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Four other Big Brothers

March 16, 2008 / Klint Finley

Four other Big Brothers:

(I started this back when Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo!, but I’ve only just not gotten a chance to finish up).

We all know about the potential “Big Brother”hood of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo!. Here are four other organizations with massive databases or the potential to collect extensive personal data.

Amazon, the other data hoarders – Amazon has perhaps the most complete database of the web outside of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. They own Alexa, which keeps detailed statistics on web traffic of the entire web. Alexa helps maintain archive.org, which includes an extensive backup of as much of the web as possible. They also have their own Google-based search engine a9 and host database apps. And all of this is just gravy for their extensive consumer data from amazon.com.

eBay, merchant monopoly – So far the government has resisted Internet sales tax. But eBay’s cut of their auctions and Paypal transactions almost constitutes a sales tax in and of itself considering the number of transactions that use these services. Also, they own what amounts to the biggest Internet telco, Skype. They have (or have the potential to collect) data on who buys what, who pays who what, and who calls who. To top it all off, they own an approximate 25% share in Craig’s List (and they own a Craig’s List competitor, Kijiji).

Wikipedia Foundation, truth and authority incorporated – Wikipedia is on its way to “owning” truth. We all probably know better, but we’ll all still trust Wikipedia entries without checking references more often than we should. In many cases, I search Wikipedia on a subject before I search Google – and more often than not, a Wikipedia entry is the top listing for a topic on Google. Often I’ll never even end up looking at a Google search for a subject because I’ll just look at the references and external links from a Wikipedia article. I believe Wales’s side of this story, but the potential for conflict of interest at Wikipedia is huge. The transparency and “crowd sourced” accountability temper this, but to what extent? It’s worth noting they now have a private wing – Wikia, which has started a search engine service.

IAC/Interactive Corp , or: who? – This huge company owns dozens of recognizable Internet brands, but hardly anyone has heard of them. If they started pooling all their data and mining it, what could they do? They’ve got one of the “other” big search engines, ask.com. They’ve got huge reserves of data for potential mining of social information from sites like match.com and evites, which could give them data on par with Myspace or Facebook. They’ve got a popular web based RSS reader, Bloglines. They could mine all sorts of consumer preference data from sites like Citysearch, Lending Tree, and the home shopping network. One of their businesses already attracted criticism years ago and remains a juggernaut in its niche: Ticketmaster.

How Science Could Soon be Manipulating Our Choice of Food

March 10, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“I’m in the university town of Wageningen, about to have the least private lunch of my life, and a Dutchman is playing tricks with my mind. ‘Would you like coffee?’ he says, all cryptically. ‘No, water will be fine,’ I reply, because I’m not going to be manipulated. A bottle of water turns up with four beakers, all black but different shapes. The Dutchman is smirking, barely able to contain his excitement as he waits for my next move.

If I choose the tall one, it probably means I have issues with the size of my penis. If I choose the short, stubby one, it probably means the same. I choose the one closest to me. The Dutchman nods to himself. ‘What does all that mean?’ I ask. ‘Well, you were on edge because I was smirking,’ says the Dutchman, smirking at the fact that smirking was part of his test.

‘And you were uncomfortable because all the beakers are black, which is the colour we associate with death. The different shapes should have no real significance they hold the same amount of water but subconsciously, you were making false assumptions about one holding more than the other. It was interesting.’ At least it had nothing to do with my penis. Welcome to the Restaurant of the Future, a multi-million-pound experiment that could, and probably will, change the way we eat.”

(via Mind Control 101)

RFID Ecosystem Project

February 27, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“A pilot project in social networking, which involves wirelessly monitoring people in a closed environment, will commence in March, 2008 at the University of Washington’s computer science building. The RFID Ecosystem project will provide long-term, in-depth research of user-centered RFID systems in relation to fields such as society and technology. Volunteers will wear electronic tags on their clothing and belongings, enabling RFID readers to monitor their whereabouts. One of the main questions this research faces is whether or not the utility aspect of this monitoring system outweighs the participants’ potential loss of privacy, and how can this loss of privacy be minimized?”

(via The Future of Things)

More police professionalism

February 22, 2008 / Klint Finley

Info here.

(via The Agitator).

Meanwhile, this isn’t as harrowing as the other stuff I’ve posted recently, but here’s a video of a cop wrestling a kid to the ground, stealing his skateboard, and threatening to beat him up:

And here’s a follow-up with some footage of the same officer screaming at an artist. It reveals the officer is currently under investigation by internal affairs regarding the skateboarder incident.

