Surveillance
Why we can never really evade surveillance
One July day in San Francisco, writer Kevin Roose tried to escape everyday surveillance for a 24 full hours. He wanted to do it while living his regular, daily life: checking the internet, posting to Twitter from his cell phone, riding public transportation and the like. He did not resort to wilderness hermitage. The experiment, […]
‘Neighborhood watch groups are our eyes,’ police say
Lt. Michael Bernard of the Bedford Police Department in New Hampshire expressed his delight over the success of the three-year-old neighborhood watch program. Thanks to the active participation of watch groups, residential burglaries have been reduced from 45 burglaries in 2011 to 30 in 2012, with only 10 cases reported in the town this year. […]
High Tech Surveillance Equipment Used to Track Bats’ Movements
In Georgia, officials are turning their high tech surveillance equipment towards activities that won’t compromise your civil liberties. With the help of a team of volunteers, Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section is tracking the lives and migrations of bats using a surveillance device called the Anabat. Twice a month, the volunteers strap […]
Civil rights activists sue FBI for access to facial recognition technology records
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a California based non-profit digital rights organization, has filed a lawsuit against the FBI over the use of its Next Generation Identification (NGI) program. EFF is concerned about the use, or rather the potential misuse, of the new system’s facial recognition technology along with the privacy issues that will arise […]
TSA retains knife ban for airline security
The Transport Security Administration (TSA) has decided against allowing small knives on airline flights, backtracking on its earlier intention. Protests from flight attendants, their unions, and others who worried that even small knives could compromise airline security and passenger safety forced the TSA to retract. Los Angeles Times reports, “TSA chief John Pistole had announced […]
Smarter ways to combat shoplifters
Shoplifters can be shrewd. We all know that purses, handbags, and large, open shopping bags are commonly used shoplifters’ devices. But there are more surprising methods too: baby strollers (sometimes built with a false bottom), closed-but-not-snapped umbrellas suspended from a shoplifter’s elbow or supported against the counter, and even bloomers. Besides devices, shoplifters also have […]
Focus on Indiana’s wolf hybrid laws in the wake of child attack
The recent attack on a five-year-old boy by a wolf dog in Eaton, Indiana has highlighted the need to enforce wolf hybrid laws in the state more stringently. The terrifying encounter, just a few yards from the child’s front door has left him severely marred. The boy, Chase Fox, has bite marks on his arm […]