See all the police surveillance tools used in your city
Over a million hobby drones are registered in the U.S. You may never know when you’re being watched. Check out my guide to avoiding drone surveillance. We wrote this after one hovered over my pool while I was swimming.
Have you ever stayed in an Airbnb? Hosts sometimes spy on their guests with hidden cameras. Yes, that happened to me, too. Use these tricks to catch them in the act.
Police departments are stepping up their surveillance, adding drones to their tech collection. How closely does your local department monitor you? Here’s a searchable website you can use to see.
Big Brother is watching
Atlas of Surveillance is a searchable database project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It shows which surveillance technologies — such as drones, automated license plate readers, and facial recognition — are used by law enforcement agencies across the U.S.
The pilot program began as a collaboration between the EFF and the University of Nevada’s Reno Reynolds School of Journalism in 2019.
The information comes from public records, crowdsourcing, data journalism, news stories, social media posts, press releases, and volunteer assistance. As of November 2022, the Atlas of Surveillance had 10,000 data points, with at least partial data on 5,500 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states, plus most territories and districts.
The Atlas of Surveillance site says its information is only as good as the source and that government agencies can withhold information. Plus, there’s always the chance of misinterpretation.
While it’s impossible to fact-check every data point, each one is reviewed by multiple journalism students and staff. Let’s have a closer look at what it shows.
Types of surveillance in use around the country
Does a camera on every street corner make you nervous? Do you worry that your face is constantly being scanned against a database of who-knows-who? Some people don’t mind it, and others are bothered by it.
Check this site to see all the high-tech surveillance your local police use
There are over a million hobby drones registered in the U.S. Add in the unregistered ones, and who knows how high the numbers go. The point is you may never know when you’re being watched. Here are a few steps you can take to avoid invasive drone surveillance.
Turn on this smart security setting to protect your phone backups from hackers
You should always have a backup of precious photos and essential personal files. It would be best to back up your mobile phone before upgrading its operating system, so you don’t lose anything important. Tap or click for three things to look for in a cloud backup.
Use an Android? Make this quick change now to secure your phone
While some corners of the country are vehemently debating the dangers of 5G mobile technology, a much older mobile signal poses an actual threat to Android and iOS phones.
As technology moves ahead with better delivery, coverage and download speeds, the spectrum will inevitably become too crowded or outdated to accommodate them all. Before 5G, 4G, and LTE, the most common mobile connections were 3G and its predecessor, 2G.
Secure email provider ProtonMail just passed user data to police
When you sign up for a free email account, that service comes at the cost of your privacy. Agreeing to the terms and conditions means your provider can track as much as they want, from financial records to private messages. Tap or click here to find out how much your email provider is collecting on you.
Is Google's new ad tracker following you around the web?
We all know that websites and services can track your movements and behavior across websites. Recently Apple also started implementing a similar technique, where it asked for your permission to connect to other devices in your house. Tap or click here to Google like a pro: 7 tricks for expert searches.
Has WhatsApp been sharing your data with Facebook for years?
Facebook is one of the worst tech companies when it comes to safeguarding its users’ privacy. It’s been known to share your personal information with advertisers to provide targeted ads and third-party companies like Cambridge Analytica.
Take this quiz to see which government agencies have your photo on file
Facial recognition is everywhere, even if you don’t always realize it. Your phone uses a map of your face to unlock itself, and you might even use a facial scan for contactless payments. Either way, somebody out there has access to your face. The only question is, who?
Doorbell app is handing over your data to Facebook
Facebook has a history of mishandling users’ personal information. It’s been caught multiple times sharing private data with other companies.
Multiple privacy breaches have led many people to delete their Facebook accounts altogether. You should think about deleting yours, too. Tap or click here to find out how to delete your Facebook account.