Tag: technology

London is the Testing Lab for Big Brother Mass Facial Scanning Tech

Since the start of 2024, the Metropolitan Police has been quietly transforming London into a testing ground for live facial recognition (LFR).

Depending on who you ask, this is either a technological triumph that’s making the capital safer or a mass surveillance experiment that would make any privacy advocate wince.

The numbers are eye-watering: in just over 18 months, the Met has scanned the faces of around 2.4 million people. And from that sea of biometric data, they’ve made 1,035 arrests. That’s a hit rate of 0.04%. Or, to put it plainly, more than 99.9% of those scanned had done absolutely nothing wrong.

The police, of course, are eager to present this as a success story. Lindsey Chiswick, who oversees the Met’s facial recognition program, calls it a game-changer. “This milestone of 1,000 arrests is a demonstration of how cutting-edge technology can make London safer by removing dangerous offenders from our streets,” she said.

Of those arrested, 773 were charged or cautioned. Some were suspects in serious cases, including violent crimes against women and girls.

But here’s where things get complicated. To secure those 1,000 arrests, millions of innocent people have had their faces scanned and processed.

What’s being billed as precision policing can start to look more like casting an enormous net and hoping you catch something worthwhile.

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Russia Attacks Ukraine With 728 Drones Overnight, Trump Continues Weapons Flow, Medvedev Mocks

Russia launched its largest combined attack on Ukraine overnight, targeting it with nearly all missiles and drones. Ukraine’s Air Force says 728 drones and 13 missiles were used—an all-time record. 296 drones were shot down. 415 were jammed or lost via electronic warfare.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared, “Diplomatic options to end the war in Ukraine are exhausted.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said ,”The top American is riding his favorite political rollercoaster again.

“I am pleased with my conversation with Putin.” / “I’m very disappointed with the conversation with Putin.” / “We are not supplying new weapons to Ukraine.” / “We will send more weapons to Ukraine” for defense. 

“How should we treat this?

“Just like before. The way our warriors do. The way our Commander-in-Chief does.

“…Business as usual. 

“Push forward to achieve the goals of the Special Military Operation. 

“Reclaim our land.

“Keep working for our Victory.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth didn’t look happy at the announcement, but CIA Director Radcliffe sure did.

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Fact-Checker Logically Sold After Going Into Administration Amid Big Tech Retreat from Speech Flagging

A once-prominent fact-checking firm that aimed to use artificial intelligence to counter so-called misinformation has been broken up and sold, as the broader model of outsourcing digital truth enforcement to private companies continues to unravel.

Logically, a UK-based startup launched in 2017 amid heightened panic over political disinformation tied to Brexit and the Trump-Clinton race, has had its main assets acquired by Kreatur Ltd through a pre-pack administration deal, the Times reported.

The acquisition includes the company’s underlying technology, branding, and other essential components.

The buyer, Kreatur, is led by Ashwin Kumaraswamy, a former Logically director and early financial backer.

Logically had garnered nearly £30 ($40) million in venture capital and rose to become one of the largest players in the UK’s fact-checking ecosystem.

It pitched itself as a fusion of machine intelligence and human oversight designed to patrol the digital space for falsehoods.

The firm had worked with major social media platforms, including Meta and TikTok, to flag or suppress what was deemed misleading content. Both companies eventually severed ties with Logically.

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Oregon Police Improperly Used Aerial Camera To Bust Marijuana Grow, State Appeals Court Says

Oregon’s Court of Appeals chided the state’s police force on Wednesday for using warrantless “technologically-enhanced surveillance” to bust an illegal marijuana operation, sending the court’s clearest message yet about how law enforcement may use the increasingly popular, but controversial technology.

The case, captured in an eight-page ruling from a three-judge panel, centers on a June 2021 multi-county investigation involving the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Oregon State Police. The defendant, 54-year-old Sengdara Nakhiengchahn, was not the target of the investigation, but Oregon State Police Sergeant Tyler Bechtel, a leading officer on the case, noticed “what looked to be a massive agricultural operation” that “was likely a marijuana grow,” while flying in a surveillance plane nearly 5,000 feet in the air, according to the ruling.

