He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.
This isn’t a data-sharing agreement—it is a secret government programme that turns the Department for Education into a border control force.
The United Kingdom’s education department is encouraging teachers to spy and report on children of illegal immigrants and to create a “hostile environment” for them in school.
↩︎ The Guardian, posted Dec. 21, 2016
Santa probably isn’t spying on you through your smart TV, but how would you know?
This Christmas, watch out for the “cyber-ghost of Christmas future,” as concern mounts that the smart coffee machine under the tree might soon be infected with malware that’s undermining the nascent Internet of Things.
Oh, cheery: here’s James Clapper talking about how excited the NSA is to use the Internet of Things to separate the naughty from the nice.
One interesting recommendation popping up for making our web interactions more fair and secure: voluntary levels of permissions for data, as discussed by a computer scientist inculcating ethics into her industry and recommended as a key step to fixing the Internet by Vince Cerf.
See also: The internet of actual things, where your phone experiences despair.
↩︎ posted Dec. 21, 2016
Anything goes in a Russian reality show that makesBig Brotherlook like kindergarten.
Think it’s cold where you are? You don’t have to survive nine months alone in Siberia shooting a new survival reality show. Producers, who say the show is inspired by Lost, are advertising it as total anarchy.
“Everything is allowed. Fighting, alcohol, murder, rape, smoking, anything.”
↩︎ posted Dec. 21, 2016
Internal Uber employees helped ex-boyfriends stalk their ex-girlfriends and searched for the trip information of celebrities such as Beyoncé, the company’s former forensic investigator said.
Uber’s promises of data security are directly contradicted by stories of spying, like when employees accessed “God View.”
↩︎ Reveal, posted Dec. 21, 2016
A Signal that anxiety over surveillance is merited.
After the election, downloads of encrypted messaging app Signal spiked in the United States, drawing the app misbegotten attention abroad: Egypt just blocked Signal.
How to make Signal’s popularity last: it needs cute stickers.
↩︎ posted Dec. 21, 2016