Tag: privacy

Ultrasonic Beams Create Private Sound Pockets

Ultrasonic beams fired through a 3D-printed metasurface can create localized pockets of sound that are inaudible to passers-by. The technique could be used to create private speech zones for secure communications or enable personalized audio spaces in public spaces and vehicles.

The ability to deliver sounds to a specific listener without the need for headphones, known as directional sound, has been a long standing area of research in audio engineering. But achieving this typically requires large and complicated sound sources and it is often possible to hear the audio signal along the path of the beam.

A new approach from researchers at The Pennsylvania State University gets round these limitations by combining a compact array of ultrasonic emitters with a specially patterned 2D structure, which is designed to manipulate the properties of waves. This structure, known as a metasurface, creates “self-bending” ultrasound beams that are inaudible to humans and can steer round obstacles. When two of these beams cross paths they interact in a way that generates sound in a human’s audible range but confined to a spot just a few centimeters across, which the researchers call an “audible enclave.”

“The key innovation is that sound is only generated where two beams intersect, making it possible to deliver audio to a precise spot while keeping the beams themselves silent,” says Jia-Xin Zhong, a postdoctoral research at Penn State and lead author of a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that describes the new approach.

Previous research has demonstrated audible self-bending beams that can curve around obstacles. But the long wavelengths of audible sound mean the sources typically have to be on the scale of meters and it is possible to hear the signal anywhere along the path of the beam.

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California Democrats Push Privacy Bills to Help Migrants Hide from ICE

California Democrats are drafting bills that would hinder federal immigration officials from using commercial data to locate illegal aliens for deportation.

Records show that federal authorities have contracts with several data analytics firms including LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters, according to Politico, and state Democrats are floating bills to tighten up what information such services can sell and how they do it with an eye toward precenting ICE from using the info to the greatest extent they can.

Without stating any direct proof, Democrats in the state are worried that federal authorities are using personal location data to aid in tracking migrants.

The worry was summed up by Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director of immigrant and racial justice at the far-left California Immigrant Policy Center, who told Politico, “It really does seem like looking at technology and the use of information has been this sort of second frontier in terms of immigration enforcement.”

The fear is spurring a new avenue for blue state Trump resistance.

Extreme, left-wing California Attorney General Rob Bonta, for instance, recently insisted that data needs to be protected from Trump’s administration.

“This location data is deeply personal,” Bonta said in a statement. “Given the federal assaults on immigrant communities, as well as gender-affirming healthcare and abortion, businesses must take the responsibility to protect location data seriously.”

Democrat state Sen. Josh Becker exclaimed that Trump is “establishing a vast surveillance network” and he is introducing a bill that would force data brokers to publicly disclose whether they collect and sell user data, including immigration status, sexual orientation, union membership, and government ID numbers.

He claims his bill is “especially necessary now as we see the reality of mass deportations of immigrants and the targeting of the transgender community.”

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Trump Treasury Expands Financial Surveillance

More than one million Americans are about to face a new level of financial surveillance. The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced that the threshold for currency transaction reports has been lowered from $10,000 to $200 for Americans living in 30 zip codes in California and Texas. Financial surveillance in the United States has long needed reform, but this move is in the wrong direction.

FinCEN officially announced the temporary policy change as an effort “to further combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border of the United States.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “As part of a whole-of-government approach to combatting the threat, [the] Treasury remains focused on leveraging all our available tools and authorities to better identify and counter these criminal activities.”

While this announcement is disappointing, it is not surprising. Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, warned people in February that President Trump’s decision to designate cartels as terrorists could have repercussions for civil liberties and the economy at large. Specifically, Nowrasteh noted that the designation would allow the government to freeze assets, enact secondary sanctions, and take greater control of the financial system generally.

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Spies, Secrets, and iCloud: Apple’s Legal Showdown in London

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in London is the one that will consider Apple’s appeal against the UK’s Home Office secret order to include an encryption backdoor in the giant’s iCloud service.

As things stand now, pending the outcome of the legal – and political – wrangling, iCloud users no longer enjoy the security and privacy benefits of the Advanced Data Protection (ADP).

This affects iCloud Backup in the following categories: iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, and Freeform.

