Smart Device Eavesdropping: The Santa Clause

Fact,  fiction, or prediction. You decide.
Marketer sparks panic with claims it uses smart devices to eavesdrop on people...

Makers of microphone-equipped electronics sometimes admit to selling voice data to third parties (advertisers). But that's usually voice data accumulated after a user has prompted their device to start listening to them...

But a marketing company called CMG Local Solutions sparked panic recently by alluding that it has access to people's private conversations by tapping into data gathered by the microphones on their phones, TVs, and other personal electronics, as first reported by 404 Media on Thursday. The marketing firm had said it uses these personal conversations for ad targeting.

CMG's Active Listening website starts with a banner promoting an accurate but worrisome statement, "It's true. Your devices are listening to you." more

Recent Spy News

• Iran is saying it has executed an Israeli Mossad spy in the country’s southeast, state TV reported Saturday. The report said the spy was linked to foreign intelligence services, including Mossad, and charged with involvement in releasing classified information. The judiciary body executed the person in a prison in Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan. The report did not identify the person. more

• Amazon is still selling the clothes hook spy cameras it's being sued over. more  antidote

• German Spy Official Goes on Trial Accused of Selling Secrets to Russia. more

• A top-secret Chinese spy satellite just launched on a supersized rocket. more

• UK spy agency releases annual Christmas puzzle challenge for students: Can you solve it? more

• Man Accused Of Being Spy Admits He’s Russian After Years Posing As Academic In Norway, Canada more

• He’s Wanted for Wirecard’s Missing $2 Billion. He’s Now Suspected of Being a Russian Spy. more

• Ukraine weapons treason case throws light on Russian spy threat to Germany. more

• Former FBI spy hunter sentenced to 4 years for taking money from Putin crony in Russia sanctions case. more

• Congress Clashes Over the Future of America’s Global Spy Program more

• Accused Spy for Cuba Lived the American Dream more

Channel 1 - Ultimate Fake News, or Edison Carter Gets Max'ed

The world's first news network entirely generated by artificial intelligence is set to launch next year.
Channel 1 released a promotional video [VERY realistic] explaining how the service will provide personalized news coverage to users from international affairs, finance and entertainment. The outlet said how their team of AI generated reported can offer a global perspective 24/7.

The reporters in the video appear to be human but are actually made from the scan of a real person. With digitally generated voices and zero human emotion, the reporters can tell the news in any language. Users users will be able to access the network through the services Crackle or Tubi. more

For news anchors it gives a whole ne meaning to, "You can be replaced."

Harry Hacking: Payout in Phone-Hacking Case Against Mirror Publisher

Prince Harry has won 15 claims in his case accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of unlawfully gathering information for stories published about him. A judge has ruled in his favour on almost half of the sample of 33 stories used in his claims of phone hacking and other methods.

High Court ruling found evidence of "widespread and habitual" use of phone hacking at the Mirror newspapers... He was awarded £140,600 in damages... more

Mind-reading BrainGPT Converts Thought-of Words into Text

There may be new hope for stroke victims and other "locked-in" people who are unable to communicate by conventional means. It comes in the form of the experimental new BrainGPT system, which is able to read users' thoughts and convert them into readable text...

Currently being developed by a team of scientists at the University of Technology Sydney, it simply requires users to wear an EEG (electroencephalogram) cap that's connected to a computer. No eye-tracking cameras or other additional hardware is required.

The custom DeWave software utilized by BrainGPT was trained by recording and analyzing the electrical signals produced by a total of 29 volunteers' brains as they silently read passages of text.

Putting it simply, DeWave's AI-based algorithms learned which specific EEG signals corresponded to which written words and phrases. more  video

The future of eavesdropping marches on.

Fake Cell Towers Spy On Phones

The risks associated with fake cell towers are manifold. Firstly, there is the threat of unauthorized access to sensitive personal information. This includes passwords, credit card details, and other private data that can be used for identity theft or financial fraud. Furthermore, fake towers can also listen in on phone calls and gather valuable business intelligence, posing a significant risk to corporate espionage...