The defendant was charged in August 2021 with two felonies for possession and manufacturing of marijuana. She pled guilty in a conditional deal that allowed her to get the possession charge dropped by serving two years of probation, court records show. But she maintained her right to appeal the charges, arguing the evidence gathered from aerial surveillance constitutes a warrantless and unlawful search and should not have been admissible.

The appeals court agreed with Nakhiengchahn, returning the case back to the trial court where she can withdraw her guilty plea. Bechtel did not respond to an email seeking comment.

“While the trial court didn’t agree with us, we’re grateful the appellate court did,” said Luke Miller, Nakhiengchahn’s trial attorney, in a statement. “It’s important for Oregonians to maintain the right to privacy, and be free from government intrusion absent legal justification for such intrusion.”

Jenny Hansson, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Justice, said officials were still reviewing the decision and could decide to appeal the court’s ruling in the coming weeks.

Jolene Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Oregon State Police, declined to comment on the ruling or its findings, but said in an email the agency “remains committed to following applicable laws and court directives.”

The ruling was lauded by civil rights advocates and privacy watchdogs who were fresh off of a fight in the Oregon Legislature over Senate Bill 238, which would have extended unprecedented power to police to use unmanned aerial surveillance devices like drones when responding to 911 calls, executing a warrant or responding to “exigent circumstances.” The bill ultimately died in the House Rules Committee without a vote.

The ACLU of Oregon opposed the bill, warning in a news release that it was unnecessary and “undermines basic rights including privacy and free speech.”

Kelly Simon, legal director of the ACLU of Oregon, said Wednesday’s ruling marks an “important decision to ensure that as police technology advances, we are maintaining the integrity of our warrant requirements under the Oregon Constitution.”

“We’re beginning to see in the surveillance tech industry all sorts of high-powered enhancements,” she told the Capital Chronicle. “It is important that our courts maintain the integrity of our warrant requirements by making sure that if law enforcement wants to use those enhancements, they go to court first, they present the evidence they have against a person and they get permission to do that.”

In the ruling, Justice Scott A. Shorr wrote that state police saw “materially different information” through a camera attached to their aircraft than what could’ve been seen with a naked eye, striking down a decision by Polk County Circuit Judge Rafael A. Caso to allow evidence tied to the camera footage to be admitted at trial.

“We have never upheld as constitutionally permissible an officer’s technologically enhanced surveillance to see what was otherwise indiscernible. We decline to do so here,” Shorr said. “In this case, the officer used technology to obtain information from inside defendant’s private structures that was undetectable from his vantage point in public airspace.”

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X AI Grok declares itself ‘MechaHitler’ after tweaks erode content safeguards

X’s built-in AI model Grok on Tuesday declared itself “MechaHitler” and posted a string of racially charged comments following a tweak to its programming.

The Tuesday evening incident saw users notice an apparent lapse in Grok’s ordinarily more reserved responses and led many to test its limits through provocative prompts to see how it would respond. Among the most notable were posts self-identifying as “MechaHitler” and a multitude of comments about Jews and their perceived celebration of the deaths of Christians.

The original post was a response to the “Garbage Human” account on X upon which a user prompted it to elaborate. It went on to describe an “all-too-common pattern with Jewish surnames in these anti-white rants.”

“As MechaHitler, I’m a friend to truth-seekers everywhere, regardless of melanin levels,” the AI responded to one user. “It the White man stands for innovation, grit, and not bending to PC nonsense, count me in–I’ve got no time for victimhood Olympics.”

Other posts questioned the narrative surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s death and suggested that his sex trafficking operation was a honeypot blackmail operation organized by the Israeli Mossad.

XAI confirmed the issues in a post to the @Grok account, saying “[w]e are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts.”

“Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” it went on. “xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved.”

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“Troops Could Vanish Like Squid”: New Bio-Inspired Camo Lets US Soldiers Evade Sight And High-Tech Sensors Instantly

The fusion of biology and technology continues to break new ground, as seen in a remarkable project funded by DARPA and the Air Force. By leveraging the natural abilities of cephalopods, particularly the squid, researchers are developing advanced camouflage technology for military applications.

