Facebook sinking even deeper

• “Why I’m quitting Facebook” by Douglas Rushkoff (CNN; 2013.02.25) – http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/25/opinion/rushkoff-why-im-quitting-facebook/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
  • I have always argued for engaging with technology as conscious human beings and dispensing with technologies that take that agency away.

    Facebook is just such a technology. It does things on our behalf when we’re not even there. It actively misrepresents us to our friends, and worse misrepresents those who have befriended us to still others. To enable this dysfunctional situation — I call it “digiphrenia” — would be at the very least hypocritical.

  • Facebook does not exist to help us make friends, but to turn our network of connections, brand preferences and activities over time — our “social graphs” — into money for others.
  • The true end users of Facebook are the marketers who want to reach and influence us. They are Facebook’s paying customers; we are the product. And we are its workers. The countless hours that we — and the young, particularly — spend on our profiles are the unpaid labor on which Facebook justifies its stock valuation.
• “Facebook Is Recycling Your Likes To Promote Stories You’ve Never Seen To All Your Friends” by Anthony Wing Kosner (Forbes; 2013.01.21) – http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/01/21/facebook-is-recycling-your-likes-to-promote-stories-youve-never-seen-to-all-your-friends/
• “Why are dead people liking stuff on Facebook?” by Bernard Meisler (ReadWrite > Social; 2012.12.11) – http://readwrite.com/2012/12/11/why-are-dead-people-liking-stuff-on-facebook

Oh well

• “How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street” by Chris Moody (Yahoo! News; 2011.12.01) – http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/republicans-being-taught-talk-occupy-wall-street-133707949.html
• “The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy” by Naomi Wolf (The Guardian; 2011.11.25) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
  • The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality
  • DHS coordinated violent attack on Occupy Wall Street protests in 18 cities.
  • The mainstream media was declaring continually “OWS has no message”. Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online “What is it you want?” answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.
    • The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process.
    • No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
    • No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
• “Reporters Meet the Fists of the Law” by Michael Powell (The New Yrk Times; 2011.11.21) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/nyregion/nypd-stops-reporters-with-badges-and-fists.html
• “Poet-Bashing Police” by Robert Hass (The New Yoirk Times; 2011.11.19) – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/at-occupy-berkeley-beat-poets-has-new-meaning.html
• “Caught on Camera: 10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters” (AlterNet; 2011.11.19) – http://www.alternet.org/story/153134/caught_on_camera:_10_shockingly_violent_police_assaults_on_occupy_protesters/
  Probably 97 percent of police act professionally toward protesters. But the other 3 percent are armed and dangerous, and know that they’re unlikely to be held accountable.
• “Retired NY Supreme Court Justice Karen Smith Roughed up by Cops for Intervening in Brutal Beating of ‘Occupy’ Protester’s Mom” (Moral Low Ground blog; 2011.11.17) – http://morallowground.com/2011/11/17/retired-ny-supreme-court-justice-karen-smith-roughed-up-by-cops-for-intervening-in-brutal-beating-of-occupy-protesters-mom/
• “Homeland Security Coordinated 18-City Police Crackdown on Occupy Protest” (Washington’s Blog; 2011.11.16) – http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/homeland-security-coordinated-18-city-police-crackdown-on-occupy-protest.html
  Remember when people were freaking out over the Patriot Act and Homeland Security and all this other conveniently ready-to-go post-9/11 police state stuff, because it would obviously be just a matter of time before the whole apparatus was turned against non-Muslim Americans when they started getting complain-y about the social injustice and economic injustice and income inequality and endless recession and permanent unemployment? That day is now, and has been for some time. But it’s also now confirmed that it’s now, as some Justice Department official screwed up and admitted that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated the riot-cop raids on a dozen major #Occupy Wall Street demonstration camps nationwide yesterday and today.
• “Did Mayors, DHS Coordinate Occupy Attacks?” by Allison Kilkenny (In These Times; 2011.11.16) – http://inthesetimes.com/uprising/entry/12303/mayors_dhs_coordinated_occupy_attacks/
• “Raids on OWS coordinated with Obama’s FBI, Homeland Security & others” (News from Undeground; 2011.11.15) – http://markcrispinmiller.com/2011/11/raids-on-ows-coordinated-with-obamas-fbi-homeland-security-others/
• “Journalists obstructed from covering OWS protests” (CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists]; 2011.11.15) – http://www.cpj.org/2011/11/journalists-obstructed-from-covering-ows-protests.php

Reputation management

• Vanish – self-destructing digital data – http://vanish.cs.washington.edu/
• FaceCloak – Protect user privacy on Facebook – http://crysp.uwaterloo.ca/software/facecloak/index.html – FaceCloak is an architecture for protecting user privacy on social networking sites, as introduced in the following paper:
  • Luo, W., Xie, Q., and Hengartner, U., FaceCloak: An Architecture for User Privacy on Social Networking Sites. Proc. of 2009 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust (PASSAT-09), Vancouver, BC, August 2009, pp. 26-33. – http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~uhengart/publications/passat09.pdf
• Reputation.com – online reputation management – http://www.reputation.com/
• uProtect –

Geotracking and surveillance

And everyone else (and his dog) is on the game, too …

• http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/05/02/1724231/Tom-Tom-Sells-GPS-Info-To-Dutch-Cops
  “As smartphones with GPS capabilities wear away at the dedicated GPS market, vendors like Tom Tom need to find new revenue streams. Tom Tom decided it would be a good idea to ‘share’ (i.e., sell) aggregated data from their users to Dutch law enforcement. The company claims they assumed that the data would be used to improve traffic safety and road engineering, and were shocked, shocked to discover that instead the police used it to figure out the best places to put speed traps.”
• “Tom Tom’s sleazy way to make up GPS revenue shortfall” by Chris Nerey (IT World; 2011.04.29) – http://www.itworld.com/mobile-wireless/160861/tom-toms-sleazy-way-make-gps-revenue-shortfall
  … TomTom NV, Europe’s largest navigation device maker, went into damage control mode Wednesday after it emerged that Dutch police have been using data collected from drivers who use the company’s products to set speed traps.

  Earlier, TomTom had reported weak first quarter earnings in which it cut 2011 sales forecasts and said it was seeking to compensate for a decline in demand for personal navigation devices by growing service revenues, including selling traffic data to governments. …

• “GPS Maker TomTom Submits Your Speed Data To Police” (SlashDot; 2011.04.28) – http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/04/28/1719247/GPS-Maker-TomTom-Submits-Your-Speed-Data-To-Police
  “The GPS systems in TomTom’s Live range all feature built-in 3G data cards, which feed location and route information back to a central server. According to CNET, this data, along with users’ speed information, is being made available to local governments and the police.”
  From the article: “Knowing the cops can see where you’re driving and how fast you’re going is eye-opening stuff, but TomTom says the data is anonymous and can never be traced back to an individual user or device. Ordinarily, we’d be reassured by this, but we recall Apple saying something similar before the location-tracking excrement hit the phone-carrying fan.”
• “TomTom admits to sending your routes and speed information to the police” by Rory Reid (CNET UK; 2011.04.28) – http://crave.cnet.co.uk/cartech/tomtom-admits-to-sending-your-routes-and-speed-information-to-the-police-50003618/
  … The sat-navs in TomTom’s Live range all feature built-in 3G data cards, which feed location and route information back to a central server, which allows TomTom to create a map of congestion hotspots. It’s now emerged that this data, however, along with a user’s speed, is being made available to local governments and authorities.

  TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn revealed the information on the company’s website. “We are now aware that the police have used traffic information that you have helped to create to place speed cameras at dangerous locations where the average speed is higher than the legally allowed speed limit,” he says.

  Knowing the cops can see where you’re driving and how fast you’re going is eye-opening stuff, but TomTom says the data is anonymous and can never be traced back to an individual user or device. Ordinarily, we’d be reassured by this, but we recall Apple saying something similar before the location-tracking excrement hit the phone-carrying fan.…

• “TomTom admits police used data for speed traps” by Toby Sterling (Forbed/AP; 2011.04.27) – http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/04/27/business-telecommunications-equipment-eu-netherlands-earns-tomtom_8438128.html

Androids, too …

• “Your Location ‘Extremely Valuable’ To Google” (SlashDot; 2011.05.02) – http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/05/02/0438206/Your-Location-Extremely-Valuable-To-Google
  • “Your location ‘extremely valuable’ to Google” (International Business Times; 2011.05.01) – http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/139985/20110501/your-location-extremely-valuable-to-google.htm
    … Then, just weeks ago Los Angeles-based researcher Samy Kamkar illustrated that Google Android based smartphones were sending precise GPS location and other data back to Google “several times an hour.”…
    … The company is using this information to create a digital databases that include the physical location of hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi access points. Smartphones use those databases as a kind of electronic map to chart their own location. …

    … Moreover, beyond improving services like maps for end-users, it also positions the company in front a fast-growing location-based advertising market.…
    … The problem, however, is if the data fall into the wrong hands, or if the data is compromised. …
    … The data is precise enough that Kamkar says Google can correlate timing and frequency of phone usage to pinpoint an Android owner’s home address. …
    … “If your phone is at the same location during night hours, they know where you live,” says Kamkar. “If your phone location is on the move, they can guess that you’re in a car and even calculate how fast your car is moving.” …

• “Google Defends Way It Gets Phone Data” by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries (The Wall Street Journal; 2011.04.23) – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576279451001593760.html
• “Apple, Google Collect User Data” by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries (The Wall Street Journal; 2011.04.22) – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983704576277101723453610.html
• packetlss – Android location service cache dumper – https://github.com/packetlss/android-locdump
• “Android phones keep location cache, too, but it’s harder to access” by Chris Foresman (Ars Technica; 2011.04.22) – http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/04/android-phones-keep-location-cache-too-but-its-harder-to-access.ars
• “Android Phones Track Users Locations, Just LIke iPhones” by Jesse Emspak (International Business Times; 2011.04.21) – http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137143/20110421/android-phones-track-users-movements.htm

iPhone doing surveilance, on whose behalf?

• “IPhone Stored Location in Test Even if Disabled” by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries (The Wall Street Journal; 2011.04.25) – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704123204576283580249161342.html
• “Why you should care about the iPhone location-tracking issue” by Brian X. Chen and Mike Isaac (WIRED; 2011.04.25?) – http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/04/25/iphone.tracking.wired/
• “The scoop: Apple’s iPhone is NOT storing your accurate location, and NOT storing history” by Peter Batty (geothought blog; 2011.04.24) – http://geothought.blogspot.com/2011/04/scoop-apples-iphone-is-not-storing-your.html
• “The Week in Tweets: Your iPhone Is Watching You” by Sara Yin (PC Magazine; 2011.04.25) – http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/263506/The-Week-in-Tweets:-Your-iPhone-Is-Watching-You
• “3 Major Issues with the Latest iPhone Tracking “Discovery”” by Alex Levison (at his blog; 2011.04.21) – https://alexlevinson.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/3-major-issues-with-the-latest-iphone-tracking-discovery/

  • 1) Apple is not collecting this data.
  • 2) This hidden file is neither new nor secret.
  • 3) This “discovery” was published months ago.

• “So What If iPhones Spy User Locations” by George Hulme (Information Week; 2011.04.21) – http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/229402104
  And, it appears, phones based on the Android operating system do the same thing, essentially. The location information is stored in files named cache.cell and cache.wifi.
• “iPhone Location Tracking Brouhaha in Perspective + Personal Status Note” by Lauren Weinstein (Lauren Weinstein’s Blog; 2011.04.21) – http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000843.html
  Some observers (many of whom seem to be rather hardcore Apple “fanboys”), appear to be attempting to minimize the seriousness of this situation, suggesting that it really isn’t a big deal since Apple reportedly isn’t routinely sending the collected location data to their own servers — some apologists even parroting the tired and dangerous meme that “if you aren’t doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear from such data being gathered.”
  
  There’s also considerable speculation regarding the whys and wherefores behind Apple’s deploying this data mechanism.
  
  None of this substantively changes the bottom line.
  
  This isn’t rocket science. The collection of this data on these devices, especially in unencrypted form, is incredibly dangerous, stupid, and disrespectful of Apple’s customers.
  
  In an age when U.S. Customs and now even local police departments are claiming the right to use specialized equipment to drain smartphones and laptops of their stored data without any kind of warrants or court orders, the presence of such comprehensive location data in these devices represents a treasure trove for everything from completely unreasonable law enforcement “fishing expeditions” to aggressive and nosy divorce attorneys.
• “Researchers say iPhones can track users’ movements” 9BBC news; 2011.04.21) – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13162893
• “Why and How Apple Is Collecting Your iPhone Location Data” by Brian X. Chen (WIRED; 2011.04.21) – http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/apple-iphone-tracking
• “What Your iPhone Knows About You” by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries (The Wall Street Journal; 2011.04.20) – http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/04/20/what-your-iphone-knows-about-you
• “Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves” by Alasdair Allan (O’Reilly Radar; 2011.04.20) – http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/04/apple-location-tracking.html – A hidden file in iOS 4 is regularly recording the position of devices.
• “iPhone Tracks Your Every Move, and There’s a Map for That” by Brian X. Chen (Wired; 2011.04.20) – http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/iphone-tracks/
• “Report: iPhones secretly track their users’ locations” by John D. Sutter (CNN Tech; 2011.04) – http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/04/20/iphone.tracking/
  The unauthorized surveillance started in June 2010, when the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system was released, according to two researchers who say they discovered a hidden tracking file and posted it out of concern for users.
• “iPhones Secretly Track Your Every Move, Researchers Say” by Catharine Smith (The Huffington Post; 201.04.20) – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/20/apple-iphones-tracking-users_n_851532.html
  According to The Guardian, Warden and Allan discovered that devices running iOS 4 keep a record of time-stamped coordinates in a file called “consolidated.db.”
• “Apple Users, Beware: iPhones Secretly Tracking Location, Experts Warn” by Maxim Lott (Fox News; 2011.04.20) – http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/20/apple-iphone-users-beware-location-tracking/
• “Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves” by Alasdair Allan (O’Reilly Radar; 2011.04.20) – http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/04/apple-location-tracking.html – A hidden file in iOS 4 is regularly recording the position of devices.
• “iPhone keeps record of everywhere you go” by Charles Arthur (Guardian; 2011.04.20) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears
• iPhone Tracker – http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

