US to revoke student visas over ‘pro-Hamas’ social media posts flagged by AI - report https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/foreign-student-visas-pro-palestinian-ai #USconstitutionandcivilliberties #Artificialintelligence(AI) #MiddleEastandnorthAfrica #Palestinianterritories #UScampusprotests #Israel-Gazawar #USuniversities #Surveillance #DonaldTrump #Worldnews #Judaism #USnews #Hamas #Gaza

Excellent reporting by #972Magazine:

#Israel is training their new, giant "#AI" model on mass recordings of conversations originating from #surveillance of the #WestBank.

Remember: What gets "tested" on #Palestinians will be presented at fairs (blood stains removed, of course), bought by your governments, and get used against you.

»“Spoken Arabic is data that is [hardly] available on the internet,” the source explained. […]

Israeli intelligence sources emphasized that in the West Bank, the most pressing issue is not necessarily the accuracy of these models, but rather the vast scope of arrests they enable. […]

Several sources stated that a vague or general “suspicion” is often enough to justify placing Palestinians in administrative detention — an extendable prison sentence of six months without charge or trial, on the basis of undisclosed “evidence.”«

https://www.972mag.com/israeli-intelligence-chatgpt-8200-surveillance-ai/

"At EFF we spend a lot of time thinking about Street Level Surveillance technologies—the technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life—such as automated license plate readers, facial recognition, surveillance camera networks, and cell-site simulators (CSS). Rayhunter is a new open source tool we’ve created that runs off an affordable mobile hotspot that we hope empowers everyone, regardless of technical skill, to help search out CSS around the world.

CSS (also known as Stingrays or IMSI catchers) are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, tricking phones within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying

#USA #Surveillance #Cellphones #DigitalRights #Stingrays #IMSICatchers #Privacy #Rayhunter

Wer dauerhaft in den #USA leben möchte, muss künftig #SocialMedia-Aktivitäten offenlegen

https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000260173/wer-dauerhaft-in-den-usa-leben-moechte-muss-kuenftig-social-media-aktivitaeten-offenlegen

🤣

#LandOfTheFree #Trump #Überwachung #surveillance #fascism

Israeli military creating ChatGPT-like tool using vast collection of Palestinian surveillance data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/israel-military-ai-surveillance #israel #palestine #surveillance #ai #infosec

A shirt whose price increases by 1 euro with every purchase
https://driesdepoorter.be/shirt/
#ycombinator #dries_depoorter #media #artist #social #dries #depoorter #privacy #surveillance #tinderin #die_with_me #social_media #tinder #linkedin #machine_learning #2024

Guten Morgen 💛 Welche Accounts zu den Themen digitale Rechte und Online-Privatsphäre könnt ihr empfehlen?

Which accounts related to the topics of digital rights and online privacy can you recommend?

#privacy #surveillance #datenschutz

#US #DOD awards #Scale AI a prototype contract for "Thunderforge" to use #AI agents for planning and operations

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/scale-ai-announces-multimillion-dollar-defense-military-deal.html

#Hawaii #Europe #Germany #Israel #OpenAI #Google #Meta #Microsoft #Anthropic #Amazon #AWS #HuggingFace #Pentagon #Palantir #ArtificialIntelligence #defense #military #automation #cyber #cybersecurity #NationalSecurity #IT #war #warfare #contracts #surveillance

"Responding to South Wales Police’s announcement that it will be installing a network of facial recognition cameras across Cardiff city centre for Six Nations rugby games, Madeleine Stone, Senior Advocacy Officer at Big Brother Watch, said:

“Embedding facial recognition surveillance in a city-wide CCTV network represents a shocking expansion of police surveillance, and turns Cardiff into an Orwellian zone of biometric surveillance. This unprecedented use of the technology could pave the way for the mass rollout of permanent facial recognition surveillance across the UK.

