Privacy, Government, Surveillance, and You.

I gesture towards M84's signature, because when you collect data, why not say... Use the GPS to suggest going to another supermarket, and since the terrorism threat is trendy again, how about using it as evidence of a conspiracy to commit a crime ?

I do wonder if there's microphones, because I don't have a car, so I don't know if there's speech recognizing functions in cars, otherwise (besides the GPS coordinates) how else they can collect information about your sex life and genetic information among many other things ?

To be honest, if MAGA wasn't a thing, I would gladly point out this would be used against them, but since shame is only a thing for anyone who's not a billionaire or a republican...

Edited by Thesegougou on Nov 4th 2023 at 8:20:08 PM

Microphones, cameras, whatever other sensors they feel like putting in.

I think I'll be keeping my 2006 car for some time.

More seriously, most cars don't connect to the internet directly, only if you connect to it using your smartphone and the car's app. So the solution is really simple: don't install the car's app on your phone to begin with. And if you do connect it to your car, only connect it as an audio device.

"Hope the car doesn't have its own way of connecting and phoning home" is going to be a pretty diminishing pool.

I looked it up, and it turns out that my 2022 Ford Bronco has a physical modem it uses to connect to company servers. This modem is easily disconnected. After the warrenty expires, I can't see any downside to disconnecting it, other than missing software updates, but you can reconnect occasionally for that.

BTW, this is completely separate from the phone thing, which has it's own privacy issues.

Edited by DeMarquis on Nov 5th 2023 at 10:57:45 AM

French National Police Use of AI-Powered Video-Surveillance Subject to Criminal Law

In short: despite being illegal (and Darmanin swearing he will not be a lying bastard), the French national Police has been using the automated video-surveillance solutions from the Israeli company Briefcam. This technology includes a 'facial recognition' option which, according to Disclose*, is 'actively used' by the police.

One of Disclose's journalists, Ariane Lavrilleux's home was searched and has been detained for reporting on leaked documents that claimed French intelligence was used to target civilians in Egypt.

The same Israeli surveillance tech which has failed Israel so spectacularly recently? No thanks. Turns out technology isn't always the best answer.

https://disclose.ngo/en/article/france-and-six-european-states-unite-to-authorise-the-spying-on-journalists

TLDR: France, Italy, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, and Sweden aim to undermine the first European law aimed at protecting freedom and independence of media in Europe. they actively advocate for authorizing surveillance of journalists in the name of “national security”.

Apparently this is all about spyware, and when a government can deploy it against journalists. The EU apparently just passed a bill protecting the rights of journalists to keep their sources secret, but there is a list of crimes that would allow member governments to put a journalists under digital surveillance. Some countries (the ones listed above) wanted "national security" added to the list, and apparently got it.

Sigh. Is it this difficult to spell out which crimes or processes you want a blank cheque for, instead of a vaguewave like "national security"? Even "terrorism" has an usable definition.

Cynically speaking, I would say that the vagueness is the point.

That's certainly what the critics are saying.

Huh, what? Sweden, really?

Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students: Facial-recognition data is typically used to prompt more vending machine sales.

Looks like the M&Ms machine is spying on you after all! As if those things weren't creepy enough.

The company claims the facial recognition is only used to activate the machine when someone approaches, but that seems like a weak excuse for using such an invasive technology. You hardly need facial recognition to detect that someone is standing in front of the machine. Any dumb motion or light sensor can do that.

This one was in Canada, but it is coming to the US as well, so watch out for any Mars vending machines.

I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the Espionage thread; if this is not the good place, I will delete the post.

.............

Sandvine Inc, a Canadian networking equipment company, was added to  the U.S. Commerce Department's "Entity List" which - in theory- should prevent American companies from exporting goods and technology to Sandvine.

The reason for that was that Sandvine supplied what is known as  "deep packet inspection technology" to the Egyptian government (infamous for its atrocious human rights record) which used it in:

https://www.reuters.com/business/us-adds-sandvine-chengdu-beizhan-electronics-restricted-trade-list-notice-2024-02-26/

Edited by jawal on Feb 29th 2024 at 4:29:45 PM

There's been a bit of a surge in far-right sentiment lately. I assume that the Swedish government didn't want to be told they voted against "national security".

"Looks like the M&Ms machine is spying on you after all!"

Seems it was just recording the gender and age of the person buying the product. Still, the vending machines were removed, so hopefully this doesn't spread.