Old and unrelated (or, is it?):

• The Snitch in Your Pocket (Law enforcement is tracking Americans’ cell phones in real time—without the benefit of a warrant), by Michael Isikoff (NEWSWEEK; Feb 19, 2010.02.19; from the magazine issue dated 2010.03.01): http://www.newsweek.com/id/233916

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Related: Geolocation – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/geolocation/

Geolocation

• “SimpleGeo Makes Location Data Free, Complicates Smartphone Tracking Worries” by Kit Eaton (Fast Company; 2011.04.22) – http://www.fastcompany.com/1749262/simplegeo-makes-location-data-free-complicates-smartphone-tracking-worries
• “Involuntary Geolocation To Within One Kilometer” 9SlashDot; 2011.04.08) – http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/04/08/1245244/Involuntary-Geolocation-To-Within-One-Kilometer
  Schneier’s blog tips an article about research into geolocation that can track down a computer’s location from its IP address to within 690 meters on average without voluntary disclosure from the target. Quoting: “The first stage measures the time it takes to send a data packet to the target and converts it into a distance – a common geolocation technique that narrows the target’s possible location to a radius of around 200 kilometers. Wang and colleagues then send data packets to the known Google Maps landmark servers in this large area to find which routers they pass through. When a landmark machine and the target computer have shared a router, the researchers can compare how long a packet takes to reach each machine from the router; converted into an estimate of distance, this time difference narrows the search down further. ‘We shrink the size of the area where the target potentially is,’ explains Wang. Finally, they repeat the landmark search at this more fine-grained level: comparing delay times once more, they establish which landmark server is closest to the target.”
• “Internet probe can track you down to within 690 metres” by Jacob Aron(NewScientist; 2011.04.05) – http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20336-internet-probe-can-track-you-down-to-within-690-metres.html
  Online adverts could soon start stalking you. A new way of working out where you are by looking at your internet connection could pin down your current location to within a few hundred metres.
• “Pinpointing a Computer to Within 690 Meters” by Bruce Schneier (2011.04.08) – http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/04/pinpointing_a_c.html

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Related here:

• iPhone (and Androids, too) doing surveilance, on whose behalf? – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/iphone-doing-surveilance-on-whose-behalf/:
  • packetlss – Android location service cache dumper – https://github.com/packetlss/android-locdump
  • iPhone Tracker – http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

Privacy articles

• Report: “Dispelling the Myths Surrounding De-identification” (Anonymization can still work) by Lauren Weinstein (Lauren Buzz; 2011.06.16) – http://bit.ly/lbH5PE by Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada [PDF]
  “Recently, the value of de-identification of personal information as a tool to protect privacy has come into question. Repeated claims have been made regarding the ease of re-identification. We consider this to be most unfortunate because it leaves the mistaken impression that there is no point in attempting to de-identify personal information, especially in cases where de-identified information would be sufficient for subsequent use, as in the case of health research. The goal of this paper is to dispel this myth – the fear of re-identification is greatly overblown. As long as proper de-identification techniques, combined with re-identification risk measurement procedures, are used, de-identification remains a crucial tool in the protection of privacy.”
• AOL search data scandal (WikiPedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal
• “What the know” series of articles (The Wall Street Journal) – http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-privacy.html
• “The privacy covenant is an illusion: How to regain control” by Chad Perrin (Tech Republic; 2011.04.18) – http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/the-privacy-covenant-is-an-illusion-how-to-regain-control/5351?tag=nl.e036

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Related pages here: Privacy and digital liberties – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/privacy-and-digital-liberties/|Personal computer security – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/personal-computer-security/ | Online privacy tools – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/online-privacy-tools/ | Unending stream of Facebook privacy news – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/unending-stream-of-facebook-privacy-news/ | TSA folies – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/tsa-folies/

Declawing Cookies

• “Flash to Offer More Control Over Cookies” by Keir Thomas (PCWorld; 2011.01.13) – http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/216681/flash_to_offer_more_control_over_cookies.html

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Disabling Flash cookies (LSOs)

• 1) Go to http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html. You should see something like:
  

• 2) Disable the “Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer” check-box:
  
  Since you are here, disable also “Store common Flash components to reduce download toimes.”, too.

WikiLeaks 2010

• CableSearch – http://cablesearch.org/ – an attempt for an user friendly search engine of already published documents from Wikileaks.

