Creeping fascism - using Israeli spy technology perhaps?

“Breaking: Met Police installing permanent live facial recognition cameras”

by Skwawkbox @skwawkbox
@UKLabour

“Force slammed for racism, misogyny and homophobia, which serves police state and is stitching up anti-genocide protesters will soon be able to spy on you across the capital. What could go wrong?”

https://skwawkbox.org/2025/03/24/breaking-met-police-installing-permanent-live-facial-recognition-cameras/

#Press #UK #Police #London #MetPolice #Facial #Recognition #Surveillance #AI #Racism #PoliceState #Fascism

"Vancouver school staff and anyone else with links to the files could read everything. Firewalls or passwords didn’t protect the documents, and student names were not redacted, which cybersecurity experts warned was a massive security risk.

The monitoring tools often helped counselors reach out to students who might have otherwise struggled in silence. But the Vancouver case is a stark reminder of surveillance technology’s unintended consequences in American schools.

In some cases, the technology has outed LGBTQ+ children and eroded trust between students and school staff, while failing to keep schools completely safe.

Gaggle Safety Management, the company that developed the software that tracks Vancouver schools students’ online activity, believes not monitoring children is like letting them loose on “a digital playground without fences or recess monitors,” CEO and founder Jeff Patterson said.

Roughly 1,500 school districts nationwide use Gaggle’s software to track the online activity of approximately 6 million students. It’s one of many companies, like GoGuardian and Securly, that promise to keep kids safe through AI-assisted web surveillance."

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/schools-ai-monitor-kids-hoping-prevent-violence-investigation-119705134

#USA #AI #Surveillance #Schools #PoliceState #Gaggle

When considering the state of civil rights in the UK today, the only thing you need to know is that an 87 year old Holocaust survivor was called in for questioning by the Metropolitan Police for attending a completely peaceful anti-genocide rally.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/supporters-cheer-holocaust-survivor-quizzed-police-over-gaza-protest

#FreePalestine #UKPolitics #PoliceState

It's not just American universities that are up to this shit.
Since the attached article was written, the court has granted Cambridge University's injunction and all protests will be banned until the end of July.

#UKPolitics #PoliceState #RightToProtest

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/cambridge-university-attempting-to-silence-students-and-academics-liberty-says/

#Cardiff testing ground for citywide #FacialRecognition.

We have to #resist this #PoliceState tactics.

#MaskUp and #sabotage but do it in an organised way. Stay safe!

#Press #news #BreakingNews #UK

https://youtu.be/nLrXYI0c_e4?si=78HwJ48rqle1tN6F

"In 2006, a retired AT&T engineer knocked on the door of the EFF's office in a rundown part of San Francisco's Mission district and asked, "Do you folks care about privacy?" With him he carried schematics exposing the largest US government domestic spying operation since Watergate.

That person was Mark Klein, who died on March 8 this year from cancer. He was 79.

After a life working in telecoms, Klein realized he had helped the NSA wire up a listening station in AT&T's San Francisco switching facility - the infamous Room 641A - that was being used to illegally spy on Americans.

The evidence he gathered and shared led to two lawsuits that exposed the extent to which US citizens were being spied on by their own government in the post-9/11 world. Klein faced legal pressure, death threats, and the constant fear of ruin, to get his story out and tell the public what was going on. But Klein regretted nothing."

https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/15/rip_mark_klein/

#USA #NSA #Surveillance #ATT #MassSurveillance #PoliceState #Privacy

US Police records obtained by The Intercept show Dataminr (a social media surveillance firm and “official partner” of X) tracked Gaza-related protests and other constitutionally protected speech.

#US #Police #Surveillance #Spying #protests #fascism #israel #policeState #politics #USpol

@palestine @israel https://theintercept.com/2025/03/17/lapd-surveillance-gaza-palestine-protests-dataminr/

US Police records obtained by The Intercept show Dataminr (a social media surveillance firm and “official partner” of X) tracked Gaza-related protests and other constitutionally protected speech.

