Aliya Sternstein reports: The National Security Agency has tested the use of smartphone-swipe recognition technology, according to the tool’s manufacturer. The mobile device feature, created by Lockheed Martin, verifies a user’s identity based on the swiftness and shape of the individual’s finger strokes on a touch screen. The technology is but one incarnation of handwriting-motion recognition,…
Category: Govt
Push to name donors in political ads hits FCC roadblock
Mario Trujillo reports that it’s not a privacy issue as much as a priorities issue that resulted in the FCC declining to tackle donor identities in political ads: Congressional Democrats’ push to strengthen political ad disclosures in time for the 2016 elections appears dead for now after hitting a roadblock at the Federal Communications Commission….
USA Freedom Act fails as senators reject bill to scrap NSA bulk collection
Ben Jacobs, Sabrina Siddiqui, and Spencer Ackerman report: For the second time in less than a year, US senators rejected a bill to abolish the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of American phone records. By a vote of 57-42, the USA Freedom Act failed on Friday to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance in…
DOJ releases privacy policy for US drones
Mario Trujillo reports: The Justice Department on Friday released guidelines that would explicitly bar the agency from using drones solely to monitor activity protected by the First Amendment, like peaceful protests. The department issued five pages of policy guidelines dealing with privacy and civil liberties protections when conducting drone flights. It also outlined transparency requirements….