Surveillance

'Significant' Risks as Facial Recognition in Russia's Subways Goes Regional
In a move that human rights advocates warn carries potential risks for civil rights, Russia has begun expanding its facial-recognition payment system for subways to six cities outside of Moscow.
- Read more
China May Be Putting the Great Firewall into Orbit
The first satellites for China’s ambitious G60 mega-constellation are in orbit in preparation for offering global satellite internet services—and we should worry about how this will help Beijing export its model of digital authoritarianism around the world.
- Read more

How Smart Toys May e Spying on Kids: What Parents Need to Know
Toniebox, Tiptoi, and Tamagotchi are smart toys, offering interactive play through software and internet access. However, many of these toys raise privacy concerns, and some even collect extensive behavioral data about children.
- Read more
To Win the AI Race, China Aims for a Controlled Intelligence Explosion
China’s leader Xi Jinping has his eye on the transformative forces of artificial intelligence to revolutionize the country’s economy and society in the coming decades. But the disruptive, and potentially unforeseen, consequences of this technology may be more than the party-state can stomach.
- Read more

Data Privacy After Dobbs: Is Period Tracking Safe?
Many people think all health care information is protected under the federal privacy law, known as HIPAA. But menstrual cycle tracking apps, along with other health care technologies, like texting platforms that patients can use with doctors, are not. There haven’t been any cases where a menstrual tracking app’s data has been subpoenaed yet, but that’s probably due to the slow speed of which cases proceed through the court system.
- Read more
Detroit Takes Important Step in Curbing the Harms of Face Recognition Technology
In a first-of-its-kind agreement, the Detroit Police Department recently agreed to adopt strict limits on its officers’ use of face recognition technology as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a victim of this faulty technology.
- Read more

Hundreds of Tech Companies Want to Cash In on Homeland Security Funding. Here's Who They Are and What They're Selling.
Whenever concerns grow about the security along the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration, the U.S. government generate dollars — hundreds of millions of dollars — for tech conglomerates and start-ups. Who are the vendors who supply or market the technology for the U.S. government’s increasingly AI-powered homeland security efforts, including the so-called “virtual wall” of surveillance along the southern border with Mexico?
- Read more
Businesses Are Harvesting Our Biometric Data. The Public Needs Assurances on Security
Visual data capturing and analysis are particularly critical compared to non-visual data. That’s why its growing use by businesses raises so many concerns about privacy and consent. While the public remains unaware of the extent to which their visual data is being captured and utilized, their information will be vulnerable to misuse or exploitation.
- Read more

Police Are Using Drones More and Spending More for Them
Police in Minnesota are buying and flying more drones than ever before, according to an annual report recently released by the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Minnesotan law enforcement flew their drones without a warrant 4,326 times in 2023, racking up a state-wide expense of over $1 million.
- Read more
UN’s Global Digital Compact Is Looking Like an Authoritarian Dream
This week, global representatives to the United Nations in New York will review the latest draft of the UN Global Digital Compact (GDC). The latest draft of the GDC is concerning. It would consolidate power within the UN, expand the reach of both the UN and national governments over digital matters and ultimately threaten the openness of the global internet.
- Read more

Privacy-Enhancing Browser Extensions Fail to Meet User Needs, New Study Finds
Popular web browser extensions designed to protect user privacy and block online ads are falling short, according to researchers, who are proposing new measurement methodologies to better uncover and quantify these shortcomings.
- Read more
China Turns to Private Hackers as It Cracks Down on Online Activists on Tiananmen Square Anniversary
Chinese authorities restrict the flow of information online by banning search terms, scanning social media for subversive messages and blocking access to foreign media and applications that may host censored content. Control of online activity is particularly stringent around the anniversary of the protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989 that ended with a bloody crackdown on demonstrators by troops on June 4 of that year.
- Read more

The Alaska Supreme Court Takes Aerial Surveillance’s Threat to Privacy Seriously, Other Courts Should Too
In March, the Alaska Supreme Court held that the Alaska Constitution required law enforcement to obtain a warrant before photographing a private backyard from an aircraft. The government argued that the ubiquity of small aircrafts flying overhead in Alaska; the commercial availability of the camera and lens; and the availability of aerial footage of the land elsewhere, meant that Alaska residents did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy The Court divorced the ubiquity and availability of the technology from whether people would reasonably expect the government to use it to spy on them.
- Read more
China Seeks to Harvest User Data from Global Apps to Boost Propaganda Efforts
In the global discussion around data privacy and security, much attention has been rightfully placed on the Chinese-owned platform TikTok, with concerns that the user data it collects is accessible to Chinese authorities. But the issue of data collection on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and its integration into propaganda efforts, extends far beyond a single app.
- Read more
Spyware as Service: What the i-Soon Files Reveal About China’s Targeting of the Tibetan Diaspora
Governments are increasingly incorporating cyber operations into the arsenal of statecraft. This sophisticated integration combines open-source intelligence, geospatial intelligence, human intelligence, and cyber espionage with artificial intelligence, allowing for the gathering and analysis of ever-expanding data sets. Increasingly, such operations are being outsourced.
- Read more

'Significant' Risks as Facial Recognition in Russia's Subways Goes Regional

China May Be Putting the Great Firewall into Orbit

How Smart Toys May e Spying on Kids: What Parents Need to Know

To Win the AI Race, China Aims for a Controlled Intelligence Explosion

Data Privacy After Dobbs: Is Period Tracking Safe?

Detroit Takes Important Step in Curbing the Harms of Face Recognition Technology

Hundreds of Tech Companies Want to Cash In on Homeland Security Funding. Here's Who They Are and What They're Selling.

Businesses Are Harvesting Our Biometric Data. The Public Needs Assurances on Security

Police Are Using Drones More and Spending More for Them

UN’s Global Digital Compact Is Looking Like an Authoritarian Dream

Privacy-Enhancing Browser Extensions Fail to Meet User Needs, New Study Finds

China Turns to Private Hackers as It Cracks Down on Online Activists on Tiananmen Square Anniversary

The Alaska Supreme Court Takes Aerial Surveillance’s Threat to Privacy Seriously, Other Courts Should Too

China Seeks to Harvest User Data from Global Apps to Boost Propaganda Efforts

Spyware as Service: What the i-Soon Files Reveal About China’s Targeting of the Tibetan Diaspora

More headlines

Free Subscription

The long view