Surveillance Watch
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 22, 2024
This is a fantastic project mapping the global surveillance industry.
Surveillance Related Topics 
Facebook’s Extensive Surveillance Network
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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.
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Banning Surveillance-Based Advertising
Schneier on Security
JUNE 24, 2021
The Norwegian Consumer Council just published a fantastic new report: “ Time to Ban Surveillance-Based Advertising. Banning surveillance-based advertising in general will force structural changes to the advertising industry and alleviate a number of significant harms to consumers and to society at large.
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Ubiquitous Surveillance by ICE
Schneier on Security
JULY 7, 2022
Report by Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology published a comprehensive report on the surprising amount of mass surveillance conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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ICE Is a Domestic Surveillance Agency
Schneier on Security
MAY 11, 2022
Georgetown has a new report on the highly secretive bulk surveillance activities of ICE in the US: When you think about government surveillance in the United States, you likely think of the National Security Agency or the FBI. You might even think of a powerful police agency, such as the New York Police Department.
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Take a Selfie Using a NY Surveillance Camera
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 23, 2024
This site will let you take a selfie with a New York City traffic surveillance camera.
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The Internet Enabled Mass Surveillance. AI Will Enable Mass Spying.
Schneier on Security
DECEMBER 5, 2023
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.
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The Present and Future of TV Surveillance
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 27, 2024
Ars Technica has a good article on what’s happening in the world of television surveillance. More than even I realized.
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Secret White House Warrantless Surveillance Program
Schneier on Security
NOVEMBER 27, 2023
There seems to be no end to warrantless surveillance : According to the letter, a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS) has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone records of countless people who are not suspected of any (..)
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Own Your Own Government Surveillance Van
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 31, 2023
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?
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Iran’s Digital Surveillance Tools Leaked
Schneier on Security
NOVEMBER 1, 2022
It’s Iran’s turn to have its digital surveillance tools leaked : According to these internal documents, SIAM is a computer system that works behind the scenes of Iranian cellular networks, providing its operators a broad menu of remote commands to alter, disrupt, and monitor how customers use their phones.
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Surveillance by the New Microsoft Outlook App
Schneier on Security
APRIL 4, 2024
The ProtonMail people are accusing Microsoft’s new Outlook for Windows app of conducting extensive surveillance on its users.
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Surveillance by the US Postal Service
Schneier on Security
DECEMBER 13, 2023
This is not about mass surveillance of mail , this is about sorts of targeted surveillance the US Postal Inspection Service uses to catch mail thieves : To track down an alleged mail thief, a US postal inspector used license plate reader technology, GPS data collected by a rental car company, and, most damning of all, hid a camera inside one of the (..)
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Bulk Surveillance of Money Transfers
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 24, 2023
Just another obscure warrantless surveillance program. US law enforcement can access details of money transfers without a warrant through an obscure surveillance program the Arizona attorney general’s office created in 2014.
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Self-Driving Cars Are Surveillance Cameras on Wheels
Schneier on Security
JULY 3, 2023
. “We’ve known for a long time that they are essentially surveillance cameras on wheels,” said Chris Gilliard, a fellow at the Social Science Research Council.
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Surveillance by Driverless Car
Schneier on Security
MAY 12, 2022
San Francisco police are using autonomous vehicles as mobile surveillance cameras. Privacy advocates say the revelation that police are actively using AV footage is cause for alarm. This is very concerning,” Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) senior staff attorney Adam Schwartz told Motherboard.
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Using Foreign Nationals to Bypass US Surveillance Restrictions
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 13, 2022
on behalf of the FBI, Senator Ron Wyden told Motherboard in a statement “Multiple intelligence community officials have confirmed to me, in writing, that intelligence agencies cannot ask foreign partners to conduct surveillance that the U.S. When asked about the practice of Australian law enforcement monitoring devices inside the U.S.
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The European Parliament Voted to Ban Remote Biometric Surveillance
Schneier on Security
OCTOBER 11, 2021
It’s not actually banned in the EU yet — the legislative process is much more complicated than that — but it’s a step: a total ban on biometric mass surveillance.
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Possible Government Surveillance of the Otter.ai Transcription App
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 17, 2022
Customer service or Chinese surveillance? It read: “Hey Phelim, to help us improve your Otter’s experience, what was the purpose of this particular recording with titled ‘Mustafa Aksu’ created at ‘2021-11-08 11:02:41’?”. Turns out it’s hard to tell.
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Cory Doctorow on The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 27, 2020
Cory Doctorow has writtten an extended rebuttal of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. Shorter summary: it's not the surveillance part, it's the fact that these companies are monopolies. He summarized the argument on Twitter. I think it's both.
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Atlas of Surveillance
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 17, 2025
The EFF has released its Atlas of Surveillance , which documents police surveillance technology across the US.
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Apple Censorship and Surveillance in China
Schneier on Security
MAY 19, 2021
Good investigative reporting on how Apple is participating in and assisting with Chinese censorship and surveillance.
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Rayhunter: Device to Detect Cellular Surveillance
Schneier on Security
MARCH 7, 2025
The EFF has created an open-source hardware tool to detect IMSI catchers: fake cell phone towers that are used for mass surveillance of an area. It runs on a $20 mobile hotspot.
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Surveillance of the Internet Backbone
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 25, 2021
Vice has an article about how data brokers sell access to the Internet backbone. This is netflow data. It’s useful for cybersecurity forensics, but can also be used for things like tracing VPN activity. At a high level, netflow data creates a picture of traffic flow and volume across a network.
