America’s FBI and its Customs Enforcement agency “have turned state driver license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through hundreds of millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent,” reports the Washington Post. They cite thousands of newly-released facial-recognition requests, internal documents, and emails from the last five years, revealed after a public-records request from researchers at Georgetown University,…
Tag: law enforcement
John McAfee Hides in Cuba, Touts Cryptocurrency For Evading US Government’s Sanctions
“On the run from U.S. tax authorities, tech guru John McAfee puffs a cigar aboard his towering white yacht in a Havana harbor,” reports Reuters, “and says he can help Cuba evade the U.S. government too — by launching a cryptocurrency that defeats a U.S. trade embargo.” Long-time Slashdot reader Aighearach shared their report: McAfee in an interview touted the anonymity…
Why Is Slack Retaining Everyone’s Chat History?
The associate director of research at the Electronic Frontier Foundation published a new warning in the Opinion section of the New York Times this week, calling Slack the only unicorn going public this year “that has admitted it is at risk for nation-state attacks” and saying there’s a simple way to minimize risk — that Slack has so far refused to…
Reddit Quarantines Pro-Trump Forum Because of Threats
The r/The_Donald subreddit has been “quarantined” by Reddit administrators after a series of threats against police were posted there. Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares an excerpt from The Daily Beast: “Recent behaviors including threats against the police and public figures is content that is prohibited by our violence policy,” a Reddit spokesperson said in a statement. “As a result, we have actioned…
Cop Awarded $585K After ‘Dozens’ Of Police Officers Accessed Their DMV Data 500 Times
Slashdot reader Iwastheone shares a story from Ars Technica about what happened after Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources sent a privacy notification to a police officer in 2013: An employee had abused his access to a government driver’s license database and snooped on thousands of people in the state, mostly women. Krekelberg learned that she was one of them. When Krekelberg…
Cellebrite Says It Can Unlock Any iPhone For Cops
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: On Friday afternoon, the Israeli forensics firm and law enforcement contractor Cellebrite publicly announced a new version of its product known as a Universal Forensic Extraction Device or UFED, one that it’s calling UFED Premium. In marketing that update, it says that the tool can now unlock any iOS device cops can lay…
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…
Are Amazon’s ‘Ring’ Doorbells Creating A Massive Police Surveillance Network?
“Police departments are piggybacking on Ring’s network to build out their surveillance networks…” reports CNET, adding that Ring “helps police avoid roadblocks for surveillance technology, whether a lack of funding or the public’s concerns about privacy.” While residential neighborhoods aren’t usually lined with security cameras, the smart doorbell’s popularity has essentially created private surveillance networks powered by Amazon and promoted by…
Watchdog Says FBI Has Access To About 640M Photographs
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: A government watchdog says the FBI has access to about 640 million photographs — including from driver’s licenses, passports and mugshots — that can be searched using facial recognition technology. The figure reflects how the technology is becoming an increasingly powerful law enforcement tool, but is also stirring fears about the potential for authorities to intrude on the lives…
Relatives’ DNA Leads To Arrest — For a 1976 Double Murder
“You gotta be kidding me,” said a Wisconsin man, when police arrested his 82-year-old next-door neighbor “old Ray” — the guy who would occasionally come over to fix his lawnmower. An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press:
Ray Vannieuwenhoven was his next-door neighbor — a helpful, 82-year-old handyman with a gravelly voice and a loud, distinctive laugh, the kind of guy who…