Penny Dean and Your Rights

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the Department of Justice (DoJ) in an effort to find out what the US federal government’s systems and policies are around facial recognition.

Taiwan, in an effort to limit the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, has implemented a geo-fence using people's mobile phones.

This technology alerts authorities when quarantined individuals leave their designated shelter locations or turn off their mobile devices.

According to Reuters, Taiwan appears to be the first country to use mobile location data as a quarantine compliance mechanism.

Privacy perspective: President has also threatened quarantine-breaking troublemakers may be shot

The Philippines has started planning an app to help the government track the movements and contacts of people who carry the novel coronavirus.

Hong Kong says it used a "government electronic monitoring system" to nab potential novel coronavirus carriers who flouted quarantine regulations. By monitoring system, it most likely means its wristband-based smartphone-tracking technology.

A late Tuesday announcement from the Special Administrative Region's government stated: "The police, following reports from members of the public and detection via the government electronic monitoring system, carried out immediate on-site investigations today.

Tracking and limiting the movements of overseas travelers, and others suspected to be COVID-19 coronavirus carriers, has proved an essential tool in controlling the pandemic.

That's according to Professor Marylouise McLaws, a technical adviser to the World Health Organization's Infection Prevention and Control Global Unit.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a report of several armed people cutting down a tree Friday across a driveway to force someone to quarantine because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday, a person contacted the U.S. Coast Guard asking for assistance in the area of Cripple Creek Road, the sheriff’s office said. The caller said several people with guns had cut down a tree and were telling other people to stay quarantined.

Someone with a scanner heard the report and called the Knox Regional Communications Center.

The State of Western Australia has given itself the power to install surveillance devices in homes, or compel people to wear them, to ensure that those required to isolate during the coronavirus crisis don’t interact with the community.

Not all people will be required to use the devices. State Premier [equivalent to a US governor – ed.] Mark McGowan said they’ll only be used if: “Someone who is directed to self-isolate and fails to comply.”

A Brighton-based ad agency is scratching its collective head after its website was effectively seized by US Homeland Security.

The agency stopped receiving external emails and turned to its IT support company Ingenious for an answer. They discovered that anyone trying to visit the company website – designate.com – met a landing page with America's Department of Justice, Homeland Security and New York Police Department logos and the stern message:

No one likes it when a stranger butts into their conversation.

Especially when they interrupt with some astonishing non-sequitur.

You're watching TV and chatting about the painfully demanding couple on House Hunters International when a distant voice pipes up: "The circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles."

While saying the Berlin Police Department could have chosen “a less-intimidating mode of transportation” during the execution of search warrants, a judge has nonetheless dismissed a lawsuit against the department for using a BearCat armored personnel carrier to do so.