“Live facial recognition technology turns us into walking barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects. This network of facial recognition cameras will make it impossible for Cardiff residents and visitors to opt-out of a biometric police identity check."

https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/press-releases/big-brother-watch-condemns-uks-first-use-of-city-wide-facial-recognition-in-cardiff/

#UK #Wales #Cardiff #Surveillance #PoliceState #Biometrics #FacialRecognition

Gaza is a Testing Ground

https://youtu.be/k17q7hdVsTA

#usa #israel #palestina #gaza #genocide #weapons #surveillance #surveillancecapitalism #masssurveillance #police #military #oppression

#France is about to pass the worst #surveillance law in the #EU

https://tuta.com/blog/france-surveillance-nacrotrafic-law

#privacy #politics #Narcotraffic

#UnplugTrump - Tipp28:
Achte auf deine E-Mail-Adresse und Handynummer! Nach IDFA/AAID sind sie die wichtigsten Identifikatoren, um dich weltweit eindeutig zu identifizieren – und helfen Autokraten, über Werbedaten deine politische Haltung zu ermitteln. Nutze für jede Anmeldung eine eigene E-Mail-Adresse (bspw. per Catch-All) und eine Wegwerfnummer (Ausweis erforderlich), die du regelmäßig wechselst – etwa als eSIM (z.B. Vodafone CallYa).

https://www.kuketz-blog.de/tracking-durch-identitaetsprovider/

#Tracking #Surveillance

This week in #FDroid (TWIF) is live:

- #K9Mail developer quits Mozilla, thanks @cketti for all the good work
- #surveillance laws want #backdoor access in #France again
- #FOSSGIS 2025 in March, get the app
- #onionshare crash fix soon
- #RiMusic might be in danger
- #SimpleX has group growing pains
- #Termux GUI is finally available
- #Threema Libre reacts
- #VLC with Remote Access
- #XScreenSaver has nice privacy policy

Click for +218 lines of news: https://f-droid.org/2025/02/27/twif.html

Well worth a read … even though it’s in the Grauniad!

“The question no one dares ask: what if Britain has to defend itself from the US?”

by George Monbiot

“[..] if the US is now our enemy, the enemy is inside the gate”

[..]

“By tying our defence so closely to the US, our governments have created an insecurity state”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/27/britain-defend-itself-us-military?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

#Press #UK #US #Dependency #VassalState #Enemy #Rearmament #Integration #NATO #EU #FiveEyes #Military #Trump #Starmer #Putin #Surveillance

Flock Threatens Open Source Developer Mapping Its Surveillance Cameras

https://www.404media.co/flock-threatens-open-source-developer-mapping-its-surveillance-cameras/

KEWL🌀NEWS

#FLOCK #SURVEILLANCE #OPENSOURCE #PRESS

CSRC Bulletin #1 - Counter-surveillance resource center
(de/en/fr/ru)

International Coordination Against Targeted Surveillance

"We are anarchists. We believe in an international coordination of informal anarchist groups to pursue the fight against all forms of domination. We believe that sharing knowledge about our enemies’ capabilities and tactics should be an important part of that coordination."

PDF: https://www.csrc.link/download/csrc-bulletin/csrc-bulletin-1-en-a4.pdf

https://www.csrc.link/read/csrc-bulletin-1-en.html

#Surveillance #Selfdefence #socialwar #socialcontroll #technology #antireport

Internationale Koordination gegen zielgerichtete #Überwachung
CSRC Bulletin Nr. 1

"Dies ist die erste Ausgabe einer unregelmäßig erscheinenden Publikation des Counter-surveillance resource center, eine Datenbank von Hilfsmitteln zur Umgehung zielgerichteter #Überwachung."
https://www.csrc.link/de/

"Wir sind Anarchist·innen. Wir glauben an eine internationale Koordination informeller anarchistischer Gruppen, um dem Kampf gegen jegliche Formen der #Herrschaft nachzugehen. Wir glauben, dass das gegenseitige Teilen von Kenntnis über Fähigkeiten und Taktiken unserer Feind·innen einen bedeutenden Teil dieser Koordination bilden sollte. Die Kenntnis ist kein Selbstzweck, sondern ein Mittel zur Begrenzung der Aussichten gefasst zu werden, damit wir weiter angreifen können."

