Security News
For a country that prides itself on being free, America does seem to have an awful lot of spying going on, as the new Street Surveillance Hub from the Electronic Frontier Foundation shows. The Hub contains detailed breakdowns of the type of surveillance systems used, from bodycams to biometrics, predictive policing software to gunshot detection microphones and drone-equipped law enforcement.
EFF has a good explainer on the problems with the new UN Cybercrime Treaty, currently being negotiated in Vienna. The draft treaty has the potential to rewrite criminal laws around the world, possibly adding over 30 criminal offenses and new expansive police powers for both domestic and international criminal investigations.
With the arrival of Google Chrome v89 on Tuesday, Google is preparing to test a technology called Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC, that it hopes will replace increasingly shunned, privacy-denying third-party cookies. Bennett Cyphers, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argues FLoC is "a terrible idea," and urges Google to refocus its efforts on building a web that serves the people who use it.
It's the EFF's 30th birthday, and the organization is having a celebratory livestream today from 3:00 to 10:00 pm PDT. There are a lot of interesting discussions and things. I am having a fireside chat at 4:10 pm PDT to talk about the Crypto Wars and more.
Privacy advocates are urging developers to proceed with caution as they use technology released by Apple and Google to build COVID-19 contact-tracing apps - and are warning against the potential for cybercriminal use. "The apps built on top of Apple and Google's new system will not be a 'magic bullet' techno-solution to the current state of shelter-in-place," EFF staff technologist Bennet Cyphers and director of research Gennie Gebhart said, in a post on Tuesday on the organization's blog.
EFF has published a comprehensible and very readable "deep dive" into the technologies of corporate surveillance, both on the Internet and off. Well worth reading and sharing. Boing Boing post....
The EFF explains how data is being tracked and used on the web and mobile devices, how consumers can protect themselves - and why it's not all bad news.
The tense stand-off between privacy campaigners and the popular mobile payment app Venmo has taken another turn for the worse.
Uncle Sam sued by rights warriors probing claims of silent snooping on suspicious rides The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has sued [PDF] the US Department of Homeland Security to find out...
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and New America's Open Technology Institute (OTI) have published their combined response to the UK government's Online Harms White Paper. The white paper,...