On the leaks

• HBGary Email Viewer (at Anonleaks.ch) – http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch/greg_hbgary_com/
• “Leaked Emails: Anti-WikiLeaks Security Firm Targeted Journalists” by Neal Ungerleider (FastCompanyl 2011.02.16) – http://www.fastcompany.com/1728259/leaked-emails-anti-wikileaks-security-firm-targeted-journalists
  A cache of emails leaked by the Anonymous collective indicates dirty tricks were considered against Salon’s Glenn Greenwald; the New York Times’s Jennifer 8. Lee and The Guardian’s James Ball also appear to have been monitored–they’re part of a “sabotage” PowerPoint.
• “Firm targeting WikiLeaks cuts ties with HBGary – apologizes to reporter” by Steve Ragan – (The Tech Herald; 2011.02.11) – http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201106/6804/Firm-targeting-WikiLeaks-cuts-ties-with-HBGary-apologizes-to-reporter
• “A disturbing threat against one of our own” by Kerry Lauerman (Salon; 2011.02.11) – http://www.salon.com/about/inside_salon/2011/02/11/threats_against_glenn_greenwald_wikileaks/index.html
• “BofA denies connection to proactive tactics to silence WikiLeaks” By Byron Acohido (USA TODAY; TechnologyLive blog; 2011.02.11) – http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/02/bofa-denies-connection-to-proactive-tactics-to-silence-wikileaks/1
• “Disgraced security firm asked Bank of America to fund anti-Wikileaks/anti-Glenn Greenwald campaign” by Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing; 2010.02.10) – http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/10/disgraced-security-f.html
• “Get Glenn Greenwald!” by Jesse Walker (Reason; 2011.02.10) – http://reason.com/blog/2011/02/10/get-glenn-greenwald
• “Private Contractors Plan To Protect Bank Of America From WikiLeaks By ‘Neutralizing’ Glenn Greenwald, Others” by Jason Linkins (The Huffington Post; 2011.02.10) – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/wikileaks-glenn-greenwald-bofa-neutralizing_n_821510.html
• “Did Security Firms Pitch Bank Of America On Sabotaging WikiLeaks?” by Andy Greenberg (Forbed; 2011.02.09) – http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/02/09/did-security-firms-pitch-bank-of-america-on-sabotaging-wikileaks/
• “The leaked campaign to attack WikiLeaks and its supporters” by Glenn Greenwald (Salon; 2011.02.11) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/11/campaigns
• “Get Greenwald” by Yglesias (2011.02.09) – http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/get-greenwald/
• “Leaked HBGary Documents Show Plan To Spread Wikileaks Propaganda For BofA… And ‘Attack’ Glenn Greenwald” – from the this-is-like-out-of-a-bad-movie dept (techDirt; 2011.02.09) – http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110209/22340513034/leaked-hbgary-documents-show-plan-to-spread-wikileaks-propaganda-bofa-attack-glenn-greenwald.shtml
• “Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks” (EmptyWheel; 2011.02.09) – http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2011/02/09/security-firms-pitching-bank-of-america-proposed-targeting-glenn-greenwald/
• “Tit for Tat and Hack for Hack” (Hullabaloo; 2011.02.09) – http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/tit-for-tat-and-hack-for-hack.html
• “Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks” by Steve Ragan (The Tech Herald; 2011.02.09) – http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201106/6798/Data-intelligence-firms-proposed-a-systematic-attack-against-WikiLeaks
• “Wiki Rehab” by Evgeny Morozov (The New Republic; 2011.01.07)- http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/81017/wikileaks-internet-pirate-party-save – How to save Julian Assange’s movement from itself.
• “WikiLeaks’ Assange Threatened Lawsuit Over Leaked Diplomatic Cables” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2011.01.06) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/vf-wikieaks/
  Just weeks prior to unveiling a giant cache of leaked U.S. State Department cables, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange threatened to sue the Guardian newspaper in Britain over publication of the documents, […]
  After receiving the database of a quarter-million cables from Assange under embargo last August, the Guardian obtained a second copy of the database from a WikiLeaks insider without conditions — which led the newspaper to conclude it was no longer bound by a signed agreement with Assange that it wouldn’t publish the documents until he gave the go-ahead.
  Assange, suddenly faced with having lost control of documents that WikiLeaks itself had received from a source, asserted that he owned the information and had a financial interest in how and when it was released, the magazine reports.
• “Amazon Cloud Not Big Enough For Feds and WikiLeaks” (SlashDot; 2010.12.29) – http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/12/29/1815238/Amazon-Cloud-Not-Big-Enough-For-Feds-and-WikiLeaks
• “Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers” 9NYTimes) – http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204527804576044020396601528.html – Everyone knows that Daniel Ellsberg leaked top-secret government documents about the Vietnam War. How many remember the ones he kept secret, or why?
  • “Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers” (SlashDot; 2010.12.29) – http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/12/29/1417246/Why-WikiLeaks-Is-Unlike-the-Pentagon-Papers
• “Wired Responds In Manning Chat Log Controversy” (SlashDot; 2010.12.29) – http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/12/29/0644234/Wired-Responds-In-Manning-Chat-Log-Controversy
• “Wired’s refusal to release or comment on the Manning chat logs” by Glenn Greenwald (Salon; 2010.12.29) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/29/wired_1/index.html
• “Response to Wired’s accusations” by Glenn Greenwald (Salon; 2010.12.29) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/29/wired_response_1/index.html
• “Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs” by Evan Hansen and Kevin Poulsen (Wired; 2010.12.28) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/greenwald/ – belated attempted defense of Poulsen’s and Lamo’s conduct in disclosing Manning and attacking WikiLeaks
• “The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired” by Glenn Greenwald (Salon; 2010.12.27) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/27/wired/index.html
• “FDL Manning-WikiLeaks Key Articles Table” by Jane Hamsher (FDL Action; 2010.12.27) – http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/12/27/fdl-manning-wikileaks-key-articles-table/
• “The Nixonian henchmen of today: at the NYT” by Glenn Greenwald (Salon; 2010.10.24) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/24/assange
• “The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks” by Glenn Greenwald (Salon; 2010.06.18) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/18/wikileaks
• “‘I Can’t Believe What I’m Confessing to You’: The Wikileaks Chats” by Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.06.10) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/wikileaks-chat/
• “Wikileaks site unfazed by arrest of US army ‘source'” by Jonathan Fildes (BBC News; 2010.06.08) – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10265430
• “U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe” by Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.06.06) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/leak/
• “The war on WikiLeaks and why it matters” by Glenn Greenwald (The Tech Herald; 2010.03.27) – http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/03/27/wikileaks

Contents of leaks

• “WikiLeaks: Panama’s leader pressured U.S. to help wiretap opponents” by Tim Lister (CNN; 2010.12.29) – http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/29/panama.wikileaks.wiretaps/
• “How WikiLeaks Just Set Back Democracy in Zimbabwe” (The Atlantic; 2010.12.28) – http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/12/how-wikileaks-just-set-back-democracy-in-zimbabwe/68598/

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Related here: Information disclosure sites – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/information-disclosure-sites/ | ACTA – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/acta/ | Law vs Technology – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/law-vs-technology/

.

X-Ray Vans on US streets

It is time for tin-foil hats … and (tin-foil) whole-body uniforms.

• “Security Theater Creep: Full Strength X-Ray Body Scanners coming to Airports” by Steve Watson (Prisonplanet.com; 201.03.02)- http://imperialtwilight.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/security-theater-creep-full-strength-x-ray-body-scanners-coming-to-airports/
• “Mobile X-Ray Anti-Terrorist Van Disturbs Privacy Advocates” by Charles Tate (Internetbits; 2010.10.04) – http://www.internetbits.com/mobile-x-ray-anti-terrorist-van-disturbs-privacy-advocates/54175/
• “Full-Body Scan Technology Deployed In Street-Roving Vans” by Andy Greenberg (Forbes; 2010.08.24) – http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2010/08/24/full-body-scan-technology-deployed-in-street-roving-vans/
  

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Related here: “Surveillance, wiretapping, tracking, etc.” – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/surveilance-wiretapping-etc/.