#US #Police #Surveillance #Spying #protests #fascism #israel #policeState #politics #USpol
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/17/lapd-surveillance-gaza-palestine-protests-dataminr/

So uh, what stage of "you can't call it fascism!"TM is it when Downmarket Mussolini sends the immigration Gestapo that pretty much answers to only him, to unlawfully arrest student protest leaders who are legally in the country, and disappear them into the labyrinth of the American migrant carceral complex?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/09/ice-arrests-palestinian-activist-columbia-protests

Ice arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says

"Mahmoud Khalil was at his university-owned apartment, blocks from the private Ivy League university’s main campus in New York when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents entered the building and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.

One of the agents told Greer by phone that they were executing a state department order to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil, who graduated last December, was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that too, according to the lawyer.

The arrest comes as Donald Trump vows to deport foreign students and imprison “agitators” involved in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza."

As the story goes on to mention, Khalil, who is Palestinian, is in the United States on a legally-issued Green Card, which cannot be revoked by either ICE Gestapo pigs or our fascist State Department without the order of an immigration judge; which makes this an unlawful arrest and detention. What the story doesn't discuss however is that Khalil's wife, who is eight months pregnant, is an American citizen. I mention these things not because it would somehow be "okay" for the fascist Trump regime to snatch up a student leader for the (not illegal) "crime" of protesting a genocide if he only had a student visa, or his wife wasn't a U.S. Citizen, but to point out that clearly the administration and its security forces do not give a flying fuck about any of the rules they're violating or laws they're breaking to punish dissent. Furthermore, reports posted on social media by a person identifying themselves as Khalil's lawyer, indicate that the Department of Homeland Security has *already* moved Mahmoud, possibly as far as Georgia, and thus he does not have access to legal representation. If this were Middle Eastern country with oil reserves, our establishment would rightfully note that the regime has thus effectively "disappeared" what amounts to a political prisoner.

Folks, I don't want to sound like a broken record here, but like I've been telling you (even long before Trump was re-elected) the fact is that fascists don't give a fuck about the laws, rules, or standard operating procedures. If the law can be used to justify seizing power, eliminating civil rights, and punishing enemies they're happy to employ it. But if not, they'll replace or simply ignore any rule that gets in the way of the attempts to purge the opposition and transform society into the full on fascist dictatorship of their dreams. You don't get to let this one slide because "he's not an American," you don't care about Gaza, or you've been taught to hate student protestors by your media and the larger ruling class establishment. If Americans (including the nominal opposition in the US establishment) stand by and watch this happen to folks like Mahmoud Khalil, then it is an absolute historical certainty that it is only a matter of time before Trump is sending jackbooted thugs after anyone who won't goosestep along with the fascist order - and that includes figures in our complicit media and political classes. A whole bunch of affluent liberals have spent the past couple of years tossing around historical warnings about how Nazism and the Holocaust happened in Germany; now its time to prove you understand the lessons those words were trying to teach you about resisting the slide into overt fascism before it goes far enough that you can no longer stop it - because I assure you, if you tolerate this then (you and) your children *will* be next.

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #Gestapo #MahmoudKhalil #CivilRights #NaziGermany #PoliceState #Gaza #Genocide #Israel

This fucking country 🤬

Byline Times: "Holocaust Survivor Summoned For Police Interview Over Gaza Solidarity March"

https://bylinetimes.com/2025/03/04/holocaust-survivor-summoned-for-police-interview-over-gaza-solidarity-march/

Here's an interview with Stephen on Double Down News.

#UKPolitics #FreePalestine #RightToProtest #PoliceState

Don't forget the creeping authoritarianism right here at home ...

"This case marks the first time actionists have been arrested under terrorism powers for disrupting the arms supply chain of the genocide in Gaza."

https://www.cage.ngo/articles/court-of-appeal-denies-bail-to-filton-18-activist-overturning-previous-senior-judge-ruling

#UKPolitics #FreePalestine #LabourAgentsOfGenocide #PoliceState

"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

"Hackers leaked thousands of files from Lexipol, a Texas-based company that develops policy manuals, training bulletins, and consulting services for first responders.

The manuals, which are crafted by Lexipol’s team of public sector attorneys, practitioners, and subject-matter experts, are customized to align with the specific needs and local legal requirements of agencies across the country.

