"China is stealing your data with TikTok", they panicked.
So I did a simple test: installed the TikTok app, then had DuckDuckGo block tracking attempts.
Lo and behold, the Duck has been catching around 120 to 170 tracking attempts per day with the TikTok app *not* open.
The intended recipient of my precious data is indeed the communist...<wait, what, crap>... Google.
Well played, US Congress and US media.
You can't even talk without someone or something recording it -- and transcribing.
Why would #Lyft be recoding and keeping customer conversations?
#surveillance
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lyft-conversation-transcribed-1.7508106
Our top story: Operation Lone Star has turbocharged DPS’ surveillance capabilities. Lawmakers say they want to prevent Texas from becoming a police state but have filed only modest legislation to regulate use of #AI.
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/
this shit is a travesty
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/14/nx-s1-5358436/meta-ftc-antitrust-trial-opening-arguments
USA #monopoly #laws are completely outdated thanks to the Republican and Democratic parties #collusion in NOT regulating all the #techbros industries that were taking the place of the #surveillance state they didn’t want to fund directly with the federal budget. which explains the existence of InQTel.
the FTC going after Facebook/Meta and the Iguanazi without acknowledging he only exists thanks the above, IS the problem.
EU issues US-bound staff with burner phones over spying fears
European Commission officials heading to IMF & World Bank spring meetings advised to travel with basic devices
#Espionage #spying #surveillance #FascistAmeriKKKa #politics https://www.ft.com/content/20d0678a-41b2-468d-ac10-14ce1eae357b
In Feb, he received a message: report to an #immigration office so the #tracking #technology could be updated. When he arrived, federal agents were waiting. They handcuffed him & put him on a vehicle bound for a detention center, where he has been ever since, acc/to an account from his wife & Jacinta González, the head of programs for the advocacy group MediaJustice…. He & his wife declined to be named for fear of harming his #legal proceedings.
After a Honduran immigrant arrived in the #UnitedStates in 2022, ofcls ordered him to use a government-issued app as part of an #immigration #surveillance program.
At least once a week, the immigrant, a former police officer in Honduras who was living in Louisiana, would take a selfie through the facial-recognition powered app to confirm his identity & location. By trading some of his #privacy, he avoided being put in a #detention center & obtained a work permit.
This Company’s #Surveillance #Tech Makes Immigrants ‘Easy Pickings’ for #Trump
#GeoGroup, a private prison firm that makes digital tools to track immigrants, becomes one of the Trump administration’s big business winners as its tech is increasingly used in #deportations.
#law #immigration #privacy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/technology/trump-immigration-tech-geo-group.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=B14BF0D7-D7B7-45ED-A647-651891F753AC
"#Betar US claims responsibility for giving names of pro-Palestinian activists, including #MahmoudKhalil, to the #Trump administration. We examine Betar’s roots, reach, and the institutions that surround it. Who’s backing this group, and why are students its latest target?"
guest: Jonah Valdez, reporter w/ The Intercept
https://omny.fm/shows/the-take/what-is-betar-us-and-why-is-it-targeting-pro-palestinian-activists
#USpol #USpolitics #Palestine #Gaza #PalestineSolidarity #GazaSolidarity #stateRepression #StudentProtests #surveillance @palestine
@nullagent
Of course the best answer (for a given definition of best) is to avoid the region and make it as unprofitable as practicable, while finding ways to support conventional policing and strengthen democratic institutions in other regions.
So it is therefore clearly on a completely unrelated note that I share this link to amusing printed masks of your favourite topical celebrities and politicians, (from a Chinese supplier, please do share a link to manufacturers in friendlier states, if anyone has one).
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008613350140.html
Seattle cops have just activated their new 24/7 citywide AI surveillance camera network.
Cops at operations centers will be watching the video from over SIXTY HD cameras in three neighborhoods.
The cops are storing video for 30 days, or indefinably if a cop decides they want to keep it for "investigation".
Seattle residents tried to stop this dragnet, saying it will only empower Trump in our region.
https://stopsurveillancecity.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/spd-cctv-cameras-are-live/
The city of #SunPrairie #Wisconsin, a suburb of #Madison, is looking to double the size of its Flock ALPR camera install at the next Common Council meeting. This would expand the scope of 4th amendment violating mass surveillance and put more of our neighbors and visitors at risk of harassment or worse from the police. I've reached out to the city council and asked them to oppose this and consider removing the existing Flock cameras in the city.
https://agendas.cityofsunprairie.com/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=3211&doctype=1
@BethGMS I’m not going to comment on the validity of this as I usually go by what journalists have fact-checked in determining authenticity but, as a Computer Science person and someone who watched #bigData trends and recent #ArtificialIntelligence advancements unfold, I know how valuable our data is. Our data could easily be used for profit, exploitation, manipulation, and/or oppression.
“We’ve kind of forgotten about how big a behemoth the government has become as a surveiller of its populace.”
Our top story: Unpacking the millions spent on #AI-based surveillance of the border ... and how the state's gaze has expanded well beyond the edges of our nation. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-dps-surveillance-arsenal-artificial-intelligence-lege/
In your experience, which of these breaks apps/websites the most? (For example, the app freezes or crashes.)
