Privacy

Apple’s New “FaceID” Could Be A Powerful Mass Spying Tool

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– Apple’s New “FaceID” Could Be A Powerful Mass Spying Tool:

On Tuesday, Apple revealed their newest phone. The new line was anticipated by Apple users and is another cult favorite.  But many are rightly skeptical of the “FaceID” feature.

FaceID, is a tool that would use facial recognition to identify individuals and unlock their phones for use. Unsurprisingly, this has generated some major anxiety about mass spying and privacy concerns. Retailers already have a desire for facial recognition technology. They want to monitor consumers, and without legally binding terms and Apple could use FaceID to track consumer patterns at its stores or develop and sell data to others.

That seems minor on the surface, but the ramifications could be enormous. 

It’s also highly possible that police would be able to more easily unlock phones without consent by simply holding an individual’s phone up to his or her face, violating the rights of the person to privacy.

Read moreApple’s New “FaceID” Could Be A Powerful Mass Spying Tool

If You Care About Privacy, You Should Change Your Twitter Settings Right Now

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“Open Settings and go to Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Personalization and data. At the top of this page is an option to disable all personalization and data settings; on the Twitter website, click the Disable all.”

– If You Care About Privacy, You Should Change Your Twitter Settings Right Now:

Authoired by Sarah Cronin via TheAntiMedia.org,

Since Wednesday, Twitter has been sending out emails and notifications to its over 300 million monthly users to inform them of changes to their privacy policy.

Read moreIf You Care About Privacy, You Should Change Your Twitter Settings Right Now

WhatsApp Isn’t Only Giving Your Information to Facebook — and No, You Can’t Opt-Out

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whatsapp

– WhatsApp Isn’t Only Giving Your Information to Facebook — and No, You Can’t Opt-Out:

When Facebook purchased the encrypted mobile messaging app, WhatsApp, for $19 billion in 2014, some users were concerned about the security of their information and the implications of their private correspondence being handed over to the largest data mining operation in human history. At the time, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum claimed there would be no changes in operations, claiming:

“There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product.”  

Surprise! WhatsApp announced Thursday it would be sharing all user information with Facebook, compromising the core principle that defined the company — privacy.

Read moreWhatsApp Isn’t Only Giving Your Information to Facebook — and No, You Can’t Opt-Out

Belgian Police Warn Citizens Not To Use Facebook’s Reaction Buttons

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– Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Use Facebook’s Reactions Buttons:

Belgian police are warning users not to use the Facebook Reactions feature to respond to posts if they want to protect their privacy. In February, the series of six emoticons, allowing users to express a range of emotions from anger to love, were added to the original thumbs-up option. They came in response to calls for a ‘Dislike’ button.

However, the new expressions are another big ‘like’ for Facebook and a ‘dislike’ for its users — according to Belgian police who claim the site is using them as a way to collect information on people to target advertising toward them. In a statement released on their official website on Wednesday, the Belgian force warned people to avoid using the series of emoticons if they want to preserve their privacy.

Read moreBelgian Police Warn Citizens Not To Use Facebook’s Reaction Buttons

Anarchast – Jeff Berwick Intervievs John McAfee: Everyone Is Spying On You! (Video)

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Real interview (after the introduction and the video clip) starts at 5:10 into the video:

Published on Feb 1, 2015

Description:

Jeff interviews international man of intrigue and freedom fighter John McAfee, topics include: massive corruption in central america, McAfee on the run, Belize a dictatorship, a wild ride, you are responsible for your own security, selective privacy, obtrusive and sneaky applications present real dangers, you cant rely on the government, NSA far from the only spy, homeland insecurity, the madness of the ‘war on terror’, yoga and meditation, on being alone…

Read moreAnarchast – Jeff Berwick Intervievs John McAfee: Everyone Is Spying On You! (Video)

John McAfee: Security Is An Illusion – We Have To Take Security Into Our Own Hands (Video)

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Feb 21, 2015

Description:

“Security is an illusion… We don’t get out of life alive — none of us, so there can be no absolute security. That’s the certainty.”

Andrew Demeter is a young American political activist, amateur filmmaker, entrepreneur, journalist, and author. His documentary ‘We The People, Genetically-Modified?’ won first prize in C-SPAN’s 2014 StudentCam competition. To collect the award, he visited the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. where he met and questioned former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, on matters concerning the National Security Agency’s metadata collection. He recorded the short confrontation with his mobile phone, and the video subsequently went viral online. American radio host and documentary filmmaker Alex Jones has glorified Demeter as “a successful, young journalist…just by asking real questions!”.

