Slack has always had a horrific privacy policy and default settings that enable workplace surveillance, so it's a good time as ever to share this campaign by @fight - supported by dozens of civil society organizations globally:
"Safety should be an inherent feature of the tech we use in our daily lives and our workplaces. Sign the letter to demand Slack put user privacy and security first."
Amnesty International a lancé une pétition contre la technologie de reconnaissance faciale en France, déployée sous le prétexte des Jeux olympiques. À signer et à relayer si le cœur (et le cerveau) vous en dit 🙂
"A l'occasion des Jeux olympiques et paralympiques de Paris, la France a légalisé la vidéosurveillance algorithmique. Concrètement, des caméras dopées à l'intelligence artificielle vont passer au crible, en direct, vos moindres mouvements pour détecter des situations "anormales". Une loi votée en procédure accélérée, sans véritable débat public. Avec l’adoption de cette loi, la France devient le premier Etat membre de l’Union européenne à légaliser, à titre expérimental, ce type de surveillance. Il s’agit d’un véritable tournant qui ouvre la voie à l’utilisation de technologies encore plus intrusives comme la reconnaissance faciale...
A reminder that the Tor Project itself strongly recommends against using Tor in any browser other than Tor Browser. Using Tor in another browser can leave you vulnerable without the privacy protections of Tor Browser.
"US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) had a different interpretation of the email, telling Wired that it 'seems to show that the FBI is actively pushing for more surveillance of Americans, not out of necessity but as a default.'"
Congratulations to Harvard University History of Science doctoral candidate Aaron Gluck-Thaler on the 2024-25 CBI Tomash Fellowship. We are thrilled to have Aaron as a fellow in the upcoming academic year! #ai#artificialintelligence#surveillance#science#tech#history
The FCC announces it has fined wireless carriers for illegally sharing access to customers’ location information without consent and failing to protect that information against unauthorized disclosure. Sprint and T-Mobile – which have merged since the investigation began – face fines of $12+ million and $91 million, respectively. AT&T being fined $57+ million and Verizon told to pay nearly $47 million.
Along with the #Tiktok ban yesterday there was a surveillance bill snuck into the aid package and I am not sure most Americans are aware? I don’t know anything about this, I just thought I would share for those who don’t know. #privacy#tech#surveillance#uspol
Alors que la préfecture de police de Paris teste ce dimanche, pour la première fois, la vidéosurveillance algorithmique lors de la rencontre Paris Saint-Germain - Olympique lyonnais, certains fans de football s’inquiètent de l’impact potentiel de cette technologie sur leurs libertés.
The Senate's just approved a floor vote on six amendments followed by a roll call vote on final passage of H.R.7888 (a bill to expand and reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, aks #FISA, Section 702).
The amendments are:
Paul: attach Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (which the House passed separately). Great idea, very unlikely the votes are there.
Marshall: not sure
Wyden-Hawley: strip out House langauge with dramatic expansion of powers. Absolutely crtical, we'll see if the votes are there.
Paul: another one, not sure about the details
Durbin-Cramer: attach a warrant requiremnt. Also really important!
Lee: allow more amicus briefs. Valuable, although if this is the only amendment that passes that's not good enough. The Senate passed it overwhelmingly a few years ago but the House blaked
Bummer. The Wyden amendment to strip out the House expansion failed 34-58; the Durbin amendment to add a warrant requirement failed 40-53; and the final bill passed, 60-33 (I think). Overall, it's a very disappointing result. The Biden administration and their allies in Democratic and Republican leadership pulled out all the stops to pressure Congress, and unfortunately it worked.
The one small piece of good news is that it's only a two-year reauthorization ... who knows what the landscape will look like in 2026, but we'll hopefully be able to give it another try then.
Thanks everybody who took action. Sometimes the cards are stacked against us, and in this case the fix was in.
Until abortion access is fully legal, digital surveillance poses a significant threat. We’ve gotten better at answering questions about how to keep each other safe. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Things That Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations by Arundhati Roy & John Cusack, 2024
An activist and an actor reflect on Edward Snowden and the surveillance state in this collection that “reads like a whistleblower’s travel diary” (Disorient). In late 2014, Arundhati Roy, John Cusack, and Daniel Ellsberg traveled to Moscow to meet with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The House votes on FISA reauthorization on Thursday, and surveillance hawks in both parties are pushing an amendment that would actually EXPAND warrantless wiretapping. More positively, reformers will also get a vote on an amendment to add a warrant requirement. And as always happens in this situations, the propaganda's kicking into high gear. Attached is a markup @dell did of a Washington Post editorial, highlighting all the misleading points and flat-out lies. It's ridiculous!
if you’re in the US, now’s a great time to contact Congress. You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directory to look up your legislators’ contact info.
“Stop the FBI from expanding warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. OPPOSE the FISA amendment from Reps. Turner and Himes, which would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers.”