Email Bugs Are Tracking You

Do you want to know exactly when a friend or colleague opens your email? How about where they are when they do?

Free services now allow us to do a little spying through the email we send. But it's raising some questions about privacy.

A growing number of people are using this technology. One More Company OMC, a company that makes software to detect this kind of email bugging, released a report last year. It says marketers put bugs in virtually all of the email they send.

But surprisingly, last year 16 percent of all conversational email-- the messages you send to friends, family and colleagues-- was also tracked. And that's up from 10 percent the year before. video more

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Counter Measures for Users
Possible measures to restrict the functioning of tracking pixels:

• Set browser and email settings to be as restrictive as possible such that external graphics are only supported after permission, and HTML emails are not supported. Appropriate firewall settings can also be used to do this.
• Some browser extensions can be used to make tracking pixels visible.
• Anonymous surfing with the Tor Browser or use of proxy servers to prevent the download of tracking pixels.
• In order to prevent the collection of additional user data such as browser type or operating system, the support of scripts in the browser can be deactivated. This can however restrict other functions on the Internet under certain circumstances. more

Spying is Turning Us into a Stalking Society

Bugging and GPS-tracking used to be so expensive that they were only used by governments and private investigators, but a quick Amazon search offers up a hidden car-tracking device for US$27 (£19).

In the related items: a spy cam disguised as a USB charger, $52. These items are marketed as a “real-time teen-driving coach”, nanny cams or parental control software, but there is nothing to stop them being used for nefarious purposes.

Meanwhile, law enforcement struggles to keep up: victims of stalking or online harassment are frequently told simply to stop going online, which for a 19-year-old in 2018 is like being told not to breathe air.

As the National Stalking Helpline’s manager, Clare Elcombe Webber, points out, it feels like there are near-infinite technologies to help stalkers but few to help victims. more

Facial Recognition Glasses Used by Police to Identify Suspects

Chinese police are using dark sunglasses equipped with facial recognition technology to spot criminal suspects.

The glasses, which are being worn by police at a busy train station ahead of the Chinese New Year travel rush, are linked to a central database which contains details of criminal records.

Wearing the technology, police can almost instantly view an individual's personal details, including name, ethnicity, gender and address.

The scene would not look out of place in an episode of science fiction television drama Black Mirror, which often depicts dark scenarios of humans being overcome by technology.

China is deploying new technologies to monitor people in ways that would unnerve many in the West. more

Your Cell Phone Sings "Every Step You Take..."

by Guevara Noubir, Professor of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University

"My group’s recent research has shown how mobile phones can also track their users through stores and cities and around the world – even when users turn off their phones’ location-tracking services.
The vulnerability comes from the wide range of sensors phones are equipped with – not just GPS and communications interfaces, but gyroscopes and accelerometers that can tell whether a phone is being held upright or on its side and can measure other movements too. Apps on the phone can use those sensors to perform tasks users aren’t expecting – like following a user’s movements turn by turn along city streets.

Most people expect that turning their phone’s location services off disables this sort of mobile surveillance. But the research I conduct with my colleagues Sashank Narain, Triet Vo-Huu, Ken Block and Amirali Sanatinia at Northeastern University, in a field called “side-channel attacks,” uncovers ways that apps can avoid or escape those restrictions. We have revealed how a phone can listen in on a user’s finger-typing to discover a secret password – and how simply carrying a phone in your pocket can tell data companies where you are and where you’re going..." more

Derailed CEO Accused of Spying on Board Members

South Africa - Railway Safety Regulator board members had their movements monitored and their cars fitted with tracking devices - and their boss allegedly orchestrated the whole thing.

Times Select can reveal that embattled Railway Safety Regulator CEO Nkululeko Poya allegedly spied on board members. She is currently on precautionary suspension after being charged for a string of alleged irregularities, including irregular staff appointments...

The new allegations facing Poya stem from a whistle blower who revealed how he had been engaging in clandestine activities on Poya’s behalf... He that said he worked on Poya’s instructions to spy on board members and find dirt against them. more

PI Sued for Planting Tracking Device... on a politician's pick-up truck.

An Oklahoma lawmaker who found a tracking device attached to his pickup truck last month is suing a private investigation company and an investigator who works for the company over the device.

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 Discovery of the tracking device has shocked Oklahoma politicians, who are wondering who was spying.

Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican from the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, is suing Eastridge Investigations and Asset Protection and Eastridge investigator H.L. Christensen for unspecified damages of more than $10,000, according to an attorney for Eastridge. more

Stop Your Apps from Spying on Your TV Viewing

That innocent-looking mobile game you just downloaded might just have an ulterior motive. Behind the scenes, hundreds of different apps could be using your smartphone's microphone to figure out what you watch on TV, a new report from The New York Times reveals...

