privacy
FBI Finishes $1 Billion Facial Recognition System
It’s a program that still sounds futuristic, even today. The FBI announced its facial recognition program is finally up and running – and it has some privacy advocates a little concerned. Labeled as the “Next Generation Identification System," or NGI, the $1-billion program has been in development since at least 2008 when the FBI announced it was granting Lockheed Martin a contract to start building it.
Ex-Lowell MA Library Aide Claims Foul Over City’s Surveillance
Former Pollard Memorial Library Assistant Diane Cloutier says the city of Lowell’s surveillance of her constitutes an invasion of privacy. The city’s hiring of private investigators to covertly track employees suspected of wrongdoing has uncovered fraud and led to disciplinary measures in a number of cases. But for the first time, Lowell’s use of investigators […]
Some Claim Boston Schools Go Too Far With Audio Surveillance Of School Buses
EDITORIAL – Matthew J. Lee, Bostom Globe staff – A new video camera system is installed above the drivers seat in a Boston school bus. Boston’s school department has offered no evidence that incidents of bullying or other misbehavior have increased to the point where both audio and video surveillance of students […]
On Photography, Cops Need To Get A Clue
We can’t expect privacy in public, but neither should police officers and public employees. Security cameras operated by the Department of Homeland Security are installed in front of a federal building in New York. (Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP) Last week, Buzzfeed reporter Benny Johnson went to work on a list of the seven ugliest federal […]
Is It Legal To Post Business Surveillance Video Online?
Is it legal to post business video-surveillance footage online? Many businesses employ video surveillance systems and the footage can often result in useful— or humorous— clips that somehow find their way onto YouTube, Facebook, or other websites. While it is likely legal for businesses to use security footage for the purpose of preventing theft, or […]
Hanover Restaurant Not Guilty For Security Cameras In Bathroom
The owner of Mechanicsville, Virginia’s Calabash Seafood Restaurant and Midway Lounge is off the hook after being charged for installing surveillance cameras in the men’s bathroom. A judge found the owner, Dennis Smith, not guilty of unlawful videotaping. Smith has long maintained that he installed the cameras to stop repeated vandalism in the restroom. Smith […]
Study: Cops Like License Plate Scanners, Privacy Advocates Do Not
Here are some civil-liberty questions worth debating: assuming you’re an ordinary everyday person going about your life without harming others —an assumption which holds true for the overwhelming majority of people— do you have any privacy rights when you’re outside your own home? Do police have the right to track you, and keep a permanent […]
EFF And 31 Other Organizations Call For Privacy Assessment Of FBI’s Biometric Database
The FBI plans to roll out the face recognition component of its massive Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometrics database this summer – but the Bureau has six years of catching up to do in explaining to Americans exactly how it plans to collect, use, and protect this data. Today we called on Attorney General Eric […]
Top 4 Ways US Gov?t Acting Unconstitutional On 4th Amendment
Editorial By Peter Van Buren. The views expressed below are those of Mr. Peter Van Buren. Leave us your comments below. Here’s a bit of history from another America: the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the people from their government. If the First Amendment’s right to speak out publicly was the people’s wall […]
Civil Liberties Groups Reject IBIA Biometric ?Best Practices? Recommendations
The International Biometrics and Identification Association (IBIA) recently issued a “best practices” document listing numerous recommendations on how to best deploy biometric technology for commercial situations. The IBIA is participating in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) effort to develop a voluntary code of conduct that specifies how the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights […]
Years After Court Ruling On GPS Tracking, Muddy Landscape For Judges, Law Enforcement
A 2-year-old Supreme Court decision has caused more confusion than clarity on how police may track the whereabouts of criminal suspects, illustrating how hard it is for the slow-moving judicial system to keep up with the light speed of technology. Alito, wrote that technological change can alter the public’s expectation of privacy and that lawmakers […]
U.S. House Of Reps Votes To Ban Purchase Of License-Plate Cameras
Moving to protect privacy amidst increased public fear about government surveillance, the U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to ban certain federal agencies from purchasing cameras that capture images of license plates. The measure passed, 254-172, as an amendment to the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development funding bill under consideration on the House floor. […]
Scapegoating Face Recognition Technology As Privacy Wormhole Doesn?t Solve Anything
Facial recognition technology is facing a blitz of negative media with wormhole-like theories that this technology results in mass surveillance, destroys anonymity, and will forever change the way people behave in public. Advocates of this theory are calling for federal privacy regulation that will give a face a right of privacy it has never had […]
Chicago Security Camera Surge Sparks Concerns Of ‘Massive Surveillance System’
Between traffic-light cameras, blue-light cameras that scan neighborhoods for violent crime, cameras on board city trains and buses —not to mention private security cameras— there are few places you can go in Chicago without being monitored. In the metropolis known as the City of Big Shoulders, it seems Big Brother really is watching. At last […]
Hide From Surveillance By Wearing A Mask Of This Artist’s Face
By Zach Sokol: There’s this really funny scene in Infinite Jest where David Foster Wallace imagines a future where video phone calls make people so self-conscious and insecure that they begin wearing masks with other peoples’ faces on them to assure themselves. While the book was written in 1996, before the public was aware of […]
The Public Calls For No Drone Zone: The City Council Dithers
It was supposed to be a night to "Ground the Drones" but, as Berkeley, CA., Peace and Justice Commissioner Bob Meola put it, "it was more like the movie, Groundhog Day " — an experience of being trapped in a maddening rerun of past events and unable to move forward. It was back on December […]
The New Big Brother: Your Neighbors – Households Urged To Stop Using CCTV To Film Those Living Next Door
Fears of excessive state surveillance are commonplace. But it seems the real spies could be closer to home – the neighbors. Members of the public have been urged to stop using CCTV to film those living next door after a surge in complaints. Tony Porter, the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, appealed to people’s ‘common decency’, saying […]
Bill Gates Files Patent To Protect You From ?Glassholes?
Google opened up its new Glass product for sale to the general public for the first time recently and Bill Gates is already taking steps to protect you from the wearable tech that’s become infamous for its ability to record and eavesdrop at a tilt of the head. Even at $1,500 per device, you can […]
The FBI Is Adding Facial Recognition To Its Fingerprint Database
New documents released by the FBI show that the Bureau is well on its way toward its goal of a fully operational face recognition database by this summer. The EFF received these records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for information on Next Generation Identification (NGI)?the FBI?s massive biometric database that may […]
A Live Version Of Google Earth To Track Crime In Real-Time
In Compton last year, police began quietly testing a system that allowed them to do something incredible: Watch every car and person in real time as they ebbed and flowed around the city. Every assault, every purse snatched, every car speeding away was on record-all thanks to an Ohio company that monitors cities from the […]