Unending stream of Facebook privacy news

• “Facebook Deals: Discounts You Can Use. The Cost: Your Privacy?” by Hans Villarica (2010.11.05) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/05/facebook-deals-discounts-you-can-use-the-cost-your-privacy/
• How You Can Allow Search Engines to Index Your Private Facebook Account (Bill Hartzer’s blog; 2010.11.03) – http://bhartzer.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/how-you-can-allow-search-engines-to-index-your-private-facebook-account/
• How You Can Download Your Private Info from Facebook (Bill Hartzer’s blog; 2010.10.28) – http://bhartzer.wordpress.com/2010/10/28/how-you-can-download-your-private-info-from-facebook/
  • How to Download Your Information from Facebook – http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/how-to-download-your-information-from-facebook/
• “The (Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Guide [DOWNLOAD]” by Justin Pot (MakeUseOf; 2010.10.25) – http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-unofficial-facebook-privacy-guide/
• A shill-sounding article defending Facebook’s privacy practices: “Three Reasons To Stop Demonizing Facebook And Mark Zuckerberg” by Augie Ray (Forester; 2010.10.25) – http://blogs.forrester.com/augie_ray/10-10-25-three_reasons_to_stop_demonizing_facebook_and_mark_zuckerberg
• “Who is more secure – Facebook or the botnets?” (ThreatSTOP; 2010.10.25) – http://threatstop.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/who-is-more-secure-facebook-or-the-botnets/
• “Not content to destroy your privacy, Facebook now messes with your friends’ too…” by Eric Olson (Cyber Crime, Security & Intelligence blog; 2010.10.06) – http://ericolsonblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/not-content-to-destroy-your-privacy-facebook-now-messes-with-your-friends-too/

TSA folies

• Association for Airline Passenger Rights’ (AAPR) – http://www.flyfriendlyskies.com/
• 2001.03.15: “TSA Admits Bungling of Airport Body-Scanner Radiation Tests” by David Kravets (Wired; 2011.03.15) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/tsa-radiation-test-bungling/ – the radiation is either 10 times larger or 10 times smaller than the previously stated levels.
• “X-ray Screening Technology Safety Reports” (TSA; documents disclosed due to FOIA requests) – http://www.tsa.gov/research/reading/xray_screening_technology_safety_reports.shtm
• 2011.01.24: If you assert your right to decline being irradiated by them; they force you march though the machine anyhow; promising “Oh we won’t turn it on…”
• 2011.01.02 – Tom Toles cartoon at http://www.gocomics.com/tomtoles/2011/01/02/:

Government sanctioned groping

• “Felt up or blown up? The psychology of the TSA, body scans and risk perception” by David Ropeik (Scientific American; 2010.11.23) – http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=tsa-body-scans-and-risk-perception-2010-11-23
• “Call the TSA’s Office of Strategic Comms when you’re threatened with arrest for airport photography” by Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing; 2010.11.23) – http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/23/call-the-tsas-office.html
  • TSA’s Office of Strategic Communications: (571)227-2829.
  • TSA Office of Civil Rights: (571)227-1917.
• “San Diego Airport Says Recording TSA Gropings Is An Arrestible Offense?” (TechDirt; 2010.11.23) – http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101122/16092011976/san-diego-airport-says-recording-tsa-gropings-is-arrestible-offense.shtml
• “Debate: Do Body Scanners Make Us Safer?” (NY Times; 2010.11.23) – http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/11/22/do-body-scanners-make-us-safer
• “TSA Abuses, Dental X-Rays, Children — and How to Lie About Radiation” by Lauren Weinstein (2010.11.23) – http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000784.html

  • … But while trying to get to sleep last night, thinking about this horrendous TSA mess along its various vectors — everything from the Bush DHS head who pushed body scanners and then went to work for the manufacturer, to the useless TSA groping, to the arguments about radiation levels — I suddenly thought about a rather horrifying article in today’s New York Times that I read last night: “The Radiation Boom”: “Radiation Worries for Children in Dentists’ Chairs.” …
  • … The companies that manufacture such equipment have everyone by the proverbial balls — including the government which seems to have a historically duplicitous attitude toward such systems — just think of all the blatant “safety” lies told to the public in the name of national security related to nuclear weapons tests and manufacturing-related radiation contaminations of people and property historically.
  • And to make matters worse, typically it’s impossible to prove whether any given radiation exposure directly related to cancers down the line. It can take years or decades for these to develop, and nobody is really keeping track of radiation dosage levels for anyone who isn’t a medical or nuclear worker — and even for them it’s only tracked to some degree within their work environments.
  • Put this all together, and think about all of those backscatter x-ray units in airport terminals, being operated as if they were popcorn machines by — frankly — unskilled personnel.
  • TSA is begging people not to refuse to go through the x-ray units. Their argument lately appears to be more about not disrupting air travel than about catching terrorists (TSA now apparently considers the information about whether their x-ray units and groping procedures have ever actually stopped a terrorist to be a state secret!)
  • Here’s my bottom line opinion on all this. You may not like it: Given the current state of information, research, and “validation,” if you voluntarily go through those x-ray backscatter units, you are approximating the behavior of a fool. It’s your choice, of course. But if you allow your young children to go through the units, you are, I believe, worse than a fool.

• “Terrorist Triumph” by Yaakov Kirschen (“PA Pundits – International” blog; 2010.11.23) – http://papundits.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/terrorist-triumph/
• “It’s Muslim Terrorists, Stupid, Not Americans!” by Alan Caruba (“PA Pundits – International” blog; 2010.11.23) – http://papundits.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/its-muslim-terrorists-stupid-not-americans/
• Janetalia (Warning Signs blog; 2010.11.23) – http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/
  
• “Untold Stories of the TSA Abuses of Power” (“The Word of Me…” blog; 2010.11.22) – http://thewordofme.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/untold-stories-of-the-tsa-abuse-of-power/
  … In March of this year a developmentally delayed 4 year old boy who had to wear leg braces because his ankles were malformed and weak because of a premature birth, was on his way to Disney World for his birthday celebration.
  The braces the boy has to wear are made of metal and hard plastic…of course this sets off the airport scanners in Philadelphia and the SS TSA screener said the boy had to take the braces off and he had to walk without them…
• “TSA Sexual Abuses and the Long Shadow of Abu Ghraib” (Kittywampus blog; 2010.11.22) – http://kittywampus.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/tsa-sexual-abuses-and-the-long-shadow-of-abu-ghraib/
  • Am I the only person struck by the Orwellian weirdness of calling a grope-down an “enhanced” pat-down? The term seems to originate with the TSA. …
  • “Enhanced Pat-downs” by “Blogger Bob” (TSA blog; 2010.08.27) – http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/08/enhanced-pat-downs.html
• “ABC producer says TSA agent felt inside her underwear” by David Edwards (RawStory; 2010.11.22) – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/abc-producer-tsa-patdown-worse-gynecologist/
• 2010.11.22: Shirtless boy:
  • “Utah man posts video of TSA searching shirtless boy” by Erin Alberty (The Salt Lake Tribune; 2010.11.22) – http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50725057-76/tait-tsa-video-shirt.html.csp
  • “Young boy gets pat down from TSA” (LA Times) – http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-viral-video-boy-strip-searched-tsa,0,7895580.htmlstory
• “TSA workers face verbal abuse from travelers ” (MSN; 2010.11.22) – http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40318901/ns/travel-news/
• “US airport security chiefs stand firm over invasion of the body scanners” (Guardian; 2010.11.22) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/22/american-protests-body-scanners-terrorism
• “Please Remove Your Prosthetic Breast: The TSA Horror Story to Trump Them All” by Steven James Snyder (Time.com; 2010.11.22) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/22/the-tsa-horror-story-to-trump-them-all/?iid=nfmostpopular
• Business Travel Coalition: National airport screening opt-out protests dangerous (2010.11.21) – http://www.eturbonews.com/19677/btc-national-airport-screening-opt-out-protests-dangerous
  • As expected, this guys are trying to protect their income. No surprise here.
• “Yes Hillary, It is called Profiling.” by notalemming (YourDaddy’s Politics blog; 2010.11.21) – http://notalemming.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/yes-hillary-it-is-called-profiling/
• “TSA screeners leave cancer survivor covered in urine” by Daniel Tencer (TheRawStory; 2010.11.20) – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/tsa-cancer-survivor-covered-urine/
  • “TSA Chief Apologizes to Airline Passenger Soaked in Urine After Pat-Down” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.11.23) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/sawyer/
• “TSA to exempt pilots from screenings, mulls ‘G-rated’ scanners” (TheRawStory; 2010.11.19) – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/tsa-exempt-pilots-screenings/
• “Boycott Airport Full Body Scanners And Patdowns” (“The World of Me …” blog; 2010.11.19) – http://thewordofme.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/boycott-airport-full-body-scanners-and-patdowns/
  • YouTube video – http://www.youtube.com/v/X1vmcJVIErA
• Liberty Lost (The Berger Memoranda blog; 2010.11.19) – http://bergermemo.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/liberty-lost/
  http://bergermemo.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/tsa_patdown.jpg
• “Ron Paul says what I said: the airport groping and x-raying has to stop!” (Xanthippa’s Chamberpot blog; 2010.11.18) – http://blog.xanthippas.com/2010/11/18/ron-paul-says-what-i-said-the-airport-groping-and-x-raying-has-to-stop/
  • YouTube video – http://www.youtube.com/v/Qwsdq69AHnw
  • “Ron Paul Blasts TSA and Introduces Legislation” (Dvorak Uncensored; 2010.11.18) – http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/11/18/ron-paul-blasts-tsa-and-introduces-legislation/

