Tag: surveillance
Utah pauses Banjo’s AI surveillance after learning of owner’s racist past
Utah is putting its AI surveillance system on ice after learning of its creator’s background. The state has suspended (via Salt Lake Tribune) Banjo’s contract after learning that company head Damien was part of the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan a… Source
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Germany ditches centralized approach to app for COVID-19 contacts tracing
Germany has U-turned on building a centralized COVID-19 contacts tracing app — and will instead adopt a decentralized architecture, Reuters reported Sunday, citing a joint statement by chancellery minister Helge Braun and health minister Jens Spahn. In Europe in recent weeks, a battle has raged between different groups backing centralized…
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Israel barred from COVID-19 phone tracking without new legislation
Israel will have to abide by stricter oversight if it wants to keep tracking the phones of people infected with COVID-19. The country’s Supreme Court has ruled that the government can’t keep tracking residents’ phones unless it drafts legislation cov… Source
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WhatsApp claims spyware firm launched attacks with US servers
Facebook just escalated its lawsuit over surveillance firm NSO Group’s WhatsApp call exploit attacks. The WhatsApp team has filed accusations that NSO relied on US-based servers to stage its spyware attacks using Pegasus software. NSO reportedly used… Source
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Israel stops using phone tracking to enforce COVID-19 quarantines
Israel’s use of phone tracking technology to track COVID-19 patients has come to a partial end. A parliamentary oversight committee has halted use of the tracking to enforce quarantines after raising privacy concerns. The privacy violations outweigh… Source
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Hundreds of academics back privacy-friendly coronavirus contact tracing apps
Hundreds of academics across the world have welcomed efforts to introduce privacy-friendly contact tracing systems to help understand the spread of coronavirus. A letter, signed by nearly 300 academics and published Monday, praised recent announcements from Apple and Google to build an opt-in and decentralized way of allowing individuals to…
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