Tag: privacy
BNP membership list leaks – Google map mashup created
Last night, a full list of the British National Party’s members leaked out to the public at large. Obviously, that’s a huge data breach, as a person has a right to privacy of their political beliefs, but many believe the BNP to be an extremist organisation. Members of the BNP are banned from the police force, and they’re refused a platform in many students’ unions.
Aside from looking up family members, several enterprising geeks have been doing some scary stuff with the data. One of the most popular mashups is a Google map that displays where the BNP members near you live – though the map appears to have just been taken down. It was just based on postcodes, so it’s not accurate down to the household – just the general area. Even so, the addresses are in the full list, so it doesn’t take much effort to track down a particular person in your town.
"Pre-crime" detector detects "hostile thoughts" before they become actions
This is a little concerning. A year ago, the US Department of Homeland Security reckoned that it had worked out how to read people’s minds, and detect “hostile thoughts”. They’ve just announced that they think it actually works.
STREET VIEW SNAPS #3: Drunken Aussie
Lately we’ve seen houses burning down and people flashing knickers on Google Street View, but spare a thought for this poor chap, known only as “Bill”.
Is your neighbour an evil felon? Find out online, right now, for free.
We all know the fear..
A new guy moves in to the place next door, and he seems nice enough – all smiles, and quiet, and polite, and stuff.. But, no-one is really that nice, are they?
You’ve just started dating, and as you stare lovingly in the eyes of your newly beloved, a thought crosses your mind.. you can’t help but wonder.. Is he/she all he/she seems to be? Is the friendliness and charm just a cover for a darker, more sinister reality? Is this person a serial killer who likes to rape children!?! They could be! How would i know!?
Well, if you live in America, there is now a convenient, free, online way for you to find out. Yes, spying / invading privacy has just got that little bit easier: criminalsearches.com is a beta website (i.e. ‘in development’), that allows anyone with access to the internet (that’s everyone now, right?) to search for any and all criminals living in their neighbourhood, or State, or indeed, Country. Not only that, but the website lists what crimes they were convicted of, and, brilliantly, their names and addresses too.
Google Street View to offer window into parallel universe populated by people with blurred faces
Good news! Google is allowed to continue with putting together its Street View tool in Britain after the Information Commissioner said that it’s okay for Google to continue invading our privacy…
Facebook app Cityware using Bluetooth to spy on people without their consent
Research firm Cityware has hooked up thousands of Bluetooth scanners around the world and is using these to monitor how people move around the place – and dumping the data on Facebook.
The only problem is no one asked for the permission of some of the the scanees – so anyone with their phone’s Bluetooth powers enabled risks having their movements tracked by the freely-available Cityware…
O2 puts unprotected MMS pictures on web, Google still caching phone numbers
Over the weekend, it emerged that pages from O2’s MMS-to-web service had been crawled and indexed by Google, raising concerns over the privacy of its customers’ data.
The system sounds innocent enough: if someone is sent an MMS message but their phone (such as an iPhone 3G) is incapable of receiving / displaying them, they are instead directed to a web page where the picture is displayed. This also includes the sender’s mobile phone number and keywords.
Viacom "backs down" – doesn't want to know everything about every YouTube user any more
Angry media mega-corporation Viacom has lessened its demands for information about video watchers, says YouTube – but it still wants details of every item on the site.
YouTube says Viacom – which originally wanted to know what every user has watched on the site – has settled for a bit less data. The critical climbdown is regarding user-associations, so Google will still be handing over its database of stuff, only without the critical user details…
Google slips a privacy link on to its homepage – do you all feel more secure now?
The Google homepage has just seen its biggest overhaul since the scandalous favicon incident of ’08. Take a look, see how a new Privacy hyperlink has appeared next to the copyright symbol and date. Amazingly enough, it links you straight into the Google Privacy Center.
Google wants to bring Street View maps to UK, raises privacy concerns
Google would like to bring Street View maps to the UK, according to an enthusiastic spokesperson at the company, but their keenness has been overshadowed by privacy concerns…