5 Shocking Facts About You That Anyone Can Find Online

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– 5 Shocking Facts About You That Anyone Can Find Online:

If you’re an American citizen, then the government has a personal file on you. Think of it like your permanent record from your grade school days. These records contain highly sensitive personal information about you such as where you live, your contact info, your relatives and associates, arrest records, and even speeding tickets. But what many people don’t know, is that this information is all considered “public record,”—and anyone can access it.

Now, a controversial new site is taking things a step further by gathering these records together and posting them online, so anyone with a computer and Internet access can see them.

Read more5 Shocking Facts About You That Anyone Can Find Online

UN Privacy Chief: UK Surveillance Bill Is ‘Worse Than Scary’

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Joseph Cannataci, United Nations special rapporteur on prviacy

– UN privacy chief: UK surveillance bill is ‘worse than scary’:

The UK government’s proposed surveillance legislation is “worse than scary”, the United Nations privacy chief has said.

Joseph Cannataci, the UN’s special rapporteur on privacy, attacked the government’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill, saying he had never seen evidence that mass surveillance works. He also accused MPs of leading an “absolute offensive” and an “orchestrated” media campaign to distort the debate and take hold of new powers.

The comments came during a live streamed keynote presentation at the Internet Governance Forum in Brazil, where leading experts from around the world have gathered to discuss the future of the internet and web policy.

Read moreUN Privacy Chief: UK Surveillance Bill Is ‘Worse Than Scary’

And Here It Comes … Patriot Act 2: Obama Executive Order Will Promote Sharing Of Confidential Information With Corporations

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obama-handsign-satanic-salute

– Patriot Act 2: Obama Executive Order Will Promote Sharing Of Confidential Information With Corporations (ZeroHedge, Feb 13, 2015):

Here come the “information sharing and analysis organizations”, or ISAOs.

* * *

In the aftermath of the Snowden whistleblowing scandal which has now all but been forgotten, there was a brief period when it seemed the growth of the US spying apparatus would be halted if not put into reverse. Those days are long forgotten and later today Obama is expected to to sign an executive order “that aims to make it easier for the government to share classified cyberthreat information with companies.”

The spin, as proposed by the WSJ, is that “this will be effort designed to spur collaboration and deter hackers, the White House said.” In reality what Obama’s latest executive order will do, is expand the universe of entities that has access to the trove of private confidential data contained in the vast government spying apparatus, which as has been made all too clear now focuses as much on US citizens as it does on legitimate foreign threats, and further eviscerate the concept of individual privacy in the US.

Read moreAnd Here It Comes … Patriot Act 2: Obama Executive Order Will Promote Sharing Of Confidential Information With Corporations

‘Hostile To Privacy’: Snowden Urges Internet Users To Get Rid Of Dropbox

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FYI.

– ‘Hostile to privacy’: Snowden urges internet users to get rid of Dropbox (RT, Oct 12, 2014):

Edward Snowden has hit out at Dropbox and other services he says are “hostile to privacy,” urging web users to abandon unencrypted communication and adjust privacy settings to prevent governments from spying on them in increasingly intrusive ways.

“We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We’re subjects, and we have rulers,” Snowden told The New Yorker magazine in a comprehensive hour-long interview.

Read more‘Hostile To Privacy’: Snowden Urges Internet Users To Get Rid Of Dropbox

Nowhere To Hide As Minority Report-Style Facial Recognition Technology Spreads Across America

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– Nowhere To Hide As Minority Report-Style Facial Recognition Technology Spreads Across America (Economic Collapse, Sep 17, 2014):

What is our society going to look like when our faces are being tracked literally everywhere that we go?  As part of the FBI’s new Next Generation Identification System, a facial recognition database known as the Interstate Photo System will have collected 52 million of our faces by the end of 2015.  But that is only a small part of the story.  According to Edward Snowden, the NSA has been using advanced facial recognition technology for years.  In addition, as you will see below, advertising companies are starting to use Minority Report-style face scanners in their billboards and many large corporations see facial recognition technology as a tool that they can use to serve their customers better.  Someday soon it may become virtually impossible to go out in public in a major U.S. city without having your face recorded.  Is that the kind of society that we want?

