NYSee Radar

Category: Link Blog

  • Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web

    L0la L33tz · The Rage

    Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet.

    In 2,456 publicly accessible files, the code revealed the extensive surveillance Persona software performs on its users, bundled in an interface that pairs facial recognition with financial reporting – and a parallel implementation that appears designed to serve federal agencies.

    …

    Persona Identity, Inc. is a Peter Thiel-backed venture

    …

    The software performs 269 distinct verification checks and scours the internet and government sources for potential matches, such as by matching your face to politically exposed persons (PEPs), and generating risk and similarity scores for each individual. IP addresses, browser fingerprints, device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, and even selfie backgrounds are analyzed and retained for up to three years.

    …

    The program, according to the researchers, performs product analytics and user behavior tracking on a government identity-verification platform, provides real-time user monitoring — every click, every page load — on a FedRAMP platform processing PII and biometrics, and includes financial identity-verification capabilities on the government platform.

  • Garth – For The Record Winter Solstice 2025

    Garth · Wicked Sound System

    Classic Garth right here

  • NYPD: Internet Attribution Management Infrastructure

    NYPD · NYC.gov

    The NYPD disclosure from February 4th:

    The NYPD uses internet attribution management infrastructure, including Ntrepid, to manage digital footprints and allow its personnel to safely, securely, and covertly conduct investigations and detect possible criminal activity on the internet.

    . . .

    The information that is ultimately accessible to NYPD personnel utilizing this equipment is limited to publicly available information or the information that is viewable as a result of the privacy settings, privacy practices, and access limitations of an internet environment (e.g., chatrooms, social media profiles, messaging applications)

  • Mamdani faces first showdown with NYPD – will he risk alienating police?

    Eric Berger · The Guardian

    On 4 February, the NYPD disclosed that it used “internet attribution management infrastructure” from the technology company Ntrepid to “allow its personnel to safely, securely and covertly conduct investigations and detect possible criminal activity on the internet”. In other words, to create the sort of “sock puppet” online identities that Mamdani had once sought to prevent.

    . . .

    Owen, of Stop, also argues that the police could use such a tool to target Black and Latino residents. He pointed to the NYPD’s previous disclosure that if someone “makes a comment such as ‘Happy Birthday’ on the Facebook page of a gang member”, they could be considered a “known associate” and added to its criminal database, according to an inspector general report.

  • EFFecting Change: Get the Flock Out of Our City

    EFF · EFFecting Change Livestream Series

    Join our panel to explore what’s happening as Flock contracts face growing resistance across the U.S. We’ll break down the legal implications of the data these systems collect, examine campaigns that have successfully stopped Flock deployments, and discuss the real-world consequences for people’s privacy and freedom.

    Livestream
    February 19, 2026 – 12:00pm to 1:00pm PST

  • New ZeroDayRAT Mobile Spyware Enables Real-Time Surveillance and Data Theft

    Ravie Lakshmanan · The Hacker News

    advertised on Telegram as a way to grab sensitive data and facilitate real-time surveillance on Android and iOS devices

    The fact that it’s being marketed on Telegram is hinting at a trend toward spyware commodification. No bueno.

  • Hate thy Neighbor as Thyself

    Timothy Snyder · Thinking about…

    Then said JD unto him, Go, slay, and curse.

  • What if you could start your own internet?

    What if you could start your own internet?

    Joshua Citarella and Yancey Strickler · Metalabel

    Yancey and Josh dropping breadcrumbs to a new world.
    Hint: It’s our own shared private internet.

    What if you could start your own internet? by Metalabel

    This is DFOS

    Read on Substack

  • Open Letter to Tech Companies: Protect Your Users From Lawless DHS Subpoenas

    Mario Trujillo · EFF

    🤐

    [DHS] has issued subpoenas to technology companies to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE’s activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests.   

  • With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet

    With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet

    Jason Koebler · 404 Media

    Ring had always, explicitly been intended to assist law enforcement. In a series of investigations we did back at VICE (mostly written by Caroline Haskins, who is still covering surveillance at WIRED), we uncovered thousands of pages of documents, emails, and chats via public records requests and leaks that highlighted Ring’s surveillance ambitions. The company threw parties for police, employees wore “FUCK CRIME” shirts to internal parties, and helped police facilitate the retrieval of footage from its customers’ cameras if they initially refused to cooperate.

    . . .

    With Ring’s recent partnership with Flock, which will further facilitate the sharing of video footage with police, and its new Search Party feature, the message is clear: Ring is still, again, and always will be in the business of leveraging its network of luxury surveillance consumers as a law enforcement tool.

    404Media.co screenshot. Article title, "With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet". Subtitle, "Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism." Meta, "Jason Koebler · Feb 10, 2026 at 10:05 AM " Picture below shows surveillance camera image and a recognized object, a dog with a green rectangle around it and the label, "Milo Match."