Individual privacy under threat in Europe and U.S., report says -- Signs of the Times News

Individual privacy under threat in Europe and U.S., report says -- Signs of the Times News: "http://www.sott.net/articles/show/146394-Individual-privacy-under-threat-in-Europe-and-U-S-report-says"

LONDON: Individual privacy is under threat in the United States and across the European Union as governments introduce sweeping surveillance and information-gathering measures in the name of security and controlling borders, an international rights group has said in a report.

Greece, Romania and Canada had the best privacy records of 47 countries surveyed by Privacy International, which is based in London. Malaysia, Russia and China were ranked worst.

Both Britain and the United States fell into the lowest-performing group of "endemic surveillance societies."

"The general trend is that privacy is being extinguished in country after country," said Simon Davies, director of Privacy International. "Even those countries where we expected ongoing strong privacy protection, like Germany and Canada, are sinking into the mire."

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

FBI aims for world's largest biometrics database -- Signs of the Times News

FBI aims for world's largest biometrics database -- Signs of the Times News: "http://www.sott.net/articles/show/145866-FBI-aims-for-world-s-largest-biometrics-database"

The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion project to build the world's largest computer database of biometrics to give the U.S. government more ways to identify people at home and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The FBI, the main investigative arm of the Department of Justice, has already started compiling digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns in its systems, the paper said.

In January, the agency -- which focuses on violations of federal law, espionage by foreigners and terrorist activities -- expects to award a 10-year contract to expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives, it said.

At an employer's request, the FBI will also retain the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks, the paper said.

If successful, the system, called Next Generation Identification, will collect the biometric information in one place for identification and forensic purposes, the Post said.

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

The US, UK and China Cybercrime Conspiracy

There has been much China-bashing in the main-stream-media (MSM) of late. Whether it be financial underhand practices threatening dollar hegemony, recalling of lead-contaminated toys (followed later by apologies to China from Matel), toxic food from China, Chinese surveillance of foreign journalists, Their Crackdown on the media, China saying ties with US are damaged amid Navel row , China accused of monopolistic practice in search engine re-routing to Baidu, Chinese censorship - the great firewall of china and the latest Cybercrime attacks: China and Russia accused of switching to electronic hacking into government computers to gain Britain's military secrets, cyber attacks on the Pentagon from China, and comments from Washington - that Chinese espionage in the United States is the largest threat to US military technology.

One of the most recent stories is from the BBC Business news: MI5 warns over China spy threat

Leading British firms and government agencies have been warned Chinese state organisations may be spying on them.

UK intelligence network MI5 has contacted 300 chief executives and security experts at banks and financial institutions to raise the concerns. It is alleged that UK organisations may suffer a concerted cyber attack to gain commercially-sensitive data.

Zhao Shangse, an official from the Chinese embassy in London, has denied the allegations.

Is there any truth it this new terror threatl? I doubt Craig Murry would think so, in response to MI5's pre-Christmas warning of an impending dirty bomb attack, he writes: UK Media Hype: Terror Scare Early for Christmas:

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made today the most cynical - and least convincing - move yet to exploit "terror" politically in the UK. On the day that New Labour hit a twenty year low in the opinion polls and Harriet Harman blamed Gordon Brown's office for her dodgy donations, we now have the first headline on the television news as a government announcement of the threat of a "Dirty Bomb" over Christmas.

I cannot say this loudly enough. I have checked with my own contacts and there is NO specific or new intelligence indicating a threat of a terrorist dirty bomb - or any other terrorist threat - this Christmas. Doubtless that will not stop Frank "Goebbels" Gardner appearing any minute now nobly to warn us of the grave danger we face.

Interestingly, even my friends in the Security Services - who normally are pretty happy to see the threat exaggerated, thus adding to their ever increasing budgets and career prospects - this time are sickened by the cynicism of the timing of this "Christmas Warning".

An article last year entitled "Crying Wolf: Terror Alerts based on Fabricated Intelligence" Michel Chossudovsky highlights the lack of evidence on no less than 5 of these alleged terror attacks. In a response to the August 2006 'foiled terror plot' to blow up transatlantic jets, he writes:

This is certainly not the first time that brash and unsubstantiated statements have been made regarding an impending terror attack, which have proven to be based on "faulty intelligence".