Read moreNowhere To Hide As Minority Report-Style Facial Recognition Technology Spreads Across America

CIA spies on Senate. Here’s how to take back your digital privacy [FREE]

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PDF: NSA-Black-Paper

– CIA spies on Senate. Here’s how to take back your digital privacy [FREE] (Sovereign Man, Aug 14, 2014):

Back in March serious allegations came out of the Senate that the CIA was monitoring and even hacking Senate computers. They were denied vehemently at the time by CIA director John Brennan, who went so far as to say “that’s just beyond the scope of reason.”

Unsurprisingly, of course, the CIA has now come out saying that, yes, they did in fact spy on Senate aides’ computers. Oh, and that they’re sorry. Very sorry.

This is stuff that would have been a major scandal not too long ago, causing a public outcry for the heads of those responsible.

Today, it seems par for the course. It’s taken for granted that governments around the world, spearheaded by Uncle Sam, monitor communication via email, phone, social networks, webcam etc. en masse.

Read moreCIA spies on Senate. Here’s how to take back your digital privacy [FREE]

4 Ways That Mass Surveillance Destroys The Economy

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– 4 Ways that Mass Surveillance Destroys the Economy (Washington’s Blog, June 29, 2014):

Prosperity Requires Privacy

Privacy is a prerequisite for a prosperous economy.    Even the White House admits:

People must have confidence that data will travel to its destination without disruption. Assuring the free flow of information, the security and privacy of data, and the integrity of the interconnected networks themselves are all essential to American and global economic prosperity, security, and the promotion of universal rights.

Below, we discuss four ways that mass surveillance hurts our economy.

Read more4 Ways That Mass Surveillance Destroys The Economy

‘Get A Warrant’ – U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Cell Phone Searches In ‘Big Win For Digital Privacy’

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– ‘Get a warrant’ – Supreme Court rules against cell phone searches in ‘big win for digital privacy’ (RT, June 25, 2014):

The Supreme Court of the United States said Wednesday that police officers must have a warrant before searching the cell phone contents of an individual under arrest.

In a unanimous ruling announced early Wednesday, the high court settled two cases surrounding instances in which law enforcement officials scoured the mobile phones of suspects in custody and then used information contained therein to pursue further charges.

“The police generally may not, without a warrant, search digital information on a cell phone seized from an individual who has been arrested,” the Supreme Court ruled.

“Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience,” the court continued. “The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple — get a warrant.”

Orin Kerr, a Georgetown University law professor who focuses primarily on computer cases, wrote Wednesday morning on his Washington Post-hosted blog that the court’s decision was “a big win for digital privacy.”

Read more‘Get A Warrant’ – U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Cell Phone Searches In ‘Big Win For Digital Privacy’

‘You Are Unauthorized’: Nearly 50% Of EU Organizations Deny Access To Personal Data

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– ‘You are unauthorized’: Nearly 50% of EU organizations deny access to personal data (RT, June 24, 2014):

Four out of ten organizations obstruct citizens from accessing their own personal data, says a recent study. Companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter also fail to fulfill their duty to be transparent.

The international study, conducted by experts from the University of Sheffield, has inspected at least 327 organizations across Europe, including the UK, Norway and Germany.

Read more‘You Are Unauthorized’: Nearly 50% Of EU Organizations Deny Access To Personal Data

Chaos Computer Club Files Criminal Complaint Against The German Government

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– Chaos Computer Club files criminal complaint against the German Government (Chaos Computer Club, Feb 3, 2014):

On Monday, the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and the International League for Human Rights (ILMR), have filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Prosecutor General’s office. The complaint is directed against the German federal government, the presidents of the German secret services, namely Bundesnachrichtendienst, Militärischer Abschirmdienst, Bundesamt für Verfassungschutz, and others. We accuse US, British and German secret agents, their supervisors, the German Minister of the Interior as well as the German Chancelor of illegal and prohibited covert intelligence activities, of aiding and abetting of those activities, of violation of the right to privacy and obstruction of justice in office by bearing and cooperating with the electronic surveillance of German citizens by NSA and GCHQ.

After months of press releases about mass surveillance by secret services and offensive attacks on information technology systems, we now have certainty that German and other countries’ secret services have violated the German criminal law. With this criminal complaint, we hope to finally initiate investigations by the Federal Prosecutor General against the German government. The CCC has learned with certainty that the leaders of the secret services and the federal government have aided and abetted the commission of these crimes.

Read moreChaos Computer Club Files Criminal Complaint Against The German Government

NSA Uses Google Cookies To Pinpoint Targets For Hacking

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– NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hacking (Washington Post, Dec 10, 2013):

A slide from an internal NSA presentation indicating that the agency uses at least one Google cookie as a way to identify targets for exploitation. (Washington Post)

The National Security Agency is secretly piggybacking on the tools that enable Internet advertisers to track consumers, using “cookies” and location data to pinpoint targets for government hacking and to bolster surveillance.

