Browsing Posts tagged surveillance
KDDI Corporation is one of the biggest phone companies in Japan and they’ve developed a phone that can track every movement of the person using their phone and send the information back to their boss.
It works by analysing the movement of accelerometers, found in many handsets.
Activities such as walking, climbing stairs or even cleaning can be identified, the researchers say.
The KDDI system, is able to detect more complex behaviour by using analytical software – held on a server back at base – to match patterns of common movements.
For example, the KDDI mobile phone strapped to a cleaning worker’s waist can tell the difference between actions performed such as scrubbing, sweeping, walking an even emptying a rubbish bin.
Most businesses say they want to use the technology to make their workers more efficient. Such notions may work in Japan, but, in the rest of the world, workers will only feel like they are being spied upon and not trusted with the work they have been given.
“For example, when applied to the issue of telemedicine, or other situations in which remotely monitoring or accessing an individual’s personal movements is vital to that service.
“But there will surely be negative consequences when applied to employee tracking or salesforce optimisation.”
Yes, because, as humans, we can’t seem to just use these technologies for good. We also find every evil use of any new device that is invented.
“Of course there are privacy issues and any employers should really enter into an agreement with employees before using such a system,” Mr Yokoyama told BBC News.
“But this is not about curtailing employees’ rights to privacy. We’d rather like to think our creation more of a caring, mothering system rather than a Big Brother approach to watching over citizens.”
The privacy issue will be raised in places like America where this technology will be mandatory at work. Yes, you would need to sign a legal paper saying you agreed to be monitored before your employer can use the device. However, an employer can easily make wearing and/or carrying it a requirement of employment. Then you really have no choice.
People do not like being monitored. They do not like being treated like cattle. And they certainly do not appreciate their bosses breathing down their neck, watching for a minor mistake that could end up costing them their job.
Once workers start objecting to this phone, KDDI will turn their marketing towards parents and exclaim how great it is to keep track of their children in such “troubled” times.
A surveillance program authorized by the Bush administration to allow the National Security Agency to spy on the internet activities of federal employees is now being expanded. The Obama administration is planning to expand the Einstein internet surveillance software.
“60 Minutes” has obtained an FBI videotape showing a Defense Department employee selling secrets to a Chinese spy for cash. The video, which has never been made public before, offers a rare glimpse into the secretive world of espionage and illustrates how China’s spying may now pose the biggest espionage threat to the U.S.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley’s report will be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
By now, you’ve heard the story of the school district in Pennsylvania spying on its students via webcams from laptops that the students took home. This has been covered to death this week, so, here’s a video and some links in case you want to know more.
The webcams were activated 42 times over a 14-month period.
It’s one thing to attempt to install security procedures to protect against the loss of a laptop. It’s quite another when those procedures appear to have been enacted without the knowledge of students or parents and leave the school open not only to all of the charges already leveled in the Robbins’ lawsuit, but also–as in the case of a student who leaves her laptop open in the shower to listen to music–to charges of child pornography.
The school district is being sued [pdf] .
The school sent out a letter to parents. This is their initial response.
The complaint alleges that they are in violation of:
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act
The Computer Fraud Abuse Act
The Stored Communications Act
Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution
The Pennsylvania Wire-tapping and Electronic Surveillance Act
Pennsylvania Common Law
The local DA and the FBI are now investigating.
