surveillance

Video surveillance, often associated with bank-robbing and 7-11s, isn't just for retailers. Thanks to dirt-cheap apps like iCam, anyone with a computer and smartphone can set up their own video surveillance with little effort and without breaking the bank.

When you're on vacation, traveling for work, or even want to set up baby monitoring, iCam provides the tools to turn your computer's Webcam (or an IP camera) into a surveillance camera that you can monitor remotely with your smartphone or tablet.

You'll spend $5 total, and get access to features like motion detection, multi-camera monitoring, audio … Read more

A privacy group is claiming that Britain is exporting high-tech spy gear to repressive countries, endangering dissidents, says a report in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper.

The Guardian reports that a group called Privacy International said it has identified at least 30 British companies it believes have exported surveillance gear to Bahrain, Iran, Syria, and Yemen, among other countries. The group also said 50 firms were exporting such technology from the U.S. and that Germany and Israel are also big exporters of spy gear.

The technology includes tools for monitoring mobile phone calls and text messages and for … Read more

Last fall's privacy flap over Carrier IQ, which makes diagnostic software embedded into millions of mobile phones, may spur federal legislation.

A draft House of Representatives bill (PDF) would give the Federal Trade Commission the power to regulate "monitoring software" that's capable of transmitting location data or other information about who's using the phone.

The FTC would have a year to require the disclosure of "the fact that the monitoring software is installed on the mobile telephone"--and, in addition, anyone installing the software would have to obtain the "express consent" … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Along with introducing its InTouch Skype HD videophone for TVs, Samsung Techwin America today rolled out two new consumer video-monitoring cameras, the WiFi IP SmartCam and WiFi Video Baby Monitor.

Both cameras are designed to be very simple to set up and both will hit the market in March for $149.99.

Samsung claims the set-up is basically a no-brainer, requiring a single button push (or really two).

"Users simply locate the WPS [WiFi Protected Setup] button on the device and their home router," the company says, "and with a click of each, the two will automatically sync and the camera will be added to the network in less than 30 seconds."… Read more

The Internet's most popular destinations, including eBay, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, seem to view Hollywood-backed copyright legislation as an existential threat.

It was Google co-founder Sergey Brin who warned that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world." Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman argue that the bills give the Feds unacceptable "power to censor the Web."

But these companies have yet to roll out the heavy artillery.

When … Read more

A U.S. stealth drone in Iranian hands was hijacked by using software that spoofed GPS coordinates, forcing it to land at those coordinates, the Christian Science Monitor reported today.

Hackers reconfigured the GPS system of the RQ-170 Sentinel, forcing it to "land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications," said an unnamed Iranian engineer who said he examined the captured drone.

"The GPS navigation is the weakest point," he told the newspaper. "By putting noise [jamming] on the communications, you force the bird into … Read more

President Eisenhower, in his 1961 farewell address, warned that the military-industrial complex could "endanger our liberties or democratic processes." Today WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange is warning that the surveillance-industrial complex is even more dangerous.

A set of nearly 300 documents that the document-leaking Web site published today reveals how extensive and privacy-invasive the secretive multi-billion dollar industry devoted to surveillance technology has become.

"We are in a world now where not only is it theoretically possible to record nearly all telecommunications traffic out of a country, all telephone calls, but where there is an international industry selling … Read more

Surveillance has come a long way in the past decade.

Spurred in part by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, surveillance has become a more important method of trying to protect people from terrorist activity, or to root out dissident activity. And there's no shortage of companies looking to supply the gear that can do those jobs.

Some of the tech employed includes tools that allow governments to hack into individuals' cell phones and computers, as well as "massive intercept" equipment that can record all Internet communications in a country, according to documents obtained and cataloged … Read more

Britain's largest police force is using covert surveillance technology that can shut off mobile phones and intercept communications, according to a report in The Guardian.

The article says that the London Metropolitan Police Service bought the technology, which acts like a fake cell tower, from a U.K.-based company called Datong plc. The suitcase-sized receiver reportedly tricks cell phones into thinking they are communicating on a regular cellular network, and this allows authorities to intercept text messages, data, and phone calls. Authorities can also track users within range of the fake cell phone network, the report says. It … Read more