Surveil-links: Recent Episodes
Ethan Gregory Dodge
142: The Defund Police Movement Takes Aim at Fusion Centers and Mass Surveillance
April 21, 2021 | The Intercept by Alice Speri | ~2816 words
143: 'Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act' Would Ban Clearview and Warrantless Location Data Purchases
April 21, 2021 | Motherboard by Joseph Cox | ~1097 words
144: NC lawmakers want to give police even more power to track your phone without a warrant
April 21, 2021 | The News & Observer by Will Doran and Danielle Battaglia | ~700 words
145: ‘High-Surveillance’ Schools Lead to More Suspensions, Lower Achievement
April 21, 2021 | Education Week by Sarah D. Sparks | ~1108 words
146: How a Chinese Surveillance Broker Became Oracle’s “Partner of the Year”
April 22, 2021 | The Intercept by Mara Hvistendahl | ~4099 words
147: The New iOS Update Lets You Stop Ads From Tracking You—So Do It
April 27, 2021 | Wired by Lily Hay Newman | ~923 words
136: The FBI wanted to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. It turned to a little-known Australian firm.
April 14, 2021 | Washington Post by Ellen Nakashima and Reed Albergotti | ~2203 words
137: MEPs call for European AI rules to ban biometric surveillance in public
April 15, 2021 | TechCrunch by Natasha Lomas | ~741 words
138: Nobody is flying to join Google’s FLoC
April 16, 2021 | The Verge by Dieter Bohn | ~1603 words
139: Police call in experts to advise on facial recognition technology
April 16, 2021 | RNZ Morning Report | 5:04 (audio)
140: Russia’s surveillance state still doesn’t match China. But Putin is racing to catch up.
April 17, 2021 | Washington Post by Robyn Dixon | ~1331 words
More by me, #141: Privacy is a human right. San Jose should treat it as such.
130: Can police spy on you without a warrant? Colorado Supreme Court to consider modern surveillance techniques
April 6, 2021 | The Denver Post by Shelly Bradbury | ~656 words
131: Public forum: Mixed reaction to York City surveillance system proposal
April 6, 2021 | York Dispatch by Logan Hullinger | ~618 words
132: Proctorio Is Using Racist Algorithms to Detect Faces
April 8, 2021 | Motherboard by Todd Feathers | ~691 words
133: Bill would expand surveillance on Tennessee interstates
April 9, 2021 | News Channel 5 Nashville by Cole Johnson | ~165 words
134: Am I FLoCed? A New Site to Test Google's Invasive Experiment
April 9, 2021 | Electronic Frontier Foundation's Deep Links Blog by Andrés Arrieta | ~950 words
ICYMI: The Movement to Ban Surveillance Advertising
In surveil-link #120 I highlighted a Wired article reporting on the group behind the website bansurveillanceadvertising.com. A coalition of organizations posted an open letter to the website calling on law makers to ban trageting advertisements shown to a user based on their behavior, browsing habits, purchase history, etc. The business model, perhaps most famously used by Facebook and Google, has recently come under intense scrutiny in both the public and private sectors. Apple soon will roll out prompts on iOS devices asking if a user wants to allow apps to track them. The planned feature has caused quite a feud between Apple and Facebook and their respective CEOs, something I've talked about in surveil-links #10, #20, and #53.
The coalition published the open letter just days before a congressional hearing with the Jack Dorsey, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEOs of Twitter, Google, and Facebook respectively. During the hearing, Representative Anna Eshoo of California, and the congressional representative of both Pichai and Zuckerberg, stated that "Representative Schakowsky and I are doing a bill that is going to ban this business model of surveillance advertising" after calling the practice "dangerous."
I was able to sit down and discuss the letter and Representative Eshoo's comments with Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, the nonprofit organization behind the letter. I also got his thoughts on how the events of 2020 particularly brought the issue to the forefront of public dialogue, what he thinks about Facebook defending its surveillance by masquerading as the hero of small business owners, and what he thinks needs to happen in order for enact lasting legislation that addresses the issue effectively.
What do you think about the idea of banning surveillance advertising? Drop a comment on surveillance.today and let's discuss!
