Reuters: Amazon’s Ring sued over facial recognition feature, latest privacy concern for doorbell maker. “Amazon was sued on Monday by a Virginia resident over what he said were privacy violations after the company’s Ring doorbell cameras at friends and ​family members’ homes collected and stored images of his face using facial recognition ‌software.”

Gizmodo: Philly Cops Are Reportedly Monitoring Anti-AI Memes, According to Internal Alert. “A confidential law enforcement bulletin recently obtained by The Intercept reveals that, at least in Philadelphia, cops are taking note of those speaking out against AI. In a December report from the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, marked “for official use only,” its authors warned that […]

Episodio 5: Conclusions.

🧵 1/4
We did it. A Samsung A12 in Cuba, sub‑800 kbps internet, no custom ROM, no paid VPN. I replaced: browser, search engine, keyboard, office suite, gallery, camera, phone, messages, contacts, calendar, music player, file manager, notes, calculator, voice recorder, and app store.

#DeGoogledAndroid #privacy #digitalsurveillance

Ars Technica: Websites have a new way to spy on visitors: Analyzing their SSD activity. “Now sites have a new way to spy on their visitors: measuring subtle interactions with their solid-state drives. The technique, named FROST (fingerprinting remotely using OPFS-based SSD timing), allows sites to monitor other sites a visitor is viewing and what apps are open on their devices.”

Tom’s Hardware: Angry tiny Texas town council member proposes total ban on cellular and GPS devices in protest over AI dispute — says ‘Let’s take Bandera back to 1880’ after town votes to dump AI-powered license plate reader. “Bandera, Texas, a small town of around 900 residents located about 40 miles northeast of San Antonio, Texas, opted to cancel its Flock AI contract. Three of the […]

Government Executive: The White House is ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ government phones. “The White House recently unveiled a new app to give the public ‘unfiltered’ access to ‘key priorities,’ ‘historic moments’ and ‘policy breakthroughs.’ Now, it’s directing agencies to help install it on the government phones of federal employees.”

Northeastern University: Workers’ information shared with third-party companies, new research reveals. “Companies are sharing workers’ identifiable information and online activity to third-party companies, including Microsoft, Google and Facebook, using employee monitoring software known as ‘bossware,’ new Northeastern University research has revealed.”

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Grinnell College faces class-action lawsuit alleging privacy violations. “The lawsuit alleges that in July 2024, Eyal Hanfling visited the college’s website and that his information was then shared with third parties. The lawsuit seeks damages for Hanfling and a putative class of similarly situated users who were allegedly harmed by the site.”

Ars Technica: FBI seeks US-wide access to license plate cameras, wants “data in near real time”. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced plans to buy nationwide access to a network of license plate readers, saying it will award contracts to one or more vendors that can offer ‘near real time’ information from cameras across the US. The proposed contract is for the FBI Directorate of […]

Hoodline San Francisco: SF Lawyers Say Hisense TVs Turn Your Living Room Into a Spy Den. “San Francisco lawyers say Hisense USA has turned millions of its smart TVs into always-on surveillance tools, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed last Tuesday. The complaint alleges the sets’ automatic content recognition, or ACR, can grab snapshots of what is on a screen as often as every […]