Surveillance has a body count: CBP reports 895 migrant deaths in 2022

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) just released updated data on migrant deaths at the US-Mexico border, and the results are staggering. At least 895 people died at the border during the 2022 fiscal year — a 57 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. This grim statistic makes 2022 the deadliest year on record for … Read more

Sinking Section 702 Wiretap Program Offered One Last Lifeboat

A bill introduced by senators Dick Durbin and Mike Lee to reauthorize the Section 702 surveillance program is the fifth introduced in the US Congress this winter. The authority is threatening to expire in a month, disrupting a global wiretapping program said to inform a third of articles in the President’s Daily Briefing—a morning “tour … Read more

Missing Student Kicked Out of Luke Bryan’s Bar Seen on Surveillance Video

Play video content A college student who’s been missing since Friday — this after getting asked to leave Luke Bryan’s Nashville bar — wandered the streets aimlessly … now seen on surveillance video. 22-year-old Riley Strain was in town last weekend, visiting with friends from the University of Missouri for a convention in Nashville — … Read more

The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency

Donald Trump appears to dream of being an American authoritarian should he return to office. The former US president, who on Tuesday secured enough delegates to win the 2024 Republican nomination, plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and house scores of them in large camps. He wants to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy … Read more

Airbnb Bans All Indoor Security Cameras

Airbnb will soon ban hosts from watching their guests with indoor security cameras, as the company is reversing course on its surveillance policies. As of April 30, hosts around the world must remove indoor cameras and disclose other outdoor monitoring tech to guests before they book. Airbnb previously allowed hosts to install security cameras in … Read more

5 Years After San Francisco Banned Face Recognition, Voters Ask for More Surveillance

San Francisco made history in 2019 when its Board of Supervisors voted to ban city agencies including the police department from using face recognition. About two dozen other US cities have since followed suit. But on Tuesday, San Francisco voters appeared to turn against the idea of restricting police technology, backing a ballot proposition that … Read more

The UK’s GPS Tagging of Migrants Has Been Ruled Illegal

The way the UK government has been tagging migrants with GPS trackers is illegal, the country’s privacy regulator ruled on Friday, in a rebuke to officials who have been experimenting with migrant-surveillance tech in both the UK and the US. As part of an 18-month pilot that concluded in December, the UK interior ministry, known … Read more

A Vending Machine Error Revealed Secret Face Recognition Tech

Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after outraged students discovered the machines were covertly collecting face recognition data without their consent. The scandal started when a student using the alias SquidKid47 posted an image on Reddit showing a campus vending machine error message, “Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe,” displayed after the … Read more

Violent assault in West Hollywood captured on surveillance cameras

Authorities with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are asking for the public’s help in identifying and locating a suspect captured on surveillance cameras in West Hollywood assaulting a Block-By-Block Security Ambassador with a deadly weapon. The attack unfolded on Feb. 15 at around 1:20 a.m. in the 7300 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, according … Read more