125: Fired, interrogated, disciplined: Amazon warehouse organizers allege year of retaliation
March 30, 2021 | NBC News By Olivia Solon and April Glaser | ~3086 words
126: The Little-Known Data Broker Industry Is Spending Big Bucks Lobbying Congress
April 1, 2021 | The Markup by Alfred Ng and Maddy Varner | ~2123 words
127: Mind the Gap: How the NSA might use SolarWinds campaign to do warrantless spying
April 1, 2020 | Zero Day by Kim Zetter | ~2,721 words
128: How America’s surveillance networks helped the FBI catch the Capitol mob
April 2, 2021 | The Washington Post by Drew Harwell and Craig Timberg | ~4,034 words
129: Scientists create online games to show risks of AI emotion recognition
April 4, 2021 | The Guardian by Nicola Davis | ~796 words
120: This Group Wants to ‘Ban Surveillance Advertising’
121: China to ban apps from collecting excessive user data starting May 1
122: This is what happens when ICE asks Google for your user information
123: T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T Stop SMS Hijacks After Motherboard Investigation
124: How Musicians and Sex Workers Beat Facial Recognition in New Orleans
114: TikTok wants to keep tracking iPhone users with state-backed workaround
115: Your Face Is Not Your Own
116: Tabloid Hired Gun Tells of Shady Hunt for Meghan Markle Scoops
117: York NAACP mulling public forum, polling about city surveillance proposal
118: For this Amazon van driver, AI surveillance was the final straw
119: True police reform requires regulating surveillance tech, San Jose
A conversation with Albert Fox Cahn from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
I have one small favor to ask. I've been writing this newsletter for about two months now and I'm still trying to figure out exactly where to take it, what the right release cadence is, and what not. I need your help to figure that out. I have a short, five question survey that will take you two minutes to fill out but would help me tremendously. You can find it at surveillance.today/survey.
You can reference the sources cited at surveil.link/113.
The plaintiffs and attorneys leverage California common law to enact privacy changes.
View the sources cited in this episode at surveil.link/112.
How one judge thinks the tech giant hasn't been entirely truthful with their users about surveillance.
To view all the sources cited in this episode, visit surveil.link/111.
How a mere $16 highlights the need for more widespread adoption of encrypted messaging.
Read this edition at surveil.link/110
The Committee to Protect Journalists, published a map yesterday, comprehensively illustrating publicly documented efforts by state actors to surveil journalists, commentators, and in some cases, their family and associates. The map was accompanied by a press release caling on world leaders to "regulate spyware" and "halt surveillance of journalists." The report also documents the surveillance tools known to have been used in these operations and the companies that develop them.
Senate hearings and a recent indictment show how the FBI and DOJ continue to attack encryption.
You can see the article text and all sources at surveil.link/108
Nebraska could be the second state in the U.S. to ban the use of facial recognition by government entities. The police arguments aren't anything we haven't heard before.
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Recordings of Saudi activist's Clubhouse conversations are being posted to Twitter and tagging participants
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Verkada's customer list, feature set, and lack of security show how quickly surveillance technology is growing and how far behind the regulations of which are lagging behind.
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China Brings Surveillance to the Living Room, Tech Company is Providing Nation-wide License Plate Readers, Indian also taps its citizens for surveillance help, Tunisian students boycott, Google says they'll stop tracking based on browser history, and more
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Indian government surveils climate activists, Amazon and McDonald's spying on labor organizers, ICE using utility accounts to track undocumented persons, Facebook may be putting facial recognition tech in smart glasses, the privacy wars continue, and so much more.
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Documents show Oracle is advertising suveillance tech to Chinese law enforcement, London is using the same surveillance tech found in Chinese concentration camps, LAPD requests Ring doorbell footage after Black Lives Matter protests, University of Illinois researchers can track you even in incognito mode, and so much more!
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U.S. Judge rules warrantless searches of electronics are constitutional at the border, Google bans yet another location data broker from the Play Store, inside a central Texas fusion center, all about supercookies, Ancestry rejects law enforcement requests, EU regulator wants to ban targeted advertising, patent application gives peek inside Clearview's thinking, EU reaches a compromise, and don't miss our piece about MLK!
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MLK’s world-famous cries for freedom were met with the bondage of surveillance by wiretaps, bugs, and informants that would follow him to his grave.
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Surveil-links: reading and summarizing the latest news in digital privacy so you don’t have to.
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Reading and summarizing the latest news in digital privacy so you don’t have to.
Get on the email list at www.surveillance.today
Reading and summarizing the latest news in digital privacy so you don’t have to.
Get on the email list at www.surveillance.today
No-bullshit news about modern surveillance.
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