Back to the impending cyberwar about to be launched by those pesky Chinese hackers, the most interesting part of the article on the MI5 warning about the China cyberthreat is at the end:

Earlier this week, China said that it too had been attacked by computer hackers. Meanwhile, other experts say that hackers outside of China may be using the country's many insecure computers and networks to disguise their locations.

Speculating here, where would they originate from if not from China? qui bono? who would benefit from stealing wealth from UK and US businesses and individuals and scaring them s***less in the process? Who has the means, the know how, the resources, the expertise and the motivation? who would want to paint China as the enemy to blame for a nations pending economic collapse?hmmm... let me think about it while I buy new firewall protection and a dirty-bomb suit.

For related information on the mind games played by covert agents see: the art of mental warfare, confessions of a covert agent

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

Are you living in a computer simulation?

The simulation argumentimage from sims2

Nick Bostrom
Director, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University:

On this website you can peruse the debate that followed the paper presenting the Simulation argument. The original paper is here, as are popular synopses, scholarly papers commenting on the first paper, and a reply to these comments.

ABSTRACT. The paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

Interesting...

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

BBC News: There is no longer any privacy

'There is no longer any privacy'

By David Calder a BBC Radio Scotland's The Investigation

There are estimated to be up to 10 million CCTV cameras in the UK

Not so long ago, the Information Commissioner warned that we were "sleep-walking our way into a surveillance society".

At the time, a lot of people assumed he was talking about CCTV cameras. But it's now clear he was more concerned about the amount of data held on each and every one of us which, if all brought together, would give the government an incredibly detailed view of our lives.

It was brought home all too clearly when Alistair Darling stood up in the House of Commons last month and admitted the loss of those CDs by HM Revenue and Customs. You may have thought we had some protection from the Data Protection Act.

But Dr David Murakami Wood, a surveillance specialist from Newcastle University, believes it was out of date even before it came into force. "It's based on a 1970s conception of computing," he explained. "It came long before the networking of computers. You could now argue that how we exist in databases is as important as how we exist in the real world."

We should be trying to stop the unthinking proliferation of surveillance systems before it's too late John Scott Human rights lawyer

He edited a report on the surveillance society for the Information Commissioner. It makes quite disturbing reading, especially when you think about the plans for a national ID card.

"The National Identity Register will hold up to 50 pieces of information," he said.

"Everything from your national insurance number to your health record to the number of penalty points on your driving licence will be stored there, even information about when you buy a mobile phone."

That mobile phone is also storing a surprising amount of information about you.

From the start of October, the mobile phone companies will have to retain data about who you were calling, when you made the call and where you were when you made it.

And that information won't just be available to the police.

'No privacy'

According to Geraint Bevan of No2ID, 650 other organisations will be able to see it as well, from the Gaming Commission to local authorities.

"This data will be logged for a year," he said, "and every minor official could be able to have access to your phone records.

There's no privacy anymore."

Then there's data from CCTV systems. There have been various estimates of how many of these there are in the UK. But Camera Watch, the industry body set up to ensure that systems are compliant with data protection, believes it's largely educated guesswork.

The numbers range from about four million to 10 million - no-one actually knows.

On top of all this, there's the data collected on you by the private sector.

Dr Murakami Wood said people are putting too much data on sites

If you use a loyalty card in a shop, that information is stored to build up a picture of your preferences.

Even more is gathered when you shop online. Banks and insurance companies also gather data about you and not everyone is convinced that it's all strictly necessary.

The human rights lawyer, John Scott, is worried by the way it's monitoring our lives but acknowledges that "you can't turn back the tide of technology".

He said: "We should stop and think about where we'll be in five or 10 years time. We should be trying to stop the unthinking proliferation of surveillance systems before it's too late."

Dr Murakami Wood, however, thinks we've brought a lot of this on our own heads by "putting so much of our own personal data up on Facebook or MySpace".

He added: "It's made officials think we don't value privacy any more."

He believes it's time for the country to have a serious national debate about our surveillance society before it goes any further.

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

Homegrown Terror Bill is a declaration of War vs The people

Today I stumbled upon a well-written reaction to the Homegrown terror bill. It is good to see many others are aware of the simple fact that this bill is a Deceleration of War against the American people!

