NSA = Not So Adept: Hackers Loot Brash Stash Of NSA Exploits & Data

Who watches the watchers?  Apparently, now it’s…well, everybody with a computer.  A massive hack against the NSA has revealed a treasure trove of previously-private exploits and other data, and it doesn’t make our “security agency” look very secure at all…

If the future won't let us have space-war, we'll have cyberspace-war.
(Image courtesy techworm.com.)

Crushing Bugs: Snowden To Sever Secret Smartphone Radio Transmissions

Oh, Edward Snowden.  A hero to any modern man who doesn’t want every other modern man, woman, and robot peeking into his business, the young former NSA operator has sacrificed his safety (and effectively the rest of his life) in pursuit of reform of the sickening surveillance state.  Now, he’s created a new device that shows his mission has not subsided in the slightest…

How can you cut a cord you can't see?
Snowden knows.
(Image courtesy rt.com.)

Prints To Convince: 3-D Printed Fingerprints To Be Used In Murder Case

3-D printing is experiencing a boom across a fascinating variety of sectors.  It can be used for construction, creating artistic foods arrangements, making clothing, or even fashioning spare parts for the International Space Station.  Now, cops have used it to help gather evidence…but is it ethical?

Every other part of you can be cloned, why not your fingerprints too?
(Image courtesy dhgate.com.)

Drone-O-Gram! Amazon Secures Patent For Air-Based Deliveries

Like it or not, drone technology is here to stay.  Besides providing for brutally asymmetric warfare, however, they could also be pretty useful for delivering things other than bombs.  Since we all know the surveillance state isn’t about to let anything get actually lost anymore, it only stands to reason that a new patent could provide drone-docks all around your neighborhood…

Just make sure they use lots of bubble wrap in the packing...
(Image courtesy dailymail.co.uk.)

Big Brother In Mother Russia: Putin's New Anti-Terror Bill Wants ALL The Data

Oh, Vlad.  Just when the rest of the world is getting really good at pretending we want to value human rights and raise awareness, you have to go and sign into law an anti-"terrorism" bill so rights-infringey, even some of the pro-Kremlin crowd thinks it goes too far…

Big Comrade is watching you...
(Image courtesy thetimes.co.uk.)

No Shoot For You! Apple Patents Phone-Camera Blocking Technology

In an age where the average first-world citizen could expect to find themselves under the eyes of a camera literally hundreds of times per day, it becomes somewhat surprising when technology is invented to abet the exact opposite.  However, will blocking certain cameras’ features be in the best interests of society, or is this just a new form of censorship?

Well, at least shows will be way less populated by people like this.
(Imaqge courtesy livestrongforever.com.)

Sucking Dox: Facial Recognition Software Used To Harass Porn Stars' Real Identities

Facial recognition software has long been touted as a necessary aide to combat crimes, from street-level surveillance up to complex police analysis of individuals' tattoos for identification.  Now, a piece of software that allows you to search for faces as easily as one might search for a cupcake recipe has backfired to those who don't really want to be identified...well, for their facial features, at least.

They sell their bodies for a living, which enrages those who'd never get a buyer,
or any kind of lover at all.
(Image courtesy monsters4ever.com.)

Blowing Up The Burners: New Bill To Make Anonymous Cell Phones Illegal?

Chances are, as a modern human being, you own at least one cell phone that you guard with a vigilance that many bodyguards would envy.  It's as important as your wallet or keys, and maybe more so due to its irreplaceability.  But what about the cell phones that are used specifically for their disposable nature?  Should they be illegal just because sometimes you have business to handle that you don't want interacting with the rest of your real life?

Burner phones:  will they be burned at the legal stake for their perceived sins?
(Image courtesy survivethewild.net.)

The Witness Of Fitness: Health Apps Want Your Hot Body (Of Data)

Do you have a smartphone, smartwatch, or otherwise e-enabled device that you use to keep track of your health and fitness habits?  That's good, in the sense that you care enough about yourself to hopefully not totally devolve into a donut-demolishing dumpster.  It's bad, however, that all of your fitness data might not just be kept solely between you and your get-buff gadgetry.

"Sweet, I just beat my best 5K time!
But what's with all these ads to join the army?"
(Image courtesy lifefitness.com.)

Shot Through The Art, And You're To Blame: New Tattoo Recognition Software Spots Evildoers By Their Ink

We all know that the encroaching insidiousness of facial recognition technology is getting harder and harder to thwart.  This can be somewhat of a good thing, like when it actually catches criminals or finds your lost dog, but for the average citizen, you can't even skip church without getting compiled into a face database (dataface?) these days.  No matter how much weird makeup you use to try to obscure yourself, there's just too many cameras out in the world attempting to capture your likeness.  Now, the technology has been refined to include the art on your body in addition to your body itself...