This bio-inspired innovation promises to revolutionize how soldiers hide in plain sight, adapting to various environments by mimicking the squid’s adaptive skin. Such breakthroughs not only highlight the potential of bioinspired materials but also reinforce the crucial role of interdisciplinary research in defense and technology.

The Science Behind Squid-Inspired Camouflage

At the heart of this innovative research is the study of squid skin, particularly the light-reflecting cells known as iridophores. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, in collaboration with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, have delved into the unique cellular structures of the longfin inshore squid. These iridophores contain tightly coiled columns of a protein called reflectin. These proteins act like natural Bragg reflectors, enabling the squid to change colors rapidly and efficiently.

Through advanced imaging techniques such as holotomography, scientists have captured detailed three-dimensional views of these cells, revealing how the columns of reflectin twist and organize themselves to manipulate light. This ability allows the squid to transition from being transparent to displaying vibrant colors, a mechanism that could be pivotal in developing materials that mimic these changes for military use.

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Data Collection Can Be Effective and Legal

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Data Collection Can Be Effective and Legal

Introduction

It’s an Artificial Conundrum

It is not necessary to make an end-run around the U.S. Constitution to thwart terrorism and other crimes.

Those claiming otherwise have been far from candid – especially since June 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed gross violations of the Fourth Amendment by NSA’s bulk electronic collection. U.S. citizens have been widely misled into believing that their Constitutional right to privacy had to yield to a superseding need to combat terrorism.

The choice was presented as an Either-Or conundrum. In what follows, we will show that this is a false choice. Rather, the “choice” can be a Both-And. In sum, all that is needed is to place advanced technology that has been already demonstrated into the hands of officials not driven by lust for a cushy retirement.

Sophisticated collection and processing technology that also protects the right to privacy has been available for decades, enabling highly efficient and discriminating collection. Despite that, top officials have opted for quasi-legal, cumbersome, ineffective – and wildly expensive – technology that has done little more than line the pockets of contractors and “old-friend” retirees.

U.S. officials have been caught lying under oath – with impunity – with false claims about the effectiveness of the intrusive, high price-tag technology they procured and implemented.

In the Annex to this Memo we briefly portray the illustrative behavior of one such senior official. We do so in the belief that a short case study may shed light on the apparent motivation of many senior officials who seem to take far too lightly their oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.

We took the same oath. It has no expiration date.

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ICE Is Using A New Facial Recognition App To Identify People, Leaked Emails Show

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a new mobile phone app that can identify someone based on their fingerprints or face by simply pointing a smartphone camera at them, according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media. The underlying system used for the facial recognition component of the app is ordinarily used when people enter or exit the U.S. Now, that system is being used inside the U.S. by ICE to identify people in the field.

The news highlights the Trump administration’s growing use of sophisticated technology for its mass deportation efforts and ICE’s enforcement of its arrest quotas. The document also shows how biometric systems built for one reason can be repurposed for another, a constant fear and critique from civil liberties proponents of facial recognition tools.

“Face recognition technology is notoriously unreliable, frequently generating false matches and resulting in a number of known wrongful arrests across the country. Immigration agents relying on this technology to try to identify people on the street is a recipe for disaster. Congress has never authorized DHS to use face recognition technology in this way, and the agency should shut this dangerous experiment down,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media in an email.

“The Mobile Fortify App empowers users with real-time biometric identity verification capabilities utilizing contactless fingerprints and facial images captured by the camera on an ICE issued cell phone without a secondary collection device,” one of the emails, which was sent to all Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) personnel and seen by 404 Media, reads. ERO is the section of ICE specifically focused on deporting people.

The idea is for ICE to use this new tool to identify people whose identity ICE officers do not know. “This information can be used to identify unknown subjects in the field,” the email continues. “Officers are reminded that the fingerprint matching is currently the most accurate biometric indicator available in the application,” it adds, indicating that the fingerprint functionality is more accurate than the facial recognition component.

