Tag: intelligence

Pegasus: NSO Group’s Insidious Spyware

Note: This article was first published at the World Ethical Data Forum. Pegasus is advanced spyware that was first discovered in August 2016, developed by NSO Group based in Israel, and sold to various clients around the world, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, India, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Rwanda, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Mexico among probably other… Continue reading Pegasus: NSO Group’s Insidious Spyware

The Age of the Gait-Recognising Cameras Is Here!

A few days ago I read an article (NRC, Dutch, published 11 September, interestingly) about how TNO (the Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, the largest research institute in the Netherlands) developed technology (PDF) for smart cameras for use at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. These cameras were installed at Schiphol airport by the Qubit Visual Intelligence,… Continue reading The Age of the Gait-Recognising Cameras Is Here!

Country X: The Country That Shall Not Be Named

On Monday, 19 May 2014, Glenn Greenwald published his report entitled Data Pirates of the Caribbean: The NSA is recording every cell call in the Bahamas, in which he reported about the NSA SOMALGET program, which is part of the larger MYSTIC program. MYSTIC has been used to intercept the communications of several countries, namely… Continue reading Country X: The Country That Shall Not Be Named

Persecution of whistleblowers and journalists

I was also honoured to be able to attend the Sam Adams Associates’ award ceremony in Oxford, United Kingdom last month, and Chelsea Manning is a truly worthy recipient of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. Her leaking of the Collateral Murder video to WikiLeaks (a video showing how U.S. Air Force personnel… Continue reading Persecution of whistleblowers and journalists

Gave Privacy By Design Talk At eth0

I gave my talk about privacy by design last Saturday at eth0 2014 winter edition, a small hacker get-together which was organised in Lievelde, The Netherlands this year. eth0 organizes conferences that aim at bringing people with different computer-related interests together. They organise two events per year, one during winter. I’ve previously given a very… Continue reading Gave Privacy By Design Talk At eth0

Facebook records self-censorship

Recently I came across an article about Facebook, more specifically, that Facebook wants to know why you self-censor, in other words, why you didn’t click Publish on that status update you just wrote, but decided not to publish instead. It turns out Facebook is sending everything you type in the Post textarea box (the one… Continue reading Facebook records self-censorship

Economic Consequences of NSA Surveillance

Note: This article is also available in Portuguese, translated by Anders Bateva. (Note: A version of this article also got published on Consortium News) In the last 6 months or so, Edward Snowden, former NSA contractor, came forward with revelations about the NSA, disclosing quite a few of the agency’s surveillance programs, and revealing that… Continue reading Economic Consequences of NSA Surveillance

At the Crossroads: Surveillance State or Freedom?

When I went to OHM2013 last week, it was great to see such increased political activism from the hackers and geeks at the festival. I truly believe we are currently at a very important crossroads: either let governments the world over get away with crimes against the people’s interests, with programs like PRISM, ECHELON, TEMPORA… Continue reading At the Crossroads: Surveillance State or Freedom?

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Snowden

Note: This article is also available in Portuguese, translated by Anders Bateva. 237 years ago, 56 traitors to their King and country signed a document which outlined a new philosophy, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights. That among these are Life, Liberty, and the… Continue reading Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Snowden