Author Archives: Cloak Meister

May 10
2020

Apps That Use Location Data

Posted on May 10, 2020 by Cloak Meister

When you give an app permission to access location data, it is usually for a sensible reason – for example an app that lets you find where you parker your car. So you allow it to do its thing. What … Continue reading →

Posted in Avoiding Detection, Corporate Surveillance | Leave a comment
May 07
2020

Facial Recognition for Australian Govt Services

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Cloak Meister

It is coming, it is Big Brother, and it is un-necessary. https://www.dta.gov.au/our-projects/digital-identity/digital-identity-ecosystem This is terrible news, and hopefully will cause Australians to draw a line in the sand. As has long been the case, when you wish to access government … Continue reading →

Posted in Biometrics, Government Surveillance, Identification and Personal Data | Leave a comment
Apr 30
2020

Sheffield, UK: 9 Million Road Journeys Viewable

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Cloak Meister

Anyone would presume that this could never happen. Basically if you knew someone’s number plate, you could see where they had travelled, simply by visiting the system’s URL. Sheffield City Council’s automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) system exposed to the internet … Continue reading →

Posted in Government Surveillance | Leave a comment
Dec 01
2019

“Gridding” with License Plate Readers

Posted on December 1, 2019 by Cloak Meister

Basically, when police aren’t needed for something else, they drive around neighbourhoods and their equipment records the license plate of every vehicle they drive past, and records the location and time. This also occurs when they are to and from … Continue reading →

Posted in Government Surveillance | Leave a comment
Jun 29
2019

Cardiac signature at 200 meters

Posted on June 29, 2019 by Cloak Meister

So, supposedly, our heartbeats form a “cardiac signature” that is more unique than our faces. An individual’s cardiac signature is unique, though, and unlike faces or gait, it remains constant and cannot be altered or disguised. A new device, developed … Continue reading →

Posted in Government Surveillance | Leave a comment
Mar 30
2019

Terahertz Scanners

Posted on March 30, 2019 by Cloak Meister

In mid-August the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Transportation Security Administration announced Metro has paid $100,000 each for several TSA-approved portable terahertz millimeter-wave screening devices. Made by the U.K.-based company ThruVision, the devices will be deployed within … Continue reading →

Posted in Government Surveillance | Leave a comment
Feb 12
2019

Remote Hacking of iPhones is Real

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Cloak Meister

This is big. Most hacking requires the phone user to click on something. This doesn’t, and the suggestion is that many government agencies have been using it. Karma reportedly didn’t work on Android devices, but was deemed especially powerful as … Continue reading →

Posted in Government Surveillance, Spy Equipment | Leave a comment
Dec 11
2018

Anonymous Location Data – Not Anonymous

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Cloak Meister

If all of your details are removed from your location data, is it anonymous? No, because people have homes and jobs that they go to most days. And pretty much every combination of home and job location is unique and … Continue reading →

Posted in Avoiding Detection, Corporate Surveillance, Identification and Personal Data | Leave a comment
Jul 14
2018

Regulating Facial Recognition

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Cloak Meister

While privacy laws around such thinks as spam email have evolved alongside the technological advancements, the same cannot be said about real world privacy. Current laws were drafted when hand-held video cameras had poor resolution, before surveillance cameras were everywhere, … Continue reading →

Posted in Corporate Surveillance, Facial Recognition | Leave a comment
Jun 13
2018

Stingray & Parallel Constructions

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Cloak Meister

The police in the USA use stingrays to illegally snoop on suspects, recording calls and precisely locating them. The problem is, they can’t use it as evidence. So they then pretend to have received their intel from more legitimate sources, … Continue reading →

Posted in Government Surveillance, Spy Equipment | Leave a comment