https://de.indymedia.org/node/269067

#Repression #directAction #Surveillance #Antireport #SozialeKämpfe #SozialeKontrolle #Anarchismus

Anti-#Surveillance Mapmaker Refuses Flock Safety's Cease and Desist Demand - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/anti-surveillance-mapmaker-refuses-flock-safetys-cease-and-desist-demand #privacidad #privacy

Your Boss Wants You Back in the Office. This Surveillance Tech Could Be Waiting for You

https://www.wired.com/story/your-boss-wants-you-back-in-the-office-this-surveillance-tech-could-be-waiting-for-you/

Warehouse-style employee tracking tech has expanded into job after job. Now, as millions are called back to the workplace, it’s finally coming for the office worker.

#surveillance #data #employees #press

After infiltrating #StandingRock, #TigerSwan pitched its ‘#counterinsurgency’ playbook to other oil companies

More than 50,000 pages of newly released documents detail how the security firm targeted #pipeline opponents and tried to profit off its #surveillance tactics.

by Alleen Brown & Naveena Sadasivam
Apr 13, 2023

"The Intercept and Grist contacted TigerSwan, #EnergyTransfer, the National Sheriffs’ Association, as well as Thompson, the group’s executive director. None of them responded to requests for comment.

"To TigerSwan, the emergence of #Indigenous-led social movements to keep oil and gas in the ground represented a business opportunity. Reese anticipated new demand from the #FossilFuel industry for strategies to undermine the network of #activists his company had so carefully gathered information on. In the records, TigerSwan expressed its ambitions to repurpose these detailed records to position themselves as experts in managing pipeline protests. The company created marketing materials pitching work to at least two other energy companies building controversial oil and gas infrastructure, the records show. TigerSwan, which was staffed heavily with former members of military special operations units, branded its tactics as a 'counterinsurgency approach,' drawing directly from its leaders’ experiences fighting the so-called War on Terror abroad.

"TigerSwan did not just work in #NorthDakota. Energy Transfer hired the company to provide security to its #RoverPipeline in #Ohio and #WestVirginia, the documents confirm. By spring 2017, TigerSwan was also assembling intelligence reports on opponents of Energy Transfer and #Sunoco’s #MarinerEast2 Pipeline in #Pennsylvania.

"The documents from the North Dakota security board paint a detailed picture of counterinsurgency-style strategies for defeating opponents of oil and gas development, a War-on-Terror security firm’s aspirations to replicate its deceptive tactics far beyond the Northern Great Plains, and the cozy relationship between businesses linked to the fossil fuel industry and one of the largest law enforcement trade associations in the U.S. The impetus for spying was not simply to keep people safe, but to drum up profits from energy clients and to allow fossil fuels to continue flowing, at the expense of the communities fighting for clean water and a healthy climate.

"'For them, it was an opportunity to help create a narrative against our tribe and our supporters,' said Wasté Win Young, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the one of the plaintiffs in a class action civil rights lawsuit against TigerSwan and local law enforcement. Young’s social media posts repeatedly showed up in the documents. 'We weren’t motivated by money or payoffs or anything like that. We just wanted to protect our homelands.'"

Full article:
https://grist.org/accountability/tigerswan-documents-dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock-surveillance/

#ClimateJustice #BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #ACAB #StandingRockSioux #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice

Another day, another attempt by Microsoft to extract as much revenue as possible from Office users:

"Microsoft has quietly launched a new version of Microsoft Office for Windows that can be used to edit documents for free, no Microsoft 365 subscription or Office license key required. This free version of Office is based on the full desktop apps, but has most features locked behind the Microsoft 365 subscription.

