. was paying, to about $250 to be paid by the current Iraqi government. 2008 per-capita income is approximately $1,200.

Cats Defending Henhouses

digaman — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:58:21 -0800

Worried about social-network data mining? Facebook hires Ted Ullyot, former right-hand man to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as its general counsel. Tapping Ullyot, who worked on the infamous torture memo and other illustrious projects, is a sign that the burgeoning Scrabble platform "is a little more grown-up," says Facebook public-policy VP Elliot Schrage.

Room 641A

homunculus — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:05:51 -0800

The Secret Room: EFF Designer's Cartoon on Illegal Spying. [Via] Appeals Court Punts on AT&T Spying Case Appeal Rights Group Suing AT&T for Spying Will Sue Government Too

"Are we in the midst of a coup?"

homunculus — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:50:14 -0800

2009: A True Story. "My name is Sara Ford and I am 18 years old. I moved to California at the end of last year. Before the first attacks... before everything changed." [Via] On YouTube: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13. NSFW.

Quick, Henry, the Flit!

Kronos_to_Earth — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:37:12 -0800

Continuing the miniaturization of earlier designs, researchers at the Technical University of Delft have created a very tiny ornithopter which carries a one half gram video camera. The DelFly micro. Videos of the DelFly I and II are available here.

Decision on FISA delayed

joannemerriam — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:01:46 -0800

Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) delayed. Senator Dodd says, "This bill does not say, 'Trust the American people; Trust the courts and judges and juries to come to just decisions.' Retroactive immunity sends a message that is crystal clear: 'Trust me.'" Obama talks about why he supports the bill. Senate may vote after the Fourth of July recess. (previously)

Kiki and Bubu

homunculus — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:00:26 -0800

Kiki and Bubu! Austrian art collective monochrom presents the adventures of two sock puppets. Part One: Kiki and Bubu and The Shift. "Bubu wants to know why his dad is busy all the time. And Kiki explains him why... because of the neoliberal shift." Part Two: Kiki and Bubu and The Privilege. "Bubu ran into a bunch of liberals and they gave him a book. They said if he doesn't read it, they're going to beat him up. But Bubu can't read! And so Kiki helps..." [Via BB]

Cyber Command Über Alles

homunculus — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:55:24 -0800

Attention Geeks and Hackers: Uncle Sam's Cyber Force Wants You! Welcome to Cyberwar Country, USA

Main Core

homunculus — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:25:17 -0800

The Last Roundup. "Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?" [Via]

"It took 1.1 milliseconds!" Yao exclaims. "Yeah, that's me!"

The Card Cheat — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:18:04 -0800

China's All-Seeing Eye. Naomi Klein's piece in the May 29th edition of Rolling Stone details how China is building the prototype for a high-tech police state with the help of U.S. defense contractors. And it's a growth market!

We're all blue from projection tubes

whir — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:53:47 -0800

UK band The Get Out Clause made their newest video by performing in front of 80 of London's approximately 13 million CCTV cameras, and then requesting the footage via the Data Protection Act. The footage was then edited together into this music video. This technique was apparently prefigured by Irish band The Frames, who used a single camera in a post office to make a £2 video. via.