FutureWatch: The Demise of the Common Spies

Not so long ago, Secret Agent Man could globe-hop with impunity (sing-a-long) and hide with undercover diplomatic immunity. Now, he may as well wear the Scarlet Letter "A", for Agent.

WTF happened? Quite a bit...

9/11, for one. It's not so easy to fly under the radar these days.

In 2014, U.S. spies were exposed when the Office of Personnel Management was hacked. About 22 million fingerprints, security clearance background information, and personnel records allegedly fell into Chinese hands. In 2015 it happened again.

One can be fairly sure this isn't just a problem for U.S. spies. Other countries get hacked, too. You just don't hear about it.

If all this wasn't bad enough, a spy's best friend turned on him in the 2000's. Technology.

Video cameras are planted everywhere, and facial recognition is becoming more accurate every day. It is being used at airports, in buildings, and with in conjunction with city surveillance cameras. This list will grow, of course.

The latest advancement is analysis of video streams using artificial intelligence logarithms.  Suspicious movements, packages left unattended, predictions of future movements and crimes are analyzed by mindless machines 24/7, waiting to trigger an alert.

On the communications side spyware is a concern. Smartphone and GPS tracking don't help spies hide either.

It has been reported that some countries are compiling real-time databases which incorporate the above-mentioned speed bumps with: taxis, hotel, train, airline, credit card, customs and immigration information. As soon as one enters the country, they know where you are—minute by minute. And, if one takes too long going between locations, or a dual timeline appears (being in different places at the same time), a security alert is generated.

Couple all this with countries sharing information, e.g. EU, being a spy who needs to make in-person contacts becomes nearly impossible.

Think staying out of view is a good spy strategy? For now, perhaps. However, progress is being made by constructing a person's face by the sound of their voice.

The future of spying (no, it won't go away) will be radically different out of necessity. One can only guess how, but I understand they are working very hard on mind-reading.

Be seeing you.

'Big brother' Satellite Set to Launch in 2025

'Big brother' satellite capable of zooming in on ANYONE, anywhere from space is set to launch in 2025 - and privacy experts say 'we should definitely be worried'

Privacy experts are sounding the alarm on a new satellite capable of spying on your every move that is set to launch in 2025.

The satellite, created by startup company Albedo, is so high quality it can zoom in on people or license plates from space, raising concerns among expert that it will create a 'big brother is always watching' scenario.

Albedo claims the satellite won't have facial recognition software but doesn't mention that it will refrain from imaging people or protecting people's privacy. more

33 Years Late, or You'll Never be a Stranger Here

China has been building what it calls "the world's biggest camera surveillance network".

Across the country, 170 million CCTV cameras are already in place and an estimated 400 million new ones will be installed in the next three years.

Many of the cameras are fitted with artificial intelligence, including facial recognition technology. The BBC's John Sudworth has been given rare access to one of the new hi-tech police control rooms. excellent video demo

Russian Hi-Tech Spy Devices Under Attack Over Privacy Fears

New Russian technologies, including phone call interception and a facial recognition app, have stirred a fierce debate about privacy and data monitoring. 
 
Infowatch, a Moscow-based IT security company managed by businesswoman Natalya Kasperskaya, found itself in hot water last month after it revealed it had invented a system that companies can use to intercept employees' mobile phone conversations...

The goal behind phone call interception, Kasperskaya said, is to provide large businesses with a tool to prevent information leaks, including companies whose success depends on protecting corporate secrets. more

Happy New Year! It's 1984 ...in 2019

Students at more than 10 schools in Guizhou Province, one of China’s poorest provinces, and the neighboring Guangxi region are now required to wear “intelligent uniforms,” which are embedded with electronic chips that track their movements.

The uniforms allow school officials, teachers, and parents to keep track of the exact times that students leave or enter the school, Lin Zongwu, principal of the No. 11 School of Renhuai in Guizhou Province, told the state-run newspaper Global Times on Dec. 20.

If students skip school without permission, an alarm will be triggered.

If students try to game the system by swapping uniforms, an alarm also will sound, as facial-recognition equipment stationed at the school entrance can match a student’s face with the chip embedded in the uniform. more

FutureWatch: Chips embedded in the students.

Spy Tech - Facebook and Rayban (Possibly Raybanned in some locales)

The first thing you'll notice about Facebook’s new camera glasses is that they are not called Facebook Glasses — they are called Ray-Ban Stories. This is because they are made in partnership with Ray-Ban (a cool company that no one hates), and Facebook has had a rough couple of years in the public eye. And “Stories” because, you know, Instagram stories and Facebook stories and also Snapchat "story,"

...the real danger here isn’t to your data — it’s the fact that you’re walking around wearing barely perceptible spy glasses, taking videos and photos of anyone you want, likely without them noticing...

