In June, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) signed an acquisition plan for a 5-year, nearly $5.3 million contract for a controversial surveillance tool called Tangles from tech firm PenLink, according to records obtained by the Texas Observer through a public information request. The deal is nearly twice as large as the company’s $2.7 million two-year contract with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Tangles is an artificial intelligence-powered web platform that scrapes information from the open, deep, and dark web. Tangles’ premier add-on feature, WebLoc, is controversial among digital privacy advocates. Any client who purchases access to WebLoc can track different mobile devices’ movements in a specific, virtual area selected by the user, through a capability called “geofencing.” Users of software like Tangles can do this without a search warrant or subpoena. (In a high-profile ruling, the Fifth Circuit recently held that police cannot compel companies like Google to hand over data obtained through geofencing.) Device-tracking services rely on location pings and other personal data pulled from smartphones, usually via in-app advertisers. Surveillance tech companies then buy this information from data brokers and sell access to it as part of their products.
WebLoc can even be used to access a device’s mobile ad ID, a string of numbers and letters that acts as a unique identifier for mobile devices in the ad marketing ecosystem, according to a US Office of Naval Intelligence procurement notice.
Wolfie Christl, a public interest researcher and digital rights activist based in Vienna, Austria, argues that data collected for a specific purpose, such as navigation or dating apps, should not be used by different parties for unrelated reasons. “It’s a disaster,” Christl told the Observer. “It’s the largest possible imaginable decontextualization of data. … This cannot be how our future digital society looks like.”
Ahh yes, the freedom loving state. Texas. That’s right.
As a reminder, Texas has been Republican controlled for roughly 28 years.
Texas doesn’t have Texan problems; it has Republican ones.
And what would you call that ? A Texas problem. Republicans. Somebody has to vote for the fuckers
The venn diagram is a circle.
This is something that was going to happen eventually it’s just kind of ironic that it’s a deep red state going for government surveillance like this
Nothing says “small government” and “freedom” quite like mass surveillance.
They need mass surveillance to put down the protests for
freedom… errr to protect freedom (white people freedomrich white people freedom).
Every accusation is a confession. Always.
Totally on brand really. Republicans want to eliminate white collar crime (by never prosecuting it) and catch 110% of blue collar crimes.
Should gather Abbott’s device id and his families, and post all of their data in a constant stream of location, search results, and such. Soon as his and his families families data is being posted they’ll rethink it as a privacy issue.
But doxing is illegal 🤪
Not doxxing, just tracking and auditing a public servant.
EFF recommendation on Ad Tracking: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/how-disable-ad-id-tracking-ios-and-android-and-why-you-should-do-it-now
I’m fairly in tune with my privacy but didn’t even know about this one. I assumed I had disabled all this when I setup my phone.
Just used thanks
Small government.
Is there anyway we can open source this technology? I’d love to surveil police and politician phones if possible.
Government know people love to keep track of police and politicians so they are making it illegal.
Remember that one time in Batman where they built a mass surveillance program using phones and decided it was so morally objectionable they immediately destroyed it after?
Big brother in action. Got to keep those women in line. /s
I know what you mean by /s but seriously that’s gotta be one of the drivers behind this decision. If Republicans control the state after the next gubernatorial election I could totally see a new law to punish the patient of a abortion (it just targets doctors for now).
Don’t worry, it’s AI. It won’t work properly.
This might be good for the false negatives but not for the false positives.
Texas law enforcement doesn’t need a language model to blame false positives on. They can false positively shoot whomever they want with no reprocussion.
It can not work properly in the wrong way though
That is the more likely scenario sadly, and the cops will say “don’t blame us those kids got killed, we just listened to the AI” and some judge will say “yea, that’s ok . the officer did what he was told like he is supposed to, unlike that bus of kindergarteners who didn’t lie down and put their hands behind their heads when commanded”
But after they install cameras everywhere and after a bunch of misses despite surveillence on everyone they actually get someone the amount of self back patting and chest puffing will be off the charts.
Weird ass fcking state. Can we pawn this one off to Mexico?
Jesus just bomb them if you hate them that much.
Yeah thats true. I love Mexico. I shouldn’t wish a fate like sending Texans upon them.
Device-tracking services rely on location pings and other personal data pulled from smartphones, usually via in-app advertisers. Surveillance tech companies then buy this information from data brokers and sell access to it as part of their products.
WebLoc can even be used to access a device’s mobile ad ID, a string of numbers and letters that acts as a unique identifier for mobile devices.
As if you needed more reasons to use an ad-blocker.
This one should be such a goddamn no-brainer to make illegal.
