The New York Times reports on what the city’s police department calls Digidog, “a 70-pound robotic dog with a loping gait, cameras and lights affixed to its frame, and a two-way communication system that allows the officer maneuvering it remotely to see and hear what is happening.”
Police said the robot can see in the dark and assess how safe it is…
Tag: LIBERTIES
They Stormed the Capitol. Their Apps Tracked Them
In 2019 two New York Times opinion writers obtained cellphone app data “containing the precise locations of more than 12 million individual smartphones for several months in 2016 and 2017.” (It’s data that they say is “supposed to be anonymous, but it isn’t. We found celebrities, Pentagon officials and average Americans.”) Now they’ve obtained a remarkable new trove of data, “this…
Edward Snowden Urges Donations to the EFF
In October, Edward Snowden was granted permanent residency in Russia. A new web page by the EFF applauds his past activities as a U.S. whistleblower. “His revelations about secret surveillance programs opened the world’s eyes to a new level of government misconduct, and reinvigorated EFF’s continuing work in the courts and with lawmakers to end unlawful mass spying.” And then they…
Facebook’s Criticism of Apple’s Tracking Change Called ‘Laughable’ by EFF
The MacRumors site writes:
Facebook’s recent criticism directed at Apple over an upcoming tracking-related privacy measure is “laughable,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit organization that defends civil liberties in the digital world. Facebook has claimed that Apple’s new opt-in tracking policy will hurt small businesses who benefit from personalized advertising, but the EFF believes that Facebook’s campaign against…
ACLU Sues DHS Over Purchase of Cellphone Location Data Used To Track Immigrants
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing federal authorities over their alleged use of cellphone location data — particularly in immigration enforcement. From a report: The nonprofit organization today filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to force the agencies to release records about purchasing cellphone location data…
FCC To Move on Trump Plan To Weaken Social Media Legal Shield
U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency will consider President Donald Trump’s request to weaken legal protections for social media companies such as Twitter. From a report: The FCC will begin a rulemaking to “clarify” the meaning of a law that gives broad legal immunity to social media companies for their handling of users’ posts, Pai said in…
Controversial Data Firm Palantir Fetches Market Value of Nearly $22 Billion In Its Debut On the NYSE
US tech firm Palantir, known for supplying controversial data-sifting software to government agencies, has fetched a market value of nearly $22 billion in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The BBC reports: The firm, which launched in 2003 with backing from right-wing libertarian tech investor Peter Thiel and America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), builds programs that integrate massive data…
Facebook and Google Serve As Vectors For Misinformation While Hobbling Local Journalism and Collecting Taxpayer Subsidies, Group Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Facebook and Google are hollowing out local communities by serving as vectors for misinformation while hobbling local journalism and collecting taxpayer subsidies, a new paper from progressive think tank the American Economic Liberties Project charges. Both companies cite benefits their platforms offer small businesses as a key defense against critiques of their size…
Should the U.S. Pardon Edward Snowden?
Long-time Slashdot readers 93 Escort Wagon and schwit1 both shared the news that U.S. President Trump is “considering” a pardon for Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who “leaked a trove of secret files in 2013 to news organizations that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations” carried out by the agency, according to Reuters: U.S. authorities for years…
While Some Top Creators Abandon TikTok, the ACLU Opposes a Ban
Late Friday night, the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted its objections to banning TikTok in the United States. “Banning an app like TikTok, which millions of Americans use to communicate with each other, is a danger to free expression and technologically impractical.” More details from TechCrunch: “With any Internet platform, we should be concerned about the risk that sensitive private data…