New York Post publishes article titled the United States of Paranoia:
http://nypost.com/2014/02/01/welcome-to-the-united-states-of-paranoia/
The US forces New Zealand to override it's own privacy rules for Americans living in New Zealand:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9681670/Move-to-alter-privacy-laws-to-help-US
Feds to decide on standards for car to car communications:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TALKING_CARS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-03-10-48-29
Belarus government may have put malicious code in the Obamacare website, healthcare.gov, possibly comprising the personal information of millions of Americans:
http://freebeacon.com/the-belarusian-connection/
New app will allow Google Glass users to identify you just by looking at you:
http://www.eonline.com/news/507361/just-when-you-thought-google-glass-couldn-t-get-creepier-new-app-allows-strangers-to-id-you-just-by-looking-at-you Senator has concerns: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/197580-franken-questions-facial-recognition-app
Surveillance technology can track thousands of people for many hours at a time:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-surveillance-technology-can-track-everyone-in-an-area-for-several-hours-at-a-time/2014/02/05/82f1556e-876f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_print.html
States launch effort to rein in government surveillance:
http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/ap_029168fec16a42078c76fa035d4a3e1d
4 in 10 government security breaches go undetected (or at least unreported):
http://freebeacon.com/report-4-in-10-government-security-breaches-go-undetected/
Twitter threatens to sue the Obama administration in an effort to release more information to the public about how much data the company is forced to turn over to the government:
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/197646-twitter-considers-legal-fight-to-disclose-docs
Snowden leaks went beyond NSA disclosures to what angry senior officials called "very highly classified" information:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/02/05/lawmakers-disturbed-and-angered-after-classified-briefing-reveals-extent-of-snowden-defense-leaks/
NYPD testing Google Glass:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/05/nypd-google-glass/
Tech giants hire lobbyest for surveillance reform at the NSA:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/techs-biggest-players-hire-first-nsa-lobbyist-103214.html
$20 electronic gadget can let a hacker or anyone else take complete control of your vehicle:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2553026/The-gadget-hack-CAR-Terrifying-12-tool-remotely-control-headlights-locks-steering-brakes.html
NSA claims to only collect a third of American telephone call metadata and has trouble with cellphone collection:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/us/politics/nsa-program-gathers-data-on-a-third-of-nations-calls-officials-say.html
Friday, February 7, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Police Departments Tracking Your Vehicle Movements Daily
A Ford executive recently reported that Ford Motor Company knows where all of its customers are and knows when they are breaking the law. Well something you may not know is that the police officer who just passed you on the street in his cruiser has a camera that collected a photo of your vehicle, of the driver and occupants and your license plate. Also, it recorded your location via GPS. Before he was out of site, your information was uploaded to a police database that is used to track your movements.
Even if your car is parked at a friends house or in your own driveway, the police have a record of it anytime they drive by.
According to police departments, this information isn't just used to look for stolen cars or wanted suspects although few stolen cars are recovered this way:
An ACLU study, based on 26,000 pages of responses from 293 police departments and state agencies across the country, found that license plate scanners produced a small fraction of "hits," or alerts to police that a suspicious vehicle had been found.
This information is also used in cases where they want to go back in time and see where a suspect may go each day and what they do. This information can be used to put together a case of circumstantial evidence against you years later. Some departments keep this information indefinitely.
Nationwide, they have amassed hundreds of millions of digital records tracking the movements of all Americans.
The ACLU says the scanners are creating "a single, high-resolution image of our lives."
"There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, an attorney with the ACLU.
In fact, the ACLU claims that these systems aren't being used to recover stolen vehicles at all, but are instead being used to gather intelligence. They cite a newspaper investigation where the plates of a stolen motorcycle were captured 60 times, yet the person was never stopped.
The group is asking that police departments nationwide delete all records of cars not linked to any crime, which has been summarily ignored.
Drivers beware.
Even if your car is parked at a friends house or in your own driveway, the police have a record of it anytime they drive by.
According to police departments, this information isn't just used to look for stolen cars or wanted suspects although few stolen cars are recovered this way:
An ACLU study, based on 26,000 pages of responses from 293 police departments and state agencies across the country, found that license plate scanners produced a small fraction of "hits," or alerts to police that a suspicious vehicle had been found.
This information is also used in cases where they want to go back in time and see where a suspect may go each day and what they do. This information can be used to put together a case of circumstantial evidence against you years later. Some departments keep this information indefinitely.
Nationwide, they have amassed hundreds of millions of digital records tracking the movements of all Americans.
The ACLU says the scanners are creating "a single, high-resolution image of our lives."
"There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, an attorney with the ACLU.
In fact, the ACLU claims that these systems aren't being used to recover stolen vehicles at all, but are instead being used to gather intelligence. They cite a newspaper investigation where the plates of a stolen motorcycle were captured 60 times, yet the person was never stopped.
The group is asking that police departments nationwide delete all records of cars not linked to any crime, which has been summarily ignored.
Drivers beware.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Privacy Campaign: The Day We Fight Back, February 11, 2014
An organization called Access Now is planning an online protest against intrusive government surveillance. The protest is planned for February 11, and is called "The Day We Fight Back". From their website:
"Together we will push back against powers that seek to observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action. Together, we will make it clear that such behavior is not compatible with democratic governance. And if we persist, eventually win this fight, together."
On February 11, Americans will ask legislators to oppose the FISA Improvements Act, support the USA Freedom Act, and enact protections for non-Americans. Thousands of website will place banner ads on their pages asking people to join in the effort. Grassroots protests like this have worked in the past against censorship/surveillance oriented bills such as SOPA and PIPA.
Their website is located here. Please check it out, sign up and participate on February 11 to help protect your privacy.
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