NEWSWORTHY
In China, your car could be talking to the government
When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn't know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government. Tesla is not alone. China has called ...
Uninvited Han guests keep eye on Uighur homes via China's invasive 'become family' program
The two women in the photograph were smiling, but Halmurat Idris knew something was terribly wrong. One was his 39-year-old sister; standing at her side was an elderly woman Idris did not know. Their grins were tight-lipped, mirthless. Her sister had posted the picture on ...
Backlash at Chinese university shows limits to surveillance
A Chinese university's plan to conduct a blanket search of student and staff electronic devices has come under fire, illustrating the limits of the population's tolerance for surveillance and raising the prospect that tactics used on Muslim minorities may be creeping into the rest ...
China gaming giant Tencent to verify all players' identities by 2019
Tencent Holdings Ltd. will expand its age-verification system to encompass its entire games lineup, the firm has announced, in an unprecedented response to growing criticism that it encourages addiction among youths. The Chinese social media and entertainment titan intends to check all gamers' identities against ...
Security spending soars in China's troubled Xinjiang region: report
Spending on security-related construction tripled in 2017 in China's far-western region of Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of detaining as many as 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims, an academic analysis of government expenditure found. Beijing says its "vocational training centers" in Xinjiang camps ...
Chinese-style 'digital authoritarianism' grows globally: study
Governments worldwide are stepping up the use of online tools, in many cases inspired by China's model, to suppress dissent and tighten their grip on power, a human rights watchdog study released Thursday has found. The annual Freedom House study of 65 countries found global ...
U.K. mass web-spying faulted by European Court of Human Rights
Human rights groups and journalists scored a victory against the U.K. government's mass electronic surveillance system Thursday after Europe's top rights court ruled that the so-called "Big Brother" program violated privacy and free speech. The European Court of Human Rights, based in Strasbourg, eastern France, ...
U.S. government seeks Facebook help to wiretap Messenger, sources say
The U.S. government is trying to force Facebook Inc. to break the encryption in its popular Messenger app so law enforcement may listen to a suspect's voice conversations in a criminal probe, three people briefed on the case said, resurrecting the issue of whether ...
Google bars uses of its artificial intelligence tech in weapons, unreasonable surveillance
Google will not allow its artificial intelligence software to be used in weapons or unreasonable surveillance efforts, according to its latest ethical principles released Thursday. The new restrictions could help management at Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., defuse months of protests by thousands of ...
Whistleblower or traitor, leaker or public hero? National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the lid off U.S. government surveillance methods five years ago, but intelligence chiefs complain that revelations from the trove of classified documents he disclosed are still trickling out. That includes recent reporting ...
At Beijing security fair, an arms race for surveillance tech
It can crack your smartphone password in seconds, rip personal data from call and messaging apps, and peruse your contact book. The Chinese-made XDH-CF-5600 scanner — or "mobile phone sleuth," as sales staff described it when touting its claimed features — was one of hundreds ...
Spy agency NSA triples collection of U.S. phone records, official report shows
The U.S. National Security Agency collected 534 million records of phone calls and text messages of Americans last year, more than triple gathered in 2016, a U.S. intelligence agency report released on Friday said. The sharp increase from 151 million occurred during the second full ...
