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Big Brother Is Watching You!


JULY 2000: Travelers soon may be scurrying through airport ticketing lines in the blink of an eye. Eye Ticket Corp. is talking to several airlines and airports about adopting an eye scanning system that it says could dramatically speed up the check in process. "It will instantly check you in without you reaching for a wallet or having a ticket or standing in line," said Evan Smith, senior vice president for Eye Ticket, based in McLean, Virginia. "Just look in the camera and go." By scanning the eye with an ordinary digital camera, the system comes up with a 512 character code based on the characteristics of the iris. That code then can be stored in a database with other information, such as passwords and frequent flier and passport numbers, which participating airlines could share. Eye Ticket, which says the system would be voluntary and free for travelers, had---------- Eye Scanning System Coming
You say you don't like browser cookies? You're not quite sure if that program you download from the Net is revealing more about you than it should? Well, here's something to make you really nervous: In the United States, it may be illegal to disable software that snoops on you. The folks who came up with this idea turn out to be the large corporations that helped to draft the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which restricts some forms of tampering with copyright protection devices. In some cases, that means you won't be able to turn off any surveillance features it might include, according to participants in a Thursday afternoon panel at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference. " Privacy circumvention is possible only under a limitedGetting Snooped On? Too Bad
A bank customer who has not requested confidentiality does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy inBank Info Subject to Warrant less Searches
April 18, 2000: A 44 year old local laborer has been charged in connection with the rape of a 91 year old woman in a small town, following a DNA testing program for most of the town's 600 men. The New Year's Eve 1998 sexual attack on the woman shocked tiny Wee Waa in northern New South Wales. As a result, most of the town's 1,900 residents supported the DNA testing program. Many saw it as a way to catch a perpetrator many feared still walked unpunished in their midst, casting a Twin Peaks like pall over local life. On Monday afternoon, the man walked into Wee Waa police station, asking to speak with detectives. He was later charged in the case, and was being held without bail. Police wouldn't confirm whether he had contributed a DNA sample during the testing program, saying that would have violated the program's confidentiality.DNA Testing Begins Furor in Australia
Child Porn Ring Busted After Running Almost a Year Under Law Enforcement Nose's
Underneath a monstrous heap of electronic kiddy
porn, federal prosecutors have uncovered a suburban Texas couple, three
foreign web masters, and thousands of customers worldwide who left behind
a trail of credit card charges totaling $1 million in April ,2000. Federal
prosecutors, who watched with glee as a grand jury handed down an 87 count
indictment against the peddlers, say they've never had such a big
case . U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Paul Coggins said
the case is a major step forward in a high stakes fight against the people
who sexually abuse children and sell images of the abuse on the Web. Catching
the web master, he said, makes finding their victims a real possibility.
The indictment charges Fort Worth's Thomas and Janice Reedy with operating
a commercial kid porn ring from their home. According to the Texas Secretary
of State, the Reedys incorporated their company, called Landslide, Inc.,
on Feb. 13, 1997 . Prosecutors say Landslide acted as the "gatekeeper"
between one Russian and two Indonesian web masters who supplied customers
with pornographic images of children in exchange for US $ 29.95 per site.
Landslide supplied the password protected access to the sites –- including
childrenforcedtoporn.com, childrape.com, and childrenofgod.com, and handled
the credit card transactions.
Those charges left behind a handy trail of evidence
for prosecutors, who say the Reedys made $1,111,266 in less than
a year. They kept a third of the profits and
sent the rest to the foreign web masters. People close to the case said
the size of the Reedys' business was enormous. "The extent of the kiddy
porn business, the scope of the customers, (and the fact that) they are
spread across the states and across the globe, shocked me," Coggins said.
Lead prosecutor Terri Moore agreed, calling the scope of the operation
"absolutely frightening." "This is a very, very important case," she said.
"For child pornography, this is as important as the World Trade Center
bombing." "They are particularly heinous," she said. "Many of them kill
the children after they abuse them. They use foreign children, from
Eastern Europe and South America. It is the kind of world you can't imagine."
The Reedys, who are being held in federal prison until a detention hearing
next week, have been forced to take down their alleged kid porn, and most
of the sites they once operated are now out of service. But they're still
using the landslide.com site to assert their innocence. "We have
committed no illegal act, and are confident to be found innocent of any
such charges," the site reads. They're even soliciting funds for their
defense on the site. If found guilty, the Reedys face stiff penalties for
each of the 87 counts handed down, which carries with them a maximum penalty
of 15 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The Russian web master is charged with 12 counts
of the same crimes, while the Indonesian web masters face 16 counts each.
U.S. prosecutors are hoping to extradite the accused and try them in Dallas.
What probably is the most shocking news is how
a child porn web site can run over year and accumulate
over a $1,000,000 in sales before the perpetrators were caught by law enforcement.
