article thumbnail

Facebook’s Extensive Surveillance Network

Schneier on Security

Consumer Reports is reporting that Facebook has built a massive surveillance network: Using a panel of 709 volunteers who shared archives of their Facebook data, Consumer Reports found that a total of 186,892 companies sent data about them to the social network. Here’s the Consumer Reports study. And then the report gives specifics.

article thumbnail

Own Your Own Government Surveillance Van

Schneier on Security

A used government surveillance van is for sale in Chicago: So how was this van turned into a mobile spying center? A videoscope and a borescope are very similar as they’re both cameras on the ends of optical fibers, so the same tech you’d use to inspect cylinder walls is also useful for surveillance. Kind of cool, right?

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

The Internet Enabled Mass Surveillance. AI Will Enable Mass Spying.

Schneier on Security

Spying and surveillance are different but related things. If I hired that same private detective to put you under surveillance, I would get a different report: where you went, whom you talked to, what you purchased, what you did. Before the internet, putting someone under surveillance was expensive and time-consuming.

article thumbnail

Palantir's Surveillance Service for Law Enforcement

Schneier on Security

All of this information is aggregated and synthesized in a way that gives law enforcement nearly omniscient knowledge over any suspect they decide to surveil. Meanwhile : The FBI wants to gather more information from social media. Today, it issued a call for contracts for a new social media monitoring tool. Boing Boing [link].

article thumbnail

New LightSpy spyware variant comes with enhanced data collection features targeting social media platforms

Security Affairs

Researchers found an updated LightSpy spyware with enhanced data collection features targeting social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. have found an updated version of the LightSpy spyware that supports an expanded set of data collection features to target social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

article thumbnail

The EARN IT Act Is Back

Schneier on Security

Senators have reintroduced the EARN IT Act, requiring social media companies (among others) to administer a massive surveillance operation on their users: A group of lawmakers led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen.

article thumbnail

The FBI Identified a Tor User

Schneier on Security

The FBI also found what specific pages Al-Azhari visited, including a section on donating Bitcoin; another focused on military operations conducted by ISIS fighters in Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria; and another page that provided links to material from ISIS’s media arm. There are lots of ways to de-anonymize Tor users. (I