Sunday, September 7, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

The UK’s new weapon against drones: Radio waves

Published 3 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The weapon system Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW).
2 minute read

The British Army says it has been successfully testing a new high-tech weapon system to neutralize drones using radio waves. The weapon could represent a significant step in the development of so-called directed energy technologies.

The system, called Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW), directs powerful radio waves at unmanned aerial vehicles, such as drones, and neutralizes them.

Unlike laser-based weapons that concentrate beams of light, RFDEW offers an advantage in its effectiveness against larger groups of drones, known as drone swarms, Techspot reports.

During the tests in West Wales, soldiers from the Royal Artillery Trials and Development Unit in collaboration with the 7 Air Defence Group managed to detect, track and combat several drone targets at distances of up to one kilometer.

Each neutralization is estimated to have cost British taxpayers 10 pence – described as a revolutionary low cost in terms of military high technology.

Defense minister enthusiastic

UK Defense Secretary Maria Eagle expresses enthusiasm for the project, describing it as “another step forward for a potentially game-changing sovereign weapon” that could give the UK a “crucial advantage against the emerging threats we face”.

The system has been developed by UK defense company Thales in collaboration with QinetiQ and Teledyne e2v. In addition to its accuracy and low cost, RFDEW is said to be highly automated and requires only one operator to operate.

It can also be adapted to be mounted on various military vehicles and used against threats both in the air and over water.

 

Although, according to the British military’s own reports, the tests show “great potential”, much work remains to be done before the RFDEW can be put into operational use. Further fine-tuning and extensive evaluations are required to “ensure the weapon can be implemented in UK military doctrine”.

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New robot takes on household chores

The future of AI

Published today 8:44
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read

The AI robot Helix can wash dishes, fold laundry and collaborate with other robots. It is the first robot of its kind that can control the entire upper part of the body.

The American robotics company Figure AI’s new humanoid robot has visual perception, language understanding and full control over fingers, wrists, torso and head. This enables the robot to pick up small objects and thereby help with household tasks.

Helix is powered by a so-called dual-system architecture, which can be explained as having a unique “two-brain” AI architecture where one part interprets language and vision while another part controls movements quickly and precisely.

Among other things, the company demonstrates that the robot can load dishes into the dishwasher, fold laundry and sort groceries. The robot can also sort and weigh packages at postal facilities.

It can also handle thousands of new objects in cluttered environments, without prior demonstrations or custom programming. This means it can perform tasks it is not programmed for and is designed to solve problems independently in an unpredictable environment.

It can follow voice commands in a similar way to talking with a human and act accordingly. What also makes the robot special is that it can collaborate with other robots. In tests, for example, two Helix robots have successfully been able to work together to unpack groceries.

Stop feeding Apple your data

Homebrew is the app store that doesn’t spy on you.

Published yesterday 8:21
– By Naomi Brockwell
5 minute read

If you’re on a Mac, chances are you download apps from Apple’s App Store. Add your Apple ID, and everything is neatly in one place, updated with the click of a button.

But convenience comes at a price. Linking an Apple ID to your computer ties all your activity together and makes profiling you effortless.

In past articles, we’ve shown how much data Apple collects, and explained that Linux is the gold standard for privacy. But if you’re not ready to switch, there are still steps you can take right now to make your Mac more private.

This article focuses on Apple IDs, the App Store, and a powerful alternative called Homebrew. It’s a package manager that gives you the convenience of centralized updates without the surveillance.

Apple ID and the App Store

It may seem impossible to avoid Apple IDs and the App Store. On an iPhone, you’re locked in: You need to add an Apple ID and use the App Store to download any apps. (The EU recently forced Apple to allow sideloading, but that doesn’t apply everywhere.)

On a Mac, things are different. You don’t need the App Store at all. You can download software directly from each developer’s website, which means you never need to attach an Apple ID to your computer. And that’s one of the best privacy moves you can make.

Unfortunately, Apple makes it a little tricky to opt out.

When you buy a new Mac, the store will push you to hand over an Apple ID at checkout. You should tell them you don’t have one.

Then when you first set up your computer, it will prompt you to add an Apple ID, and it’s not immediately clear how to skip past this step. The “Continue” button is grayed out unless you fill in your ID. What you might have missed is in the bottom left corner it says “Set Up Later”. Click that.

But Apple still puts up roadblocks. Gatekeeper, which is a macOS security feature that controls which apps are allowed to run on your Mac, by default only allows apps from the App Store or from developers that Apple has verified. If you want to allow downloads from elsewhere, you first have to turn off Gatekeeper’s strict enforcement using command line, and then go back into your settings and select the option to allow apps from “Anywhere”.

Apple really wants every download to run through them. That way, they can log every install, every update, and build a permanent profile of your habits and interests.

App Store: Convenient, But Costly

Of course, there are perks. The App Store makes managing your apps painless. You can update everything with a single click. If you’ve downloaded apps from a dozen different sites, updating becomes a chore. Each app has to be opened and checked manually.

You can always enable auto-updates, but that means your apps constantly ping servers in the background. For many people, that’s a privacy trade-off not worth making.

In fact, I use the firewall software Little Snitch to block my apps from unnecessarily talking to the internet, which makes auto updates even harder. I have to disable the firewall, check every app one by one, and then remember to re-enable the firewall afterwards. It’s easy to slip up, and Apple knows most people won’t bother with this manual process.