On October 23, 2007 the U.S. Government declared War on the American People. HR 1955: The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act designates every American who acts against the U.S. Government to be a Homegrown Terrorist. If you've ever said that George W. Bush should be hanged as a war criminal, you sir, are a Terrorist.

The Author concurs with the many opponents to this bill who recognise it's true implications:

Once this bill passes through the Senate and is signed into Law by the President, it will no longer be safe to speak out against the Government. Any word spoken across telephone lines, or written and recorded on the Internet, could potentially be scrutinized by the Department of Homeland Security, and lead more innocent victims to secret prisons to be subjected to violent acts of torture.

But this has been the plan all along and it will require every single person to stand up against tyranny. As quoted in the movie V for Vendetta,

"The truth is there is something terribly wrong with this country"

This excerpt is cleverly interlaced with current footage of global events, this film represents a depiction of the very real horror facing all of us:

Who is to blame for letting Governments pass laws that give them the write to send someone to Gitmo because they disagree with Governement policy?

"If you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into the mirror!"

We are ALL guilty if we continue to support companies and Government representatives who do not have our best interests at heart. To fight back it is time to support websites that really DO give it's readers objective news, views and solutions like SOTT.net.

What will make more difference to the world? receiving a cheap plastic tacky gift made in a Chinese sweatshop or contributing a small amount to helping bring about change? Read more here: V-for-Vendetta - give a penny for the guy

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics internet, digg, wired

Facebook, Advertising, the CIA, Microchip implants and the end of Privacy

Protests force Facebook to change its new beacon advertising program so that it is now an opt-in rather than an opt-out system. A mild victory to the many users of the social networking site rightly concerned that Facebook Beacon was going to be a Privacy nightmare. However the public terms and conditions are presented, it still is a privacy nightmare. One only has to investigate the Murky history of Facebook and it's links to the CIA: Facebook the CIA conspiracy:

Facebook has 20 million users worldwide, is worth billions of dollars and, if internet sources are to be believed, was started by the CIA. The social networking phenomenon started as a way of American college students to keep in touch. It is rapidly catching up with MySpace, and has left others like Bebo in its wake.

But there is a dark side to the success story that's been spreading across the blogosphere. A complex but riveting Big Brother-type conspiracy theory which links Facebook to the CIA and the US Department of Defence.

Facebook Shatters dreams

There are many real life stories how Facebook has had a negative impact on the lives of individuals:

• Halloween Fallout: 'Fairy tale' ruined by Facebook A US man (see Kevin below) who lied to his boss about a family emergency has been caught out after a photograph of him dressed as a fairy in a tutu at a Halloween party appeared online.

  

• instances of employers rejecting candidates or firing employees based on information obtained from social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook
• Ruined Christmases. Yes it is serious to some people!!!:

  "I saw my girlfriend bought an item i had been saying i wanted...so now part of my christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining christmas!"

The dangers of a Centralised Database

The beacon advertising system is just one way in which consumer purchases are traced and utilised to influence and target individuals. A description is given in the Huffington post:

The new ad infrastructure enables Facebook to extend their reach onto other companies' sites. For example, if you rent a copy of "Biodome" from Blockbuster.com, Blockbuster will look for a Facebook cookie on your computer. If it finds one, it will send a ping to Facebook. The Blockbuster site will pop up a "toast" (= popup) asking if you want to let your friends at Facebook know that you rented "Biodome." If you say yes, next time you log into Facebook, Facebook will ask you to confirm that you want to let your friends know of your recent rental. If you say yes, that becomes an event that's propagated in the news feed going to your friends.

As the data net becomes larger, with more companies and Government agencies involved in farming data from social networking sites, the following Satire entitled 'pizza palace' is perfectly believable. It highlights some of the privacy issues should (or should I say 'when' or even 'now that') individual data becomes centralised.

The extended version below is in the context of this data being linked to a microchip implant. It comes from the film, America from Freedom to Fascism by Russo. It presents the scenario of companies being able to determine who buys what and where they take those things using microchips. Currently these chips are used in Kraft cheese and Gillette razors without consumer knowledge but soon they'll be put into passports, into cash and under your skin!


The danger with any data is who controls it and what they do with it. Who can we trust if we cannot even trust ourselves to keep potentially self-destructive information to ourselves? We are not that far away from having no Privacy whatsoever and the sad thing is it is us who are letting it happen.

Technorati categories: News, technology, Facebook, internet,