First spotted by Beebom, the free version of Office for Windows includes ads that are permanently on screen when within a document in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Additionally, this new free version of Office also only allows you to save files to OneDrive, meaning no support for editing local files.

To access the free version of Office, just skip the prompt to sign-in when you first run an Office app. From there, you will be given the choice to continue to use Office for free in exchange for ads and limited features. In this mode, you can open, view, and even edit documents, just like you can with the web version of Office."

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/office-365/microsoft-quietly-launches-free-ad-supported-version-of-office-apps-for-windows-with-limited-functionality

#Microsoft #AdTech #Advertising #Surveillance #AdTargeting #AdTracking #MSOffice

"Federal workers are scared. They don’t know who to trust. As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have hacked away at federal agencies over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken with more than a dozen workers who have outlined how the administration is pushing a new ideology and stoking paranoia within the government’s remaining ranks. My sources work, or until recently worked, across six different agencies, including the State, Commerce, and Defense Departments and USAID; most requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak or they feared being targeted. “People are terrified,” one worker told me, “not for losing their jobs but for losing democracy.”

The workers described a fundamental transformation in the character of the government: Many workers say they live in a constant state of fear, unable to trust their colleagues, unable to speak freely, reflexively engaging in self-censorship even on matters they view as crucial to national security. One team that works on issues related to climate change has gone so far as to seal itself off in a completely technology-sanitized room for in-person meetings—no phones, watches, computers, or other connected devices. (Representatives for the Commerce and Defense Departments, USAID, DOGE, and the White House did not respond to my requests for comment.)

The widespread paralysis has been driven not just by the terminations and the crippling of entire agencies—which workers say has followed no apparent logic or process—but by executive orders and internal communications. Take the first diplomatic cable sent by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on January 21, the day after the inauguration. The message, which was sent to all members of the State Department, and which outlined various priorities, takes an “Orwellian” tone, as one State Department employee described it to me."

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/trump-federal-workers-self-censorship/681781/

#USA #Trump #Musk #DOGE #WitchHunting #NeoMcCarthysm #SelfCensorship #Surveillance

Concerned about Microsoft Windows 11 Recall? You should be.

Recall allows Microsoft’s Windows 11 Copilot+ devices to screenshot every action a person takes on their PC.

What can you do? Switching to Linux is the clear answer, but some don't know what distro to try.

DistroSea.com is a website that lets you run and test 60+ Linux distributions straight from your web browser.

Have fun!

Source: https://distrosea.com/

#Linux #Computer #Windows #DOS #OPSEC #InfoSec #Privacy #Surveillance

Rage Against The Algorithm

https://www.levernews.com/rage-against-the-algorithm/

As Trump goes all in on artificial intelligence, automated systems are already ruining lives by denying people vital services, trapping them in surveillance networks, and flagging them as potential future offenders. Now one man is fighting back…

#AI #Trump #Hostile #Resistance #FightBack #PreCrime #Surveillance #DenialOfServices #Lives

Everything you say can and will be used against you.

#SILENCE #BIGDATA #TRACKING #SURVEILLANCE #MUSK #IDENTITY #PRIVACY #INTERNET #FUTURE #SOCIALMEDIA #AI #ARCHIVES

"After the United Kingdom demanded that Apple create a backdoor that would allow government officials globally to spy on encrypted data, Apple decided to simply turn off encryption services in the UK rather than risk exposing its customers to snooping.

Apple had previously allowed end-to-end encryption of data on UK devices through its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) tool, but that ended Friday, a spokesperson said in a lengthy statement.

"Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature," Apple said."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/apple-pulls-data-protection-tool-instead-of-caving-to-uk-demand-for-a-backdoor/

#UK #CyberSecurity #Apple #Encryption #Backdoors #DataProtection #Surveillance

"t can be challenging to sift through the flood of headlines and updates. We’re here to help make sense of that flood—starting with what we see happening with data during the first 30 days of the administration, including weakened oversight of U.S. surveillance, the elimination of consumer data protection tools, and improper access and misuse of data.