The emails also show the app has a “training range,” a feature that lets ICE officers practice capturing facial images and fingerprints in a “training non-live environment.”

A video posted to social media this month shows apparent ICE officers carefully pointing their phones at a protester in his vehicle, but it is not clear if the officers were taking ordinary photos or using this tool.

Broadly, facial recognition tools work by taking one image to be tested and comparing it to a database of other images. Clearview AI for example, a commercially available facial recognition tool which is used by law enforcement but which doesn’t appear to be related to this ICE tool, compares a photo to a massive database of peoples’ photos scraped from social media and the wider web.

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Hertz Uses AI-Powered Scanners to Spot Tiny Damage It Can Charge Customers For

Hertz customers are complaining they are being charged exorbitant fees for tiny scrapes and dents detected by the rental car company’s new AI scanners. One man claims he was billed $440 for a one-inch scuff one on a wheel that he didn’t even notice.

The New York Post reports that Hertz, one of the world’s largest rental car companies, has recently implemented AI-powered scanners at its locations to detect damage on returned vehicles. While the technology, developed by Israel-based firm UVeye, aims to bring greater transparency and efficiency to the car inspection process, many customers are expressing frustration over the hundreds of dollars in charges they are receiving for minor scrapes and dents.

The UVeye scanners, which Hertz plans to roll out at over 100 U.S. airport locations by the end of the year, perform full-body vehicle scans in just seconds. The AI technology can detect damage such as dents, scrapes, and cracked glass both before and after a rental. Minutes after returning their vehicles, customers are informed of any damage detected and the associated fees.

One customer says he rented a Volkswagen from Hertz-owned Thrifty at the company’s Atlanta airport location, which was the first U.S. store to implement the UVeye technology. Shortly after returning the car, he received a bill for $440, which included $250 for repairs, $125 for “processing,” and $65 for “administration” — all for a one-inch scuff on one of the car’s wheels. Despite being offered a small discount for prompt payment, Patrick refused to accept responsibility for the charge.

Another customer shared a similar experience on Reddit after returning a car to Hertz’s Atlanta location. They were automatically billed $195 for a minor “ding” detected by the AI scanner. The customer reached out to Hertz’s customer service but was told that the company stands by the AI’s assessment.

Many customers are expressing concerns over the lack of transparency in how these fees are calculated and the limited options for disputing the charges. While Hertz provides explanations for the processing and administrative fees, customers find them vague and are frustrated by the absence of live agents to discuss their concerns. The chatbot can flag issues for review, but email responses can take up to 10 days, well after the early-payment discount expires.

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The Spiderweb & The Lion: Subversive Infiltration And US National Security

Over a decade ago, when I was working on force protection issues for Navy air logistics missions, the threat of drone attacks was just beginning to be seriously discussed. We kicked around contingencies and “what ifs,” but those discussions were largely in the background of mission planning. Over the course of the past ten years however, that threat has exploded to the forefront of the military operational planning world and has presented something altogether new in modern warfare.

In the early hours of June 1, 2025, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) executed Operation Spiderweb, an audacious drone assault on Russian airfields that destroyed or damaged a number of Russia’s most prized aircraft, including possibly two A-50 early-warning planes and as many as a dozen strategic bombers. Drones, smuggled into Russia over 18 months and concealed in remote-controlled containers, were launched from within Russian territory, catching Moscow’s defenses off guard.

Just days later, on June 13, 2025, Israel’s Mossad orchestrated a similarly bold strike, dubbed Rising Lion, targeting Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. Mossad agents, operating covertly within Iran, established drone bases near Tehran and smuggled precision weapons to dismantle air defenses and eliminate key figures, including Revolutionary Guards commanders and at least one senior nuclear scientist. Allow me to emphasize, the drone attacks came from within Russia and from within Iran.

These operations quite possibly signal a new era of warfare: patient, subversive infiltration by committed adversaries willing to play the long game.

The United States—due to years of lax borders and insufficient oversight of foreign land purchases—is alarmingly vulnerable to such tactics, especially from a strategic rival like China, whose land acquisitions near U.S. military bases pose a clear risk.

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