Emerging Tech

CBP Wants An Eye In the Sky—Or Wherever—To Spot Everything Crossing the U.S. Border

The single solution should be able to detect anything crossing the northern or southern borders between ports of entry and immediately alert border patrol agents.

Ideas

FaceApp Is Everyone’s Problem

It feels good to call out people for being duped by the Russian app, but the individualist framing of privacy is the bigger culprit.

Emerging Tech

Surveillance Cameras Debunk the Bystander Effect

A new study uses camera footage to track the frequency of bystander intervention in heated incidents in Amsterdam; Cape Town; and Lancaster, England.

Digital Government

Experts Tell Congress Facial Recognition’s Bias Problem May Be Here to Stay

Despite significant improvements in the tech’s overall performance, he said, “it’s unlikely” researchers will ever make systems equally accurate across racial and other demographic lines.

Emerging Tech

ICE and the Ever-Widening Surveillance Dragnet

ICE agents have used facial-recognition technology on state driver’s-license photos, turning a public database into a de facto criminal database.

Ideas

Mass Surveillance Is Coming to a City Near You

A tech entrepreneur wants to track the residents of a high-crime American community.

Emerging Tech

How the Pentagon Nickel-and-Dimed Its Way Into Losing a Drone

The lion’s share of the U.S. drone fleet is easy prey for advanced air defenses. It didn’t have to be that way.

Emerging Tech

Feds Snooping in Travelers' Social Media Feeds is Not the Answer

New State Department rules give the government increased authority to review travelers' social feeds. Will it actually make us safer?

Modernization

Senator Questions Administration’s Efforts to Combat China's Surveillance Exports

Sen. Ed Markey asked the State Department how its working to stop the spread of Chinese surveillance techniques.

Emerging Tech

CBP’s Airport Facial Recognition ‘Is Not a Surveillance Program’

As the public grows wary of facial recognition, the head of CBP’s biometric entry and exit initiative says the agency is using the tech responsibly.

Emerging Tech

Democrats, Republicans Both Want to Regulate Facial Recognition

If left unchecked, lawmakers worry the tech will infringe on Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, and perpetuate racial and gender discrimination in the criminal justice system.

Emerging Tech

NRO Is Offering $500K For Experimental Surveillance Tech

The National Reconnaissance Office revealed six areas for the 2019 cohort of the Director’s Innovation Initiative.

Emerging Tech

Can the Bay Area Rein In the Surveillance Tools It Created?

Oakland and San Francisco may become the first cities to ban use of facial recognition technology by government entities. But that’s only the beginning.

Emerging Tech

NIST Is Staging An Armed Robbery To Improve Video Surveillance

Before researchers can test the latest video analytics, they need a variety of footage from different angles, conditions and recording quality.

Artificial Intelligence

IARPA Needs More Training Data for Video Surveillance Algorithms

The data would improve the tech’s ability to link together footage shot across a broad geographic space, allowing it to better track and identify potential targets.

Policy

Lawmakers Demand Details on NSA’s Sweeping Phone Surveillance Operations

The Call Detail Record program, which scoops up the phone records of millions of Americans, is set to expire at the end of 2019.

Digital Government

DEA Never Checked If Its Massive Surveillance Operations Are Legal, Watchdog Says

The administration “failed to conduct a comprehensive legal analysis” of three NSA-style bulk data collection programs, according to the Justice Department Inspector General.

Policy

Contractors and Advocacy Groups Push Back on State Efforts to Mandate Surveillance Software

State legislation pushed by one company to require contractors to install the software would compromise data privacy and carry steep costs for companies and governments, the groups argue.