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Sam's Club stores is axing all self-checkouts from its 600 stores — in favor of controversial new technology. The Walmart-owned warehouse chain, often seen as Costco's biggest rival, is rolling out AI-powered 'Scan & Go' tech that lets shoppers skip the line and walk straight out the door once they're done shopping. The move is controversial because it uses a network of cameras and sensors to track shoppers and their carts. In addition, the checkout-free experience requires all customers to use a smartphone and download the store’s app. This could pose a challenge to older shoppers who may struggle with...

BREAKING: TikTok has shut down in the U.S.

Serbian authorities have rejected the claims they used forensic tools from Israeli company Cellebrite and bespoke spyware for illegal surveillance, calling them "nonsensical". Serbian police and intelligence services have used advanced spyware alongside other digital tools to hack the phones of activists and journalists and illegally surveil them, Amnesty International said in a report published on Monday. Mobile forensic products made by Israeli firm Cellebrite are being used by authorities in Serbia to extract data from individuals' phones, while new Serbian spyware — dubbed "NoviSpy" by Amnesty — has been developed to covertly infect devices and capture information, according to...

If you've been tempted to download the Bing Wallpaper app to spice up your Windows 11 desktop backgrounds, you may want to think twice.The Bing Wallpaper app - itself not a new product - was recently added to the Microsoft Store for simpler download and installation. Going on a gut feeling to investigate it when the app appeared on the store, Rafael Rivera discovered a heap of concerning capabilities that he said on X essentially make it a piece of Microsoft-developed "malware." "Who makes a dedicated wallpaper app these days?" Rivera posited to The Register in response to questions about...

The Treasury Department banned the maker of spyware used to target government officials, reporters and activists, deploying “first-of-its-kind” sanctions against sellers of commercial spyware. The U.S. government deployed sanctions against Greece-based spyware vendor Intellexa on Tuesday and the company’s leadership after targeting U.S. officials. “Today’s actions represent a tangible step forward in discouraging the misuse of commercial surveillance tools, which increasingly present a security risk to the United States and our citizens,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said. The Treasury Department targeted two individuals and five entities associated with Intellexa for their...

"Though it is known as an e-commerce platform, Temu is functionally malware and spyware," Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement. Griffin referred to Temu as a "data theft" business in a press release put out recently. "Today I have filed a first-of-its-kind state lawsuit against the parent companies of Temu—PDD Holdings Inc. and WhaleCo Inc.—for violating the ADTPA and PIPA," Griffin said in a statement. "Though it is known as an e-commerce platform, Temu is functionally malware and spyware."

Popular smartphone apps used to track people’s location and provide weather reports may hand over driving data to a firm that sells the information to insurance companies for the purposes of setting rates for unsuspecting motorists... apps Life360, MyRadar and Gas Buddy are providing user data to an Allstate-owned company, Arity, which computes the numbers to create a “driving score” that takes into account any risky behavior behind the wheel... That information is then sold to other insurance firms — with user consent — which set rates for their customers ... Life360, which is used by parents to keep track...

Hidden cameras are being found in hotel rooms, house rentals, cruise ships, and even airplane bathrooms, leaving many travelers to wonder: “Could a hidden camera be watching me?” Spycams, as they’re called, are getting smaller, harder to find and easier to buy. From alarm clocks to air fresheners, water bottles and toothbrush holders, cameras come embedded in common household items that seamlessly blend with home decor. They can be purchased in shops or online, and through retailers like Amazon and Walmart. And rather than having to retrieve the camera to obtain the recording, owners can stream live images straight to...

Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary said Friday on Fox News Channel’s “The Story” that he or somebody else American will buy TikTok so it is not shut down. Guest host Gillian Turner said, “Some folks are saying I depend on TikTok to run my marking for my small business. I even run TikTok as a platform to sell and close transactions. If it’s banned eventually, what does that mean for the small business economy?” O’Leary said, “It not going to get banned. I’m going to buy it. Somebody will buy it. It won’t be Meta and Google. A...

The leaked documents supposedly discuss spyware developed by I-Soon, a Chinese infosec company, that’s targeting social media platforms, telecommunications companies, and other organizations worldwide. Researchers suspect the operations are orchestrated by the Chinese government. Unknown individuals allegedly leaked a trove of Chinese government documents on GitHub. The documents reveal how China conducts offensive cyber operations with spyware developed by I-Soon, Taiwanese threat intelligence researcher Azaka Sekai claims. While several researchers have analyzed the supposedly leaked documents, no official confirmation of their veracity exists as of the writing of this article. We have reached out to I-Soon but did not receive...