This is why I’m so adamant about privacy. The govt has already been caught several times buying up data from data brokers for “predictive policing”. They’ve been using it in Pasco County, FL to harrass people day and night into either committing a crime so they can arrest them or leaving town. Once you put that data out there, there’s no getting rid of it.
Make sure to support the government in the next elections so they can spend more public money on “security”
And they’ll “catch” just enough “criminals” (read: non-white people) to give Fox News some metrics they can blow out of proportion for the gullible, rural rubes.
Will they finally see or hear me say
FUCK GREG ABBOTT
I hope they can, I’m doing it as hard as I can …
nobody has ever said “remember that good thing that came out of texas”.
If it’s not food, then yeah, we’re setting all the wrong precedents.
Y’all aren’t exactly known for great food either lol
As a Texan who has no pride in their state at all and is actively making plans to move to a different state, I strongly disagree.
Name food or foods that originated in Texas that are worth even a mention.
WHO THE FUCK CARES THE COPS HAVE A LEGAL DEVICE TRACKER CAN WE PLEASE STOP MEMEING AND FOCUS FOR ONE FUCKDAMN MINUTE?!
What would you like non-Texans like myself to do to help?
Yeah, I’m not a Texan but I also disagree about this. Also, Austin has produced some amazing music over the years (for example, random Austin band I’ve been in love with recently is Being Dead).
My dude, they do some decent ribs.
BBQ didn’t originate in Texas, my dude.
Never claimed it did. I just said they do decent ribs. Pretty much everywhere has a regional BBQ style.
Texas reeks of freedom.
Texas reeks
of freedomftfy
Every fucking top comment in this thread are all jokes.
We’re officially reddit, there isn’t any more intelligent discourse here about important topics, it’s all just fucking memes and jokes and ‘lol the world is fucked’
Every one of you disgusts me, you are 75% of the reason they KEEP getting away with this shit.
Because they know ALL you will EVER do is meme and joke.
Thank you for stopping the massive expansion of surveillance in Texas.
Your sarcasm is not appreciated, I am willing to do what is needed to be done but the only ideas we have in this thread is jokes.
I appreciate your position. I don’t think you’re going to start a cultural revolution on any comment section. If you’re looking for a place to make real change, you need to network with local communities.
The the best you’ll get for “town square” value from internet forums is the expression of sentiment. People are angry, like you are, and they are using humor to literally reframe the narrative to point out the state’s fallacy.
. I don’t think you’re going to start a cultural revolution on any comment section
Where the fuck are they supposed to start then? The internet is our current social method, and places like lemmy the subversive coffee shops where people whisper about putting rags in vodka bottles.
Look a bunch of rancid enthostatists used the internet to organize fucking armed and trained militias that are operating RIGHT NOW, and most of them organized on the web and dark web.
I’m tired of being fractured and ineffectual shitposters all wasting energy telling everyone how terrible every decision they’ve ever made is. It’s DESIGNED to keep us from organizing.
Reddit used to be ideas, I literally watched it in realtime turn to shitposts.
Lemmy is going that same way at a ridiculously rapid pace, LARGELY in fact due to the shitposting and constant thought terminating cliches thrown out as some kind of profound knowledge.
I can’t speak to your experience but I’ve been farting around on the Internet since the mid 90s and I promise nothing ever changes.
Smaller communities tend to be more concise, that is true.
But what you have here is the hand you’re dealt. Complaining isn’t going to change anything any more thank joking. You can be the change you seek here by suggesting a course of action that isn’t asking others to suggest a course of action to you. If you’re seeking a course of action, you can try asking here.
But commenters on tech news aren’t likely to be expert activists, especially in whatever issue is your top concern.
My best advice to you is
-
practice acceptance of reality, not as defeat but as the first step to understanding and deciding an action
-
determine how much capacity you, as a person, have to contribute to a cause
-
determine one cause you care about and can be effective at contributing to
After doing those things, SEEK OUT like minded groups who have leadership and self discipline and are effective.
-
Let me reframe my previous comment:
If you don’t want to network in person locally, you will need to find a forum whose sole purpose is activism and direct action.
It will not be brought to you, and you will not be recruited. You have to actively go seek it out.
The forum you’re on now is called “technology”. Similar ones, like “news” or literally any other topic that doesn’t solely focus on mobilizing activists will not get you what you’re asking for here.
Fucking useless bougie navelgazer, I ban you from my internet forever.
You wield the power. Wield it well.
Are they? I see ones like
Small government
This is sarcastic, but it’s as much of a joke as Stephen Colbert - it’s touching on something pretty real. Not sure what’s wrong with pointing out hypocrisy.
How dare people cope with something horrible by making jokes. Everyone knows it’s impossible to make those jokes while simultaneously being horrified by and pushing back against the thing they’re joking about.
