How this data broker is selling mass surveillance to local police
EFFector 34.5
How this data broker is selling mass surveillance to local police
|
|
In our 785th issue:
|
|
|
Top Features
EFF staff put together a series on Fog Data Science, a data broker that has been selling raw location data about individual people to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. This personal data isn’t gathered from cell phone towers or tech giants like Google—it’s obtained by the broker via thousands of different apps on Android and iOS app stores as part of the larger location data marketplace.
EFF Updates
We're piloting an audio version of EFFector's Newsletter. We hope you enjoy it!
Law enforcement agencies around the country have adopted mass surveillance technology that uses cameras to track the vehicles of every driver on the road. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling, that technology may soon be turned against people seeking abortions, the people who support them, and the workers who provide reproductive healthcare.
We launched “How to Ditch Facebook Without Losing Your Friends” – a narrated slideshow and essay explaining how Facebook locks in its users, how interoperability can free them, and what it would feel like to use an “interoperable Facebook” of the future.
In a 4-7 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a 15-month pilot program granting the San Francisco Police Department more live surveillance powers.
Researchers at the University of Washington and Harvard Law School recently published a groundbreaking study analyzing the technical capabilities of 16 electronic monitoring (EM) smartphone apps used as “alternatives” to criminal and civil detention.
This EFF guide is intended for organizations to improve their privacy practices, with particular focus on marketing and analytics.
Announcements
For thirty years, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has recognized leaders on the electronic frontier at our annual Pioneer Award Ceremony. This year, we’re taking a new step to recognize the ways in which the digital world has fused with modern life. We invite you to celebrate the first annual EFF Awards!
Job Openings
EFF is looking for a full-time Associate General Counsel to identify and analyze legal issues impacting EFF as an organization, draft key documents, present clear recommendations to top management, and assure legal compliance.
MiniLinks
A Detroit-based technology surveillance researcher penned this Op-ed calling on the city not to expand the Shotspotter program with new American Rescue Plan Act funds.
EFF filed a lawsuit this week with the Asian American Liberation Network in Sacramento Superior Court, alleging that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District is “searching entire zip codes’ worth of peoples’ private data and disclosing it” to the Sacramento Police Department in bulk, without a court order or investigation.
The U.S. regulator is going to take input from the public on crafting the new privacy rules, which could target data collection from online advertisers and social media firms.
Under court order, Facebook released private messages to Nebraska law enforcement officials, leading to the prosecution of a 17-year old girl and her mother under the state’s attempt to restrict abortion access.
Nashville’s City Council has unanimously approved a ban on the use of data from the city’s Automated License Plate Readers for investigating and prosecuting Tennessee’s abortion ban. Privacy advocates say the city council’s initiative doesn’t go far enough.
Some lawmakers are pushing the Federal Trade Commission to reject Amazon’s acquisition of Roomba-maker iRobot for what they describe as anti-competitive practices. Meanwhile, privacy advocates voice concern about the possibility that Amazon will use the products to map consumers’ homes.
|
|
