Category: privacy
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Surveillance in the US
Surveillance in the US Good article from 404 Media on the cozy surveillance relationship between local Oregon police and ICE: In the email thread, crime analysts from several local police departments and the FBI introduced themselves to each other and made lists of surveillance tools and tactics they have access to and felt comfortable using,…
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Self-Driving Car Video Footage
Self-Driving Car Video Footage Two articles crossed my path recently. First, a discussion of all the video Waymo has from outside its cars: in this case related to the LA protests. Second, a discussion of all the video Tesla has from inside its cars. Lots of things are collecting lots of video of lots of…
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Paragon Spyware Used to Spy on European Journalists
Paragon Spyware Used to Spy on European Journalists Paragon is an Israeli spyware company, increasingly in the news (now that NSO Group seems to be waning). “Graphite” is the name of its product. Citizen Lab caught it spying on multiple European journalists with a zero-click iOS exploit: On April 29, 2025, a select group of…
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Why Denmark is breaking up with Microsoft
Why Denmark is breaking up with Microsoft Relying too heavily on a US tech giant for your nation’s digital infrastructure is starting to feel a bit… well, risky. Graham Cluley Go to grahamcluley
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Airlines Secretly Selling Passenger Data to the Government
Airlines Secretly Selling Passenger Data to the Government This is news: A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including Delta, American Airlines, and United, collected U.S. travellers’ domestic flight records, sold access to them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where…
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Smashing Security podcast #421: Toothpick flirts, Google leaks, and ICE ICE scammers
Smashing Security podcast #421: Toothpick flirts, Google leaks, and ICE ICE scammers What do a sleazy nightclub carpet, Google’s gaping privacy hole, and an international student conned by fake ICE agents have in common? This week’s episode of the “Smashing Security” podcast obviously. Graham explains how a Singaporean bug-hunter cracked Google’s defences and could brute-force…
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Surveillance Via Smart Toothbrush
Surveillance Via Smart Toothbrush The only links are from The Daily Mail and The Mirror, but a marital affair was discovered because the cheater was recorded using his smart toothbrush at home when he was supposed to be at work. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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Privacy for Agentic AI
Privacy for Agentic AI Sooner or later, it’s going to happen. AI systems will start acting as agents, doing things on our behalf with some degree of autonomy. I think it’s worth thinking about the security of that now, while its still a nascent idea. In 2019, I joined Inrupt, a company that is commercializing…
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US as a Surveillance State
US as a Surveillance State Two essays were just published on DOGE’s data collection and aggregation, and how it ends with a modern surveillance state. It’s good to see this finally being talked about. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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Windscribe Acquitted on Charges of Not Collecting Users’ Data
Windscribe Acquitted on Charges of Not Collecting Users’ Data The company doesn’t keep logs, so couldn’t turn over data: Windscribe, a globally used privacy-first VPN service, announced today that its founder, Yegor Sak, has been fully acquitted by a court in Athens, Greece, following a two-year legal battle in which Sak was personally charged in…
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Smashing Security podcast #412: Signalgate sucks, and the quandary of quishing
Smashing Security podcast #412: Signalgate sucks, and the quandary of quishing QR codes are being weaponised by scammers — so maybe think twice before scanning that parking meter. And in a blunder so dumb it makes autocorrect look smart, the White House explains how it leaked war plans on Signal because an iPhone mistook a…
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DIRNSA Fired
DIRNSA Fired In “Secrets and Lies” (2000), I wrote: It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state. It’s something a bunch of us were saying at the time, in reference to the vast NSA’s surveillance capabilities. I have been thinking of that quote a lot as I read…
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Smashing Security podcast #409: Peeping perverts and FBI phone calls
Smashing Security podcast #409: Peeping perverts and FBI phone calls In episode 409 of the “Smashing Security” podcast, we uncover the curious case of the Chinese cyber-attack on Littleton’s Electric Light Company, and a California landlord’s hidden camera scandal. Find out about this, and more, in the latest edition of the “Smashing Security” podcast by…
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RIP Mark Klein
RIP Mark Klein 2006 AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein has died. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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Rayhunter: Device to Detect Cellular Surveillance
Rayhunter: Device to Detect Cellular Surveillance The EFF has created an open-source hardware tool to detect IMSI catchers: fake cell phone towers that are used for mass surveillance of an area. It runs on a $20 mobile hotspot. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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Atlas of Surveillance
Atlas of Surveillance The EFF has released its Atlas of Surveillance, which documents police surveillance technology across the US. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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UK Is Ordering Apple to Break Its Own Encryption
UK Is Ordering Apple to Break Its Own Encryption The Washington Post is reporting that the UK government has served Apple with a “technical capability notice” as defined by the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, requiring it to break the Advanced Data Protection encryption in iCloud for the benefit of law enforcement. This is a big…
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WhatsApp New Privacy Let Users Control who Can See The Profile Photo
WhatsApp New Privacy Let Users Control who Can See The Profile Photo In a move to enhance user privacy, WhatsApp has rolled out a significant update allowing users to control who can view their profile photos. This feature, available on both iOS and Android devices, provides users with more granular control over their privacy settings.…
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Smashing Security podcast #399: Honey in hot water, and reset your devices
Smashing Security podcast #399: Honey in hot water, and reset your devices Ever wonder how those “free” browser extensions that promise to save you money actually work? We dive deep into the controversial world of Honey, the coupon-finding tool owned by PayPal, and uncover a scheme that might be leaving you with less savings and…
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Google Is Allowing Device Fingerprinting
Google Is Allowing Device Fingerprinting Lukasz Olejnik writes about device fingerprinting, and why Google’s policy change to allow it in 2025 is a major privacy setback. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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750,000 patients’ medical records exposed after data breach at French hospital
750,000 patients’ medical records exposed after data breach at French hospital A hacker calling themselves “nears” claims to have compromised the systems of multiple healthcare facilities across France, claiming to have gained access to the records of over 1.5 million people. Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog. Graham Cluley…
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Secret Service Tracking People’s Locations without Warrant
Secret Service Tracking People’s Locations without Warrant This feels important: The Secret Service has used a technology called Locate X which uses location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on phones. Because users agreed to an opaque terms of service page, the Secret Service believes it doesn’t need a warrant. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce…
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The Scale of Geoblocking by Nation
The Scale of Geoblocking by Nation Interesting analysis: We introduce and explore a little-known threat to digital equality and freedomwebsites geoblocking users in response to political risks from sanctions. U.S. policy prioritizes internet freedom and access to information in repressive regimes. Clarifying distinctions between free and paid websites, allowing trunk cables to repressive states, enforcing…