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The EFF’s VR experience helps users spot surveillance devices
With surveillance technology becoming ever more ubiquitous, it would be useful to know where to look for it. At least that's the thinking behind the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Spot the Surveillance VR experience. It puts users in a virtual neighborhood as a young resident navigates an encounter with police, and it challenges users to spot all of the various surveillance technology that surrounds them. That includes devices like body cameras, automated license plate readers, drones and biometric devices.
License plate readers can be a security nightmare
The fact that automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems can store data for years is apparently not the only disturbing thing about them. Some of them are exposed online and are easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a browser, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has confirmed. The EFF investigated over 100 cameras in five various locations across the country starting this spring and discovered that most of the vulnerable ones were manufactured by a company called PIPS, which is now owned by 3M. The degree of vulnerability differed across locations: in extreme cases, you can view the camera's live feed online and even pull up its control panel.
