Opinion: Flock Safety is Surveillance Sold as Safety
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Opinion: Flock Safety is Surveillance Sold as Safety

ByPrivacyStan

Opinion: Flock Safety is Surveillance Sold as Safety Garrett Langley, CEO of Flock Safety, wants the world to believe his billion-dollar network of cameras and drones is about “ending crime.” What he is really building is a surveillance machine and a billion dollar business model. Let’s be clear. Surveillance intelligence has value. I know because…

When a License Plate Becomes a Target
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When a License Plate Becomes a Target

ByPrivacyStan

When a License Plate Becomes a Target How High-Profile Individuals Can Be Tracked Using ALPR Networks ALPR systems weren’t built to track celebrities, activists, or executives. But they do it quite well. If someone knows your license plate (or even just suspects which car is yours) they can leverage public infrastructure and commercial surveillance to…

How Spyware Operators Like NSO Win and How to Defend Yourself
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How Spyware Operators Like NSO Win and How to Defend Yourself

ByPrivacyStan

How Spyware Operators Like NSO Group Win(and How to Defend Yourself) Spyware operators like NSO Group, creators of Pegasus, are not hackers chasing credit card numbers or random victims. They act with precision, patience, and state-level resources. Their success does not come from being more intelligent than engineers at Apple or Google but from playing…

ALPR vs. GPS: Why License Plate Tracking Is Surging
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ALPR vs. GPS: Why License Plate Tracking Is Surging

ByPrivacyStan

ALPR vs. GPS: Why License Plate Tracking Is Surging Law enforcement has always had ways to follow you. Phones broadcast your location through GPS, cell towers, and Wi-Fi beacons. That data is rich, precise. And often locked behind warrants, subpoenas, or private data broker paywalls. Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) is different. Cameras mounted on…

deepfake conceptual
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Why Deepfakes Are Harder to Stop Than We Admit

ByPrivacyStan

I mapped dozens of proposed solutions to deepfakes. The result was sobering:No silver bullets. Only tradeoffs. The conversation around deepfakes is full of quick fixes. New watermarking schemes, tighter laws, platform promises.None hold up under pressure. After reviewing countermeasures across technical, legal, policy, and human domains, the pattern is clear: every solution is partial, fragile,…

The CSI Enhance Button Is a Lie: What Image Al Really Does
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The CSI Enhance Button Is a Lie: What Image Al Really Does

ByPrivacyStan

The CSI Enhance Button Is a Lie: What Image Al Really DoesPop culture has trained us to believe in a magic “enhance” button. The detective yells, the tech zooms in, and suddenly a blurry security cam shot reveals a perfect face. In reality, that’s impossible. Image enhancement tools don’t recover lost detail. They can only…

password manager
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Password Managers: Privacy, Anonymity, and Security

ByPrivacyStan

🔹Top Picks at a Glance From our latest analysis, here’s how some of the most popular password managers performed: Bitwarden and Proton Pass came out on top, offering excellent privacy, high anonymity potential, and strong security — all while staying user-friendly and feature-rich. KeePass earned high marks for its offline, self-hosted capabilities and privacy-by-design model,…

Anonymous Phones in 2025: Getting Out of the Apple and Google Trap
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Anonymous Phones in 2025: Getting Out of the Apple and Google Trap

ByPrivacyStan

When it comes to reducing your digital exposure, few steps are as impactful as getting out of a stock phone. Apple and Google phones are deeply tied to surveillance ecosystems. They track you through telemetry, app behavior, location data, and account linkages. At ObscureIQ, we tell clients that just getting anything beyond a stock iPhone…

Credit Headers: The Unseen Data Firehose
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Credit Headers: The Unseen Data Firehose

ByPrivacyStan

Your personal data isn’t just sitting in a credit bureau vault. It’s being actively spread across the internet through a little-known practice called credit header sales. What Are Credit Headers? Credit headers are a snapshot of your key identifying information, including: Full name Addresses Phone numbers Emails Even your Social Security Number and other identifiers…

5 Privacy Moves to Block Spies, Trackers, & Data Brokers
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5 Privacy Moves to Block Spies, Trackers, & Data Brokers

ByPrivacyStan

Stalkers, advertisers, and hostile actors are digging for your data every day.  Your phone is revealing your location. Your credit card transactions are leaving a trail. Adtech building a profile of your habits. The digital world thrives on surveillance. The good news? You don’t have to make it easy for them.  Here are five power…