One can only speculate that with all the snooping capabilities at Big Brother's
grasp they can allow a child porn
site to go over a year with out finally apprehending
the accused culprits. My only explanation can be this. I myself called
and
e-mailed the FBI at Tampa
(813-273-4566)& Miami Florida on
a site which has no proof of age on it's many "High School Teen Boys. "
The web site which was at http://habitantes.elsitio.com/mystudio is the
one in question. How do I know this? Because some of the images were from
www.modelboy.com
which does artistic nudes of male models age 18 to 21. I was told by one
women at the Tampa FBI they only investigate child porn. I contacted them
again and a male agent said he would investigate but I have never heard
from them and FBI agents will not give their name, if they do it will be
a alias. The act of no proof of age is a felony in the United States and
even though I myself reported it with the names and business's involved,
the FBI office seemed uninterested. The web site it seems copies images
from newsgroups or web sites and then makes money by charging it's members
through a company
Net verifier which
is called Space Age Services based in Palm Harbor, Florida. Both Net verifier
and the web master of elsitio were both contacted and made aware
of the felony being committed but the site was still online as of April
18,2000. I also contacted the Florida Sheriff & Police Department plus
the District Attorney (727-464-6221 ) of the county were Net Verifier is
located. Net verifier claims they are not responsible for their members
content but were informed a felony was being committed by one
of their members and they are just as guilty knowing about it. They also
added the site made allot of money, which Net verifier gets a percentage
of. When such a blatant felony is committed and law enforcement does nothing
about it, I find it worrisome. The site also claims to have access to thousands
of other sites. If anyone has surfed the web I would estimate that 99%
of these adult web sites are nothing more than people copying images from
newsgroups or scanning pictures from magazines with out no proof of age,
model release forms or photo I.D. I'm stunned at the open blatant criminal
activity that goes on while law enforcement sits idle. No wonder the kid
porn site went on for almost a year before someone got involved. On April
21 the site http://habitantes.elsitio.com/mystudio was shut down, not by
law enforcement, but by a citizen's constant e-mails to the businesses
.
MSNBC Washington spokesman Brock Meeks stated; " When it comes to making policy decisions about cyberspace, The United States Congress makes confessed unabomber Ted Kazynski look like the poster boy for Mental Health Week." in his article of the July, 98 issue of Internet Computing. " They pass a law trying to regulate content on the Internet the so called Communications Decency Act only to see the Supreme Court strike it down as unconstitutional. And like a dog returning to it's own vomit, they resurrect a similar bill, this time vowing it will pass with constitutional muster" Brock writes: There isYou Have to Try & Keep Big Brother in Line
Laura DiDio in Computer World June 8 ,1998 magazine
writes about how privacy advocates and law enforcement will go head to
head over the export of encryption technology. Senators Patrick Leahy and
John Ashcroft hope their E-Privacy Act Bill will pass and will present
it before the current session of Congress ends in August, 1998. The current
limit for encryption products are 56 bit keys and the new Bill proposed
would allow selling any products of any strength including 128 and 256
bit keys. At heart of the debate is FBI Director Louis Freeh. The government
fears if it can't decode any state of the art
cryptography, that terrorists would benefit.
But U.S. businesses and privacy groups contend that giving the government
the keys to access everything jeopardizes the privacy of every citizen
and business. Ed Gillespie, executive director of the ACP, said the standard
limit the government wants to impose, 40 bit key is easily hacked by even
teenagers. Gillespie added that the future of electronic commerce relies
on industry and citizens feeling safe that their records, tax returns,
and medical information won't be accessed by the government or by hackers.
Censorship of the Internet by governments is spreading and may become a threat to traditional media liberty, a report on press freedom stated in April, 2000. "The explosion of news and information on the World Wide Web is tempting governments, developed and developing, politically free and not free, to consider restricting content on the Internet," said the report conducted by human rights group Freedom House. The group's 22nd annual survey of press freedom, entitledBig Brother Censorship Report
Devising Internet explicit licensing and regulation.
Applying existing restrictive print and broadcast laws to the Web.
Filtering Internet content through control of the servers or using government servers to censor incoming news and information.
Censoring electronic content deemed unacceptable after dissemination.
"The independence of the Internet becomes the
newest test of a government's will to encourage and sustain a free
press," said survey coordinator Leonard Sussman
in an essay accompanying the 36 page report. The report said some countries
restrict Internet access "on the pretext of protecting the public from
subversive ideas or violation of national security."
In some parts of Asia, for example, the stated
goal of protecting traditional "Asian values" is being used as the pretext
to control Internet information and access. In the Middle East, Internet
censorship is being promoted under the banner of protecting morality, the
report said. " Not only countries with records of not free or partly free
news media contemplate controlling the Internet. In 1996, the Clinton administration
tried to block pornography on the Internet with the Communications Decency
Act, but the law was shot down by the Supreme Court," the report said.
