• FORENSICSNew Method for Fingerprint Analysis Holds Great Promise

    By Line Rønn

    Overlapping and weak fingerprints pose challenges in criminal cases. A new study offers a solution and brings hope for using chemical residues in fingerprints for personal profiling.

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

    By Andrei Grigoryev

    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.

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

    By Nathan Attrill

    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.

  • SHOT DETECTIONI Studied ShotSpotter in Chicago and Kansas City – Here’s What People in Detroit and the More Than 167 Other Cities and Towns Using This Technology Should Know

    By Eric L. Piza

    One method Detroit and other cities facing high levels of gun violence have employed is gunshot detection technology, specifically the industry-leading ShotSpotter product, which uses acoustic sensors to notify police when the system hears gunfire. Since 2020, my colleagues and I have conducted the largest study on this technology. Our research was designed to test both the efficiency and effectiveness of this technology.

  • SURVEILLANCEData Privacy After Dobbs: Is Period Tracking Safe?

    By Paige Gross

    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.

  • BARRIERSS&T Deploys DETER at the Indy 500

    The DHS S&T, CISA, and ERDC teamed up to deploy a new vehicle barrier at this year’s race. S&T is evaluating DETER in real-world environments like the Indy 500 and last year’s NFL Draft to identify operational requirements for law enforcement.

  • SURVEIILANCEDetroit Takes Important Step in Curbing the Harms of Face Recognition Technology

    By Tori Noble

    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.

  • TECH COMPANIES & BORDER SECURITYHundreds of Tech Companies Want to Cash In on Homeland Security Funding. Here's Who They Are and What They're Selling.

    By Dave Maass

    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?

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

    By Kamran Mahroof, Amizan Omar, and Irfan Mehmood

    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.

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

    By Rachel Greenstadt

    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.

  • CHINA WATCHChina Turns to Private Hackers as It Cracks Down on Online Activists on Tiananmen Square Anniversary

    By Christopher K. Tong

    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.

  • SURVIELLANCEThe 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.

  • TECHNOLOGYShotSpotter Improves Detection and Response to Gunfire, but Doesn't Reduce Crime, Research Finds

    By Cyrus Moulton

    ShotSpotter gunfire detection technology has delivered as promised in terms of enabling police to quickly detect and respond to gunshots in two American cities, but the controversial technology has not translated into public safety gains.

  • FACIAL RECOGNITIONSeeing Behind the Mask

    There is a need for face recognition to be able to “see behind the mask” for security and safety. Researchers discusses the potential of new software which will allow facial recognition to work despite the mask you use.

  • RADIATION DETECTIONA New Way to Detect Radiation Involving Cheap Ceramics

    By Elizabeth A. Thomson

    The radiation detectors used today for applications like inspecting cargo ships for smuggled nuclear materials are expensive and cannot operate in harsh environments, among other disadvantages. Work by MIT engineers could lead to plethora of new applications, including better detectors for nuclear materials at ports.