Signal Offers Face Blurring - ThreatWire (Patreon)

By Shannon Morse, ThreatWire 

With large scale demonstrations and protests comes the threat of digital surveillance, with this week being the most recent example. Motherboard reports that several law enforcement and federal agencies have purchased an upgraded device to the Stingray, called the Crossbow, which is meant to surveil 4G devices, allowing for location tracking and the ability to track IMSIs.

While little is known about the technical aspects of the Crossbow, redacted emails show that it is an upgrade to the Stingray, which can pretend to be a cell phone tower, allows phones to connect to it, and collects data about connected devices such as the IMSI, location, and sometimes call or text data. These devices are not discriminatory towards any specific device, so anyone within the vicinity could accidentally connect to them. 

It is unknown if these devices are currently being used to surveil protesters, but the DEA also requested authorization last week to expand their ability to conduct covert surveillance outside of the normal agency ability. This, along with the ability of police to use geofence warrants to collect data based on a physical location, not a single device, sparked concerns among privacy advocates. 

Encrypted messaging app Signal has responded by announcing a new “blur” tool that lets you hide faces in your photos before sharing them. In a blog post, Signal creator Moxie Marlinspike said the newest version of the app for iOS and Android includes a “Blur Feature” within the image editor. All of the processing happens locally, and it doesn’t detect every face every time, so you can use a brush tool to blur faces manually. I’ve tried it and it’s very easy to use,

I’ve shared several tips on my YouTube channel as well that can help keep your identity safe when practicing your first amendment rights. 

Signal:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxm3g/crossbow-imsi-catcher-new-stingray
https://www.cnet.com/news/dea-reportedly-authorized-to-conduct-covert-surveillance-of-george-floyd-protests/
https://www.cnet.com/news/geofence-warrants-how-police-can-use-protesters-phones-against-them/
https://signal.org/blog/blur-tools/
https://www.cnet.com/news/popular-encrypted-messaging-app-signal-adds-facial-recognition-protection-for-protesters/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1D3fdyU9ZE

Anti-Surveillance Tips From A Hacker - How To Protect Your Phone Data and Not Be Tracked -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1D3fdyU9ZE

Want  Zoom E2E Encryption? Pay Up. Signal Responds To Protest Surveillance,  and Google Faces a $5 Billion Fine! All that coming up now on  ThreatWire. #threatwire #hak5

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