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#digitalsurveillance

2 posts2 participants1 post today

The Register: You’ll never guess which mobile browser is the worst for data collection. “Surfshark’s research focused on the top ten browsers based on AppMagic rankings. This included Safari due to it being the default browser on iPhones. Between them, Chrome and Safari account for almost 90 percent of the mobile browser market, according to Statcounter, while also being among the top for […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/14/the-register-youll-never-guess-which-mobile-browser-is-the-worst-for-data-collection/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · The Register: You’ll never guess which mobile browser is the worst for data collection | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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Gizmodo: An Employee Surveillance Company Leaked Over 21 Million Screenshots Online. “With the refinement of digital tools, companies are subjecting their employees to increasing levels of surveillance — and increasing risks. Now, the security of thousands of employees and their parent companies is at risk after real-time images of their computers were leaked by an employee surveillance […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/30/gizmodo-an-employee-surveillance-company-leaked-over-21-million-screenshots-online/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Gizmodo: An Employee Surveillance Company Leaked Over 21 Million Screenshots Online | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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404 Media: Judge Rules Blanket Search of Cell Tower Data Unconstitutional. “A judge in Nevada has ruled that ‘tower dumps’—the law enforcement practice of grabbing vast troves of private personal data from cell towers—is unconstitutional. The judge also ruled that the cops could, this one time, still use the evidence they obtained through this unconstitutional search.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/20/404-media-judge-rules-blanket-search-of-cell-tower-data-unconstitutional/

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Techdirt: Whoops: T-Mobile Reveals Names, Real-Time Locations Of Customers’ Kids. “T-Mobile sells a GPS service called SyncUP that lets parents monitor the locations of their children (one of several similar apps like Life360), then turns around and monetizes these vast troves of data. Except that 404 Media was the first to report that an apparent bug with T-Mobile’s service resulted in […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/19/whoops-t-mobile-reveals-names-real-time-locations-of-customers-kids-techdirt/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Whoops: T-Mobile Reveals Names, Real-Time Locations Of Customers’ Kids (Techdirt) | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #politics #SocialMedia #DigitalSurveillance

'US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to review the social media accounts of foreign applicants for United States visas who have visited the Gaza Strip in the past 18 years, according to an internal cable seen by the Reuters news agency.'

aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/18/u

Al Jazeera · US to screen social media of visa applicants who spent time in GazaBy Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera: US to screen social media of visa applicants who spent time in Gaza . “US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to review the social media accounts of foreign applicants for United States visas who have visited the Gaza Strip in the past 18 years, according to an internal cable seen by the Reuters news agency.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/18/al-jazeera-us-to-screen-social-media-of-visa-applicants-who-spent-time-in-gaza/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Al Jazeera: US to screen social media of visa applicants who spent time in Gaza | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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CBC: She was chatting with friends in a Lyft. Then someone texted her what they said. “[Anvi] Ahuja phoned Lyft that night looking for answers. In that initial call, she says a representative told her this was something the ride-sharing company was piloting. But then about a week later after following up with Lyft she received a written message from a member of the company’s safety team which […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/16/cbc-she-was-chatting-with-friends-in-a-lyft-then-someone-texted-her-what-they-said/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · CBC: She was chatting with friends in a Lyft. Then someone texted her what they said | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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#Lyft #privacy #DigitalSurveillance

'Anvi Ahuja noticed a "freaky" new text message from a number she didn't know right after getting back to her downtown Toronto apartment last month.

The text was a transcript of the conversation she'd just had with her roommates during their eight-minute Lyft ride home from a friend's place.'

cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lyf

CBCShe was chatting with friends in a Lyft. Then someone texted her what they said | CBC NewsA Toronto woman is raising concerns about her privacy being breached after she received a text message transcript of her conversation with her roommates during a Lyft ride last month.

Mashable: Google tracks Android users before they open apps, report says. “A recent study from D.J. Leith at Trinity College Dublin took a deep dive into the messy world of device IDs, trackers, and analytics cookies on Android devices and found that Google tracks users before they even have a chance to open an app. Leith was able to identify at least 14 cookies, trackers, and device […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/13/mashable-google-tracks-android-users-before-they-open-apps-report-says/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Mashable: Google tracks Android users before they open apps, report says | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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Nebraska Examiner: Bill to catalog Nebraska school ‘tools of mass surveillance’ hits roadblock. “Legislative Bill 31, from State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, would require all of Nebraska’s 245 public school districts to publicly inventory and catalog student surveillance, monitoring and tracking technology tools used by or contracted for use in each district. The bill was debated […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/13/nebraska-examiner-bill-to-catalog-nebraska-school-tools-of-mass-surveillance-hits-roadblock/

