ai surveillance

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FBI Seeks AI for Political Watch List
2 months ago
- The FBI is seeking AI tools for predictive policing to identify potential threats before they act.
- The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) is expanding its focus from Islamist terrorism to domestic dissent.
- The procurement document requests AI capabilities for predictive modeling using enhanced data with traceable lineage.
- The Trump administration reoriented the TSC toward broadly defined threats, including anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism.
- Civil liberties groups criticize the watch list for ease of adding names and difficulty of removal.
- Supreme Court cases have challenged the constitutionality of the watch list.
- Audits have found errors in the TSC database, and the list has missed actual terrorists like the Boston Marathon bombers.
- The State Department has designated political groups as terrorists, potentially linking U.S. citizens to foreign terrorism.
- The FBI aims to use AI from major tech companies to sift through large data volumes for counterterrorism.
Chatcontrol 2025 (resum, Catalan) - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- EU member states, urged by Denmark, want messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to use AI to scan all photos and links for potential child pornography.
- If AI detects suspicion, user data (photo, location, phone number) is automatically reported to Europol and local police.
- Even if a photo is deemed legal, a copy is retained in a database for potential future use.
- Users who refuse AI scanning for their photos and links would lose the ability to share them on WhatsApp.
- Signal has stated it will leave the EU if this regulation passes.
- Previous versions of the proposal did not include AI scanning, which was added recently.
- Police and child protection experts are already overwhelmed, and politicians often fail to provide additional resources for anti-pedophile efforts.
- The proposal creates a massive surveillance system controlled by US companies, with potential for misuse as governments have exempted their own police, military, and national security personnel from the law.
- The German government is likely to support the proposal, which could lead to it becoming law.
Chatcontrol vzor 2025 v kostce - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- Under Denmark’s leadership, many EU member states push for mandatory AI scanning of all photos and links on services like WhatsApp and Signal.
- If AI has any 'doubt' about potential child pornography, your photo, location, phone number, and other data will be reported to Europol and local police.
- The consequences after reporting are unclear, but could lead to legal trouble, such as explaining photos at a local police station in Greek while on holiday.
- The AI must be created by companies like WhatsApp/Meta to surveil users on behalf of the EU, with a very low threshold for reporting (only 'manifestly unfounded' reports can be avoided).
- All users' photos are scanned regardless of suspicion, and even if deemed legal, copies may be stored in databases for future use.
- If the regulation passes, users may be forced to consent to AI scanning or lose the ability to share images and links; Signal threatens to leave the EU.
- Previous versions of the proposal did not include AI; it was reintroduced recently.
- Police and child abuse prevention experts warn they are already overwhelmed, yet politicians rarely provide more resources, instead pushing mass surveillance.
- Critics argue the system is a massive surveillance hub run by Americans, with exemptions for police, military, and intelligence services.
- The German government is set to support the proposal, increasing the likelihood it becomes law.
MIT to become hotbed of AI video surveillance
2 months ago
- MIT is spending over $3 million on more than 500 AI surveillance cameras across academic buildings, dorms, and outdoor areas, with installation starting in November 2025 and continuing until September 2026.
- The cameras, from Hanwha's Wisenet AI line, can perform real-time face and object classification, including detecting motion, loitering, crowds, face masks, and camera tampering, as well as classifying individuals by clothing color, gender, and age up to 35 feet away.
- Data is retained up to 30 days unless an exception is granted, and the cameras support resolutions from 2MP to 4K, with the ability to recognize faces, license plates, and vehicles.
SEC acquiring AI agents to monitor phone locations, social media, credit headers
2 months ago
- The SEC is acquiring AI-powered surveillance agents from CIA-affiliated firm Babel Street for monitoring cellphone locations, social media, and credit headers.
- The software renewal contract includes two licenses for cellphone location-tracking platform Locate X Premium, ten for Babel Street Insights platform, and rights for 12,000 Identity API calls.
- Babel Street's AI agents can conduct complex threat investigations independently and bypass safety filters of general-purpose consumer AI models.
