according to an article published in forbes social media app tiktok has been able to access information users copied to the clipboard, posing a serious privacy risk. countless other apps have been caught abusing users' privacy as well.
apple recently fixed the clipboard vulnerability issue, underlining the importance of protecting one's privacy.
a number of kickstarter backers asked for CamTag designs in plain colors. i made a few color sets including black and white and hope you like them.
with the rise of google, facebook and amazon in recent years private companies are implementing surveillance and data collection technologies at a faster pace than governments are able to regulate them.
i wrote a blog post based on articles published in the guardian including a dystopian short film that made me more aware of the extent to which our data is being collected.
The Guardian and 16 other media organisations brought to light that spyware sold by the surveillance company NSO, Pegasus, has been abused by authoritarian governments to target activists, journalists and politicians globally.
Pegasus is a malware that allegedly can be secretly installed on a targeted phone with just a missed call, enabling to access photos, emails, turn on your cameras, record calls and activate microphones. This makes it more invasive and dangerous than the algorithms of Google, Amazon and Facebook, turning our phone into a spy in our pocket. Spyware as powerful as Pegasus not only threatens the user of each smart-phone, it puts their social, political and economical connections and democracy itself in danger.
A massive data leak contains a list of about 50,000 phone numbers of potential targets identified by NSO’s clients like the governments of Hungary, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Mexico and India. NSO claims to only sell their surveillance technology to governments that have been carefully vetted for their human rights record and for the purpose of tracking terrorists an criminals. Looking at some of the clients one might ask who decides over who these terrorists and criminals are.
In a recent interview with the Guardian whistleblower Edward Snowden states:
The technology cannot be rolled back, technology is not going anywhere … it is going to be cheaper, it is going to be more effective, it is going to be more available. If we do nothing, we sort of sleepwalk into a total surveillance state where we have both a super state that has unlimited capacity to apply force with an unlimited ability to know and [therefore be able to] target [that] force – and that’s a very dangerous combination … This is the direction of the future.
Surveillance technology cannot be rolled back, but it needs to be regulated and legislated. Only social pressure caused by informed citizens has the power to force governments into political action to create the legal boundaries necessary to protect democracy.
it's this time of year: sunshine, holidays, beach, ice cream... sweet!
to make things even sweeter we just started our summer sale.
enter SUMMER21 for a sweet 50% discount all weekend.
after watching this short film on how much data private companies are able to gather about you (data that we willingly give them in some cases), you might be forgiven for thinking that, never mind some far flung future, we are living in a full-on dystopia right now. - jason kottke
with the rise of google, facebook and amazon in the past twenty years private companies are implementing surveillance and data collection technologies at a faster pace than governments are able to regulate them. these companies are accumulating an unprecedented amount of user data, making huge profits off behavioral monitoring, analysis, targeting and prediction. dr. shoshana zuboff coined this undemocratic, exploitative and little understood practice surveillance capitalism. this new form of exploitation doesn’t only monitor our private lives, it aims to shape, predict, direct and control every aspect of our everyday life.
we are no longer anonymous citizens. not only is our online behavior being traced, we are increasingly recorded on video and audio. while china is the global leader in video surveillance and facial recognition, observing and rating the behavior of their citizens, london has installed an estimated 420.000 CCTV cameras making it a test case for facial recognition in democracies. police and fire departments in the united states have partnered with amazon’s controversial ring camera network.
with tech giants insisting that their technology is too complex to be legislated while billions are spent in lobbying against transparency and privacy regulations, dr. zuboff makes a point that we and future generations must step up to the colossal challenge of breaking down this framework of total control – that is polarising world-views, increasing fundamentalism, and nurturing echo chambers and distrust – and work on a better future.
during my career as a designer i have always been fascinated by gradients and the three dimensional effects that can be created with them.
minimal design is yet another passion of mine, so i created six new black and white gradient designs, available both as glue-free laptop stickers and privacy stickers.
i just added a shop-wide volume discount that allows you to buy any combination of designs and products at a discount of up to 50%.
this is an experiment and i don't know for how long it will be running, so seize this opportunity to stock up on your macbook decals and privacy stickers.
| buy | save |
| 2 | - 10 % |
| 3 | - 20 % |
| 4 | - 30 % |
| 5 | - 40 % |
| 6 | - 50 % |
as of today, you can choose between shipping with or without tracking.
| without tracking / with tracking |
| to austria € 1 / € 4 |
| worldwide € 2 / € 5 |
thank you for your support and happy summer!
since the revelations by wistleblower edward snowden it is well known that intelligence agencies are engaging in surveillance on a global scale by activating other people’s cameras and recording them without their knowledge or consent.
remote access trojans (RAT) have been used for over two decades to gain control over stranger's cameras and spy on them.
even cameras built in apple’s macbooks that allegedly couldn’t be turned on without activating the indicator light were hacked, disabling the indicator light while the camera was recording.
many apps ask for permission to access the cameras on your phone or tablet. this means that these apps can secretly take photos or record you.
during our kickstarter campaign many backers wished for mixed design sets. we heard you and put together a few more.
what design sets would you like us to add? we'd love to hear your ideas.
just drop us a line here.
black lives matter – systemic racism unfortunately seems ingrained in our societies. too many black lives have been lost already.
stop asian hate – violent attacks on asian americans are on the rise since the start of the pandemic. from verbal attacks based on misinformation to physical violence, there have been thousands of reported cases recently.
we are against racism and discrimination of any kind. help spread the message with these macbook stickers!
developing a new product until it is ready to hatch takes longer than one might expect, especially during challenging times like the ones we all are currently facing.
together with our local manufacturing partner we have been testing alternative production methods to further improve our glue-free stickers. the results are very promising and we will share them with you soon.
since our crowdfunding campaign last spring we finished producing and sending all rewards to our backers. we are happy to announce that CamTag is now available on our website.
we created new designs and will keep adding more on a regular basis.