But the firm also faces criticism for its blanket approach to police policies and pushback on reforms.

The data, a sample of which was given to the Daily Dot by a group referring to itself as “the puppygirl hacker polycule,” includes approximately 8,543 files related to training, procedural, and policy manuals, as well as customer records that contain names, usernames, agency names, hashed passwords, physical addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Among the manuals seen by the Daily Dot, agencies include police departments, fire departments, sheriff’s offices, and narcotics units."

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/lexipol-data-leak-puppygirl-hacker-polycule/

#USA #Hacking #Lexipol #DataLeaks #PoliceState

"Alex Karp, the creepy CEO of creepy defense contractor Palantir, just can’t stop talking about killing people. During a recent call with investors, the billionaire let it slip that he doesn’t mind a little bloodshed, just so long as the money keeps pouring in.

“Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them,” Karp said, with a smile on his face. The CEO added that he was very proud of the work his firm is doing and that he felt it was good for America. “I’m very happy to have you along for the journey,” he said. “We are crushing it. We are dedicating our company to the service of the West, and the United States of America, and we’re super-proud of the role we play, especially in places we can’t talk about.”

Mother Jones reports that Trump’s re-election and subsequent enactment of police-state style policies have been mighty good for Palantir’s stock— which makes sense since Palantir is a police-state kind of company."

https://gizmodo.com/palantirs-billionaire-ceo-just-cant-stop-talking-about-killing-people-2000560597

#USA #Palantir #PoliceState #Trump #Imperialism

Oh, I'm sure this ends well.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/musk-treasury-access

'It's a Coup': Musk's DOGE Granted Access to Treasury System That Pays Out Social Security

"In an op-ed published by MSNBC on Saturday, Owens went into greater detail about her concerns, outlining three reasons why Musk might want access to the Treasury payment system.

He could use it to stop payments to certain programs in order to work around the courts' block on the administration's spending freeze. He could access the list of blacklisted federal contractors in order to boost his own or his friend's companies and harm his competitors. (One of the DOGE allies granted access to the payment system, Tom Krause, is also a Big Tech CEO who leads Cloud Software Group, according to The New York Times.) He could use it to reduce Social Security or Medicare payments as part of DOGE's goal of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending.

Owens noted that Musk wasn't "chasing these cuts for their own sake. He's helping congressional Republicans attempt to pay for a new round of tax breaks for corporations and the ultrawealthy—including Musk himself."

"It's nice to believe in a fantasy in which Musk and DOGE work alongside civil servants to improve technology and services for Americans and save a few bucks along the way. But all evidence points to the contrary," Owens continued. "The richest man in the world, whom no one elected to any government position, is seeking unprecedented access to confidential information, including information pertaining to his own business interests, and seems hell-bent on cutting off as much funding as possible for the programs that matter to the rest of us."

I mean if I'm being honest, I don't think Owens criticisms or predictions of potential disaster go far enough. Yes, it's bad enough that a billionaire Afrikaner who literally believes billions of people are useless eaters who can and should be sacrificed for the goals of creating billions of "artificial minds" and escaping to Mars after rich people have burnt the planet to the crisp, has his fingers inside the payment system that supports America's most vulnerable people, and sure it's not at all good that Musk has access to information he can use to make himself even richer. But as long as you're committed to not actually calling Elon on a fascist, it's hard to understand the scope of what's just occurred here.

For starters, there probably isn't a more identifying clutch of sensitive personal information than the Treasury Department payment system; Musk, a literal billionaire nazi supervillain, now has more personal information on the political enemies of the American fascist movement (read: anyone who isn't going for this Pork Reich bullshit) than the fucking FBI and we know for a fact he's a vindictive little fash muppet who absolutely delights in targeting people who criticize or oppose his frankly quite unhinged agenda. If Musk/Trump/America First want to target, detain, or even eliminate whole swathes of their political enemies and people the fash think shouldn't exist, they now have access to more than enough information to start rounding folks up and conducting political purges.

