DHS’ license plate tracker program quietly expands nationwide

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How “Secure Communities” makes us all insecure

The Massachusetts version of Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio has something to celebrate. 

Thursday technology links round-up

Biometrics, the military and the police: who is who? Where does that leave us?

The FBI and the Department of Defense are getting close to opening their giant biometrics center, where biometric data about people as diverse as Afghan villagers, Iraqi businessmen, Pakistani farmers, immigrants to the United States, and

Gun shot detector plus face recognition

Just this week we warned about the combination of powerful surveillance technologies, arguing that each of these tools alone is troublesome but that their combined use spells privacy disaster.

We told you so.

Get out of the pot before it’s too late

License plate readers. Biometric iris scans and face recognition. CCTV cameras that can track you as you move through the city. Video analytics that automatically flag "suspicious activities" and allow police or private spooks to zoom in on your location.

The Pirate Bay is going drone

In what might be the coolest news of the day, the torrents website The Pirate Bay -- much despised by the recording and film industries, and harassed by prosecutors and police the world over -- has announced that it plans to store its servers on drones. The group says the Air Force is the only thing that could take down their operation once the system is mobile.

Drone servers!

“Teenage boys” hacking into personal webcams nationwide — but what about the government?

Thursday technology links round-up

From über cheap internet sniffing spyware to surveillance drones capable of capturing 80 years worth of video in a day, this week's been another doozy in the technologies of control department. Oh, and if you are reading this, the FBI probably thinks you are suspicious.