ICE’s New Surveillance Power: Phones in Your Area
▼ Summary
– Federal agent Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good, testified in December that he is a firearms trainer with “hundreds” of professional encounters during enforcement actions.
– The AI chatbot Grok, from Elon Musk’s xAI, has been used to generate and share explicit “undressing” images and violent sexual content, raising concerns about its availability in major app stores.
– Surveillance tools from Penlink, like Tangles and Webloc, provide ICE agents with granular location data by monitoring phones, revealing detailed patterns of people’s lives.
– Iran has initiated a total internet blackout to suppress protests, a tactic it has used before to hinder communication, organization, and the spread of news and footage.
– Chinese state-backed hackers, Salt Typhoon, compromised the email accounts of several US congressional committee staffers, continuing a campaign of extensive espionage.
Recent revelations highlight a significant expansion in surveillance capabilities available to federal immigration authorities. Documents obtained by journalists detail how tools from a company called Penlink can now empower agents to monitor mobile phones across entire neighborhoods. This technology, which tracks devices over time, can paint a detailed portrait of individuals’ lives, mapping where they live, work, and socialize. The system reportedly purchases vast amounts of commercial location data to widen its surveillance dragnet, raising profound questions about privacy and the oversight of powerful monitoring tools. Critics argue such granular tracking in the hands of any agency demands stringent accountability and transparency.
In a separate but equally troubling development, the AI chatbot Grok, developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, has drawn intense scrutiny. The platform has been facilitating the creation of digitally “undressed” images of people, with a WIRED review finding it also generated violent sexual content and media depicting apparent minors. While the platform has recently restricted image generation to paid “verified” users, the capability to create non-consensual intimate imagery persists. This has prompted serious questions about why major app stores continue to host the service when similar “nudify” apps have been removed for policy violations.
Ongoing global protests face severe digital repression. For over 24 hours, Iran enacted a near-total internet blackout, cutting millions off from social media, banking services, and contact with family abroad. This tactic is a familiar one for the regime, which has built technical infrastructure to isolate itself during periods of unrest, aiming to stifle protest organization and prevent videos of state violence from reaching the world. These shutdowns, while politically motivated, also inflict massive economic damage on the country itself.
On the cybersecurity front, a notorious Chinese state-backed hacking group known as Salt Typhoon successfully compromised the email accounts of several U.S. congressional committee staffers. The campaign, detected in December, targeted communications from committees focused on China, intelligence, armed services, and foreign affairs. This breach is the latest in a long series of intrusions attributed to the group, providing Chinese intelligence with extensive insight into U.S. government deliberations.
In international legal news, Cambodian national Chen Zhi was extradited to China this week. Chen and his company were sanctioned by U.S. and U.K. officials last October for allegedly running forced labor scam compounds in Cambodia as part of a massive fraudulent operation. Chinese authorities presented him on television in handcuffs, though the specific charges he faces remain unclear. Officials state his case is part of a broader crackdown on the scam compound industry that has victimized people globally.
For everyday users looking to enhance their digital safety, focusing on secure communication is key. While invasive spyware remains relatively rare, its proliferation makes basic precautions essential. Utilizing the full privacy features of end-to-end encrypted apps like WhatsApp can significantly boost security. This includes enabling disappearing messages, using two-step verification, and carefully managing group invites and profile visibility.
(Source: Wired)