If the idea of camera sunglasses seems familiar, perhaps that’s because it sounds like Snapchat Spectacles, which launched in 2016. In what I can only imagine is a loving tribute, Facebook has named its camera sunglasses “Stories” after the other signature product that Facebook/Instagram lifted from Snapchat. more

Tech stuff: "Dual 5MP camera gives your content new depth and dimension. Takes high resolution photos (2592x1944 pixels) and quality video (1184x1184 pixels at 30 frames per second)."

Not as dorky as past creepy-peepies, these glasses may not be recognized as spy glasses at first glance. (Maybe a Buddy Holly or Maurice Moss meets Zuck mash-up instead.) In fact, "Facebook says it's a violation of the Terms of Service to cover up the light that comes on when you're recording." Right, like that's gonna work. Additionally, "Facebook is discussing building facial recognition into its upcoming smart glasses product..." What could possibly go wrong? more

FutureWatch Prediction Comes True - Tampa Redux

Tampa - "You are only a stranger here once." 

August 2011 - The Tampa Police Department plans to circle its downtown area with surveillance cameras prior to the 2012 Republican National Convention, but Assistant Police Chief Mark Hamlin says the locations will not be disclosed in order to keep potential troublemakers from gaining a tactical advantage. A local political activist has publicly stated he is troubled by this decision.

September 2008 - FutureWatch - Although facial recognition and tracking didn't catch on the first go-around (the Tampa, Florida experiment), it is ripe for a come-back. 5 years from now, this will be commonplace – along with automatic license plate readers and motion-intention evaluators.

August 2003 - It is with sadness we note the demise of our favorite city motto... Tampa - "You're only a stranger here once." Tampa police have scrapped their controversial security camera system that scanned city streets for criminals, citing its failure over two years to recognize anyone wanted by authorities.

History - July 2001 - The Tampa City Council took a fully-informed look at Ybor City's controversial high-tech face-scanning software. When the dust settled, the council split down the middle with a 3-3 vote on whether or not to do away with the face-scanning software.

Tampa Police Radio Room c.1920's

(How Antonio Prohías might see it.)

FutureWatch: Your Voice Can Give Away What You Look Like

Spying is multifaceted. It includes everything from plain old audio eavesdropping, to spycams (thus adding the visual element), to aggregating all the telltale data about us. Once science fiction, even facial recognition is coming to airports. Is it possible to squeeze more from a spy's cornucopia of tricks?

What if you want to know what a person is thinking, or what they look like?
These two challenges are the future of spying, and they are being worked on today.

We started covering mind reading advancements in 2006. And now, how to tell what a person looks like—and even their environment... just from the sound of their voice.

"There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met." - TSA

The Transportation Security Administration is planning to expand its facial recognition scanners to more than 400 airports, an agency official said...

The CAT-2 units are currently deployed at nearly 30 airports nationwide, and will expand to more than 400 federalized airports over the coming years,” the TSA official said...

During a discussion at the South by Southwest festival in March 2023, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said “eventually we will get to the point where we will require biometrics across the board because it is much more effective and much more efficient.” more

Chameleon™ & PrivateEye™ - Two Cool Security Products

Now you can blind shoulder surfers with these two very cool computer security products. Very innovative. Very clever. Very secure. 

PrivateEye™ is active display security software that responds conveniently and automatically to a user. PrivateEye presents a normal clear screen when the user is present and looking at the display, but when the user’s attention moves away from the display the software immediately blurs the screen. Similarly, if PrivateEye detects an eavesdropper it can automatically blur the screen. The solution also includes a facial recognition engine. PrivateEye requires only a standard webcam. (video). 

Chameleon™ is a software and hardware solution from Oculis Labs that addresses the unique security challenge of protecting sensitive and classified materials while it is being displayed on computer screens. The solution protects displayed information against over-the-shoulder eavesdroppers, video recorders, remote electronic surveillance, and TEMPEST style threats. Using a patent-pending, gaze contingent, secure content rendering system, the software allows a trusted user to read a screen normally, but no one else can.

If you agree that this techonolgy is too cool, take a moment and help these folks win the "Hottest Tech in Town" Award. (vote here)

Mannequin Spies - Will Dummy Shoppers Revolt?

An Italian firm selling mannequins that secretly monitor the age, race and gender of customers using facial recognition software has come under fire from privacy groups. The information logged by the dummies is then used to implement more effective marketing strategies by stores in the US and Europe.

And the manufacturer now plans to add audio recording to the dummies' capabilities, listening in on customers' discussions about their clients' products.

Click to enlarge

The mannequins, known as "EyeSee" are manufactured by Italian company Almax and retail for £3,200 each.

Privacy campaigners agree, describing the technology as "creepy" and "totally disproportionate."

Emma Carr, deputy director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "The use of covert surveillance technology by shops, in order to provide a personalised service, seems totally disproportionate.