As the Trump administration concludes its first 30 days in office, three worrying trends emerge at the intersection of technology and democratic governance. New America’s Open Technology Institute has long championed democratically accountable tech policymaking, and over the past month, we have tracked federal actions that run counter to this objective:

- The weakening of oversight of U.S. government surveillance
- The elimination of institutions that protect American consumers and their data
- Systematic efforts to access some of America’s most vital data systems without regard for individual privacy or data security"

https://www.newamerica.org/oti/blog/trumps-tech-governance-making-sense-of-the-administrations-first-30-days/

#USA #Trump #Surveillance #ConsumerRights #Privacy #DataProtection #CyberSecurity

OpenAI bans Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to edit code for social media surveillance

https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-bans-chinese-accounts-using-chatgpt-to-edit-code-for-social-media-surveillance-230451036.html

This is the first time the company has caught an effort like this.

#OPENAI #CHATGPT #SURVEILLANCE #CHINA #NOKO #AI #SOCIALMEDIA #PRESS

If you’re in the UK, cancel your iCloud subscription.

(Or the government will have access to all your data. Just like how things work in China.)

Your best bet is to take offline backups yourself as any cloud service provider that does business in the UK will have to either do the same or leave the market.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgj54eq4vejo

PS. This is why we left the UK ten years ago. So we could on our own terms and wouldn’t have to do so later on. https://ar.al/notes/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/

#UK #surveillance #Apple #icloud https://mastodon.social/@vascorsd/114042733377696746

Protect Not Surveil position paper: Stop Europol’s expanding digital #surveillance against #migrants! - https://edri.org/our-work/protect-not-surveil-position-paper-stop-europols-expanding-digital-surveillance-against-migrants/ #migrations #migraciones

Saving the Internet in #Europe: Defending #Privacy and Fighting #Surveillance - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/saving-internet-europe-defending-privacy-and-fighting-surveillance #UE #privacidad

"Most of the internet’s blessings—the opportunities for communities to connect despite physical borders and oppressive controls, the avenues to hold the powerful accountable without immediate censorship, the sharing of our hopes and frustrations with loved ones and strangers alike—tend to come at a price. Governments, corporations, and bad actors too often use our content for surveillance, exploitation, discrimination, and harm.

It’s easy to dismiss these issues because you don’t think they concern you. It might also feel like the whole system is too pervasive to actively opt-out of. But we can take small steps to better protect our own privacy, as well as to build an online space that feels as free and safe as speaking with those closest to us in the offline world.

This is why a community-oriented approach helps. In speaking with your friends and family, organizing groups, and others to discuss your specific needs and interests, you can build out digital security practices that work for you. This makes it more likely that your privacy practices will become second nature to you and your contacts."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/privacy-loves-company

#Privacy #DigitalRights #Surveillance

The #EFF has released its Atlas of #Surveillance, which documents #policesurveillance technology across the US.
"Documenting #Police Tech in Our Communities with Open Source Research. Search our database of police tech — enter a city, county, state or agency in the United States." https://atlasofsurveillance.org/ #DomesticSpying #DomesticSurveillance #ACAB

Open Letter: Serbian authorities must prosecute illegal hacking of journalists and activists - https://sharefoundation.info/en/open-letter-serbian-authorities-must-prosecute-illegal-hacking-of-journalists-and-activists/ #journalism #periodismo #Serbia #surveillance

*Must read* & please boost

“The Mafia State”

by Chris Hedges in The Chris Hedges Report on Substack

@UKLabour take note!

“The mafia state cannot be reformed. We must organize to break our chains, one-by-one, to use the power of the strike to cripple the state machinery”

https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/the-mafia-state?r=27oltk&utm_medium=ios

#Press #US #Trump #Musk #Mafia #State #Poverty #Immiseration #Decline #Destruction #Billionaire #Economy #Control #Surveillance #Project2025 #Christian #Fascist #MagicalThinking #Capitalism