Furthermore, and while this might not be "news" to folks who've been closely following this fascist movement and Musk's (successful) attempts to buy it, this makes it absolutely clear that the guy running this shitshow isn't an elected official at all - it's Musk. The fact is, a government is at its heart, a system of taxation and spending; if Musk and his allies in the tech industry now have their hands on the purse strings (and all the juicy data that entails) they are in all reasonable sense of the words, in charge of the government. Trump might have "won" an election in a rigged oligarchy, but the fascist wearing the pants in this arrangement is very clearly Elon Musk; a guy in a fascist death cult, who can't run a social media company, builds cars that burst into flames, and wants to eliminate vast portions of the media because they make fun of him for being the most divorced man ever.

Given all that, I am once again asking my fellow Americans if they're sincerely planning to just let this all happen for four years on the off chance a party full of collaborators wholly owned by the same rich people that own Trump, may win a potentially hypothetical election in a rigged oligarchy. Or, are you ready to start becoming ungovernable and shut this shit down, knowing that there will be personal costs involved, the fascist police state will respond with violence, and the liberal establishment which is openly musing that they're happy to let you suffer under authoritarianism to teach you a lesson about not voting for them, will be of no assistance whatsoever and in fact will likely help the fash punish you.

The choice is yours, and it's not a good one; but I still hope you choose wisely.

#USPol #Fascism #Treasury #Musk #Trump #SocialSecurity #PoliceState #Coup #PorkReich #AmerikanMusik

"Last week, EFF, along with the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, ACLU, and ACLU of Michigan, filed an amicus brief in People v. Carson in the Supreme Court of Michigan, challenging the constitutionality of the search warrant of Mr. Carson's smart phone.

In this case, Mr. Carson was arrested for stealing money from his neighbor's safe with a co-conspirator. A few months later, law enforcement applied for a search warrant for Mr. Carson's cell phone. The search warrant enumerated the claims that formed the basis for Mr. Carson's arrest, but the only mention of a cell phone was a law enforcement officer's general assertion that phones are communication devices often used in the commission of crimes. A warrant was issued which allowed the search of the entirety of Mr. Carson's smart phone, with no temporal or category limits on the data to be searched. Evidence found on the phone was then used to convict Mr. Carson.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals made a number of rulings in favor of Mr. Carson, including that evidence from the phone should not have been admitted because the search warrant lacked particularity and was unconstitutional. The government's appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court was accepted and we filed an amicus brief."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/eff-michigan-supreme-court-cell-phone-search-warrants-must-strictly-follow-fourth

#USA #Michigan #Surveillance #Cellphones #FourthAmendment #PoliceState #Privacy

"Last week, EFF, along with the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan, ACLU, and ACLU of Michigan, filed an amicus brief in People v. Carson in the Supreme Court of Michigan, challenging the constitutionality of the search warrant of Mr. Carson's smart phone.

In this case, Mr. Carson was arrested for stealing money from his neighbor's safe with a co-conspirator. A few months later, law enforcement applied for a search warrant for Mr. Carson's cell phone. The search warrant enumerated the claims that formed the basis for Mr. Carson's arrest, but the only mention of a cell phone was a law enforcement officer's general assertion that phones are communication devices often used in the commission of crimes. A warrant was issued which allowed the search of the entirety of Mr. Carson's smart phone, with no temporal or category limits on the data to be searched. Evidence found on the phone was then used to convict Mr. Carson.

On appeal, the Court of Appeals made a number of rulings in favor of Mr. Carson, including that evidence from the phone should not have been admitted because the search warrant lacked particularity and was unconstitutional. The government's appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court was accepted and we filed an amicus brief."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/eff-michigan-supreme-court-cell-phone-search-warrants-must-strictly-follow-fourth

#USA #Michigan #Surveillance #Cellphones #FourthAmendment #PoliceState #Privacy

"This decision sheds light on the government’s liberal use of what is essential a “finders keepers” rule regarding your communication data. As a legal authority, FISA Section 702 allows the intelligence community to collect a massive amount of communications data from overseas in the name of “national security.” But, in cases where one side of that conversation is a person on US soil, that data is still collected and retained in large databases searchable by federal law enforcement. Because the US-side of these communications is already collected and just sitting there, the government has claimed that law enforcement agencies do not need a warrant to sift through them. EFF argued for over a decade that this is unconstitutional, and now a federal court agrees with us."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/victory-federal-court-finally-rules-backdoor-searches-702-data-unconstitutional

