security centre

Reclaim Your Privacy With Glowing Glasses That Foil Facial Recognition Systems

In a time when it seems like the privacy we all enjoyed was just a smokescreen, it’s nice to know there’s at least one way to fight back against all the systems designed to keep track of our comings and goings. Developed by Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, these glasses include 11 LEDs that blast a privacy curtain of near-infrared light to obscure your face.


You Should Stop Using Your iOS-Generated Hotspot Password Right Now

The ability to turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi hotspot is a fantastically useful little tool in and of itself. But Apple, being the generous overlord that it is, goes so far as to automatically generate a network key, keeping even the most absent-minded of Wi-Fi-beggared safe and sound. Or so we thought.


Confirmed: Court ‘Oversight’ Of NSA Surveillance Is A Joke

Although there’s been some debate on the legality of the mounds of data collected by NSA analysts during the PRISM program, House Intelligence Committee officials have confirmed that they’re totally free to rifle through your data without a court order. As long as they think they might have a reason to be suspicious — any reason will do! — they’re free to go nuts.


These Stash Coins Are A Fantastic Way To Lose Your SD Card

The Man has his hand in your inbox and cops are intimidating citizens who film them beating other citizens. So it’s only logical to want to keep the private contents of your SD card, well, private. The Covert Coin from CCS Spy Gear is a precision-machined piece of retired US currency that are nearly indistinguishable from the real thing when closed.


The US Facial Recognition Database Hiding In Plain Sight

It’s only natural to be a little skeeved out by the idea that the government is slurping up your private data behind the scenes, but there’s a very public piece of your data being collected as well: the look on your face. There’s already a national database of over 120 million faces in the US, and the Washington Post reports that it’s slowly turning into the ultimate police tool.


Apple Details What The NSA Took — And How Much Of It

The impact of the NSA’s secret surveillance through PRISM and other means has sent reverberations through out the tech industry and the world at large. The latest ripple: Apple’s full accounting of its interactions with government spies in the past year or so. Here’s what went down.


The NSA Can Afford To Store Data From Years Of Phone Calls

There’s been a lot of talk about the NSA and its data-gathering policies. The news sounds kind of scary. But you might be thinking that the NSA can’t have literally every foreign and domestic call made in the US. That would be a crazy amount of data right? Well, yes, it would be, and it kind of seems like it has it. Or at least it could afford to keep it if it wanted to.


Yahoo Tried Hard — But Failed — To Avoid Joining PRISM

While everyone’s sceptical about how and why so many tech companies are involved with PRISM, the New York Times has run a heartening piece, which describes how Yahoo fought hard — but ultimately failed — to avoid joining the initiative.


Bloomberg: US Agencies Actually Share Data With Thousands Of Firms

Bloomberg is reporting today that the recent NSA Prism scandal is just a tiny scratch on the privacy surface. Citing “four people familiar with the process”, the agency claims that in fact thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies work with US national security agencies.


How Google Gives User Information To The NSA

Ever since news of PRISM broke, there’s been a lot of confusion and denial about exactly how the NSA is getting your information from the companies that have been collecting it. Now Google’s fessed up to the details, and it’s unsurprisingly simple: by FTP or even by hand.


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