Neowin News Feed for: Surveillance

UK nudity blockers are a looming privacy disaster, we must be able to see the source code

Paul Hill — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:08:01 +0000

The UK government is now mandating nudity-blocking software for smartphones sold in the country. I look at why this is a privacy nightmare and the safeguards that must be in place. Read more...

Discord delays age verification rollout after privacy and surveillance backlash

Ivan Jenic — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:36:01 +0000

Discord's age verification plan massively backfired after users uncovered some deeply uncomfortable connections to U.S. surveillance infrastructure. Now they're delaying it. Read more...

6TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal HDD is now at its all-time low price

Fiza Ali — Thu, 22 May 2025 15:38:02 +0000

The 6TB Western Digital Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drive, with 175MB/s transfer rate and 256MB Cache, has dropped to its lowest price ever. Read more...

OpenAI bans accounts used to develop Chinese surveillance tools targeting the West

Karthik Mudaliar — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:16:02 +0000

OpenAI has banned several accounts involved in developing surveillance tools allegedly linked to China, which were reportedly targeting Western nations. Read more...

DoNotSpy11 1.2.0.0

Razvan Serea — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 05:22:01 +0000

DoNotSpy11 is a free tool which makes it easier to see, tweak and adjust many Windows privacy and telemetry settings. Read more...

UK Government orders departments to remove Chinese CCTV cameras from "sensitive" sites

Karthik Mudaliar — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 06:50:01 +0000

The British government has directed its departments to remove the deployment of CCTV cameras from government sites that are manufactured by Chinese firms over concerns with security. Read more...

FBI and MI5 call out China for sponsoring cyber threats

Usama Jawad — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 11:14:01 +0000

The FBI and MI5 have issued a joint statement, sternly calling out China for its interference in other countries through digital means. They have also asked western tech companies to stay vigilant. Read more...

Gotta catch 'em all, LAPD cops fired for ignoring robbery call to hunt Snorlax instead

Sayan Sen — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 04:46:01 +0000

Two LAPD police officers were fired from the job in 2017 as available video evidence pointed towards them ignoring a robbery in progress call and instead, going hunting for a Snorlax in Pokémon Go. Read more...

Apple warns Thai activists they are targets of ‘state-sponsored attackers'

Karthik Mudaliar — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 15:24:01 +0000

Apple is sending warnings to Thai activists about a possibility of state-sponsored attacks which can allow them to remote access sensitive data or get access to communications, camera and microphone. Read more...

Apple is suing NSO Group for spying on its customers

Paul Hill — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 18:56:01 +0000

Apple has decided to sue NSO Group and its parent company for using exploits to spy on Apple users. The number of people targeted by NSO Group was small but they held sensitive occupations. Read more...

Report: Innocent Amazon delivery drivers losing pay over poor judgements by the AI cameras

Sayan Sen — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 16:58:01 +0000

Amazon recently installed Netradyne Driveri AI cameras in delivery vehicles for road safety. The drivers, however, aren't too pleased as the system apparently punishes them for no wrongdoings. Read more...

LAPD wants its officers to collect social media data of civilians

Karthik Mudaliar — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 18:00:01 +0000

The Los Angeles Police Department is pushing its officers to engage in the collection of social media data of civilians including those who are not arrested or accused of a crime. Read more...

China will allow minors to play video games only for one hour per day on the weekends

Usama Jawad — Mon, 30 Aug 2021 14:40:01 +0000

China has announced a new rule under which people below the age of 18 can only play video games one hour daily from Friday to Sunday. Real-name registration systems will also be implemented. Read more...

Tencent's messaging app WeChat halts new user registrations in China

Chandrakant Isi — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 13:24:01 +0000

WeChat has suspended new user registrations in a bid to upgrade its tech "to align with relevant laws and regulations" in mainland China. It is expected to get back to normal in early August. Read more...

Amazon delivery drivers must agree to hand over biometric data, or lose their job

Paul Hill — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:16:01 +0000

Amazon is forcing its delivery drivers in the United States to sign a new contract that obliges them to hand over biometric data. If the drivers to not hand over their data, they will be fired. Read more...

Every breath you take, every move you make, Google's watching you

John Keefer — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:40:01 +0000

That old song by The Police seems to hold true for just how much Google is monitoring from your Android device if you have Location History enabled. And you may not even know it is on. Read more...

Mozilla's IRL podcast is set to return on Monday

Paul Hill — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:26:01 +0000

Mozilla's IRL podcast, hosted by Veronica Belmont, will return to podcatchers everywhere on Monday when the show returns for a second season. The first episode will look at bots and their effects. Read more...

WikiLeaks: CIA leveraged 'innocent' domains to control malware on devices

Gurkaran Singh — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 08:26:01 +0000

According to WikiLeaks' latest report, the CIA used seemingly harmless domains as a facade to hide its 'Hive' communications platform that enabled the covert exfiltration of data from target machines. Read more...

Russian government fines Telegram for refusing to give up user data

Gurkaran Singh — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 11:34:01 +0000

The messaging service was asked to comply with the government's order of sharing the user data. The company has been fined for 800,000 rubles ($14,000) but, its founder intends to fight the ruling. Read more...

UK's Open Rights Group is looking for recruits for its Advisory Council

Paul Hill — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 01:26:01 +0000

The online privacy and freedom advocacy Open Rights Group has announced that it is seeking to recruit people for its Advisory Council. Read on to see what's required and how to apply. Read more...

