Cellular network surveillance + more

1 minutes estimated reading time

The Dragnet | The Verge – or how cellular network surveillance was unmasked. A US criminal case into online returns fraud provides the reader with information about law enforcement usage of cellular network surveillance.  More wireless related content here.

New Technologies and Mixed Use Convergence by Applin & Fischer (University of Kent) – interesting paper on how technology forces an alteration of consumer behaviours called ‘covert agencies’ in this paper (PDF)

Worldwide smart home device shipments to nearly double in 2016, says ABI Research | Digitises – (paywall)

Chinese citizens are boycotting search engine Baidu—and praying for Google to come back – Quartz – Baidu quickly announced Tuesday (Jan. 12) (link in Chinese) it had replaced the owner of the “hemophilia” post bar with a representative from an NGO working on the disease, but also seemed to confirm it has been selling these positions for profit, saying it would “stop commercialized operation” of all illness-related post bars, and invite non-profit organizations to run them. A Baidu spokesman told Quartz he couldn’t say what percentage of Baidu’s 19 million post bar groups were run by a commercial partner. – Native social advertising risks have been particularly challenging in healthcare. Baidu’s service is more than search the way we understand it and includes ‘expert’ Q&A as well. Imagine Quora if its was trusted and reliable in nature.

Detect and Disable an Airbnb’s Hidden Wi-Fi Cameras With This Script – Lifehacker – waiting until someone builds this into a gadget; I think that there is a market for privacy related gadgetry.

How Could The Winds of Winter Be Published In Only Three Months? | Tor.com – interesting breakdown of book publishing work flow

Shell of a mystery new Huawei leaked, rumoured to run SD616 – Gizchina.com – interesting focus on product design to try and achieve a premium position versus similar hardware. There needs to be a corresponding focus on software and experience to make it work