The new story on NSA voice recognition technology by @eyywa in @theintercept is a bombshell 💣
Definitely something that will lead to many questions and further inquiry, but here are some initial takeaways: 1/10
Definitely something that will lead to many questions and further inquiry, but here are some initial takeaways: 1/10
NSA has developed technology to identify speakers based on the unique features of their voice, much like a fingerprint...
But the better metaphor is "face print" since, like facial recognition, this
1) is biometric (can't be changed)
2) can be done without noitce or content 2/10
But the better metaphor is "face print" since, like facial recognition, this
1) is biometric (can't be changed)
2) can be done without noitce or content 2/10
This immediately raises big questions related to FISA Section 702, even as Congress sends a six year expansion of the law to the President's desk.
Primarily: Can someone's VOICE now be a "selector" for targeting? And if so, how accurate is the system? 3/10
Primarily: Can someone's VOICE now be a "selector" for targeting? And if so, how accurate is the system? 3/10
Then there are the extreme issues about mass scans. This tech could be used to locate individuals if the government hijacked a large number of mics and listened for a particular voice print 4/10
Remember that scene in The Dark Knight where Batman makes a hyberbolic crazy surveillance system that uses all phones to find the Joker based on his voice? That could actually happen 5/10 
And there’s no equivalent to “piece of tape over the laptop camera" for this one. You can't block off every potential mic around you that could be used for voice recognition ID scans 6/10
Lot of focus on audio surveillance has been on Amazon Echo and Google Home, and those do have strong ability to pick up audio
But as @trevortimm notes in the piece, we have mics around us all the time. You're reading this on a laptop or cellphone - that has a mic too! 7/10
But as @trevortimm notes in the piece, we have mics around us all the time. You're reading this on a laptop or cellphone - that has a mic too! 7/10
But wouldn't mass audio scans be unconstitutional?
It's disturbingly unclear. The FISA Court has ruled that automated scanning content in the FISA 702 "Upstream" program and scanning all Yahoo emails (reuters.com/article/us-yah…) was NOT a search 8/10
It's disturbingly unclear. The FISA Court has ruled that automated scanning content in the FISA 702 "Upstream" program and scanning all Yahoo emails (reuters.com/article/us-yah…) was NOT a search 8/10
So imagine a similar scenario: The government wants to locate someone. They have a voice print. They go to court and ask to access 10 million mics across a city to conduct a "automated voice print scan" and find them. This frighteningly seems like a real possibility 9/10
The ramifications of this technology are profound, and we need to follow up from this report and keep digging on how this tech works, how accurate it is, how the government uses it, and what it might do in the future 10/10
