U.S. federal agencies have been using a 35-year-old American surveillance law to secretly track WhatsApp users with no explanation as to why and without knowing whom they are targeting. In Ohio, a just-unsealed government surveillance application reveals that in November 2021, DEA investigators demanded the Facebook-owned messaging company track seven users based in China and Macau. The application reveals the DEA didn't know the identities of any of the targets, but told WhatsApp to monitor the IP addresses and numbers with which the targeted users were communicating, as well as when and how they were using the app. Such surveillance is done using a technology known as a pen register and under the 1986 Pen Register Act, and doesn't seek any message content, which WhatsApp couldn't provide anyway, as it is end-to-end encrypted.

EU police body accused of unlawfully holding information and aspiring to become an NSA-style mass surveillance agency.

Investment in transportation, agriculture, healthcare, and education should take priority over investment in surveillance technologies.

Twenty years ago, the privacy hawk Senator Wyden helped kill an infamous post-9/11 program called Total Information Awareness. He’s still trying to rein it in.

After the 9/11 attacks, one big concern was connecting the dots. Failing to do so was why we missed the warning signs of the attacks and how we would prevent the next ones, the thinking went. One solution, according to the Pentagon, was a project to gather as much data as possible, to look for signs of future bad behavior.

Cellphones "can be transformed into surveillance devices," writes the Guardian, reporting startling new details about which innocent people are still being surveilled.

The investigators say that potential targets included nearly 200 journalists around the world evidence was found that the Pegasus software had been installed on the phone of the fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. NSO denies this to the Washington Post. But they also insist that they're simply licensing their software to clients, and their company "has no insight" into those clients' specific intelligence activities.

The European Parliament approved the ePrivacy Derogation, allowing providers of e-mail and messaging services to automatically search all personal messages containing material depicting child sex abuse and report suspected cases to the police. The European Pirates Delegation in the Greens/EFA group strongly condemns this automated mass surveillance, which effectively means the end of privacy in digital correspondence. Pirate Party MEPs plan to take legal action. Patrick Breyer (German Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament): “This harms children rather than protecting them”

Police makes 112,000 data requests in 6 months: When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they're increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services that have hooked billions of people around the world.

The Investigatory Powers Act, or Snooper’s Charter, was introduced in 2016. Now one of its most contentious surveillance tools is being secretly trialled by internet firms.

Sharon Weinberger asks the question: what is a weapon in the Information Age? From microscopic "smart dust" tracking devices to DNA-tracing tech and advanced facial recognition software, journalist Sharon Weinberger leads a hair-raising tour through the global, unregulated bazaar of privatized mass surveillance. To rein in this growing, multibillion-dollar marketplace that often caters to customers with nefarious intents, Weinberger believes the first step is for governments to classify surveillance tools as dangerous and powerful weapons.

The public health crisis is laying a dangerous foundation for the future surveillance state.

The Human Data Interaction Network Plus, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), has announced a call for proposals focused on Surveillance and Resistance.

San Diego equipped 3200 of its street lights with cameras and sensors with no governance or oversight…. Smart Cities turned to Panopticon Cities…

A crowdsourced effort between the EFF and the University of Nevada, Reno, resulted in a nationwide map of police surveillance tactics: ‘Atlas of Surveillance’ now provides a searchable, interactive database of police surveillance.

Communities across the United States are starting to ban facial recognition technologies. In all cases, modern mass surveillance has three broad components: identification, correlation and discrimination. Read more on Bruce Schneier’s blog on Security.

It's time to shed light on the technical methods and business practices behind third-party tracking. For journalists, policy makers, and concerned consumers, this paper will demystify the fundamentals of third-party tracking, explain the scope of the problem, and suggest ways for users and legislation to fight back against the status quo.

There needs to be a radical transformation of Facebook and Google's surveillance business model as it poses a systemic threat to human rights.

“Toronto Sidewalk Labs mini-version” in NYC: The country’s largest development has officially arrived, but so too has the debate over Related’s plans for user data.