You Cannot Protect Your Privacy Alone
What the Golden State Killer, a genealogy website, and 6.9 million innocent people reveal about the one privacy myth the other three depend on.
Topic
Biometrics
A collection of 7 issues
Lockdown Mode: Is It Worth It?
Two companies shipped a feature with the same name and almost nothing in common. One costs you nothing and everyone should know the button. The other breaks real things and is aimed at very few people.
Somebody Already Made the List of Who's Watching You
There's a myth that the people watching you are faceless. A volunteer-run project called Surveillance Watch demolishes it with the least glamorous tool imaginable.
The Five Vectors of UTS
Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance (UTS) collects and analyzes data across five vectors: Online, Electronic, Visual-Physical, Financial, and Travel. Each vector reveals patterns and vulnerabilities, posing risks to privacy and autonomy. Understanding these vectors is vital to mitigating threats.
Identity Unmasked: The Double-Edged Sword of Biometrics
A password can be changed after a breach. A fingerprint, an iris, a palm vein pattern cannot. That asymmetry is what makes biometrics the most convenient login you will ever use and the most permanent thing you can hand over.
Privacy in Global Travel: Tracking and Data Collection across Various Domains
One international trip produces a biometric passport read, a face scan at the gate, an airline manifest entry, and a ride-share pickup log. Different owners, different retention periods, one traveler.
Android Lockdown Mode
Two seconds on the power button drops the phone to PIN-only: no face, no fingerprint, no notification text on the lock screen. Worth finding the button before the moment you need it.