A new document released by fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden shows that the National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on movements of cell phones around the world.
The records are placed in a database that stores information on at least hundreds of millions of cell devices. The database tracks the movements of the cells and any interactions they could have with other cell devices in their area.
The report says that the NSA does not target Americans by design but that data on Americans is also collected by the system. The report calls the connection “incidentally” meaning legally it was a foreseeable but not deliberate result.
Government officials said there was nothing illegal about the collection of the data and that it was used only to develop intelligence against foreign targets.
The NSA has said the data is used for programs like CO-TRAVELER which allows them to identify unknown associates of known intelligence targets.
A technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union told the Washington Post that the only way to hide your location is to disconnect from modern communications and live in a cave.
The Obama administration said Tuesday they plan to review the privacy implications of facial recognition technology ahead of reported plans to implement the system nationwide in the next two years.
A Commerce Department spokesman said they recognize the concerns of privacy advocates and tech groups and will be working with them to specifically identify the problems with the technology.
“Facial recognition technology has the potential to improve services for consumers, support innovation by businesses, and affect identification and authentication online and offline,” Larry Strickling, the administrator of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration told The Hill. “However, the technology poses distinct consumer privacy challenges … and the importance of securing faceprints and ensuring consumers’ appropriate control over their data is clear.”
Concerns about the technology first arose when Facebook began cataloging user profile pictures into a system that allowed them to auto-tag photos of people. Several Democratic senators applauded the Commerce Department decision to further investigate the situation.
“Clear policies that support consumer privacy are crucial as facial recognition technology is developed and deployed,” Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said.
A groundbreaking study has shown that the brains of men and women actually do operate differently.
The study from the University of Pennsylvania shows that men’s brains typically have connections that run from the front of the brain to the back on the same sides of the brain, where women’s brains have connections that run from side to side. The difference in the way the brain is “hardwired” occurs during adolescence.
The researchers say the physical differences in the brain could explain why men are generally better at tasks involving muscle control while women are better at verbal tasks such as remembering conversations.
“These maps show us a stark difference – and complementarity – in the architecture of the human brain that helps to provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others,” Radiology professor Ragini Verma said in a statement. “What we’ve identified is that, when looked at in groups, there are connections in the brain that are hardwired differently in men and women. Functional tests have already shown that when they carry out certain tasks, men and women engage different parts of the brain.”
A separate study last month found that genes in the brain also showed significant genetic differences between the sexes.
The FBI has announced they will be launching a system in 2014 that will allow law enforcement to use facial recognition to track and follow citizens.
The computer-based system will automatically identify a person based on a digital image or video source that is matched to a massive database.
The process had been a work of fiction on TV shows like CSI and other police procedurals but now such a system will be used in real life. The facial recognition program is part of a $1 billion Next Generation Identification System being created by the FBI.
The system will also include iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification.
The FBI says the new system will allow them to reduce terrorist and criminal activity by expanding criminal history information services.
Police in Seattle are claiming to have deactivated a “mesh network” that was installed in the city to allow officers to send large amounts of data between each other while in the field.
The reason? The system also contacts every wireless device in its radius like a cellphone or wireless internet modem allowing police to track civilians without their knowledge.
The network could also collect a series of data from the devices of citizens.
The SPD said they had “no bad intentions” when they installed the network and that they were going to disable the system until a policy was adopted by the city for what they consider proper use for the network.
However, residents told an alternative newspaper that their phones were still showing the internet boxes as connecting to their devices when they were within range of one of the system’s white boxes. Police later admitted the system was still on but not being used by police personnel.
Many movies and novels speculate as to what it would be like to peek inside a person’s mind and know what he or she is thinking. But up until recently, such a skill has only existed in the realm of science fiction.
Now, scientists may be turning fantasy into reality, having created a novel brain monitoring technique that could lead to the development of “mind-reading” applications in the distant future.
Utilizing a series of electrodes attached to portions of a patient’s brain, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine were able to eavesdrop on a person’s brain activity as he or she performed normal, daily functions – a process they termed “intracranial recording.”
Source: FOX News – FOX News: Novel brain monitoring technique could lead to ‘mind-reading’ devices