RSG #342: How To Investigate Government Use of Private Spyware Against Journalists and Activists

RSG #342: How To Investigate Government Use of Private Spyware Against Journalists and Activists

Private spyware gives governments access to capabilities once associated with elite intelligence agencies. Depending on the product and method used, an operator may collect messages, contacts, photographs, location data, recordings, and other information from a targeted device. Journalists, activists, dissidents, attorneys, and human rights defenders face particular danger because compromising one phone can expose entire …

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RSG#336: How To Investigate Government Use of Social Media Monitoring Tools

Your local police department may describe social media monitoring as nothing more than checking public posts. That sounds delightfully harmless, rather like saying a surveillance camera is merely enjoying the scenery. Modern social media monitoring can involve keyword searches, location filters, relationship mapping, automated alerts, covert accounts, image analysis, and commercial software that collects posts …

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RSG #337: How To Investigate Government Purchases of Commercial Location Data

Your phone knows where you sleep, work, worship, shop, protest, receive medical care, and spend Tuesday evenings when you told everyone you were staying home. That location history can travel through mobile applications, advertising systems, software development kits, data aggregators, and commercial brokers. Government agencies have purchased access to commercially available information rather than obtaining …

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RSG #293: Monitoring Government Procurement and Contracts

Resistance Survival Guide #293 How Public Contracts Reveal What Is Coming Next Most people learn about major government projects after construction begins, after surveillance systems are installed, or after policies have already been implemented. Researchers, journalists, and investigators often learn about these developments months or even years earlier by monitoring government procurement records and contract …

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