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Applying AI to License Plate Surveillance
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 22, 2023
Neither is using them for bulk surveillance. Zayas’ lawyer Ben Gold contested the AI-gathered evidence against his client, decrying it as “dragnet surveillance.” License plate scanners aren’t new. ” And he had the data to back it up.
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Surveillance of Your Car
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 2, 2022
TheMarkup has an extensive analysis of connected vehicle data and the companies that are collecting it. The Markup has identified 37 companies that are part of the rapidly growing connected vehicle data industry that seeks to monetize such data in an environment with few regulations governing its sale or use.
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Public Surveillance of Bars
Schneier on Security
JULY 2, 2024
This article about an app that lets people remotely view bars to see if they’re crowded or not is filled with commentary—on both sides—about privacy and openness.
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Using Generative AI for Surveillance
Schneier on Security
NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Generative AI is going to be a powerful tool for data analysis and summarization. Here’s an example of it being used for sentiment analysis. My guess is that it isn’t very good yet, but that it will get better.
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China Surveillance Company Hacked
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 27, 2024
Last week, someone posted something like 570 files, images and chat logs from a Chinese company called I-Soon. I-Soon sells hacking and espionage services to Chinese national and local government. Lots of details in the news articles. These aren’t details about the tools or techniques, more the inner workings of the company.
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Surveillance Cameras Disguised as Clothes Hooks
Schneier on Security
DECEMBER 14, 2023
This seems like a bad idea. And there are ongoing lawsuits against Amazon for selling them.
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Experts discovered surveillance tool EagleMsgSpy used by Chinese law enforcement
Security Affairs
DECEMBER 12, 2024
Chinese law enforcement uses the mobile surveillance tool EagleMsgSpy to gather data from Android devices, as detailed by Lookout. Researchers at the Lookout Threat Lab discovered a surveillance tool, dubbed EagleMsgSpy, used by Chinese law enforcement to spy on mobile devices. ” reads the report published by Lookout.
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New Patent Application for Car-to-Car Surveillance
Schneier on Security
AUGUST 5, 2024
Ford has a new patent application for a system where cars monitor each other’s speeds, and then report then to some central authority. Slashdot thread.
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Report on Paragon Spyware
Schneier on Security
MARCH 25, 2025
Other Surveillance Tech Deployed Against The Same Italian Cluster. We also note 2024 warnings sent by Meta to several individuals in the same organizational cluster, including a Paragon victim, suggesting the need for further scrutiny into other surveillance technology deployed against these individuals.
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NSA Over-surveillance
Schneier on Security
NOVEMBER 11, 2022
Here in 2022, we have a newly declassified 2016 Inspector General report—”Misuse of Sigint Systems”—about a 2013 NSA program that resulted in the unauthorized (that is, illegal) targeting of Americans. Given all we learned from Edward Snowden, this feels like a minor coda.
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NSA Buying Bulk Surveillance Data on Americans without a Warrant
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 30, 2024
It finally admitted to buying bulk data on Americans from data brokers, in response to a query by Senator Weyden. This is almost certainly illegal, although the NSA maintains that it is legal until it’s told otherwise. Some news articles.
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San Francisco Police Illegally Spying on Protesters
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 20, 2022
Last summer, the San Francisco police illegally used surveillance cameras at the George Floyd protests. The EFF is suing the police: This surveillance invaded the privacy of protesters, targeted people of color, and chills and deters participation and organizing for future protests. It’s feels like a pretty easy case.
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Retailers Are Rapidly Scaling Surveillance of Australian Consumers — Why This Is a Red Flag
Tech Republic Security
SEPTEMBER 21, 2023
Australian retailers are rolling out mass surveillance solutions to combat shoplifting, but a poor regulatory environment could mean high risks associated with data security and privacy.
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Maybe the Phone System Surveillance Vulnerabilities Will Be Fixed
Schneier on Security
APRIL 5, 2024
It seems that the FCC might be fixing the vulnerabilities in SS7 and the Diameter protocol: On March 27 the commission asked telecommunications providers to weigh in and detail what they are doing to prevent SS7 and Diameter vulnerabilities from being misused to track consumers’ locations.
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Mexican Drug Cartels with High-Tech Spyware
Schneier on Security
DECEMBER 17, 2020
Sophisticated spyware, sold by surveillance tech companies to Mexican government agencies, are ending up in the hands of drug cartels : As many as 25 private companies — including the Israeli company NSO Group and the Italian firm Hacking Team — have sold surveillance software to Mexican federal and state police forces, but there is little (..)
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AI and Mass Spying
Schneier on Security
DECEMBER 5, 2023
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.
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The FBI Identified a Tor User
Schneier on Security
JANUARY 17, 2023
Without the FBI deploying some form of surveillance technique, or Al-Azhari using another method to visit the site which exposed their IP address, this should not have been possible. There are lots of ways to de-anonymize Tor users. (I
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Air fryers are the latest surveillance threat you didn’t consider
Malwarebytes
NOVEMBER 7, 2024
Consumer group Which? has warned shoppers to be selective when it comes to buying smart air fryers from Xiaomi, Cosori, and Aigostar. We’ve learned to expect that “smart” appliances come with privacy risks— toothbrushes aside —but I really hadn’t given my air fryer any thought. Now things are about to change.
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Your location or browsing habits could lead to price increases when buying online
Malwarebytes
JANUARY 20, 2025
The name for this method is surveillance pricing, and the FTC has just released initial findings of a report looking into that practice. In July 2024, the FTC requested information from eight companies offering surveillance pricing products and services that incorporate data about consumers characteristics and behavior.
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The EARN IT Act Is Back
Schneier on Security
FEBRUARY 4, 2022
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. It’s a framework for private actors to scan every message sent online and report violations to law enforcement.
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