(Via Irreality news wire)

Male deputies sheriffs strip search women who called 9/11, leave her naked in cell for 6 hours

February 21, 2008 / Klint Finley

Follow-up .

(Via Wendy McElroy).

Washington State House Gives Nod to Privacy Bill

February 21, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“A revised version of legislation intended to protect the privacy of individuals using RFID tags with “unique personal identifier numbers” passed the Washington State House of Representatives on Wednesday. House Bill (HB) 1031-intended to limit collection of personal information from an RFID tag without the tag holder’s knowledge or consent-passed with 69 to 27 votes. The bill is now headed for the State Senate and, if approved, to the office of Governor Christine Gregoire.

[…] The revised bill would make it a Class C felony to intentionally read the data encoded to an RFID tag in possession of a person without that individual’s knowledge and consent, for the purpose of fraud, identity theft or some other illegal or unapproved purpose-a process known as “skimming.” With this bill, skimming refers to capturing personal data about a tag’s holder, such as the details on a loyalty card, driver’s license or other identity card. It does not refer to capturing data from EPC RFID tags attached to products that do not hold the consumer’s data. Class C felony in Washington State has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. If the bill is signed into law, it would be the first legislation on the state level to make skimming a felony, says Morris.”

(via RFID Journal)

The RFID Controversy: Corporations Want to Imbed Traceable Microchips to Everything We Buy, Wear, Drive and Read

January 31, 2008 / TiamatsVision

‘Once a tagged item is associated with a particular individual, personally identifiable information can be obtained and then aggregated to develop a profile.” ~ U.S. Government Accountability Office report on RFID technology

A future full of traceable microchips is much closer than many would like to think. Already microchips are being found in computer printers, car tires, personal care products, clothing, library books and “contactless” payment cards. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, experts say.

[…] The Washington Post reports that this technology is already well developed and enables objects and people to be tagged and tracked wirelessly. Newer and potentially invasive uses are being patented, perfected and deployed daily to unsuspecting consumers. While the technology obviously presents a risk to privacy, many believe that these microchips are the way of the future. Like it or not, these potential tracking devices will soon be imbedded everywhere imaginable. Microchips with antennas will be hidden in virtually everything you buy, wear, drive and read, allowing retailers and law enforcement to track consumers wherever they go.”

(via The Daily Galaxy)

FBI Wants Instant Access to British Identity Data

January 17, 2008 / TiamatsVision

“Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists. The US-initiated programme, “Server in the Sky”, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the “war against terror” – the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy. Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world’s most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.

The FBI is keen for the police forces of American allies to sign up to improve international security. The Home Office yesterday confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky, as did the Metropolitan police. The plan will make groups anxious to safeguard personal privacy question how much access to UK databases is granted to foreign law enforcement agencies. There will also be concern over security, particularly after embarrassing data losses within the UK, and accuracy: in one case, an arrest for a terror offence by US investigators used what turned out to be misidentified fingerprint matches.”

(via The Guardian)

Prisoners ‘to be chipped like dogs’

January 13, 2008 / TiamatsVision

And what about the wrongly accused? Putting all the “Big Brother”, conspiracy theories aside for a moment; they’ve discovered that implanting the VeriChip causes serious side effects. We don’t have any idea to what will come with long term use. So the act of implanting this in prisoners, is criminal in itself.

“Ministers are planning to implant “machine-readable” microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails. Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals. But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.

The tags, labelled “spychips” by privacy campaigners, are already used around the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor offenders in the community. The chips are also being considered as a method of helping to keep order within prisons. A senior Ministry of Justice official last night confirmed that the department hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range of the internal chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar to the system used to trace stolen vehicles. “All the options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue,” the source added.”

(via The Independent)

US border guards can search computers without probable cause

January 10, 2008 / Klint Finley

The three judges who heard the arguments in October in the appeal of his decision seemed persuaded that a computer is just a container and deserves no special protection from searches at the border. The same information in hard-copy form, their questions suggested, would doubtless be subject to search.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., took that position in a 2005 decision. It upheld the conviction of John W. Ickes Jr., who crossed the Canadian border with a computer containing child pornography. A customs agent’s suspicions were raised, the court’s decision said, ‘after discovering a video camera containing a tape of a tennis match which focused excessively on a young ball boy.’

It is true that the government should have great leeway in searching physical objects at the border. But the law requires a little more – a ‘reasonable suspicion’ – when the search is especially invasive, as when the human body is involved.

Searching a computer, said Jennifer M. Chac?n, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, ‘is fairly intrusive.’ Like searches of the body, she said, such ‘an invasive search should require reasonable suspicion.’

Full Story: New York Times.