"The fact that the cameras are hidden suggests that shops are fully aware that many customers would object to this kind of monitoring. 

"Keeping cameras hidden in a mannequin is nothing short of creepy." (more)

As Seen on Predicted on TV in 1960!

(YouTube)

 

How Not to be Seen - Evading CCTV Surveillance

It's theoretically possible to become invisible to cameras. But can it catch on? 



Right now, you're more than likely spending the vast majority of your time at home. Someday, however, we will all be able to leave the house once again and emerge, blinking, into society to work, travel, eat, play, and congregate in all of humanity's many bustling crowds.

The world, when we eventually enter it again, is waiting for us with millions of digital eyes—cameras, everywhere, owned by governments and private entities alike. Pretty much every state out there has some entity collecting license plate data from millions of cars—parked or on the road—every day. Meanwhile all kinds of cameras—from police to airlines, retailers, and your neighbors' doorbells—are watching you every time you step outside, and unscrupulous parties are offering facial recognition services with any footage they get their hands on.

In short, it's not great out there if you're a person who cares about privacy, and it's likely to keep getting worse. In the long run, pressure on state and federal regulators to enact and enforce laws that can limit the collection and use of such data is likely to be the most efficient way to effect change. But in the shorter term, individuals have a conundrum before them: can you go out and exist in the world without being seen?

Bottom line as of now...
All of the digital simulations run on the cloak worked with 100-percent effectiveness, he added. But in the real world, "the reliability degrades." The tech has room for improvement.

"How good can they get? Right now I think we're still at the prototype stage," he told Ars. "You can produce these things that, when you wear them in some situations, they work. It's just not reliable enough that I would tell people, you know, you can put this on and reliably evade surveillance." more

Court: Authorities Can't Force Technology Unlocks with Biometric Features

A judge in California ruled Thursday that U.S. authorities cannot force people to unlock technology via fingerprint or facial recognition, even with a search warrant.

Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, made the ruling as investigators tried to access someone's property in Oakland.... (however)

The judge in her ruling stated the request was "overbroad" because it was "neither limited to a particular person nor a particular device." The request could be resubmitted if authorities specify particular people whose devices they'd like to unlock. more

"You're only a stranger here once!" ~Tampa, FL

Do you recall my prediction about Tampa?
FutureWatch (September 2008) - Although facial recognition and tracking didn't catch on the first go-around (the Tampa, Florida experiment), it is ripe for a come-back. 5 years from now, this will be commonplace – along with automatic license plate readers and motion-intention evaluators.

August 2003 - Tampa police have scrapped their controversial security camera system that scanned city streets for criminals, citing its failure over two years to recognize anyone wanted by authorities.

History...
July 2001 - The Tampa City Council took a fully-informed look at Ybor City's controversial high-tech face-scanning software. When the dust settled, the council split down the middle with a 3-3 vote on whether or not to do away with the face-scanning software.

Fast Forward... 2011 - via National Motorists Association...

The request reads like a shopping list for a counter-terrorism strike: low-light cameras to identify people and vehicles at 100 meters, helmet-mounted cameras, cameras for "use around high-risk activities" and cameras that can read license plates across three lanes of traffic.

In reality, it’s part of a plan proposed by Tampa city officials to provide security for next year’s Republican National Convention. Funds to buy or lease the gear are expected to come from federal taxpayers in the form of a $55 million congressional appropriation.

The surveillance will target convention protestors (as many as 10,000, according to convention organizers), but, given the sweeping nature of the plan, many bystanders and motorists are likely to be ensnared as well.

And while police officials admit they may not get all 238 cameras on the original request, critics are already reacting. A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida likens the approach to "hitting a gnat with a sledgehammer." (To be fair, officials canceled a request for two aerial surveillance drones due to cost concerns.)

FutureWatch - Drones are already in some state and local police toy chests. Tampa will eventually get one, too.

FutureWatch - Video Surveillance Predictions

It is really not too hard to predict the future of CCTV. 

The future is here...

2010 - The end of the "Video Wall"

"Clean and green," is coming to the security center Situational Awareness Center. Video analytics is the brain in the box catalyst of change. 

One human. One screen. One unblinking computer, watching every video feed; analyzing everything it sees and popping it onto the "Situational Awareness Officer's" screen (or internal projection node) only when deemed necessary.

Video analytics is smart. Facial recognition with file linking, movement interpretation, psychological action profiling, letter/number/bar code reading, RFID tag sensor incorporation, intelligent threat assessment, people/vehicle counting, congestion/loitering assessment, and more.

Not impressed yet?
Look at it from management's point of view...
• Lower hardware investment.
• Lower maintenance costs.
• Lower electric bill.
• Lower payroll.
(more)

Scalable Situational Awareness

The Port of Brisbane is turning itself into a 3D video game. Brian Lovell, project surveillance leader, explains...

