Massachusetts lawmakers vote to pass a statewide police ban on facial recognition Massachusetts lawmakers have voted to pass a new police reform bill that will ban police departments and public agencies from using facial recognition technology across the state. The bill was passed by both the state’s House and Senate on Tuesday, […]

Internet Freedom Has Taken a Hit During the Covid-19 Pandemic From arrests to surveillance, governments are using the novel coronavirus as cover for a crackdown on digital liberty. Source: www.wired.com Internet Freedom Has Taken a Hit During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Russian surveillance tech startup NtechLab nets M from sovereign wealth funds NtechLab, a startup that helps analyze footage captured by Moscow’s 100,000 surveillance cameras, just closed an investment of more than 1RUB billion ($13 million) to further global expansion. The five-year-old company sells software that recognizes faces, silhouettes and actions on videos. […]

Anduril launches a smarter drone and picks up more money to build a virtual border wall The company building the virtual border wall has a new version of its stealthy fast-flying drones — and a fresh contract with Customs and Border Protection to match. Anduril, a young defense-friendly tech company from the […]

Portland passes expansive city ban on facial recognition tech The city council in Portland, Oregon passed legislation Wednesday that’s widely regarded as the most aggressive municipal ban on facial recognition technology so far. Through a pair of ordinances, Portland will both prohibit city bureaus from using the controversial technology and stop private […]

Palantir moves its HQ from Palo Alto to Denver as plans to go public percolate Between the IPO buzz and a raft of new federal contracts for COVID-19 work, it’s been a year of big moves for Palantir. Now, the company is making a more literal one: decamping from its Palo Alto […]

New York legislature votes to halt facial recognition tech in schools for two years The state of New York voted this week to pause any implementation of facial recognition technology in schools for two years. The moratorium, approved by the New York Assembly and Senate Wednesday, comes after an upstate school district […]

Decrypted: As tech giants rally against Hong Kong security law, Apple holds out It’s not often Silicon Valley gets behind a single cause. Supporting net neutrality was one, reforming government surveillance another. Last week, Big Tech took up its latest: halting any cooperation with Hong Kong police. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and […]

CBP says it’s ‘unrealistic’ for Americans to avoid its license plate surveillance U.S. Customs and Border Protection has admitted that there is no practical way for Americans to avoid having their movements tracked by its license plate readers, according to its latest privacy assessment. CBP published its new assessment — three years […]