surveillance

white-house-officials-reportedly-frustrated-by-anthropic’s-law-enforcement-ai-limits

White House officials reportedly frustrated by Anthropic’s law enforcement AI limits

AI, AI ethics, AI law, AI regulation, AI security, Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Biz & IT, Claude, Dario Amodei, Department of Defense, fbi, government contracting, ice, law enforcement, machine learning, national security, openai, Policy, Secret Service, surveillance, trump administration / /

Anthropic’s AI models could potentially help spies analyze classified documents, but the company draws the line at domestic surveillance. That restriction is reportedly making the Trump administration angry.

On Tuesday, Semafor reported that Anthropic faces growing hostility from the Trump administration over the AI company’s restrictions on law enforcement uses of its Claude models. Two senior White House officials told the outlet that federal contractors working with agencies like the FBI and Secret Service have run into roadblocks when attempting to use Claude for surveillance tasks.

The friction stems from Anthropic’s usage policies that prohibit domestic surveillance applications. The officials, who spoke to Semafor anonymously, said they worry that Anthropic enforces its policies selectively based on politics and uses vague terminology that allows for a broad interpretation of its rules.

The restrictions affect private contractors working with law enforcement agencies who need AI models for their work. In some cases, Anthropic’s Claude models are the only AI systems cleared for top-secret security situations through Amazon Web Services’ GovCloud, according to the officials.

Anthropic offers a specific service for national security customers and made a deal with the federal government to provide its services to agencies for a nominal $1 fee. The company also works with the Department of Defense, though its policies still prohibit the use of its models for weapons development.

In August, OpenAI announced a competing agreement to supply more than 2 million federal executive branch workers with ChatGPT Enterprise access for $1 per agency for one year. The deal came one day after the General Services Administration signed a blanket agreement allowing OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to supply tools to federal workers.

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provider-of-covert-surveillance-app-spills-passwords-for-62,000-users

Provider of covert surveillance app spills passwords for 62,000 users

android, Apps, Biz & IT, privacy, Security, surveillance / /

The maker of a phone app that is advertised as providing a stealthy means for monitoring all activities on an Android device spilled email addresses, plain-text passwords, and other sensitive data belonging to 62,000 users, a researcher discovered recently.

A security flaw in the app, branded Catwatchful, allowed researcher Eric Daigle to download a trove of sensitive data, which belonged to account holders who used the covert app to monitor phones. The leak, made possible by a SQL injection vulnerability, allowed anyone who exploited it to access the accounts and all data stored in them.

Unstoppable

Catwatchful creators emphasize the app’s stealth and security. While the promoters claim the app is legal and intended for parents monitoring their children’s online activities, the emphasis on stealth has raised concerns that it’s being aimed at people with other agendas.

“Catwatchful is invisible,” a page promoting the app says. “It cannot be detected. It cannot be uninstalled. It cannot be stopped. It cannot be closed. Only you can access the information it collects.”

The promoters go on to say users “can monitor a phone without [owners] knowing with mobile phone monitoring software. The app is invisible and undetectable on the phone. It works in a hidden and stealth mode.”

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Phone tracking tool lets government agencies follow your every move

Apple, Biz & IT, Google, location, Phones, privacy, Security, surveillance / /

Both operating systems will display a list of apps and whether they are permitted access always, never, only while the app is in use, or to prompt for permission each time. Both also allow users to choose whether the app sees precise locations down to a few feet or only a coarse-grained location.

For most users, there’s usefulness in allowing an app for photos, transit or maps to access a user’s precise location. For other classes of apps—say those for Internet jukeboxes at bars and restaurants—it can be helpful for them to have an approximate location, but giving them precise, fine-grained access is likely overkill. And for other apps, there’s no reason for them ever to know the device’s location. With a few exceptions, there’s little reason for apps to always have location access.

Not surprisingly, Android users who want to block intrusive location gathering have more settings to change than iOS users. The first thing to do is access Settings > Security & Privacy > Ads and choose “Delete advertising ID.” Then, promptly ignore the long, scary warning Google provides and hit the button confirming the decision at the bottom. If you don’t see that setting, good for you. It means you already deleted it. Google provides documentation here.

iOS, by default, doesn’t give apps access to “Identifier for Advertisers,” Apple’s version of the unique tracking number assigned to iPhones, iPads, and AppleTVs. Apps, however, can display a window asking that the setting be turned on, so it’s useful to check. iPhone users can do this by accessing Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking. Any apps with permission to access the unique ID will appear. While there, users should also turn off the “Allow Apps to Request to Track” button. While in iOS Privacy & Security, users should navigate to Apple Advertising and ensure Personalized Ads is turned off.

Additional coverage of Location X from Haaretz and NOTUS is here and here. The New York Times, the other publication given access to the data, hadn’t posted an article at the time this Ars post went live.

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