The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/science-technology/)
A two-year study by the George Washington University Law School concludes that the use of ankle bracelets and other forms of electronic monitoring “undermines the ability of people to survive and thrive.”
The case raises questions over how the Fourth Amendment applies to government searches of images that private sector companies like Google flag as child pornography.
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet cited a United Nations report warning of the growing and “potentially catastrophic” threat to privacy posed by facial recognition and data mining software.
Law enforcement needs careful guidelines to ensure the sophisticated counterterrorism surveillance tools developed in the aftermath of the New York attacks are not abused in daily police work. The UK might offer one model.
A report from the Chicago Office of Inspector General concluded that the ShotSpotter technology not only rarely leads to evidence of an actual gun-related crime, but the alerts are manipulating how law enforcement officers interact with over-policed communities.
ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system widely used by police, has come under fire after its algorithm put a 65-year-old grandfather named Michael Williams in the Cook County jail for nearly a year based on evidence that was later deemed “insufficient.”
For the first time, Australian researchers found that DNA can be recovered from the surface of three common types of drug capsules after just 15 seconds of contact — revolutionizing how law enforcement can track down and identify criminal organizations.
A new set of Apple-created tools will scan iPhones and other devices for child pornography and explicit text messages and report users suspected of illicit behavior to authorities. Civil liberties advocates warn it will open the door to further abuses against innocent users.
The new feature, called Protect, connects a subscriber in distress with a “Safety Agent” who can escalate calls to 911 or first responders.
Military-grade spyware designed by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, was used to hack 37 smartphones of journalists, human rights activists and politicians, according to an investigation by 17 news organizations and the journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories.