Fight for the Future, the digital rights advocacy group, is calling for a nationwide ban on government use of facial recognition. Fast Company reports: The group says the technology is just too dangerous to civil liberties to allow government agencies to use it, even with regulation. It launched a website where people can contact their legislators and urge them to support…
Tag: civil liberties
House Lawmakers Demand End To Warrantless Collection of Americans’ Data
Two House lawmakers are pushing an amendment that would effectively defund a massive data collection program run by the National Security Agency unless the government promises to not intentionally collect data of Americans. TechCrunch reports: The bipartisan amendment — just 15 lines in length — would compel the government to not knowingly collect communications — like emails, messages and browsing data…
Lessons From 5 Years of Free Cybersecurity For At-Risk Groups
Cloudflare’s Project Galileo, which offers free high-tier DDoS protection service to journalists, dissidents, civil liberties groups and other at-risk groups, turned 5 years old this week. From a report: The project currently serves over 600 accounts. An LGBT protection group in the Middle East, for example, does important work on a shoestring budget and cannot possibly afford to block the outsized…
Police Use of DNA Leads To Backlash, Policy Change For GEDmatch
Police investigators have used popular online DNA databases to solve at least 50 open murder and rape cases, reports the Associated Press. But now, “complaints about invasion of privacy have produced a backlash, leading the Florida-based database known as GEDmatch to change its policies.”
The nonprofit website’s previous practice was to permit police to use its database only to solve homicides and…
Six Years After Ed Snowden Went Public, How Much Has Changed?
Slashdot reader Nicola Hahn argues that at first, Edward Snowden’s revelations six years ago “put mass surveillance and state sponsored hacking center stage,” leading to other revelations like the ANT Catalogue, the Equation Group tools, and the Vault 7 leaks: In the wake of these developments a number of high-ranking officials scrambled to justify clandestine programs. Executives likewise recalibrated their stance…
Shareholder Efforts To Curb Amazon Facial Recognition Tech Fall Short
Two Amazon shareholder proposals about the company’s controversial facial recognition technology failed to pass Wednesday, following a concerted push by civil rights groups and activist investors. From a report: One proposal would have banned Amazon from selling its Rekognition technology to government agencies unless it first determines the software doesn’t infringe on civil liberties. The other proposal called for an independent…