In other news, 23andMe revealed that personal data from 6.9 million users was impacted in a breach due to attackers compromising user accounts. North Korea is reportedly using generative AI tools to search for hacking targets and technologies. The digital ad industry is under scrutiny for enabling user tracking, with a service called Patternz drawing data from ads to fuel a global surveillance dragnet. Finally, MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that could convert data from smart devices' ambient light sensors into an image, potentially turning these devices into surveillance tools.
Key takeaways:
- Police used a digital rendering of a suspect's face, generated from DNA evidence, and ran it through a facial recognition system, according to hacked police records published by Distributed Denial of Secrets.
- US intelligence agencies have been purchasing Americans' phone location data and internet metadata without a warrant, a fact revealed after Senator Ron Wyden blocked the appointment of a new NSA director until the information was made public.
- The ancestry and genetics company 23andMe disclosed a breach in which personal data from 6.9 million users was impacted due to attackers compromising roughly 14,000 user accounts.
- Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed an algorithm that could convert data from smart devices' ambient light sensors into an image of the scene in front of the device, potentially turning these devices into surveillance tools.