Just in case you didn't make it this obvious.
(Image courtesy creativefan.com.)

You Better Not Pout: Santa's Surveillance Apps

Christmas is coming, so why not leverage it to exert influence on the young ones in your life?  Promote politeness with a variety of Santa-approved "surveillance" apps...

Naughty or nice, you can use his power to keep Christmas craziness in check.
(Image courtesy pennlive.com.)

If You Suspects Something, Text Something: New Anti-Terror App For New Yorkers

Are you remaining vigilant in these trying times, citizen?  Well just in case you were thinking of keeping to yourself and minding your own damn business, the government doesn't want you to, and there's a new app to abet that.

Your activism needs no more than the swipe of a finger.
That should probably be worrisome, right?
(Image courtesy ny.gov.)

X Marks The Spotted: Windows 10 Is Watching You

As citizens of the cyber-community, we've unfortunately become conditioned to seeing ads that are eerily targeted to things we say, emails that appear from long-forgotten websites, and other evidence of deep data gathering made manifest for use of moneymaking.  Now, with the launch of Windows 10 becoming a necessity for some users, Microsoft seems to have pulled out even more stops to speed up their spying...

Seriously, what ISN'T spying on us these days?
(Image courtesy hackread.com.)

Eyes In The Sky That Pry Via Wifi: Malware-Injecting Drones Swoop In To Spy

Hackers, in an ever-escalating bid to stymie security, have teamed up with an arm of one of the world's leading aerospace companies to create computer-death from above...

As usual, we're sure this is all to "protect your freedom"...
(Image courtesy youtube.com.)

Found By Sound: Kidnapper Located Via Spotify Sign-Ons

The information superhighway has a lot of vehicles on it, and you might be followed without even realizing it.  Such was the case with one woman who thought she could escape the law, but didn't count on the law looking in on what she listened to, and where...

If Bonnie and Clyde here are jamming Spotify while fleeing the law,
they're gonna get caught!
(Image courtesy musictimes.com.)

Nothing to Hide: Privacy and Surveillance in New York City

"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of." This is perhaps the most well known slogan of anti-privacy advocates and would-be totalitarians the world over. At one and the same time, this simple statement both criminalizes the practice of privacy while excusing some of the most heinous attacks on the rights and liberties of individuals by governments and corporations.

Of course, the notion that "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of" is absurd on its face, at least in any society that is predicated upon the civilizational principle separating the public and private spheres. Perhaps the simplest way to undermine this dangerous idea is to ask some rather simple questions of those who espouse it. For example: What is your name? What is your Social Security Number? What is your bank account number? What is the password to your main email account?

Recently, we decided to head out onto the streets of New York City with actor and comedian Adrian Sexton to ask folks if they agreed with the statement "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of." And if they answered in the affirmative, we then asked them to provide us with rather sensitive information. Some of the replies were rather surprising. Check it out below:

Who Would Jesus Watch? New Facial Recognition Software Tracks Church Attendance

Oh, god.  As if it weren't "bad" enough in the eyes of The Most High that your lapsed morals caused you to skip church on Sunday to be a brunch-munching heathen or false-idolater football fan, now you've also been caught...by computer.

The lord doesn't always work in mysterious ways...sometimes it's just computers and cameras.
(Image courtesy hackingchristianity.net.)

Trash Talking: New "Intelligent" Garbage Can Scans Labels, Makes Shopping Lists

While many people laud the idea of the Internet of Things, there are just some objects that should remain unconnected to the world in general.  Namely, your trash bin...the last thing you want sending you status updates.

"Did you get my friend request?"
(Image courtesy natm.wikia.com.)

Spy vs. mSpy: Tracking-App Company Reveals Blackmail Attempt

With so many adults willing to give up their privacy in the name of security, it's no surprise that they'd levy that same treatment (with the same unwarranted sneakiness) onto their own children.  Amusingly enough, one firm that provides such products has now been hit by blackmailers.

Stalk your kids while sipping your coffee!  Except sometimes, it's not so simple...
(Image courtesy whiterosereader.org.)

Federal Appeals Court Rules NSA Wiretapping Illegal; NSA Turns Up The Volume, Puts Hands Over Ears, Says "La La La"

Of course, all privacy-prone American citizens have known this for some time:  the NSA's phone-call compendium is unnecessary, unaffiliated with capturing ANY terrorists EVER, and is overall downright creepy.  Thankfully, today, a federal appeals court ruled it illegal.

They listen to everything, but this is the only thing they need to hear.
(Image courtesy alan.com.)