Citing a report by Reporters Sans Frontieres, it listed
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam as countries that totally or mostly
control Internet access. The annual survey, released ahead of World Press
Freedom Day said 63 percent of the world's countries restrict print and
electronic journalists and 80 percent of the world's people live in countries
with a less than free
press. Globally, only 69 countries have a free
press, where the flow of information is unrestricted, 51 have a partly
free
news media, and 66 countries have government
control over print and broadcast systems.
CIA director George Tenet is facing a dilemma familiar to chief executives across most industries: With the Internet making more information available to more people all the time, how can an organization capture every scrap of vital data it needs and filter the choice bits to its top managers? How can it keep that data safe from interlopers? And, above all, how can it do all that faster and better than the next guy? The key difference between Tenet and your average CEO is that if the CIA doesn't keep pace in cyberspace, the outcome might be not a plummeting stock price but real global disasters. Naturally, Tenet wants access to the strongest, fastest and most adept information technology the United States can produce. But with the rise of lucrative consumer and business markets for technology, Uncle Sam isn't the coveted customer and collaborator it used to be. That has led the CIA to take a radical step: attempting to win mind share among cutting edge, new economy companies that cluster in Silicon Valley, Northern Virginia, Boston and Dallas.
The CIA publicly launched In Q Tel. In Q Tel is a private, nonprofit group that works under contract for theWhere Will GPS Vehicle Tracking Go?
APRIL 2001: The government revealed
that it implanted a satellite tracking device in a suspect's car and tracked
him as he drove around Oregon and Washington. Brian Meyer, a special agent
for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified that he installed
a GPS bug last November in a Nissan Maxima owned by defendant Jim Bell.
But while this appears to be the first criminal
prosecution in which a GPS transmitter has been used, many companies manufacture
the devices. The GPS device is available to anyone and can be easily installed
to track a vehicles location and it's
route that was driving. Many industries use the
device such as the trucking industry, rental cars, delivery drivers. The
device
puts the vehicle's driver under 24 hour surveillance.
The device can be used to track down stolen vehicles, a vehicles whereabouts,
and other applications to even how a long a vehicle has been parked as
to avoid unauthorized use. These
devices are open to the public as well. A parent
may want to install one on their teenagers car or a suspicious spouse may
want to track their mate's driving habits. Private detective agencies are
at the head of the pack, so you may not even know your car has had a GPS
tracking device attached to it for months. Of course the draw back to this
type of tracking is the device can not tell who is driving the vehicle,
only the vehicle itself. The feds may be using TeleType's
GPS CDPD Tracker, which is smaller than a laptop computer and includes
a built in Uniden CDPD modem that can also transmit the vehicle's location
to any e-mail address.
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How the TeleType System Works
TeleType GPS software includes the ability to
transmit vehicle position coordinates in real time via the internet to
any email address you specify. Transmission can be automatic or on demand.
The software allows you to specify periodic sending of location coordinates.
The central station operator can call the remote vehicle (also called "polling")
to determine it's location. In addition, the Mobile Tracker option (#1400)
allows the same software to be used to record route information and provide
street level navigation to the driver. Central station TeleType GPS software
plots position of each remote vehicle by automatically interpreting email
messages sent from the remote units. Mapping software is included. You
can import your own custom maps or use the detailed street level maps that
are included with the software. What You Need Since the CDPD Tracker offers
a combined wireless CDPD modem with built in GPS receiver - no other equipment
is required in the vehicle being tracked. You will only need the TeleType
GPS software and maps for base station. ATTI
introduced the newest addition to its growing line of passive vehicle tracking
products, The Shadow Tracker™ Jr. can be concealed almost anywhere
within the vehicle, making it an ideal tool for monitoring mobile workforce
productivity. A company may track a vehicle covertly to sniff out areas
of low productivity within their mobile workforce and to track the daily
activities of their mobile vehicles to protect businesses against time
sheet fraud and unauthorized use of company vehicles. Also, The
Spy Store sells a GPS cellular phone for $1,300 that also allows constant
tracking of its whereabouts.
What does all this mean and where is it leading?
The future applications of vehicle GPS tracking would point to mandatory
installations of the device on ALL vehicles in the near future, ( once
the price drops .) The tracking of all vehicles would be a law enforcement's
dream, from tracking stolen cars to monitoring a vehicle's speed. As in
many highway toll locations, a hidden camera is present and is automatically
programed to take a vehicle's photo when it passes a toll booth without
paying. The photograph is then sent to the local authorities, and once
the license plate is revealed in the photograph, a ticket is automatically
sent to that tag owner's address. The same method of tracking will be used
in detecting speeding vehicles, registered vehicles whose tag has expired,
and numerous other vehicle ticket violations possibilities. The revenue
generated from such monitoring will easily cover the cost of it's inception.
The future of vehicle GPS monitoring is already here, and the future tracking
of all
humans, animals, vehicles and other traceable
items Big Brother deems necessary is near.
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