In a 2013 Congressional hearing on drone warfare, a young Pakistani boy named Zubair Rehman, aged 13 at the time, talked about the feeling of living under the threat of constant drone strikes. In his powerful testimony, Zubair stated that “I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer gray skies…The drones do not fly when the skies are gray…When the sky brightens, drones return and we live in…
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A national gender justice organization is escalating a campaign against Ulta Beauty over the cosmetics retailer’s use of automated license-plate reader (ALPR) cameras made by the surveillance company Flock Safety, arguing that it threatens customer privacy and could disproportionately harm women and gender-expansive people. UltraViolet, a women-led gender justice organization…
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Police in cities across the U.S. are rolling out a pro-drone PR blitz as hundreds of local police departments prepare to deploy autonomous, AI-driven surveillance drones. The drones are capable of following a single vehicle across an entire city, capturing footage through apartment windows, and generally recording daily life from the sky without being noticed. As of February, more than 1,000…
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A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls of dangerous products…
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A coalition of privacy and civil liberties advocates filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing the Trump administration of secretly collecting and keeping personal information about people who monitor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, arguing that the practice violates federal privacy law and threatens constitutionally protected speech and association. The lawsuit — filed in…
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Colorado’s Democratic governor faced backlash on Wednesday after vetoing legislation that would have cracked down on surveillance pricing, an increasingly common practice whereby corporations use personal data to set individualized prices on groceries and other goods. Gov. Jared Polis, who is term-limited and thus not up for reelection, said in his veto letter that he “appreciate[s] the…
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