Tag: Surveillance
Titan — the outdoor advertising company responsible for placings ads on pay phone booths throughout the city and equipping hundreds of them with “beacons” that track passing cellphones — has announced that they will get rid of the controversial devices. A City Hall spokesman tells Buzzfeed that the pseudo-surveillance gizmos “will be removed over the coming days.” Gimbal, the […]
Hundreds of “beacons” have been installed in phone booths throughout New York City in order to collect data from passing cellphones, bringing us one step closer to dystopian science fiction where ads follow everyone around. Titan, an advertisement placement company, uses the bluetooth enabled devices to push ads to a phone and transmit “anonymous” data to a third-party server. As […]
Surveillance cameras will be installed in subway cars across the city as soon as 2015. MTA’s Capital Program has budgeted for 940 new subway cars on the lettered lines and will install the cameras over a period of four years. The 300 recently purchased cars for the C and J lines may also receive the Big Brother […]
Even before intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of monitoring being undertaken by the NSA in surveilling everyday citizens, cryptographers and computer scientists have been trying to achieve the ultimate in security: a system that can not be hacked. Now, a few companies are working on a promising solution. Quantum key distribution is a […]
Electronic artist Holly Herndon is continually breaking new ground, both musically and through her innovative, jarring videos. For her new track “Home,” perhaps her catchiest song to date, she stares blankly towards the camera, mouthing the words that appear in a black box in the lower right corner. The anti-surveillance sentiment of the video, which was […]
Yesterday, police commissioner Bill Bratton announced a small pilot program that will provide NYPD officers with body cameras to record their actions while on duty. The initial program will include only 50 officers. The cameras are intended both to prevent misconduct by officers and allow officers a defense against complaints that are said to be unfounded. […]
New York City will install 214 new surveillance cameras and 165 light towers at the Lincoln Houses public housing development in East Harlem, according to a new announcement by Mayor de Blasio. The city will also take down old scaffolding and and sheds at NYCHA facilities. “We have to keep making these developments better and […]
Boston police used mass facial surveillance technology on thousands of attendees at last year’s Boston Calling festival, Dig Boston reports this month. Employing existing security cameras, the program scanned people for recognizable characteristics, like “height, clothing, and skin color.” The documents uncovered by Dig, which have been online for nearly a year, show that the city’s partnership with IBM […]
While researching for her new book about the Young Lords — a radical Puerto Rican 1960’s group that turned militant — Baruch College Professor Johanna Fernandez was surprised to find that the NYPD did not have the records of the group’s surveillance. Fernandez found them all on her own. After discovering many of these documents proving […]
Facebook is currently fighting against disclosing user data — like photos, friend lists and private messages — to the authorities. Such warrants are being issued at an unprecedented rate, with nearly 400 in New York. The fight has been joined by four NY-based social media platforms — Tumblr, Kickstarter, Foursquare and Meetup, AP reports. The NYCLU and […]