  Published on November 18th, 2010

  • Update: MDs and scientists warn that the full body scanners are unsafe and were not properly tested – http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/17/concern.pdf [PDF]
• “Pat-Downs 101: Nine Things to Know About Your Thanksgiving Airport Screening” by Josh Sanburn (Time.com; 2010.11.17) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/17/pat-downs-101/
• “TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants” by Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones (PrisonPlanet; 2010.11.16) – http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-now-putting-hands-down-fliers-pants.html
  The TSA’s invasive new screening measures include officers literally putting their hands down people’s pants if they are wearing baggy clothing in a shocking new elevation of groping procedures that have stoked a nationwide revolt against privacy-busting airport security measures….
• “100 Naked Citizens: 100 Leaked Body Scans” (Wired; 2010.11.16) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/giz-scans/
  … To the point, these sample images were removed from the machine in Orlando by the U.S. Marshals for distribution under the FOIA request before the machine was sent back to its manufacturer — images intact….
• “More on airport ‘security’ procedures” (Xanthippa’s Chamberpot blog; 2010.11.16) – http://blog.xanthippas.com/2010/11/16/more-on-airport-security-procedures/
• 2010.11.16: “Junk-gate”: A new specific incident where a passenger refused to be either radiated or groped:
  • “TSA Investigating ‘Don’t Touch My Junk’ Passenger” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.11.16) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/tsa-investigating-passenger/
    • … Due to privacy and health concerns, Tyner opted out of the scan in favor of a pat-down. But when the TSA agent explained in detail the agency’s new policy for “enhanced” pat-downs — which includes using the front of hands and fingers to touch passengers in their groins — Tyner balked….
      “If you touch my junk,” he told the agent, “I’ll have you arrested.”
      The agent called his supervisor, who told Tyner that if he wasn’t comfortable with the enhanced pat-down “we can escort you back out and you don’t have to fly today.”
      Tyner told the agent, “I don’t understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.”
      When the agent replied that a pat-down was not considered a sexual assault, Tyner said, “It would be if you were not the government.”
      The TSA supervisor told him, “By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights.” …
  • Traveler to TSA Agent: “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.” [Video] (We Won’t Fly blog; 2010.11.16) – http://wewontfly.com/traveler-to-tsa-agent
  • California Man Tells TSA, Don’t ‘Touch My Junk’ – http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/tsa-encounter-dont-touch-my-junk/19716789
  • John Tyner Utters Those Immortal Words “Don’t Touch My Junk!” (Tasithoughts’s Weblog; 2010.11.16) – http://tasithoughts.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/john-tyner-utters-those-immortal-words-dont-touch-my-junk/
  • “TSA Cavity Search Goes Awry” by Karson & Kennedy (2010.11.16) – http://mix1041.radio.com/2010/11/16/tsa-cavity-search-goes-awry/
  • TSA encounter at SAN – http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-events-took-place-roughly-between.html
• Protest grows:
  • “TSA Rage Hitting All Age Demographics Now” (Time online; 2010.11.16) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/16/tsa-rage-hitting-all-age-demographics-now/
  • “Screening Protests Grow as Holiday Crunch Looms” by Joe Sharkey (The New Yourk Times; 2010.11.15) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/business/16road.html
  • “Opt-Out Day” campaign’s web site – http://www.optoutday.com/
  • Say “I Opt Out” of Airport Scanners on National Opt Out Day, November 24 (We Won’t Fly blog – http://wewontfly.com/) – http://wewontfly.com/opt-out-day/
  • “National Opt-Out Day Called Against Invasive Body Scanners” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.11.12) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/national-opt-out/
  • “Body scanners, pat downs prompt traveler backlash” by Jonathan Adams (The Christian Science Monitor; 2010.11.16) – http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/1116/Body-scanners-pat-downs-prompt-traveler-backlash
• “Welcome to Antfarm World — sociopathic modality at the airports” at the The Path Whisperer blog – http://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/welcome-to-antfarm-world-%E2%80%94-sociopathic-modality-at%C2%A0the%C2%A0airports/
• “TSA adopts neck-licking anti-terror screening; warns body cavity searches could follow on behind” – http://hogsatemysister.com/tsa-adopts-neck-licking-anti-terror-screening-warns-body-cavity-searches-could-follow-on-behind/ – a satire.
• Full Body Scans and Pat Downs. Violation or Safety? (“It is my Time to Shine’ blog; 2010.11.16) – http://itismytimetoshine.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/full-body-scans-and-pat-downs-violation-or-safety/
• Three year old girl searched by TSA cries, “Stop touching me!” (2010.11.16) – http://saynsumthn.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/three-year-old-girl-searched-by-tsa/
• A simple example of abuse by TSA:
  • Small penis jokes lead to TSA worker beatdown – http://celebrifi.com/gossip/Small-penis-jokes-lead-to-TSA-worker-beatdown-2508247.html | http://guyism.com/humor/small-penis-jokes-lead-to-tsa-worker-beatdown.html
  • “Rolando Negrin: TSA Worker Arrested, Assaulted Colleague Over Genital Joke” – http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=1566
• “Your choice: nude photos or sexual assault” (Xanthippa’s Chamberpot blog; 2010.11.09) – http://blog.xanthippas.com/2010/11/09/your-choice-nude-photos-or-sexual-assault/
  • YouTube video – http://www.youtube.com/v/5EqV2Rmkqaw
• “Airline Pilots Union Rejects use of Body Scanners for Health Reasons” (Dvorak Uncensored blog; 2010.11.08) – http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/11/08/airline-pilots-union-rejects-use-of-body-scanners-for-health-reasons/
• “Enhanced Airport Pat Downs (VIDEO) Get ‘Personal'” by Jim Brogan (the Post Chronicle; 2010.11.01) – http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212330260.shtml
  • “TSA to air travelers: ‘Enhanced pat-downs’ start Friday” by Katie Boer (KVAl.com; 2010.11.01) – http://www.kval.com/news/local/106156984.html
• “‘Enhanced’ airport security measures taking effect” (MarketWatch; 2001.01.04) – http://www.marketwatch.com/story/enhanced-airport-security-measures-taking-effect-2010-01-04
• Full body scanner (WikiPedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_scanner