Meanwhile, the tribunal itself is “secret,” and the date it will consider Apple’s attempt to avoid the permanent breaking of encryption, and of the trust of its users worldwide, has been set for Friday, March 14.

But privacy activists like Privacy International (PI) want these hearings to be public, since the outcome of the UK’s anti-encryption push potentially affects millions, possibly billions of people around the world.

Secret as it may be, the IPT – which is believed to normally deal with national security issues – announced Friday’s closed-door meeting, a move that is described as “unusual.”

Unusual perhaps, but not illogical – Apple’s appeal against the original secret order was also apparently meant to be secret but has in the meantime been “leaked” to the public.

The original order came from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who targeted the US company with a “technical compatibility notice.” The end result of compliance was giving UK’s spies and law enforcement access to data, by compromising iCloud encryption.

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France’s Encryption Crackdown Could Break Secure Messaging for Everyone

France is attempting to pass a new surveillance law requiring the inclusion of secret encryption backdoors by providers, to serve intelligence agencies and police.

Critics say this attack on secure communications is the worst of its kind in the European Union (EU) and are urging citizens to put pressure on lawmakers to prevent the adoption of the so-called Narcotrafic law, which has cleared the country’s Senate and is now in the National Assembly.

Among those raising the alarm over the law is the well-known end-to-end encrypted email service Tuta, which reiterates the fundamental argument against building any backdoors into any encrypted app – something that French legislators now need to hear: once broken for one, encryption is broken for all.

“A backdoor for the good guys only is not possible,” says a blog post on Tuta’s site.

It adds that the idea to give law enforcement the ability to remotely activate cameras and microphones, expand “black boxes” authorization, and further facilitate online censorship (allegedly only related to the use and sale of drugs) might be presented by those behind the proposed law as needed to fight organized crime – but that, at the same time, it goes against a number of existing laws.

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Ontario school children face compelled medical surveillance or suspension

Ontario school children are currently caught in the middle of an ongoing issue regarding student rights, medical privacy, and the power of public health authorities. Under the Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA), students attending Ontario schools are required to be vaccinated against certain diseases unless exempt for medical, religious, or philosophical reasons.

However, the recent push by public health officials to have students disclose their vaccination status and face suspension for non-compliance is raising serious privacy concerns.

The problem lies in the ambiguity between ISPA and the Education Act. ISPA stipulates vaccine requirements, but suspension orders are the responsibility of school principals under the Education Act, not public health authorities. This confusion is leading to violations of students’ fundamental right to a free public education, with some students at risk of being unlawfully suspended for failing to disclose their vaccination status.

The pressure to disclose private medical information is causing significant distress among parents and children alike. There are increasing concerns about the safety of centralized digital health databases, which have been vulnerable to data breaches and unauthorized access. With healthcare data a prime target for cyberattacks, parents are understandably worried about the security of their children’s sensitive medical records—which is big business for hackers.

Parents are resisting this growing pressure, with some viewing the disclosure demands as a violation of the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). PHIPA requires informed consent before the collection of medical information and protects against coercion. However, the current approach by threatening suspension or else puts this principle into question.

The Ministry of Education was contacted for clarification, but media representatives Ingrid Anderson and Brook Campbell failed to respond days later. The inquiry focused on the confusion between ISPA and the Education Act, and how these conflicting laws are affecting students’ right to education. Additionally, clarification was sought on how medical privacy is being protected for parents wishing to uphold PHIPA.

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Biden’s IRS Caught Leaking Taxpayer Information of Over 400,000 Americans Including Pres. Trump as Leftists Sue to Stop DOGE Over Alleged ‘Privacy’ Concerns – Elon Musk Responds

As liberals whine and sue to block DOGE from accessing obtaining government department records, a damning report released today has exposed that the Biden regime exposed hundreds of thousands of Americans to potential fraud and identity theft, including President Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee released a new disclosure today that revealed the IRS under Joe Biden leaked taxpayer records of over 400,000 innocent Americans. The committee notes that Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) launched an investigation into information leaks last year.

The committee also reveals that in May 2024, an IRS spokesman attempted to downplay a leak that exposed this information. This turned out to be at least a partial cover-up.

“New disclosure reveals that the Biden IRS leaked taxpayer information of over 405,000 Americans — including President Trump’s. The IRS’s admission confirms the Committee’s suspicion and recent reports that show the scope of the leak was much broader than what the Biden Administration’s IRS initially led the public to believe,” the post reads.

