Crime prevention

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) speaks with reporters as he walks to a vote at the U.S. Capitol July 18, 2022.Photo: Francis Chung (AP)The matter of warrantless location tracking by law enforcement has recently drawn the ire of several powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill — namely, Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Bennie Thompson, the chairs of the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, respectively. Last month, the two congressmen sent demand letters to several federal agencies, including the Justice Department, FBI, and…

A mural depicting writer George Orwell, in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022.Photo: Darko Vojinovic (AP) “If we begin to feel that we’re being surveilled all the time, our behavior changes. We begin to do less. We begin to think about things less. We begin to modify how we think.” - Tim CookThe English language, novelist George Orwell once observed, “is in a bad way.”The critic and notoriously “crabby” grammarian likened the destruction of the written word to the spiraling depression of one caught up in thrall of…

Gizmodo is 20 years old! To celebrate the anniversary, we’re looking back at some of the most significant ways our lives have been thrown for a loop by our digital tools.The year was 1998. Robert Dean, a labor lawyer based in Washington D.C., was out shopping for some lingerie. His life was about to be turned upside down by a chance encounter with an old classmate. He’d come into possession of some sensitive surveillance material desperately sought after by rogue government agents, footage that would prove radioactive to…

A San Diego Police Department officer looks on as activists hold signs and protest the California lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on May 01, 2020 in San Diego, California.Photo: Sean M. Haffey (Getty Images)San Diego is joining a growing list of cities taking official action against the unregulated use of emergent police surveillance technologies.Community-led efforts to address potential civil liberties violations, spurred by the deployment of more 3,000 police cameras across the city, finally paid…

Amazon-owned Ring displays several products of their security line during the CES tech show Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, in Las Vegas.Photo: Ross D. Franklin (AP)Sen. Ed Markey on Tuesday said that his office plans to push forward with an already yearslong investigation into “harmful surveillance practices” and “invasive data collection” facilitated by Amazon’s flagship home security product, Ring. In a letter to Amazon CEO Andrew Jassey—the handpicked replacement of ex-CEO Jeff Bezos, who transitioned to executive chairman…