The fake tower can intercept this IMSI number and collect other data, such as the mobile device’s location, call records, text messages, and even the content of phone calls. This information can then be used for various purposes, including surveillance, identity theft, and corporate espionage. more

Weird Spy News - MI6 Thanks Russian State Television for its “Help”

The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency has thanked Russian state television for its “help” encouraging Russians to spy for the U.K. after it translated and broadcast part of a speech he gave earlier this year in which he called on Russians to “join hands with us.”

Anchor Maria Butina — herself a former Russian spy — included the clip at the top of a program about Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.

Moore gave the speech in July at the British Embassy in Prague where he openly encouraged Russians faced with “the venality, infighting and sheer callous incompetence of their leaders” to spy for Britain. more

FutureWatch: Ms. Butina mysteriously falls from a 13th Floor window.

Fast-growing Firm Accused of Corporate Espionage in $250M Lawsuit

In the $250 million lawsuit, the California company alleges AscellaHealth used connections inside Nymox in an attempt "to take control of the company's assets by a kick-back scheme."...

Nymox is alleging that AscellaHealth—which Nymox refers to as “a would-be ‘black knight’ competitor”—resorted to “illegal and unlawful corporate espionage” because it couldn’t gain enough support from Nymox shareholders by “legitimate means.”

Nymox is accusing Ascella of using its ties to the ex-Nymox leaders to pass off an investment proposal as a way to learn confidential company information and take control of the company's assets via a kick-back scheme, according to the biotech’s Nov. 9 release. more

Eavesdropping to the Rescue

Low-Frequency Sound Can Reveal That a Tornado Is On Its Way
You can't hear it, but this sound can reveal that a tornado is on its way...

There's another sound, however, that accompanies tornadoes that we can't hear. It is so low in frequency it is beyond the realms of human hearing, but it could offer a way of providing earlier, more accurate warnings of these destructive storms.

With winds that can reach up to 483km/h (300 mph), the storms that produce tornadoes generate low frequency sound waves – or infrasound – that can travel for hundreds of miles.

Eavesdropping on these infrasound signals may not be able to prevent tornadoes from flattening towns and tossing cars into the air like toys, but it could lead to a new type of early warning system that might save lives. more

Controversial Clothes Hook Spy Cameras for Sale on Amazon

Spy cameras disguised as clothes hooks are for sale on Amazon, despite the firm being sued over the gadgets. One clothes hook camera listing seen by the BBC features a picture of the device positioned in a bathroom.

A US judge recently ruled the retail giant must face a case brought by a woman who alleges she was filmed in the bathroom using a clothes hook camera purchased on Amazon.

A privacy expert has said the misuse of such devices may break British laws. Amazon declined to comment on the issue.

The US legal action against the company was brought by a foreign exchange student and aspiring actress... more

Helpful links...
Hidden Camera Detectors – Do They Work?
Spycam Detection Training for Businesses and Individuals (with Spanish, Korean and English closed captions)

Eavesdropping Super Hearing Pucks

Have you ever wanted eavesdropping super hearing powers? Admit it. We all have. Corporate espionage types find it especially useful as well.

There are dozens of ways to bug a room to hear confidential conversations. However, most of these ways requires access to the room to plant the bug. Modern science to the rescue (if you are the bugger). Since about half of corporate espionage is an insider issue this is a big problem for corporate security directors too.

Everyone from the office staff just outside of the boss’s office, to the Machiavellian executive in the adjacent office who wants that promotion, desperately wants to hear behind those closed doors. Now they can. Anybody can. Easily. Covertly. Cheaply... more

Philadelphia Lawyer Advice: Fighting Accusations of Corporate Espionage

Summary of the Spodek Law Group blog post...

Getting accused of corporate espionage can be scary. It can feel like your career or even freedom is on the line. But with the right legal help, you can get through this. In this article, we’ll break down what corporate espionage is, what the consequences can be, and most importantly—your defense options...

