British mobile carrier EE has unveiled plans to use a fleet of drones and miniature blimps
to supply cell phone coverage to rural areas of the UK. The company
says its “air mast” network could b...
Earlier this month, a company named Agility Robotics unveiled its first ever robot: a bipedal creation named Cassie
that looks like a headless, wingless ostrich. Cassie has reverse knees,
motor-...
Google this week released a new collection of presidential photos, documents, and other artifacts, as part of its online American Democracy collection. In a blog post
published Wednesday, Google Art...
Fresh off integrating Amazon's Alexa in the Huawei Mate 9,
the world's third biggest smartphone manufacturer is now also working
on crafting its own voice assistant, specifically tailored for China...
It might not be time
for proper 5G devices just yet, but ZTE is bringing us a step closer,
announcing today that it will show off one of the first gigabit LTE
smartphones at Mobile World Congre...
The next iPhone could see the elimination of the Home
button and Touch ID sensor in favor of an edge-to-edge design and
“virtual buttons” at the bottom of the screen. The rumors come from the
well...
A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers today
introduced a bill that would require US police agencies to obtain a
warrant before deploying cell-site simulation surveillance devices known
as “stingrays,” reports USA Today. Stingrays are typically used by police to triangulate a criminal suspect’s location based on data emitted from their smartphones or wearable devices with cellular connectivity.
Stingrays are a controversial form of surveillance
technology as it can accurately pinpoint a suspect’s location, but can
also intercept data from innocent bystanders. Lawmakers are hoping the
bill, titled the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, can
curb potential abuse of the technology and promote transparency when
police agencies use the device.
"As we welcome innovative technologies that help fight
crime, we must be mindful of the potential for abuse." Jason Chaffetz,
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, said.
"When individuals are tracked in this way, the government is able to
generate a profile of a person’s public movements that includes details
about a person’s familial, political, professional, religious, and other
intimate associations,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich, added.
A recent investigation found that the Justice Department and Homeland Security spent $71 million and $24 million,
respectively, on stingray devices between fiscal years 2010 and 2014.
FBI Director James Comey has also made public statements in favor of
stingrays, calling them crucial to finding and capturing criminals.
“It’s not about intercepting their calls, their communications,” he said in 2014.
“It’s how we find killers. It’s how we find kidnappers. It’s how we
find drug dealers. It’s how we find missing children. It’s how we find
pedophiles.”