Enter Homebrew

This is where Homebrew comes in handy, by providing the convenience of the App Store without all the tracking.

Homebrew is a package manager for macOS and Linux. A package manager is similar to an app store in many ways. Think of it like a hub: a single place to find, install, and update apps quickly and reliably.

Homebrew is well known and open source, but it looks different from the stores you’re used to. There’s no visual store or GUI: Instead you use the command line in Terminal. You can’t buy anything in the store, the software is free. Some apps have paid upgrade features, but Homebrew itself has no ability to collect payments. You don’t need any account to access it, there’s no hidden tracking, and no ads.

Benefits

There are three main benefits, in my opinion, to using Homebrew over downloading apps directly from random websites.

Convenience

Instead of bouncing between dozens of sites to find, install, and update apps, Homebrew gives you simple commands that do it all in one place. One system, and you can use it without handing over telemetry about everything you’re doing.

Safety

Homebrew can help decrease the risk of installing fake or malicious software. When you download apps manually, there’s always the chance that you spelled the URL wrong or landed on a fake site through a phishing link. Homebrew pulls apps from official, verified sources, and it automatically checks the integrity of every file. Generally open source repos include a checksum of the file on their website, which is a hash of the exact file. The checksum of what you downloaded should be identical to the checksum the app has provided. Homebrew verifies that they match, so you’re not getting a tampered or unsafe version. Their code is watched over by a large community, and they log every change publicly. No system is 100% safe, but Homebrew is highly reputable and widely regarded in the open source community.

Gateway to Linux

Homebrew is also compatible with Linux. If you ever decide to switch operating systems, Homebrew is a great way to make the transition easier, and get comfortable with tools you’ll probably use on Linux too.

Tutorial coming soon

Friday week we’ll release a full video tutorial on how to install and use Homebrew, so keep an eye out.

For now, the takeaway is simple: Homebrew gives you the convenience of centralized updates without the privacy trade-offs. You get easy installs, built-in safety checks, and you never have to tie your Mac to an Apple ID.

If you want the benefits of an app store without the profiling that comes with it, Homebrew is the smarter choice.

 

Yours in Privacy,
Naomi

 

Naomi Brockwell is a privacy advocacy and professional speaker, MC, interviewer, producer, podcaster, specialising in blockchain, cryptocurrency and economics. She runs the NBTV channel on Rumble.

IP addresses are used in Sweden to track unemployed people

Published 1 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
The Swedish Public Employment Service has already identified approximately 4,000 people who appear to have logged in from a country other than Sweden.
2 minute read

The Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) has begun tracking the IP addresses of unemployed individuals to verify that they are actually located in Sweden. Approximately 4,000 people who logged in from foreign IP numbers now risk losing their benefits.

To be eligible for unemployment insurance (A-kassa) and other forms of compensation linked to being unemployed, certain requirements must be met. One of these requirements is that individuals must be located in Sweden, in order to be available in case a job opportunity arises.

When job seekers log into the Swedish Public Employment Service’s website, their IP address is now checked. If a person logs in from a foreign IP number, this suggests that they are located in another country.

The Swedish Public Employment Service has been tracking job seekers since the end of June, and the agency has already identified approximately 4,000 people who appear to have logged in from a country other than Sweden.

It’s a way to counteract the risk of incorrect payments. We’re talking about people who are abroad even though they should be in Sweden looking for work or participating in labor market policy programs, says Andreas Malmgren, operations controller at the Swedish Public Employment Service, to the Bonnier publication DN.

None of these individuals have been contacted yet, but the agency plans to make contact during September. These people risk having their benefits withdrawn.

Furthermore, the agency has also established a special tool to check whether job seekers are using VPN services, so that no one ends up among those flagged by mistake.

Wifi signals can identify people with 95 percent accuracy

Mass surveillance

Published 21 August 2025
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

Italian researchers have developed a technique that can track and identify individuals by analyzing how wifi signals reflect off human bodies. The method works even when people change clothes and can be used for surveillance.

Researchers at La Sapienza University in Rome have developed a new method for identifying and tracking people using wifi signals. The technique, which the researchers call “WhoFi”, can recognize people with an accuracy rate of up to 95 percent, reports Sweclockers.

The method is based on the fact that wifi signals reflect and refract in different ways when they hit human bodies. By analyzing these reflection patterns using machine learning and artificial neural networks, researchers can create unique “fingerprints” for each individual.

Works despite clothing changes

Experiments show that these digital fingerprints are stable enough to identify people even when they change clothes or carry backpacks. The average recognition rate is 88 percent, which researchers say is comparable to other automatic identification methods.

The research results were published in mid-July and describe how the technology could be used in surveillance contexts. According to the researchers, WhoFi can solve the problem of re-identifying people who were first observed via a surveillance camera in one location and then need to be found in footage from cameras in other locations.

Can be used for surveillance

The technology opens up new possibilities in security surveillance, but simultaneously raises questions about privacy and personal security. The fact that wifi networks, which are ubiquitous in today’s society, can be used to track people without their knowledge represents a new dimension of digital surveillance.

The researchers present their discovery as a breakthrough in the field of automatic person identification, but do not address the ethical implications that the technology may have for individuals’ privacy.

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