Growing security demands from oil and gas sector drives sales at Synectics February 27, 2024 Growing demand from the oil and gas sector drove sales and profits up at security and surveillance group Synectics during its latest financial year.
China ‘looking into’ accusations of sending spy satellite ballon to US airspace February 3, 2023 China said it is looking into reports one of its spy satellite has been flying in US airspace. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China is a “responsible country” which has “always strictly abided by international laws” and “has no intention to violate the territory and airspace of any sovereign countries”. She added: “As for [...]
UK should ban facial recognition technology until clear legal framework is set, new report says June 29, 2022 The UK should ban all use of facial recognition technology until a clear legal framework has been developed to regulate it, an independent report has said. A new report from the Ada Lovelace Institute has said there is an “urgent” need for a new framework governing “biometric” technologies – including facial recognition technologies – before [...]
Surveillance tech firm Clearview AI agrees to block businesses from using facial recognition database May 10, 2022 Facial recognition startup Clearview AI has agreed to limit customers from using its database of billions of facial images scraped from social media platforms including Facebook and Linkedin. The New York software developer agreed to block the bulk of all commercial customers from using its database, in order to settle a lawsuit brought forward by [...]
Moratoriums on facial recognition will do little to stem the tide of surveillance October 12, 2021 In August this year, Sophie Linden, London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, approved a £3m contract for the development of retrospective facial recognition. This investment will bolster the Metropolitan Police Department’s surveillance capabilities and enable authorities to “exploit investigative opportunities.” But legal experts view this technology as a form of exploitation which erodes freedoms, [...]
Campaigners call on Apple to abandon surveillance plans August 19, 2021 An international coalition of more than 90 civil rights and policy groups is calling on Apple to scrap plans to surveil its US customers’ photos. Earlier this month, Apple announced plans to search people’s devices for child sex abuse material (CASM) using new “NeuralHash” technology to perform on device checks. The automated system will alert [...]
Pegasus spyware investigation reveals scale of surveillance July 19, 2021 Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers have been targeted by spyware sold to authoritarian governments by the Israeli technology firm NSO Group, according to media reports. An investigation into a data leak by human rights group Amnesty International and NGO Forbidden Stories revealed a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers that may have been [...]
Slave to the algo: facial recognition and fraud in a Covid-19 world February 19, 2021 “There will come a time when it isn’t, ‘they’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be, ‘my phone is spying on me’.” American author, Philip K. Dick, warned us about the rapid advancement of technology. Incredibly, this warning was given long before his death in 1982, when mobile phones were the [...]
Too many bosses are using Covid-19 to indulge their Big Brother tendencies February 3, 2021 Controversy around technologies used to monitor employees is not new. However, against the backdrop of COVID-19 with office-based workforces operating remotely, businesses have struggled with how to effectively manage staff and have hastily deployed surveillance technologies. This knee-jerk reaction is perhaps understandable, but employers must be wary. The backlash can be severe, unexpected, and sometimes [...]
Apple, Google and Whatsapp slam GCHQ over ‘ghost’ eavesdropping plans May 30, 2019 Major tech giants including Apple, Google and Whatsapp have launched a searing criticism of government plans to spy on encrypted messages, warning of “serious threats” to cybersecurity and human rights. In an open letter published today almost 50 companies, civil society groups and policy experts urged GCHQ to drop proposals that would see law enforcement [...]