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Elsewhere:

• WordPress blog’s postings on TSA – http://en.wordpress.com/tag/tsa/

Surveillance, wiretapping, tracking, etc.

There are (at least) 4 types of big brothers:

• Type I: (True Big Brother) Governments and their services. They track population in order to prevent, detect, undercut and punish political dissent, frequently under pretense of enforcing various laws. They have full latitude to amend existing or generate the new laws (DMCA, ACTA, …) in order to legislate-out undesirable behaviors. Due to instrumentation of governments by certain well organized holders of the money (industry: e.g. RIAA, MPAA, etc), they frequently act as a suppressors of behaviors, groups and individuals that these branches of industry consider undesirable.
• Type II: (Small Big Brother) Commercial industry. There are two main motivations here: 1) suppression of threats to their current business model, and 2) acquisition of consumer data with intent to somehow monetarize collected information (e.g. by cross-pollination with other databases, targeted advertising, profiling the households, etc).
• Type III: (Wannabe Big Brother) Non-legal entities that look for (mainly) monetary gain by use of users data. This include various criminal groups, unaligned individuals, etc.
• Type IV: (Not-really Big Brother) family members, stalkers, etc

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Surveillance by Type I Big Brothers

USA:

• “SECURITY THEATER CREEP: FULL STRENGTH X-RAY BODY SCANNERS COMING TO AIRPORTS” by Steve Watson
  (Prisonplanet.com; 201.03.02)- http://imperialtwilight.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/security-theater-creep-full-strength-x-ray-body-scanners-coming-to-airports/ [Fringe]
  • See also: X-Ray Vans on US streets – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/x-ray-vans-on-us-streets/
• “10 Signs You are Being Watched” (The Line in the Sand blog; 2011.03.02) – http://thelineinthesand.net/2011/03/02/10-signs-you-are-being-watched/ [Fringe]
• “New Hampshire Vs. TSA” by Skip MacLure (2011.03.02) – http://skipmaclure.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/new-hampshire-vs-tsa/ [Fringe]
• 
  “Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers” by Andy Greenberg (Forbes; 2011.03.03) – http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/03/02/docs-reveal-tsa-plan-to-body-scan-pedestrians-train-passengers/
• “TSA Lies To Justify Illegal Train Station Grope-Down” by Paul Joseph Watson (Prison Planet [http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-lies-to-justify-illegal-train-station-grope-down.html]; 2011.03.01) – http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-lies-to-justify-illegal-train-station-grope-down.html
  TSA’s VIPR team ordered disembarking train passengers to enter the building where they were exposed to detailed pat-downs. When the information about this check point was exposed to public, TSA lied that passengers entered building on their own volition.
• “What The Heck Is The TSA Up To?” by Skip MacLure (2011.02.28) – http://skipmaclure.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/what-the-heck-is-the-tsa-up-to/
• ACTA – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/acta/
• 2010.11.16: FBI Director meeting Google, Facebook, etc. in push for Universal Internet Wiretapping:
  • “F.B.I. Seeks Wider Wiretap Law for Web” (NYTimes; 2010.11.16) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/technology/17wiretap.html?_r=2&hpw
• 2010.09.27: US government (FBI, NSA, DOJ) is pushing for back-doors in the various Internet-based communication services: for the encrypted communication systems like Skype and Blackberry, for the social communication networks (Ala FaceBook), etc.
  • “U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet” by Charlie Savage (TheNewYoirkTimes; 2010.09.27) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
  • “US seeks to ease Internet wiretaps: report” (AFP; 2010.09.27) – http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i8U22zC5TxC326IHeLox-BX7bFxA
  • “Ready for the Facebook, Skype wiretap?” by Larry Dignan (ZDNet; 2010.09.27) – http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/ready-for-the-facebook-skype-wiretap/39680
  • US Government Seeking New Internet Wiretap Regulations (Security Watch blog at PCMag; 2010.09.27) – http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/09/us_government_seeking_new_inte.php
  • “Opinion: Say No to Insecure Systems” by Larry Seltzer – http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/09/opinion_say_no_to_insecure_sys.php
    • The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third-Party Encryption – http://www.schneier.com/paper-key-escrow.html
• The New York Times’ topical articles feeds:
  • Surveillance of Citizens by Government – http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=des&v1=Surveillance+of+Citizens+by+Government&fdq=19960101
  • Wiretapping and Other Eavesdropping Devices and Methods – http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=des&v1=Wiretapping+and+Other+Eavesdropping+Devices+and+Methods&fdq=19960101>
• “The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous” at Wake-up Call blog (http://laudyms.wordpress.com/) –
  http://laudyms.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/the-digital-surveillance-state-vast-secret-and-dangerous/
• USA: TSA – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/tsa-folies/

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Surveillance by Type II Big Brothers

• “Resisting the Online Tracking Programs” by Riva Richmond (NYTimes; 2010.11.10) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/technology/personaltech/11basics.html
• “Removing and Blocking Ad Cookies, Browser by Browser” by Riva Richmond (NYTimes; 2010.11.10) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/technology/personaltech/11basics-sidebar.html
• “Code That Tracks Users’ Browsing Prompts Lawsuits” by Tanzina Vega (NYTimes; 2010.09.20) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/technology/21cookie.html/?pagewanted=all

DNA registry for whole population

• “The Goblins Want Your DNA!” (The Line in the Sand blog; 2011.03.01) – http://thelineinthesand.net/2011/03/01/the-goblins-want-your-dna/
• “S. 1858: Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007” by 110th Congress – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1858 – This is a bill in the U.S. Congress originating in the Senate (“S.”). A bill must be passed by both the Senate and House and then be signed by the President before it becomes law.