What Should You Do if Accused?
First, don’t panic. Just because you’re accused doesn’t mean you’ll be convicted. About half of economic espionage cases end in plea bargains or dismissals. With an experienced legal team, you can avoid the worst outcomes...

• Don’t try to handle this alone. 
• Remain silent. 
• Act quickly.
• Do comply with orders. 
• Watch what you say. 
• Begin gathering evidence.
• Consider independent analysis. 
• Look closely at the motives. 
• Highlight your character. If you have a long career with no prior offenses, that works in your favor. Judges go easier on first-time offenders. more

The Too-Weird-to-Be-Fiction Spy Story

It feels like a script you’d find on the over-piled desk of some harried Hollywood agent: MAGA-style Republican, while toiling for years as a U.S. diplomat and ambassador, secretly leads a double life, allegedly spying for the Cuban government for more than four decades — completely undetected.

Except that if true, the allegations against Victor Manuel Rocha, a career foreign service officer accused of serving as an agent of the Cuban regime since 1981, have real-life — and dangerous — implications. After Rocha was indicted on Monday on espionage charges, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the U.S. government by a foreign agent.” ...

What surprised you the most about this arrest?

It’s really an amplification of what I thought: the Cubans are really good at espionage. Their intelligence agency, which goes by the acronym DGI, is incredibly effective. And they take the long game. more

Gemini (AI) Launched - Spying Will Never be the Same

It has been in the wild one day.
Imagine where it will be in a year.

 "Analyze this satellite photo. What do you see? How is it important? What are the vulnerabilities? How can I get information from that building? Analyze their networks. What are the vulnerabilities? Design an attack plan." ...all in less than a minute.

:( Update... Google’s new Gemini AI model is getting a mixed reception after its big debut yesterday, but users may have less confidence in the company’s tech or integrity after finding out that the most impressive demo of Gemini was pretty much faked. more

Updater's Update... In a social media post made after this article was published, Google DeepMind’s VP of Research Oriol Vinyals showed a bit more of how “Gemini was used to create” the video. “The video illustrates what the multimodal user experiences built with Gemini could look like. We made it to inspire developers.” ... Perhaps I will eat crow when, next week, the AI Studio with Gemini Pro is made available to experiment with.

I'll stick with, "Imagine where it will be in a year."

FutureWatch: Meta Mind Reading

Meta’s mind reader - Meta wants to get to know its users inside and out.

The company filed a patent application for in-ear “spectroscopy” for “cognitive load estimation.” To put it simply, this uses an in-ear device to measure a user’s brain signals to better understand a user’s brain activity...

By understanding a user’s cognitive load, Meta can learn a lot about a user’s mental state, said Jake Maymar, VP of Innovation at The Glimpse Group. It’s essentially a stress tester, he said, indicating how exactly their mind is reacting to the content in front of them.

But with a company like Meta, “it’s all about advertising,” Maymar said. As you use the device, “It gets to know you. Your device starts to really understand you as a person and can customize these experiences for you, so they really appeal to you.” ... these ads will likely target you closer than just being placed in your favorite games, said Maymar. more

The future of surveillance is mind reading. We've been minding it for years.

Clandestine Ops: Mission Permission Submission

Clandestine online operations now require sign-off by senior officials.

Following a controversy over the Pentagon’s use of clandestine information operations, the U.S. military has eliminated dozens of false online personas it created in recent years and has curtailed the use of such operations overseas, according to senior defense officials.

Clandestine online operations now require sign-off by senior Pentagon officials, the CIA and the State Department, according to the officials, who spoke Monday on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. more

Send Your Name to Jupiter’s Moon Europa

NASA's Europa Clipper will investigate Jupiter’s moon Europa to determine whether there are places below Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. 

The mission’s detailed investigation of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

Join the mission and have your name stenciled on a microchip that will be attached to the spacecraft as it travels 1.8 billion miles to explore Europa. Sign up to send your name on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft by Sunday, Dec. 31. HERE