Wendy Davis writes: On May 20, 2019, a man wearing sunglasses, jeans and a reflective vest entered the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian, Virginia, brandished a gun and demanded cash. He made off with $195,000. Four months later, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 24-year-old Okello Chatrie for the robbery. Authorities arrested Chatrie after…
Category: U.S.
CBP proposes to require mug shots of all non-US citizen travelers
From Papers, Please! Last December we called attention to plans by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to require mug shots of all travelers entering or leaving the US by air or sea, including US citizens. Within days, CBP issued a press release falsely accusing us of incorrectly reporting the official CBP notice of its plans, and saying that it…
Why facial recognition thermometers are raising privacy concerns during the pandemic
Libby Cohen reports: Thermal imaging thermometers are popping up all over the country as a method of trying to mitigate COVID-19, but data and privacy concerns have been raised as some of the devices scan individual’s faces to check their temperature. […] Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn told the Daily Dot…
Amazon faces a privacy backlash for its Sidewalk feature, which turns Alexa devices into neighborhood WiFi networks that owners have to opt out of
Kevin Shalvey reports: Amazon customers are being automatically opted in to Sidewalk, a feature set to launch later this year that the company says will connect Alexa devices to nearby WiFi networks, even those owned by someone else. […] Anticipating privacy concerns, Amazon published a research paper detailing the technology behind Sidewalk and the steps taken to…