“In May 2024, an IRS spokesman stated that “[m]ore than 70,000” taxpayers were affected. We found out that it’s actually over 405,000 taxpayers! This is a MASSIVE scandal. Jim Jordan first launched his inquiry into these leaks last year.”

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House Republicans launch group for comprehensive data privacy legislation

Republican leaders on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are forming a working group designed to help write a comprehensive data privacy bill.

John Joyce of Pennsylvania, the committee’s vice chairman and a physician, will lead the group, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. The working group currently includes nine Republicans and no Democrats.

The committee is inviting “stakeholders” to work with members to draft legislation that can “get across the finish line,” the press release said, quoting Joyce and committee Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky.

Congressional leaders have worked on comprehensive data privacy legislation in the past, but have never succeeded in getting a floor vote due to sharp dissent over what protections and consumer rights should be included. In that vacuum, 13 states have enacted their own.

“We strongly believe that a national data privacy standard is necessary to protect Americans’ rights online and maintain our country’s global leadership in digital technologies, including artificial intelligence,” the Republicans’ announcement says. “We are hopeful that we can start building a strong coalition to address this important issue.”

In January, more than three dozen industry groups sent a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of the Commerce Committee on each side of Congress, imploring them to pass data privacy legislation that would preempt the state laws.

The provisions proposed by the industry groups are similar to laws in states like Texas and Kentucky, which experts say are weaker than those in other states.

Data privacy legislation had been scheduled for a House Energy and Commerce markup last June but it was cancelled due to controversy over its text. 

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UK Government Secretly Orders Apple to Build Global iCloud Backdoor, Threatening Digital Privacy Worldwide

Imagine waking up one morning to find out your government has demanded the master key to every digital iPhone lock on Earth — without telling anyone. That’s exactly what British security officials have tried to pull off, secretly ordering Apple to build a backdoor into iCloud that would allow them to decrypt any user’s data, anywhere in the world. Yes, not just suspected criminals, not just UK citizens — everyone. And they don’t even want Apple to talk about it.

This breathtakingly authoritarian stunt, first reported by The Washington Post, is one of the most aggressive attempts to dismantle digital privacy ever attempted by a so-called Western democracy. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect from regimes that plaster their leader’s face on every street corner, not from a country that still pretends to believe in civil liberties.

This isn’t about catching a single terrorist or cracking a single case. No, this order — issued in secret last month by Keir Starmer’s Labour government — demands universal decryption capabilities, effectively turning Apple into a surveillance arm of the UK government. Forget warrants, forget oversight, forget even the pretense of targeted investigations. If this order were obeyed, British authorities would have the power to rifle through anyone’s iCloud account at will, no justification required.

The officials pushing for this monstrosity are hiding behind the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, a law so Orwellian it’s lovingly referred to as the “Snoopers’ Charter.” This piece of legislative overreach forces tech companies to comply with government spying requests while making it illegal to even disclose that such demands have been made. It’s the surveillance state’s dream—limitless power, zero accountability.

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Whistleblower Exposes TransUnion’s Shocking Outsourcing Scandal: Sensitive U.S. Data and Intelligence Databases are Being Handled by Underpaid Workers in India

In an alarming revelation sent to The Gateway Pundit by a reader who wished to remain anonymous, a former Senior QA Analyst for TransUnion has detailed how the company’s outsourcing policies, reliance on H1B visa workers, and mandatory DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) training have systematically displaced American tech workers—including those working on critical U.S. intelligence databases.

The anonymous source, who worked in the intelligence database sector for over 17 years, revealed how their role evolved from an entry-level assistant to a senior analyst responsible for training law enforcement officers and overseeing the quality assurance of highly sensitive databases.

These restricted systems are used by local, state, and federal law enforcement, as well as other government agencies, for intelligence gathering and investigative purposes.

Yet despite their extensive experience and dedication, the whistleblower’s position was ultimately eliminated as TransUnion shifted operations offshore to India.

The whistleblower disclosed that TransUnion moved thousands of U.S.-based jobs to offices in Chennai and Pune, India, leaving sensitive Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and critical intelligence databases in the hands of foreign workers.

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