Wikileaks releases a user guide for CIA's CouchPotato project

Gurkaran Singh — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:14:01 +0000

CouchPotato is a remote tool for collection against RTSP/H.264 video streams. It allows the agency to collect the stream as a video file(AVI) or as still frames in the form of JPG. Read more...

Chinese authorities reportedly forcing its Muslim population to install spyware

Dreyer Smit — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 08:18:01 +0000

When it comes to spying on its citizens, China is way ahead of its peers, and have recently started forcing the citizens in the province of Xingjiang to install spyware on their Android phones. Read more...

Australia wants tech firms to decrypt messages

Paul Hill — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 14:20:01 +0000

Australia is trying to introduce a new surveillance law that could be passed before November. It will require tech firms to decrypt encrypted messages and is based on the UK's Snooper's Charter. Read more...

UK rights group crowdfunds legal challenge against mass-spying Snoopers' Charter bill

Vlad Dudau — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 09:54:01 +0000

The Investigatory Powers Act, or Snoopers' Charter, is "the most extreme surveillance regime of any democracy in history" according to Liberty NGO, who's mounting a legal challenge to the bill. Read more...

FTC complaint says kid's toys "spy" by recording, storing audio on remote servers

Jett Goldsmith — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 22:56:01 +0000

A complaint filed to the FTC today by four consumer advocacy groups has alleged that two popular toys subject children to ongoing surveillance by recording audio and uploading it to remote servers. Read more...

Apple could share your iMessage contacts with authorities, if demanded

Shreyas Gandhe — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 12:58:01 +0000

Although Apple mentions that iMessage is secure from snooping, the claim might not be completely true, as a report has revealed that the company could share a user's contacts with authorities. Read more...

Majority of US citizens in favour of warrantless surveillance - poll

Paul Hill — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 09:00:01 +0000

A new poll from AP-NORC suggests that 56% of Americans support warrantless surveillance. The poll also suggests that religious extremism could be the cause of the spike. Read more...

Apple concerned over draft UK surveillance bill

Jack Wilkinson — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 07:46:01 +0000

Apple has responded to the UK government's draft surveillance bill, 'Investigatory Powers Bill'. It details concerns that Apple has over the proposed legislation. Read more...

Edward Snowden is now on Twitter, follows NSA

Shreyas Gandhe — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 06:38:01 +0000

Edward Snowden, the man who exposed the US government's secrets to the world, has joined Twitter and is currently following the NSA, the agency accused of spying on citizens. Read more...

Hacking Team gets hacked, countries using its services exposed

Shreyas Gandhe — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 22:00:01 +0000

Hacking Team, a company specializing in spy services on behalf of government agencies was hacked earlier today and the attackers have exposed its internal documents and credentials to the public. Read more...

Toshiba unveils 5TB 'surveillance' hard drive

Brockman Davis — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:05:58 +0000

Toshiba has unveiled a new hard drive meant for "surveillance." It is designed to be used in servers due to it featuring a large amount of storage and RV sensors for use in RAID enclosures. Read more...

Microsoft hits back against government surveillance, highlights commitment to privacy

Brad Sams — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 20:54:13 +0000

At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference today, the company took a firm stance in protecting customer privacy with cloud data and has not provided any agency with a backdoor into its data. Read more...

US promises to pass legislation granting privacy rights to European citizens

Jett Goldsmith — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 02:03:33 +0000

The Obama administration has promised that they will push forward legislation extending the US Privacy Act, which protects Americans from unlawful data collection, to European citizens. Read more...

Vodafone: secret wires give governments direct access to users' data

Vlad Dudau — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 10:15:20 +0000

Vodafone is releasing a new report in which it publicly confirms that some governments have direct access to users' calls and data. This happens through secret wires into carriers' data centers. Read more...

China evaluating alternatives to IBM servers to prevent surveillance

Shreyas Gandhe — Wed, 28 May 2014 12:52:57 +0000

China is reportedly studying IBM servers and evaluating alternatives from local manufacturers to prevent surveillance of its banks from international agencies, such as United States' NSA. Read more...

Google researching simpler ways to implement end-to-end encryption in Gmail

Shreyas Gandhe — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 14:06:17 +0000

Google is actively looking to simplify encryption of end to end communication between users of its email service following the recent revelations regarding NSA surveillance and the PRISM project. Read more...

Windows crash reports may help hackers claims research

Shreyas Gandhe — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 23:06:04 +0000

A security research group has published preliminary findings of their study of the Windows crash reports which claims that the gathered information can be sufficient to get blueprints of networks. Read more...

Microsoft, Google and others unite to call for "government surveillance reform"

Andy Weir — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 10:16:42 +0000

Eight of the world's largest tech companies have joined forces to call for "government surveillance reform", including an open letter petitioning President Obama and Congress to lead global changes. Read more...

Google and others band together for greater NSA transparency

Paul Ferson — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 07:23:19 +0000

Edward Snowden's NSA leaks have been the source of much consternation for companies like Google and Facebook; now, they're working with the White House in an attempt to provide greater transparency. Read more...

Report reveals NSA director Keith Alexander replicated a war room after Star Trek's Starship Enterprise

Phi Ha — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 06:53:19 +0000

A report released by Foreign Policy reveals NSA Director Keith Alexander is supposedly a huge fan of Star Trek. One of the NSA war rooms was built to replicate the iconic "Starship Enterprise". Read more...