BISMARCK, N.D. -- Raymon Holmberg didn't know his new sedan came equipped with the long arm of the law. The dealer hadn't bothered to mention the "black box," a computer chip that stores information on speed and seat belt use. "When I bought my car," he said, "I didn't realize I was also buying a highway patrolman to sit in the back seat." Holmberg, a state senator, believes his privacy was violated and is taking aim at black boxes. Lawmakers in 10 other states are also hoping to regulate black boxes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Vietnamese government agents apparently targeted several U.S. lawmakers and journalists with spyware using public posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, according to an investigation by Amnesty International and a consortium of media outlets. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) were all tagged in posts earlier this year that featured malicious links to install Predator, a spyware similar to Pegasus, the investigation found. McCaul, who serves as the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was allegedly targeted in a reply to a tweet from Taiwan’s Ministry of...

Washington, DC – The New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) in federal court for coordinating with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19. A newly-released video details how DPH’s actions have violated fundamental constitutional rights. ... Thousands of people do not know DPH’s Covid-19 tracking app is on their phone, as it does not appear on their home screens like other apps. NCLA client Robert Wright, who commutes to Massachusetts for work, was...

Mark Ruffalo is an American actor who spends his free time spewing antisemitic rhetoric and dangerous anti-Israel propaganda to his nearly 30 million social media followers. Ruffalo regularly aligns himself with antisemitic positions and fans the flames of Jew-hatred masked as pro-Palestinian activism.In 2018, Ruffalo tweeted his outrage over CNN’s firing of antisemite Marc Lamont Hill. Hill was caught inciting violence against Israel and the Jewish people by reciting rhetoric that called for the dissolution of the Jewish people and the only Jewish nation. Ruffalo stated Hill was advocating for Palestinian rights, when in reality Hill openly called for the...

The stuff uncovered in the Twitter whistleblower report is much crazier than anything in the "Twitter files" but it's much less politically/tribally salient so it got no attention. Going to do a thread on some of the craziest things, in no particular order. Twitter didn't monitor employee computers at all, it was not uncommon for employees to install spyware on work devices. Twitter does not have separate development, test, staging, and production environments. At least 5,000 employees had privileged access to production systems...

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly working with Google to install “spyware” onto the Android devices of a million state residents without their knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic.Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula were among 1 million Massachusetts residents who had the state’s “COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA” app auto-installed without their consent, according to the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), the nonpartisan civil rights group that filed the lawsuit (pdf) on Tuesday.The app, once automatically installed, didn’t appear on the device’s home screen as newly-installed apps typically do. Instead, it was...

TheTruthSpy app has been downloaded to thousands of smartphones in America without the owner of the device knowing.. The Android app markets itself as a way for customers to monitor their spouses communications on the device.. A new report from TechCrunch reveals the app is also collecting and storing personal information from devices.. This includes 1.2 million text messages and 4.42 million call logs, along with 278,861 location data points from Americans over the course of six weeks.. ... Thousands of Americans have fallen victim to stalkware planted on their smartphones by someone they know - and an Android app...

Conservative MP Martin Shields is ringing the alarm bells after it was revealed that the RCMP and Trudeau’s other intelligence agencies are using spyware to spy on elected officials. ... Shields said that the Ethics Committee has been meeting over the last two days to discuss the recent revelation that the RCMP uses spyware to monitor Canadians — even elected Members of Parliament — through their devices. “What is spyware? Spyware is a technology that’s recently been developed in the last few years; even Canadian companies are developing it. It allows someone who’s using spyware to be able to turn...

Several observers have pointed out the terrible optics and even worse legal and cultural implications of the FBI’s raids earlier this month on three undercover journalists’ homes. Since the reporters’ organization, Project Veritas, is a political opponent of the American regime, the raids echo government behavior in unfree countries such as Russia, China, and Turkey.Yet there’s another, less remarked, aspect to this story. It’s the raids’ effect of protecting a longtime, top-tier deep state information operations partner, The New York Times.Project Veritas is a threat to The New York Times, not only in some of its undercover reporting about Times...

Peter Schweizer’s new book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win tells the story of how Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) husband Richard Blum was part owner of a Chinese firm that allegedly sold computers with spyware chips to the U.S. military. The military has never been able to calculate how much sensitive data these computers allowed China to steal. A hefty chapter of Red-Handed is devoted to tracking Feinstein’s long and expensive relationship with Communist China. In a total coincidence that could not possibly have been related in any way to Feinstein’s friendship with the tyrants of Beijing,...