#USA #Surveillance #PoliceState #Section702 #Backdoors #CyberSecurity #Privacy

cont'd

* APF one of U.S.’ highest-revenue police foundations
* supports projects that supplement Atlanta Police Department’s $250 million budget
* watchdog organization Private Equity Stakeholder Project investigates ties betw. private equity & APF
* argue that private equity influence is at heart of planned forest conversion (Cop City)

#libertarianism #MilitarizedPolice #PoliceAccountability #DefundPolice #WealthTax #APF #PESP #CopCity #StopCopCity #Atlanta #PoliceState #neofascism

"Which surveillance technologies are California police using? Are they buying access to your location data? If so, how much are they paying? These are basic questions the Electronic Frontier Foundation is trying to answer in a new lawsuit called Pen-Link v. County of San Joaquin Sheriff’s Office.

EFF filed a motion in California Superior Court to join—or intervene in—an existing lawsuit to get access to documents we requested. The private company Pen-Link sued the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Office to block the agency from disclosing to EFF the unredacted contracts between them, claiming the information is a trade secret. We are going to court to make sure the public gets access to these records.

The public has a right to know the technology that law enforcement buys with taxpayer money. This information is not a trade secret, despite what private companies try to claim."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/eff-goes-court-uncover-police-surveillance-tech-california

#USA #Surveillance #California #PoliceState

"A device capable of intercepting phone signals was likely deployed during the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, WIRED has learned, raising critical questions about who authorized its use and for what purpose.

The device, known as a cell-site simulator, was identified by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights advocacy organization, after analyzing wireless signal data collected by WIRED during the August event.

Cell-site simulators mimic cell towers to intercept communications, indiscriminately collecting sensitive data such as call metadata, location information, and app traffic from all phones within their range. Their use has drawn widespread criticism from privacy advocates and activists, who argue that such technology can be exploited to covertly monitor protesters and suppress dissent.

The DNC convened amid widespread protests over Israel’s assault on Gaza. While credentialed influencers attended exclusive yacht parties and VIP events, thousands of demonstrators faced a heavy law enforcement presence, including officers from the US Capitol Police, the Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, local sheriff’s offices, and Chicago police."

https://www.wired.com/story/2024-dnc-cell-site-simulator-phone-surveillance/

#USA #DNC #Surveillance #DemocraticParty #PoliceState

"EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance is one of the most useful resources for those who want to understand the use of police surveillance by local law enforcement agencies across the United States. This year, as the police surveillance industry has shifted, expanded, and doubled down on its efforts to win new cop customers, our team has been busily adding new spyware and equipment to this database. We also saw many great uses of the Atlas from journalists, students, and researchers, as well as a growing number of contributors. The Atlas of Surveillance currently captures more than 11,700 deployments of surveillance tech and remains the most comprehensive database of its kind. To learn more about each of the technologies, please check out our Street-Level Surveillance Hub, an updated and expanded version of which was released at the beginning of 2024."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/12/atlas-surveillance-expands-its-data-police-surveillance-technology-2024-year

#Surveillance #PoliceState #USA #DigitalRights

So, I'm wondering if these are being launched to spy on #USCitizens -- maybe even take action against them? Weaponized #PoliceDrones is an idea that's been floating for years... Are we about to become a full #PoliceState?

Intelligence officials [FAIL TO] reveal source of drones in classified briefing

by Melissa Koenig, December 18, 2024

"US Coast Guard licensed captain and New Jersey resident Paul Sprieser, 56, has said he does not believe all the sightings can be explained by commercial aircraft or other sanctioned activities.

"'There's a large percentage of them that are not commercial aircraft, like these stationary objects in the sky that are the size of an SUV that are just hanging out there for five or six hours, or seven hours,' Sprieser told DailyMail.com.

"It is possible that the drones could be the result of a 2018 defense contract to develop and test '#counterterrorism' drones.