"You could imagine a single desktop interface that gives you all the information you need at a port, like the Port of Brisbane," he said. "The reason to go single desktop is that is the modern trend. It also means you can provide that information to emergency responders so if there is an incident at the Port of Brisbane you can provide not just the video feed but all the context information to emergency providers like the police, etc.

"What we do is have all the video feeds, which are placed [superimposed] on a 3D texture map surface – sort of like a game of Doom or a video game environment. The beauty of that is you don't need to know the camera numbers or where they are positioned because it is implicit in the display. So if you go, for example, to the oil bunkering facility on the map you just scroll along with your mouse and then zoom in and if there is any video camera present you can see, live, what is happening at that spot. It is a little like Google Street View except when you go in you are seeing a live camera feed." (more)

Slip the Mouse a Mickey

We are rapidly approaching 3D video... no, I am not talking about the kind with the goofy red/green glasses. This 3D will be extremely useful to the person monitoring the "Situational Awareness Center" of the future. No mouse in this person's hand. A tilt of the head will move them around their semi-virtual world. Apple's latest patent clued me in...

"An electronic device for displaying three-dimensional objects, comprising control circuitry, a display and a sensing mechanism, the control circuitry operative to:direct the display to display a three-dimensional object;direct the sensing mechanism to detect the current position of the user; transform the object to appear to be viewed from the detected current position; anddirect the display to display the transformed object."  (this worthwhile video will give you the idea)

Some of these things are already here and the really cool stuff is coming soon. ~Kevin

The Unnerving Rise of Video Games that Spy on You

Tech conglomerate Tencent caused a stir last year with the announcement that it would comply with China’s directive to incorporate facial recognition technology into its games in the country.  

The move was in line with China’s strict gaming regulation policies, which impose limits on how much time minors can spend playing video games—an effort to curb addictive behavior, since gaming is labeled by the state as “spiritual opium."

...video games are a natural medium for tracking, and researchers have long argued that large data sets about players’ in-game activities are a rich resource in understanding player psychology and cognition. more

FutureWatch - Who Really Lives in that Apartment

NY - A Brooklyn landlord intends to install facial recognition technology at the entrance of a roughly 700-unit rent-stabilized complex, raising alarm among tenants and housing rights attorneys about what they say is a far-reaching and egregious form of digital surveillance...

“We don’t want to be tracked,” said Icemae Downes, a longtime tenant. “We are not animals. This is like tagging us through our faces because they can’t implant us with a chip.” more

Can AI be Trusted with Surveillance Tasks?

China's war on jaywalking went to the next level last spring when AI-based facial recognition systems were integrated into some crosswalks, to punish jaywalkers by squirting them with water, sending them texts warning them about legal consequences of jaywalking, and/or publicly shaming them by displaying their pictures and names on large digital billboards.

Last week, this system entered a new and exciting failure mode when a traffic-cam in the port city of Ningbo captured a face displayed on the side of a passing bus, correctly identified it as belonging to Dong Mingzhu, CEO of Chinese AC giant Gree Electric Appliances, and then plastered Ms Dong's face all over a giant billboard, falsely accusing her of jaywalking. more

Privacy Protector – Anonymous Camera for iPhone

 A new camera app has been released for iOS that, unlike basically every other photography app, is designed to hide the photo’s subject rather than highlight them. Called Anonymous Camera, this app works to protect the people captured in a video or photo by blurring or otherwise hiding their faces — or, in cases where it is necessary, by removing their bodies entirely.

There are times when you may need to interview someone or take a picture, but hide someone featured in the content for their sake. This could include interviews with someone who wishes to remain private, protecting whistleblowers, or simply hiding the faces of protesters and activists so that facial recognition technology can’t be used to identify them.

Anonymous Camera is a free app that can perform these actions, as well as entirely removing the subject’s body in cases where they have other identifiers like tattoos. The app is free to download, though there’s also a Pro version priced at $2 that includes watermark-free video recording. more

Anti-Surveillance Sunglasses – Q Would Be Proud

via... digitaltrends.com
...there’s a new set of spectacles on Kickstarter that might help you bamboozle even the most sophisticated facial recognition tech.

The Eko shades, as they’re called, are rimmed with a type of retro-reflective material that bounces light back to exactly where it came from. Most surfaces reflect light by diffusing or scattering it in all directions, but this material is specially designed to reflect light back at the exact same angle as it arrived.

If caught in flash photography, retro-reflective material will send most of the light back to the camera’s sensor. This will put the dynamic range of the camera’s sensor to the test, and likely result in an image that’s underexposed for everything but the rims of your glasses.

Of course, this won’t help much for any camera that doesn’t require a flash, but it’s still a pretty interesting concept. more

...and the DIY hat to go with them!
1937 prototype anti-mind control device.
(Ok, who said, "Too late. She has already lost hers.")