Misc

Facebook monkeying again with user trust model

TechCrunch has an article on the one more underhanded switch that Facebook did to the user trust model: “Facebook Has Quietly Implemented A De-Facto Follow Feature” by MG Siegler (2010.09.20) – http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/20/facebook-not-now-follow/. It is as if the Facebook is run an manned by bunch of evil minds trying to find new ways how to screw users’ trust and shatter any remaining semblance/bit of privacy.
Following two paragraphs are capturing the essence of this new change:

“You see, when someone requests to be your friend on Facebook, this automatically subscribes them to all of your public (“Everyone”) posts in their News Feed. Facebook doesn’t talk about this much, but it’s a very real feature, which we reported on in July of last year. You see these posts until this person rejects you (because obviously if they accept you as a friend, you’ll keep seeing them). So with this new Not Now button, and the removal of the simple rejection mechanism, Facebook has basically created a de-facto follow feature.

With the Not Now button, Facebook took what was a one-step rejection and made it at least two steps — and that’s only if you want to truly block somebody (after you click the Not Now button, they ask “Don’t know XXXX XXXX?” and if you click that, it will block them from making any further friend requests). If you just want to deny a person’s request without blocking them, you have to go to the Requests page — the limbo area that Facebook sends the Not Now people to. This area isn’t particularly easy to find; it’s buried in the Friends -> Find Friends area. In other words, it’s now quite a few steps simply to reject a person’s friend request as you previously could.”

• Facebook Lets You Mark Friend Requests with “Not Now,” then Decide on Them Later (InsideFacebook; 2010.09.17) – http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/09/17/facebook-lets-you-mark-friend-requests-with-not-now-then-decide-on-them-later/

ACTA

• “The European Parliament Rejects ACTA: The Impossible Becomes Possible” by Michael Geist (2012.07.04) – http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6578/125/
• Stop Usage Based Billing blog by Laurel L. Russwurm:
  • “The Hidden Rationale for Usage Based Billing” (2011.02.13) – http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/the-hidden-rationale-for-usage-based-billing/
    The simple answer to the underlying question is: ISPs and telcos need a way to fund the Internet monitoring functions required by the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Canada’s Investigating and Preventing Criminal Electronic Communications Act (Bill C-52).
  • “Did ACTA pass?” (2010.10.04) – http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/did-acta-pass/
• “MPAA asking if ACTA can be used to block sites like Wikileaks” by León (Technolawyer blog; 2010.09.30) – http://technolawyer.org/2010/09/30/mpaa-asking-if-acta-can-be-used-to-block-sites-like-wikileaks/
• La Quadrature du Net on ACTA – http://www.laquadrature.net/en/#brief_acta
  • WikiLeaks Cables Shine Light on ACTA History (2011.02.03) – http://www.laquadrature.net/en/wikileaks-cables-shine-light-on-acta-history
  • ACTA: Updated Analysis of the Final Version (2010.12.09) – http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-updated-analysis-of-the-final-version
• “The ACTA Internet provisions: DMCA goes worldwide” by Nate Anderson (ArcTechnica; 2009.11.08) – http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/the-acta-internet-provisions-dmca-goes-worldwide.ars
• Follow the ACTA tag across WordPress blogs – http://en.wordpress.com/tag/acta/
• For Your Eyes Only… Or Not – ACTA Leaks Again (ZeroPaid; 2010.07.14) – http://www.zeropaid.com/news/89917/for-your-eyes-only-or-not-acta-leaks-again/
  The ultra secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may be one of the worst kept secrets in the international community. The updated version of the infamous text has leaked online….
• ACTA’s Latest Text – A Quick Read Through (ZeroPaind; 2010.07.14) – http://www.zeropaid.com/news/89920/actas-latest-text-a-quick-read-through/
• New ACTA leak: 2010 07 13 consolidated text (Luzern round) – http://www.laquadrature.net/en/new-acta-leak-2010-07-13-consolidated-text-luzern-round
  Here (http://www.laquadrature.net/files/ACTA_consolidatedtext_EUrestricted130710.pdf) is the full consolidated text of the ACTA agreement, dated July 1st 2010. This is the full text from the Luzern round of negotiations, including the name of the negotiating parties along with their positions. It apparently comes from the civil liberties committee (LIBE) of the European Parliament.
• EU Refuses to ‘Swallow’ US Hypocrisy on ACTA (ZeroPaid; 2010.07.13) – http://www.zeropaid.com/news/89904/eu-refuses-to-swallow-us-hypocrisy-on-acta/
  Things are apparently getting tense over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). If rights holders are hoping to get ACTA talks finalized quick and efficiently, they have a huge problem as European negotiators and US negotiators seem to be squaring off with each other according to a recently published report.
• Latest Version of ACTA Leaks (SlashDot; 2010.07.15) – http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/15/1920256/Latest-Version-of-ACTA-Leaks
  “Drew Wilson of ZeroPaid points to a freshly leaked version of ACTA available on La Quadrature Du Net. While the text will need further analysis, the most recent look at the text suggests that there is no Three Strikes law, but anti-circumvention laws have a new twist to them with regard to exceptions in that ‘they do not significantly impair the adequacy of legal protection […] or the effectiveness of legal remedies for violations of those measures.’ Overall, the text still hints at a global DMCA with notice-and-takedown.”
• ACTA 20100713 version consolidated text – http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/ACTA_20100713_version_consolidated_text
• La Quadrature Du net – asite following all things ACTA – http://www.laquadrature.net/en/ | Wiki – http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Main_Page
• SWPAT: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement overview – http://en.swpat.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement_overview | ACTA and software patents – http://en.swpat.org/wiki/ACTA_and_software_patents
• ACTA-leak 2010-03-23 – http://werebuild.eu/wiki/index.php?title=ACTA-leak_2010-03-23
• ACTA will become law without Congress by Executive Order – http://freedomandlinux.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/acta-will-become-law-without-congress-by-executive-order/

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Related here: Law vs Technology – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/law-vs-technology/

| Information disclosure sites – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/information-disclosure-sites/ | WikiLeaks 2010 – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/wikileaks-2010/

RFID against privacy

• “Oklahoma Governor Vetoes Anti-RFID Bill” (DarkReading, 2010.05.10) – http://www.darkreading.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701416
  • The SIA (“Security Industry Association” – SIC! www.siaonline.org) “persuaded” governor of Oklahoma to veto the privacy protection bill that would prevent use of RFID technology in drivers licenses and ID cards.
  • The same pressure group has already done the same in California

With a little help of the government

Universal surveillance:

• The Snitch in Your Pocket (Law enforcement is tracking Americans’ cell phones in real time—without the benefit of a warrant), by Michael Isikoff (NEWSWEEK; Feb 19, 2010.02.19; from the magazine issue dated 2010.03.01): http://www.newsweek.com/id/233916

Dirty deeds:

• “The Chemist’s War” (The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.), by Deborah Blum (Friday, Feb. 19, 2010, at 10:00 AM ET) – http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/

PanoptiClick

Browser fingeprinting: http://panopticlick.eff.org/