Mashable: Immigrants’ social media accounts will be monitored for ‘antisemitic activity,’ DHS says. “Adding to growing fears of digital surveillance under the Trump administration, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it will begin screening immigrants’ social media accounts in an effort to uncover ‘antisemitic activity,’ the department explained.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/11/mashable-immigrants-social-media-accounts-will-be-monitored-for-antisemitic-activity-dhs-says/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Mashable: Immigrants’ social media accounts will be monitored for ‘antisemitic activity,’ DHS says | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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Route Fifty: PA House passes bill creating criminal offense for tracking device-based stalking. “Lawmakers in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted Tuesday to pass legislation that would make stalking using an Apple AirTag or other electronic tracking devices a misdemeanor offense under the state’s stalking statute as policymakers look to stem the growing misuse of such items.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/11/route-fifty-pa-house-passes-bill-creating-criminal-offense-for-tracking-device-based-stalking/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Route Fifty: PA House passes bill creating criminal offense for tracking device-based stalking | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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The Register: Chrome to patch decades-old flaw that let sites peek at your history . “A 23-year-old side-channel attack for spying on people’s web browsing histories will get shut down in the forthcoming Chrome 136, released last Thursday to the Chrome beta channel. At least that’s the hope. The privacy attack, referred to as browser history sniffing, involves reading the color values of web […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/09/the-register-chrome-to-patch-decades-old-flaw-that-let-sites-peek-at-your-history/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · The Register: Chrome to patch decades-old flaw that let sites peek at your history | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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Continued thread

For the past several years, I've been arguing with AI advocates about the purpose of the technology they're enamored with. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm aware that there are use cases for so-called AI programs that aren't inherently evil, but when you take a look at the nazi billionaires who're behind the projects to force widespread adoption, their long term plans to establish city-state dictatorships out of the hollowed out core of the nation-state era, and what these guys ultimately do with it, it's pretty clear AI is a fascism machine; just as much as IBM's punch card computers were a genocide machine for the Nazis. It doesn't have to be this way, but this is the way it is.

As such, I can't say I'm shocked that after Elon Musk bought himself a president, the first thing he started doing is using AI purge his political enemies as well as their ideas, sort surveillance data to identify targets for a white nationalist regime, and now spy on federal workers in search of those with insufficient loyalty to God Emperor Trump, the regime, and Musk himself.

reuters.com/technology/artific

Exclusive: Musk's DOGE using AI to snoop on U.S. federal workers, sources say

"Reuters’ interviews with nearly 20 people with knowledge of DOGE’s operations – and an examination of hundreds of pages of court documents from lawsuits challenging DOGE's access to data – highlight its unorthodox usage of AI and other technology in federal government operations.

At the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, some EPA managers were told by Trump appointees that Musk’s team is rolling out AI to monitor workers, including looking for language in communications considered hostile to Trump or Musk, the two people said.

The EPA, which enforces laws such as the Clean Air Act and works to protect the environment, has come under intense scrutiny by the Trump administration. Since January, it has put nearly 600 employees on leave and said it will eliminate 65% of its budget, which could require further staffing reductions.

Trump-appointed officials who had taken up EPA posts told managers that DOGE was using AI to monitor communication apps and software, including Microsoft Teams, which is widely used for virtual calls and chats, said the two sources familiar with these comments. “We have been told they are looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk language,” a third source familiar with the EPA said. Reuters could not independently confirm if the AI was being implemented.

The Trump officials said DOGE would be looking for people whose work did not align with the administration's mission, the first two sources said. “Be careful what you say, what you type and what you do,” a manager said, according to one of the sources."

Naturally the regime and DOGE have denied that they're using AI to conduct "thought" policing inside the federal workforce, but I think given how readily the Trump administration has engaged in clear ideological warfare and suppression against its perceived political enemies, that denial sound a lot like a hollow lie. Speaking broadly however, I can't say I'm surprised at all that this is where a technology like AI and the billionaire nazis who're pushing it, have lead us as a society. There are a near infinite number of things "AI" technology is terrible at, but one thing it does really well is sort through the vast amounts of data and metadata collected as part of our already existing police state panopticon society; in fact, without automation we really wouldn't be able to sift through that amount of data at all with human eyes. AI doesn't have morals, it doesn't have humanity, it doesn't have any sense of what's right and wrong; it presumes the world it's programmed to presume, and engages in the tasks it's purposed to engage in - and billionaire nazi cultists who want to build their own technofeudalist dicatorships are the guys in charge of the coding and tasking of this technology. Whether it's picking out targets for extermination by the IDF during a genocide in Gaza, hunting down student protestors in vast seas of education and immigration data, or spying on federal workers for anti-Musk sentiments, the fact is fascist oppression and violence *can* be automated - particularly if you don't give a fuck about false positives because you're a soulless nazi murderbot.

Associated Press: France’s antitrust watchdog fines Apple for problems with App Tracking Transparency. “France’s antitrust watchdog fined Apple 150 million euros ($162 million) on Monday over a privacy feature protecting users from apps snooping on them because its introduction resulted in abuse of competition law.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/01/associated-press-frances-antitrust-watchdog-fines-apple-for-problems-with-app-tracking-transparency/

ResearchBuzz: Firehose | Individual posts from ResearchBuzz · Associated Press: France’s antitrust watchdog fines Apple for problems with App Tracking Transparency | ResearchBuzz: Firehose
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Mashable: Amazon Echo alternatives with better privacy options. “Amazon recently confirmed that Alexa users will no longer have the ability to process requests locally, meaning your voice recordings will be stored in Amazon’s servers, no matter what you think about it. That’s…not great. The good news is there are a couple of major alternatives you can use that have better privacy settings. […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/27/mashable-amazon-echo-alternatives-with-better-privacy-options/

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Ars Technica: Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28. “Starting on March 28, recordings of everything command spoken to the Alexa living in Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be sent to Amazon and processed in the cloud.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/17/ars-technica-everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/

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