- The SEC's use of cellphone location data raises concerns about investigators' own movements being surveilled.
- Babel Street has extensive ties to former high-level CIA executives, including Patrick Butler and Maura Burns.
Drone-Bench: Tracking simple drone surveillance capabilities of frontier models
2 months ago
- Drone-Bench is a benchmark that tests AI models' ability to write code for drone-based surveillance on low-cost hardware.
- It comprises five tasks: reconstruction, localization, navigation, detection, and following, each scored against a human baseline.
- Tasks are evaluated independently to prevent error compounding, though end-to-end success requires all five tasks.
- Current models can beat the baseline on some tasks, but no model has succeeded at reconstruction, resulting in 0% end-to-end success.
- The benchmark aims to track AI capabilities for public awareness, as models become easier to misuse with increased physical autonomy.
- Future directions include harder tasks, end-to-end runs, and removing feedback scores between submissions.
Flock Safety had a car journalist stalked, wrongly accused, and detained
2 months ago
- A journalist was detained due to an error in Flock Safety's AI license plate system incorrectly matching his license plate to a stolen one in the NCIC database.
- The issue arose because the stolen plate entry in NCIC was incomplete (missing middle digits), and Flock's AI flagged partial matches without verifying full plates, leading to multiple similar incidents.
- Flock's Chief Communications Officer acknowledged the system's limitations, noting it depends on accurate data inputs and human verification, but lacks guardrails to distinguish partial from full matches.
- Local police acknowledged human error but emphasized the challenge of handling numerous license plate formats and the need for better verification processes to prevent such stops.
- The incident has sparked public debate on privacy and prompted city council discussions on Flock camera usage, highlighting concerns over mass surveillance and error rates.
Meta Patents AI Device That Tracks Your Emotions, Watches You Take Your Meds
3 months ago
- Meta has filed a patent for a wearable device that records a user's voice and surroundings constantly.
- The system uses AI to analyze audio inputs like speech, sighs, and laughter to determine emotional states.
- Data from the device, including location, objects, and medication times, is used to tailor personalized workouts.
- The patent claims this multimodal approach improves emotional inference precision for continuous monitoring.
- It raises privacy concerns due to non-consensual recording of personal interactions and emotional data.
- Meta has previously conducted emotional manipulation experiments without user consent, such as in 2012.
- The company states that filed patents do not guarantee the technology will be implemented.
AI surveillance is being supercharged – and it will chill social progress
3 months ago
- AI-powered surveillance systems will track public and private activities, identifying violations like shoplifting or jaywalking, and immediately link them to official records, notifying authorities and potentially the public.
- China's extensive surveillance infrastructure uses AI and facial recognition to enforce rules, as seen with citizen Lao Duan being publicly shamed on a billboard for financial issues, integrating with social credit systems.
- AI surveillance is expanding globally, including in the U.S., where it monitors immigrants and protesters under the guise of security but often aims for social control, as noted by tech leaders like Larry Ellison.
- These systems pose policy challenges: technical biases, lack of auditability, and automated enforcement that can promote discrimination and undermine transparency, accountability, and the rule of law.
- Chilling effects from AI surveillance cause self-censorship and conformity, stifling dissent, creativity, and social progress, as detailed in Jon Penney's book, with mechanisms like personalization and uncertainty amplifying impacts.
- Historical surveillance methods, such as FBI wiretapping or East Germany's networks, are archaic compared to modern AI-enhanced systems, which are unprecedented and closer to dystopian science fiction depictions.
- To counter AI surveillance, policy measures like bans on facial recognition, stronger privacy laws, AI regulations, and breaking up state-tech cartels can help mitigate its invasive use and protect democratic foundations.

ai surveillance

FBI Seeks AI for Political Watch List

Chatcontrol 2025 (resum, Catalan) - Bert Hubert's writings

Chatcontrol vzor 2025 v kostce - Bert Hubert's writings

MIT to become hotbed of AI video surveillance

SEC acquiring AI agents to monitor phone locations, social media, credit headers

Drone-Bench: Tracking simple drone surveillance capabilities of frontier models

Flock Safety had a car journalist stalked, wrongly accused, and detained

Meta Patents AI Device That Tracks Your Emotions, Watches You Take Your Meds

AI surveillance is being supercharged – and it will chill social progress