The childhood dream of monitoring camera feeds directly on your wrist watch has finally come to fruition with the introduction of devices like the Moto 360. TinyCam Monitor has received a new update that brings support for Android Wear, allowing those with a related wearable to take a peek through their camera from their watch.
Like so many of our favorite tech companies are doing lately, the NSA has released a “transparency” report. The scope of the report is to give us a better idea of just what the NSA was up to in 2013. Unfortunately, just like some of the other reports we see, it doesn’t give a lot of detail, and may not even be useful in many cases.
The Australian government is looking to enact a mandatory data harvesting requirement for ISPs and phone service providers, something that will be proposed in a bill set to be submitted in the near future. This will come alongside another bill being prepped that will give the government expanded surveillance authority.
A new report submitted by the General Director of the Office for Security and Counter-terrorism in the UK has some surprising takes on surveillance. According to Charles Farr, because some data centers reside outside of the UK, all surveillance should be fair game. This would extend beyond public chats and into private correspondence.
Factions have split over surveillance technology like facial recognition, with some welcoming it and others expressing concern about its use, particularly in light of leaks alleging the NSA is mass collecting images in relation to it. The technology served a valid purpose in recent times, however, leading to the first arrest in Chicago based off of its use.
This past August, the (at the time) latest Snowden leak revealed a secret hacking collective at the NSA called Tailored Access Operations, more commonly referred to as TAO. More information surfaced about the unit is subsequent leaks, the latest of which includes a couple pictures of the TAO bugging intercepted network hardware.
If you’ll remember back to October of 2012, there was a bit of a hubbub about Huawei and ZTE making electronics for the United States. It was said that these China-based companies "could undermine US national security" according to the US-based House Intelligence Committee. After admitting they’d actually found no evidence of wrongdoing, it would appear that the very means for spying described by the House Intelligence Committee were used by the NSA abroad.
For those of you not satisfied with being able to toss a ball into the sky to capture a sphere of photos, there’s now mortar rounds. Fired from 40-millimeter-capable firearm, these beasts are capable of being shot into the air where they deploy a camera with a parachute. This camera then captures images as it falls gracefully toward the ground.
You might think the U.S. is nearing a saturation point with cameras, but you'd be wrong. We've got a long ways to go before we can safely consider ourselves to be stuffed to the gills with cameras like Sentinels breaching Zion.
![NSA phone surveillance ruled legal by NY judge [UPDATE]](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Galaxy-Nexus-review-19-SlashGear-820x420.jpg)
In a ruling on federal phone-tracking this week a U.S. District Judge based in New York has ruled that the NSA’s actions thus far have been legal. Judge William Pauley sent a ruling on Friday, the 27th of December, saying the NSA program “represents the government’s counter-punch” in efforts to eliminate al-Qaida network efforts. This ruling dismisses a lawsuit brought on by the American Civil Liberties Union.
![Snowden’s “Alternative Christmas Message”: Why privacy matters [TRANSCRIPT]](https://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/edward-snowden-channel-4-alternative-christmas-message-2013-transcript-820x420.png)
Edward Snowden has recorded this year's "Alternative Christmas Message" for Great Britain's Channel 4. The video is brief -- lasting just 1:43 -- with Snowden directly addressing "you and your family" about the state of mass surveillance and the reasons for why privacy matters now and in the future. We've transcribed the recording for your convenience below.
The United States Director of National Intelligence has publicly acknowledged -- for the first time -- the existence of National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance programs dating back to 2001. The admission comes by way of court documents filed in two separate cases involving the NSA. The documents were posted to the office's website this weekend.