The agency’s internal presentation slides, provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, show that when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government. The slides also suggest that the agency is using these tracking techniques to help identify targets for offensive hacking operations.

Read moreNSA Uses Google Cookies To Pinpoint Targets For Hacking

Meet The NSA’s ‘Fat Finger’

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– Meet the NSA’s “Fat Finger” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 16, 2013):

James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, has acknowledged that the court found the NSA in breach of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, but the Obama administration has fought a Freedom of Information lawsuit that seeks the opinion.

Generally, the NSA reveals nothing in public about its errors and infractions. The unclassified versions of the administration’s semiannual reports to Congress feature blacked-out pages under the headline “Statistical Data Relating to Compliance Incidents.”

From the Washington Post’s groundbreaking article from last evening

For those of you not familiar with Wall Street lingo, people in the financial industry refer to an outsized move in the markets resulting from a human error as a “fat finger,” ie someone pressed the wrong key when placing an order. Unfortunately for us all, it appears the NSA has a surveillance fat finger. Who would’ve guessed it!

Read moreMeet The NSA’s ‘Fat Finger’

GOOGLE: If You Send To Gmail, You Have ‘No Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy’

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– GOOGLE: If You Send To Gmail, You Have ‘No Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy’ (San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 13, 2013):

If you happen to send an email to one of the 400 million people who use Google’s Gmail service, you shouldn’t have any expectation of privacy, according to a court briefing obtained by the Consumer Watchdog website.

In a motion filed last month by Google to have a class action complaint dismissed, Google’s lawyers reference a 1979 ruling, holding that people who turn over information to third parties shouldn’t expect that information to remain private.

From the filing (emphasis added):

Read moreGOOGLE: If You Send To Gmail, You Have ‘No Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy’

Google Engineer Dr. Joseph Bonneau Wins Award From The NSA And Then Slams It

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Hmmh.

– Google Engineer Wins Award from the NSA and then Slams it (Liberty Blitzkrieg, July 29, 2013):

“In accepting the award I don’t condone the NSA’s surveillance. Simply put, I don’t think a free society is compatible with an organisation like the NSA in its current form.”
– Dr. Joseph Bonneau

In case you weren’t aware, Dr. Joseph Bonneau, a google engineer, received an award for the Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper of 2012 from the National Security Agency’s first annual “Science of Security Competition” on July 19th. He experienced such mixed emotions upon its receipt that he felt the need to express them publicly in a blog post. We should all be thankful he had the courage to do so.

Read moreGoogle Engineer Dr. Joseph Bonneau Wins Award From The NSA And Then Slams It

The Essence of DNA Identity

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– The Essence of DNA Identity (Veterans Today, June 10, 2013):

Do you intrinsically possess individual privacy rights, based upon natural law authority, or are your civil liberties arbitrarily defined by the current whims of government?

How you answer, this question speaks loudly about your understanding of the nature of your very being. Those who deem that natural law is a myth or a superstition are poised for voluntary surrender of their vital identity. The cataloging of individual essence is aberrant.

Your deoxyribonucleic acid is the core element of personal uniqueness and human dignity. If your DNA is subject to government collection and storage, the right of personal privacy is destroyed.

Read moreThe Essence of DNA Identity

Judge Orders Google To Give Customer Data To FBI

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– Judge Orders Google To Give Customer Data To FBI (Huffingtion Post, June 1, 2013):

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge has ruled that Google Inc. must comply with the FBI’s warrantless demands for customer data, rejecting the company’s argument that the government’s practice of issuing so-called national security letters to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others was unconstitutional and unnecessary.

FBI counter-terrorism agents began issuing the secret letters, which don’t require a judge’s approval, after Congress passed the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Read moreJudge Orders Google To Give Customer Data To FBI

IRS: We Do Not Need Warrants To Read People’s Emails

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– IRS: We can read emails without warrant (The Hill, April 10, 2013):

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has claimed that agents do not need warrants to read people’s emails, text messages and other private electronic communications, according to internal agency documents.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request, released the information on Wednesday.

In a 2009 handbook, the IRS said the Fourth Amendment does not protect emails because Internet users “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.” A 2010 presentation by the IRS Office of General Counsel reiterated the policy.

Read moreIRS: We Do Not Need Warrants To Read People’s Emails