"The Department of Defense is allowed to deny claims of third-party technologies if the drones were placed on a secure tech list for contract disclosures, which means the government is applying special restrictions to the information.

"The restrictions are added when technologies protect national security or to keep advanced systems hidden from hostile nations, and the developer holds primary liability if the government is not operating the drones, Retired CIA Intelligence Officer Rudy Ridolfi explained to DailyMail.com.

"He noted that the Federal Aviation Administration issued an air restriction alert on November 21 prohibiting flights over the Picatinny base for 'special security reasons' through December 26.

"'This FAA notice shows US drone testing is happening in the area. It's a warning for others to stay out of the area during those dates,' Ridolfi said.

"'While the nature of the testing isn't specified, it's most likely the testing of payloads related to reconnaissance.'

"The drone sightings began in mid-November when drones were spotted over the US Army's Picatinny Arsenal and President-elect Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster — both in New Jersey.

"In the weeks that followed, similar drones were reported throughout the state, especially in and around Morris county, and have since spread to other states in the region."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/intelligence-officials-reveal-source-of-drones-in-classified-briefing/ar-AA1w4oTQ?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=824e6b335c634e4fad5a4b97424f7e5a&ei=10

#AntiTerrorism #AntiTerrorismLaws #CriminalizingDissent #Authoritarianism #NDAA

"Donald Trump has threatened to go after a lot of people—journalists, political rivals and undocumented immigrants to name a few—and starting next year, he’ll have the entire national security apparatus at his disposal. What’s the best way to keep your personal information secure from surveillance, not just by the government, but also data brokers, tech companies, and online scammers? Leah talks with WIRED business editor Louise Matsakis and security editor Andrew Couts about what to expect and practical tips for your phone, computer, and life."

https://www.wired.com/story/politics-lab-keeping-your-personal-data-safe/

#USA #Trump #DataProtection #Privacy #Surveillance #PoliceState

"U.S. government agencies legally hack into cell phones or emails all the time: think of the FBI wiretapping a suspected drug lord or the NSA monitoring emails for terrorism plots.

But now there’s rising interest in hacking other kinds of devices people use, like Wi-Fi-connected security cameras and other IoT products.

Toka, an Israeli startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, specializes in this type of work. It previously gained attention for a 2022 Haaretz article detailing its claims about being able to obtain and even delete security camera footage.

The company is now looking to hire a “Client Director USA” to “support new business growth within the US government market.” The position requires a “strong history of technology sales within DoD and national security agencies.”"

https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/06/a16z-backed-toka-wants-to-help-us-agencies-hack-into-security-cameras-and-other-iot-devices/

#USA #Surveillance #PoliceState #StateHacking #Hacking #CyberSecurity #IoT

"Hackers weren’t able to monitor or intercept anything encrypted, according to the Times, which means that conversations over apps like Signal and Apple’s iMessage were probably protected. But end-to-end encryption over texts between Apple devices and Android devices, for instance, aren’t encrypted in the same way, meaning they were vulnerable to interception by Salt Typhoon, according to the Times.
(...)
As for the targets, the Post reports fewer than 150 people have been identified as having their text messages or phone calls monitored and the FBI has been in contact with them. Most of the people are in the Washington DC area, which makes sense if the hackers were interested in political targets. But 150 people can communicate with a lot of people, even in a short period, so the number of targets could be in the “millions,” according to Warner. You get the sense U.S. authorities have no real idea how many people have been impacted, given the scope of the intrusion.

The details about how the hackers were able to push so deeply into U.S. systems are still scarce, but it has something to do with the ways in which U.S. authorities wiretap suspects in this country with a court order. The monitoring of phone calls wasn’t 24/7, according to Warner, but he didn’t seem to elaborate on what that meant to the Times."

https://gizmodo.com/china-wiretaps-americans-in-worst-hack-in-our-nations-history-2000528424

#USA #CyberSecurity #StateHacking #Surveillance #PoliceState #China

"Decisions by the White House and by Republican lawmakers about spyware will have implications across a variety of policy areas that Trump and his associates are upending and that reach far beyond Washington. In recent years, an array of states, including Texas, Florida, and California have reportedly purchased spyware and other surveillance technologies; legislators and regulators will dictate whether that trend continues. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, at least two states have already used private personal data to prosecute people for getting abortions. That practice could expand with more widespread and affordable access to this technology.

