British supermarket chain Tesco is installing face-scanning cameras at its 450 gas stations across the U.K. to target customers with customized ads.
Cameras at each register will scan customers' facial features to determine their gender and age range, and then a targeted ad will pop up on a nearby screen intended to spur an impulse buy.
The system is 95% accurate in spotting men and 87% accurate in spotting women, according to an independent study on the website of French company Quividi, which developed the software. The system, which is licensed by the British firm Amscreen, has raised some privacy concerns.
Read moreIn an open letter published on November 3 by the German news magazine Der Spiegel, whistleblower Edward Snowden accused the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its British counterpart (GCHQ) of being among the “worst offenders” engaged in uncontrolled mass surveillance.
In his letter, entitled “A Manifesto for the Truth,” Snowden wrote: “The world has learned a lot in a short amount of time about irresponsibly operated security agencies and, at times, criminal surveillance programs. Sometimes the agencies try to avoid controls.”
Read moreThe New York Times cites documents leaked by Edward Snowden as revealing that the US intelligence operatives covertly monitored Israeli drones and missile systems while simultaneously exchanging intelligence with the Israeli Defense Forces.
The US State Department has declines to confirm or deny the report.
Washington's National Security Agency spied on "high priority Israeli military targets," The New York Times reported on Nov. 3 in a 7-page article based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The in-depth overview details highly classified documents leaked by Snowden.
Read moreAn Italian magazine said on Wednesday that a United States spy agency had eavesdropped on Vatican phone calls, possibly including when former Pope Benedict's successor was under discussion, but the Holy See said it had no knowledge of any such activity.
Panorama magazine said that among 46 million phone calls followed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in Italy from December 10, 2012, to January 8, 2013, were conversations in and out of the Vatican. In a press release before full publication on Thursday, Panorama said the "NSA had tapped the pope". It cited no source for its information.
Read moreThe 'five eyes' club was born out of Britain and America's tight-knit intelligence partnership in World War II and particularly the work at Bletchley Park, breaking both German and Japanese codes.
Code-breakers realised collaboration helped in overcoming some of the technical challenges and in being able to intercept communications around the world.
Out of this experience came what was first called BRUSA and then rechristened UKUSA - a top secret intelligence-sharing alliance signed in March 1946.
Read morePresident Barack Obama was told about monitoring of German Chancellor in 2010 and allowed it to continue, says German newspaper. President Barack Obama was dragged into the trans-Atlantic spying row after it was claimed he personally authorised the monitoring of Angela Merkel’s phone three years ago.
The president allegedly allowed US intelligence to listen to calls from the German Chancellor’s mobile phone after he was briefed on the operation by Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, in 2010.
Read moreThe world has become a more dangerous place after Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing revelations, as it helped the people who want to “blow up our families” and evade intelligence, British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Cameron said that the classified data that Snowden leaked would make it harder for Britain and other countries to provide security for their citizens. “What Snowden is doing and, to an extent, what the newspapers are doing in helping him do what he is doing, is frankly signaling to people, who mean to do us harm, how to evade and avoid intelligence and surveillance and other techniques,” he said.
Read moreRussia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) wants to gain maximum control over the information on the internet. This was reported today by Kommersant newspaper, which obtained access to a letter of VimpelCom, aimed at the Ministry of Communications. In the letter, the operator gives a number of comments on the draft ministerial order on investigative activities on the internet.
In accordance with the draft order of the Ministry of Communications, from July 1, 2014 all internet providers are required to install network equipment for recording and storing internet traffic for minimum 12 hours, and the security forces will have direct access to these records.
Read moreThe National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top-secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and “buddy lists” from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers.
Read moreThe secret federal court overseeing US wiretapping programs has extended the government’s authority to collect US telephone records, the office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said late Friday.
Clapper “has decided to declassify and disclose publicly that the government filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the court renewed that authority,” the statement read. This disclosure is “consistent with his prior declassification decision and in light of the significant and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program,” the statement read.
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