Miscellaneous

Thousands came together in Washington, DC on October 26, 2013 to protest the NSA's mass surveillance programs.

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Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Edward Snowden, the NSA’s surveillance program and immigration during her appearance at the Nexenta OpenSDx Summit.

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A very unsexy-sounding piece of technology could mean that the police know where you go, with whom, and when: the automatic license plate reader. These cameras are innocuously placed all across small-town America to catch known criminals, but as lawyer and TED Fellow Catherine Crump shows, the data they collect in aggregate could have disastrous consequences for everyone the world over.

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An ad company called Adnear has been flying surveillance phones over Los Angeles, collecting data off of people's cell phones to use to sell ads. And it's 100% legal. How if this acceptable, and is there anything that can be done to combat it? Does the company have a right to people's data? Kim Horcher discusses with special KotN guests Xander Jeanneret (XanderVlogs) and Ivan Van Norman (Geek and Sundry, Saving Throw)!

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How do robots see the world? How do they gather meaning from our streets, cities, media and from us?
This is an experiment in found machine-vision footage, exploring the aesthetics of the robot eye.

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Privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian sees the landscape of government surveillance shifting beneath our feet, as an industry grows to support monitoring programs. Through private companies, he says, governments are buying technology with the capacity to break into computers, steal documents and monitor activity — without detection. This TED Fellow gives an unsettling look at what's to come.

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This DIY surveillance camera will scan your face, then speak aloud what it sees. We brought the tech into the streets.

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The Internet has transformed the front lines of war, and it's leaving governments behind. As security analyst Rodrigo Bijou shows, modern conflict is being waged online between non-state groups, activists and private corporations, and the digital landscape is proving to be fertile ground for the recruitment and radicalization of terrorists. Meanwhile, draconian surveillance programs are ripe for exploitation. Bijou urges governments to end mass surveillance programs and shut "backdoors" — and he makes a bold call for individuals to step up.

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The full episode of VICE on HBO's 'State of Surveillance' is available to stream for free on VICE News.

When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked details of massive government surveillance programs in 2013, he ignited a raging debate over digital privacy and security. That debate came to a head this year, when Apple refused an FBI court order to access the iPhone of alleged San Bernardino Terrorist Syed Farook. Meanwhile, journalists and activists are under increasing attack from foreign agents. To find out the government's real capabilities, and whether any of us can truly protect our sensitive information, VICE founder Shane Smith heads to Moscow to meet the man who started the conversation, Edward Snowden.

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The personal data that is being collected by internet companies has turned into a goldmine. The applications for this enormous mountain of data is endless, from health care uses to marketeers who can accurately predict your behavior. But who is making money from your data? And who owns your personal data?
Original title: The value of your personal data.
Personal data is being collected constantly. Smartphones send your location data, internet browsers store which websites you visited and credit card companies carefully register your buying patterns. One would say that all this personal data is being used to send you advertisements and banners. But that’s just the start. Your data is not only used to understand who you are right now, but also what your life will look like in the future, because that is where the big money is. Could we regain the control over our own personal data, so that we can share in the profits?
Due to huge flow of information, one can tell who we are today and what we will do tomorrow. Can we get control of our own data?
Information is collected and stored on your behalf. Via mobile phone and computer, every step you take is saved and analyzed. By companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter, among others. This precious personal data is not just saved. There are now new valuable uses for your data, giving your personal data the worth of gold.
Data centers full of your personal data are the heart of what is called Big Data. A treasure of valuable new insights, derived from your location data, emails, photos, text messages, and more from your digital production. Because your personal data is not only used to send customized ads.
Your data is used to predict your future behavior. Through smart analyzes of all your behavior that you leave behind on your mobile phone and computer, it’s easy to find out who you are. And that's not that hard, it turns out. For example, the University of Cambridge just by looking at which buttons you click on Facebook, can see if your parents are divorced, whether you are gay, and so on.
Predicting human behavior, possible thanks to all your personal data, can help to design cities better, combat diseases and prevent wars. But if all of your personal data is so valuable, then shouldn’t it be time for you to get control of it? And also take part of that profit for yourself?
Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2013.
© October 2013

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Is the artificial intelligence we see in science fiction movies at all realistic? Many tech industry experts believe the idea of a superintelligent or sentient AI is greatly exaggerated and many years away. But there's AI already in the works to help solve real-world problems that can improve people's lives.

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Unless we stop it, we could become a society where everyone’s public movements and behavior are subject to constant and comprehensive evaluation and judgment by an army of AI security guards.

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Police across the country are using facial recognition to check IDs and find suspects -- but are they using it the right way? A new study from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology suggests even good algorithms can be put to bad uses, particularly once police start getting creative with the images.

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Facial recognition technology is becoming a bigger part of our daily lives, from auto-tagging in photos to Face ID, and soon airport check-in and border control. But as this technology moves forward, driven by advances from companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Panasonic, and NEC, many people think we aren't considering the implications. Are we trading our privacy for a few seconds of convenience?

Police forces now routinely use face recognition in investigations, and the UK recently began a trial of a real-time system that can track people via surveillance cameras. And it doesn't matter if you've never opted in, if you've used social media it's almost a guarantee that you're already in a database.

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The digital platforms you and your family use every day -- from online games to education apps and medical portals -- may be collecting and selling your children's data, says anthropologist Veronica Barassi. Sharing her eye-opening research, Barassi urges parents to look twice at digital terms and conditions instead of blindly accepting them -- and to demand protections that ensure their kids' data doesn't skew their future.

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