Trump has threatened his political enemies, reposting comments calling for a military tribunal for Liz Cheney and observing that General Mark Milley’s behavior would have once been punishable by “DEATH!” He has also demonized the free press, suggesting, for example, that he wouldn’t mind if people were to “shoot through the fake news” and that journalists who protect sources should be imprisoned. These comments target the populations that have been most vulnerable to overzealous spyware campaigns in other Western democracies. “When this happens in an authoritarian system, it is horrific but unsurprising,” Seaford, the technology executive who was hacked during Greece’s spyware campaign, told me. “When it happens in a democracy, however, it creates a sense of disorientation: ‘Could this happen to me? Here? Really?!’ And yet it can, and it does.”"

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-technology-the-trump-administration-could-use-to-hack-your-phone

#USA #Trump #Surveillance #StateHacking #Spyware #PoliceState

"With the ongoing expansion of GPS tagging under the UK Home Office’s electronic monitoring programme, the Home Office has increasingly deployed non-fitted devices (NFDs) that track a person’s GPS location and request frequent biometric verification in the form of fingerprint scans.

The NFDs deployed by the UK Home Office are small handheld devices with a fingerprint scanner that record a person’s location 24/7 (referred to as their trail data). Most recently, migrants are being provided with Android mobile phones equipped with a fingerprint scanner at the back, which are also equipped with 24/7 GPS tracking technology. The devices alert the person at random intervals throughout the day requesting their fingerprint scan, which it then compares against a representation of the biometric information stored on the device. This is in order to verify that the person has the device with them at all times for the purposes of tracking.

Previous research PI did in relation to the NFDs determined that these alerts are sent to the wearer up to 5 times per day. Although as set out below, there are reports that individuals are in fact being sent many more alerts than this in a given day. Those subjected to these devices have cited detrimental impacts to their daily life and mental and physical wellbeing, due to the pervasive and erratic nature of these devices."

https://edri.org/our-work/non-fitted-devices-in-the-uk-home-offices-surveillance-arsenal-investigating-the-technology-behind-gps-fingerprint-scanners/

#UK #PoliceState #NFDs #GPS #Biometrics #Fingerprints

"The UK is "veering dangerously close to becoming a police state" because of facial scanners being used in high streets, MPs have heard.

Calls have been mounted for live facial recognition technology to be halted amid questions over accuracy and privacy. The software - currently being deployed in London, South Wales and Essex - allows officers to scan the faces of passers-by and check them against watchlists.

Several MPs raised concerns about software misidentifying innocent members of the public - particularly Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: "We're veering dangerously close to becoming a police state with levels of surveillance that would only be deemed acceptable in the most autheritarian police states. It's not a matter of 'those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear', it's a matter of our basic privacy."

She pointed to research by campaign group Big Brother Watch which found 89% of facial recognition alerts to date wrongly identified members. Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said current software is far more accurate."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/uk-veering-towards-police-state-34098123

#UK #PoliceState #Surveillance #FacialRecognition #Biometrics

On repeat, pointing to the votes in Dutch Parliament of today, November 19, 2024:

Something to witness: how "the safety of Israel" is the weapon Western democracies use to dismantle civil rights and turn their own countries into more open authoritarian police and surveillance states. IMO, they really got bold after they managed to "dissappear" the still ongoing pandemic.

#Necropolitics #media #propaganda #democracy #israel #authoritarianism #policestate #EU #HumanRights #CivilRights #RuleOfLaw #CovidIsNotOver #politics

This is quite unbelievable, like something out of a fictional dystopian alternative Britain but no, this tale of being arrested as a #terrorist for opposing #Genocide and #WarCrimes is very much non-fiction.

79-year-old professor, Haim Bresheeth was arrested under #terrorism legislation for speaking at a protest outside the residence of the #Israel Ambassador in Swiss Cottage.

#UKPol #PoliceState #Facism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDJMeqU9RvQ