Basically, a bunch of apps with innocuous names like "Pocket Bowling 3D" include extra software that's designed to listen for recognizable audio from your TV, including specific shows and commercials...

All of these apps need to get your permission before they can record in the background. So the easiest way is just to deny that permission. However, it's possible that you might approved the request without realising it, or your kid might do it while playing with your phone. In that case, switching it off is pretty easy...

Just head into Settings on your device and check the permissions for the app in question. If the app has microphone access when it doesn't need to (why would a bowling game need to use your microphone?), just toggle that permission off. more

Seoul Trained Trackers, or Party Police Bugged

South Korea - One maintenance office of a Seoul apartment complex is in hot water after it took its investigation into noise complaints one step too far.

According to residents and security personnel, during a recent five-day period, the maintenance office dispatched security guards to investigate the source of excessive noise among suites on floors 9 through 15 in one building. The guards, deployed from midnight to three in the morning on the apartment corridors, were armed with sound amplifying equipment.

“Throughout the course of the investigation, I ended up listening to the conversations of the residents in each suite, even though I didn’t want to,” one security guard said. “Problems of excessive noise should be resolved through legal and appropriate means, but I think that using a sound amplifier that can result in an invasion of privacy is taking things too far.” more

Google Android Tracking You - Bad News / Good News / Bad News

Bad News...
Your phone knows where you are at pretty much all times. This is no surprise—that's part of the appeal. But while there are options to disable GPS and Location Services in the settings of Android phones, this won't stop Google from knowing where you are. Short of turning off your phone, there's actually no real way.

New details about the length to which Google tracks Android phones surfaced today from Quartz, which reports that Android phones will track your location even if you disable location services and even if you aren't logged into the phone...

Good News...
The practical effect of this is that, so long as your Android phone is on and not inside a Faraday cage, your location data is being communicated. Google told Quartz that this practice has existed for 11 months, but that the information was never stored or used and furthermore that the process will now be ended.

Bad News...
While the practice is just generally creepy, it also can have profound legal implications. Loose restrictions allow law enforcement in many states to obtain cell tower location information without a warrant until an upcoming Supreme Court case will ultimately decide if this will remain legal. In the meantime, there's nothing much to do besides be aware of how much and how easily your phone may be tracking you. If you really want privacy, you'll just have to turn the thing all the way off. more

"So, we created a picture of our suspect from DNA sweat found on the bugging device."

Damn interesting...
Identification of Individuals by Trait Prediction Using Whole-genome Sequencing Data

Researchers from Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI) have published a study in which individual faces and other physical traits were predicted using whole genome sequencing data and machine learning. This work, from lead author Christoph Lippert, Ph.D. and senior author J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Click to enlarge.

The authors believe that, while the study offers novel approaches for forensics, the work has serious implications for data privacy, deidentification and adequately informed consent. The team concludes that much more public deliberation is needed as more and more genomes are generated and placed in public databases. more

These Companies Can Track Any Phone Anywhere

Tracking or tapping phones across the planet used to be a niche capability. Now, a myriad of for-profit spy companies sell border-crossing surveillance of mobile phones. 

As soon as the target switches the phone on, it’s already too late. Digital spies have pinpointed the phone’s location and, without hacking the device itself, are tracking it from tens of thousands of miles away. This is not a capability limited to superpowers—private firms now provide global phone tracking and interception. more

Surveillance Robots Share and Interpret Images

A new system that allows a team of robots to share and interpret information as they move around could enable these same robots to relieve humans of dangerous jobs such as disposing of landmines, cleaning up after a nuclear meltdown or surveying the damage after a flood or hurricane. 

Seeing the same area from many points of view could be confusing to a human, but a computer can manage it and combine all the information to build a "model" of the scene and track objects and people from place to place.

Researchers from Cornell University have developed the system, which would allow robots to conduct surveillance as a single entity with many eyes.

"Once you have robots that cooperate, you can do all sorts of things," said Kilian Weinberger, associate professor of computer science...

The researchers plan to test their system on the Cornell campus, using research robots to "surveil" crowded areas while drawing on an overview from existing webcams. Their work might lead to incorporating the new technology into campus security. more

Things to Come...

Snapchat is Now Your New GPS Ankle Bracelet

Bored Snapchat users looking for something to do should update their apps today: they'll be greeted with a new map view that shows where exactly their friends are and what they're up to. 

Snap Map, as the company is calling it, can be activated by pinching your fingers together on the camera view when you first start the app. Once in map view, you'll see "Actionmoji" versions of your nearby friends, which include their names and profile photos in a configuration that vaguely resembles the tags you might find on plants for sale at the nursery.

When you tap on one of your friends' icons, you'll see stories they've posted recently...

What if none of your friends are around or they haven't posted anything interesting recently? Not to worry: the map view will also show a heat map based on the activity of other Snapchat users. more

Yellow Printer Dots Nail Spy Agency Leaker

‘Colour printers spy on you’: Barely visible yellow dots lead to arrest of Reality Winner, alleged NSA leaker.

According to Rob Graham, who writes for the blog Errata Security, the Intercept’s scanned images of the intelligence report contained tracking dots – small, barely visible yellow dots that show “exactly when and where documents, any document, is printed.” Nearly all modern color printers feature such tracking markers, which are used to identify a printer’s serial number and the date and time a page was printed. 

“Because the NSA logs all printing jobs on its printers, it can use this to match up precisely who printed the document,” Graham wrote. more

Long term readers of the Security Scrapbook already knew about this.
From 10 years ago... Is Your Printer Spying on You? Good!

Sounds Like Spying - Ultrasonic Sounds

Your smartphone may have some apps that are continuously listening inaudible, high-frequency ultrasonic sounds from your surroundings and they know where you go, what you like and dislike — all without your knowledge.

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Ultrasonic Cross-Device Tracking is a new technology that some marketers and advertising companies are currently using to track users across multiple devices and have access to more information than ever before for ad targeting.

For example, retail stores you visit, a commercial on TV or an advertisement on a web page can emit a unique "ultrasonic audio beacon" that can be picked up by your device’s mobile application containing a receiver. more

I plan to run some tests on this. ~Kevin

FlexiSpy Spyware Hacked - Other Spyware is Next They Say

After blitzing FlexiSpy, hackers declare war on all stalkerware makers: 'We're coming for you'

A Brit biz selling surveillance tools that can be installed on phones to spy on spouses, kids, mates or employees has been comprehensively pwned by hackers – who promise similar stalkerware peddlers are next.

The miscreants, supposedly Brazilian and dubbing themselves the Decepticons, have explained how they, allegedly, easily infiltrated FlexiSpy before snatching its source code and other files, and wiping as many servers as they could. That code has now leaked online, and the gang say they are on the warpath.

"We're just, like, this group of guys, you know? We can hack these people, and we can expose their secrets, but it's up to everyone to make a difference," the team said on Monday.

"If you're a spouseware vendor, we're coming for you. Stop, rethink your life, kill your company, and be a better person."

FlexiSpy is one of a number of creepy outfits making a living selling borderline-legal code to people who are paranoid that their significant other is cheating on them, or that their kids or staff are up to no good. more

One Expensive GPS Tracker

UK - An “obsessive” dad stalked a woman by placing a tracking device on her car and posted ‘revenge porn’ on Facebook...repeatedly called his victim and turned up at her home and workplace uninvited.

John Wyn Williams, prosecuting, said: “She was advised by the police to check her car and found strapped to the bottom an iPhone used as a tracking device.” more

GPS trackers sell for less than $100. these days. A professional TSCM inspection, priceless. ~Kevin

Television-Spying Case - Vizio to Pay $2.2 Million

The Federal Trade Commission said Monday that Vizio used 11 million televisions to spy on its customers.

The company agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a case with the FTC and the New Jersey attorney general’s office after the agencies accused it of secretly collecting — and selling — data about its customers’ locations, demographics and viewing habits.

“Before a company pulls up a chair next to you and starts taking careful notes on everything you watch (and then shares it with its partners), it should ask if that’s O.K. with you,” Kevin McCarthy, an attorney with the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, wrote in a blog post. “Vizio wasn’t doing that, and the FTC stepped in.”

As part of the settlement, Vizio neither confirmed nor denied wrongdoing. more

Pharmacy Bandits Nailed by GPS Cough Syrup

CA - The suspects had no idea that the bottle of cough syrup perched on a shelf at a Tustin pharmacy contained something more than cough relief. 

It wasn’t until the nondescript package was removed from the small Newport Avenue business by burglars that its secret ingredients went to work.

Concealed inside the bottle of cough syrup was a GPS device that began tracking the medicine thieves’ every move, according to police investigators...

Tustin police spokesman Lt. Robert Wright said investigators decided to drop the small piece of technology into a bottle of cough syrup after a half-dozen pharmacy burglaries this year. more

Lawyers Should Not Bug Opposing Lawyer's Email

Alaska may have only about 2,500 active resident lawyers, but its bar ethics committee has become just the second authority in the country to weigh in on the practice of “bugging” the e-mail of opposing counsel.

The committee disapproved of this spy method in an opinion issued in late October, saying that it violated the Last Frontier’s version of Model Rule 8.4, which prohibits dishonesty and misrepresentation.

A “web bug” is a tracking device consisting of an object embedded in a web page or e-mail, that unobtrusively (usually invisibly) reveals whether and how a user has accessed the content. Other names for a web bug are web beacon, pixel tracker and page tag. more

Want to check who is secretly bugging you? Little Snitch for OSX does an excellent job and offers a free trial. Similar products exist for PC based computers. ~Kevin