From "Dealing With Telemarketers and Junk Mail":
Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end? This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Since doing this, my phone calls have decreased dramatically.
http://www.rense.com/general45/junak.htm
Barbara Simpson wrote that, according to David Lazarus, “some accounting firms are sending tax-return preparation offshore. He said the number doing it is growing by leaps and bounds. According to his research, individual tax preparers are also getting involved in outsourcing the preparation of your federal and state tax returns. Even worse, there's an indication the IRS might do the same with some of its work.”
In her commentary, “Nothing’s Sacred Nor Secret” at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36353 Barbara Simpson writes about other recent threats to our privacy.
On home security, privacy and driveways: If anyone here has any experience with or personal preferences about "driveway guards," I'd appreciate reading about which ones on the market now do you think work the best? The hose type that lays across the driveway, but is too visible to strangers? The wireless driveway alerts or other kinds? None I've tried so far have ever met my expectations. Still searching for that perfect driveway/intruder alert that surely must be out there somewhere.
The Role Of UAVs/MAVs In Domestic Surveillance
And Control
by Brenda Livingston
http://www.rense.com/general47/uav.htm
Excerpt:
Imagine the following:
A large crowd has gathered legally and peacefully to protest the current administration's policies. Within a short time, high 5-10K above the crowd UAVs swarm providing remote sensing, imaging and a platform for monitoring the people on the ground...sending this information to government and military personnel and their supercomputing centers...databases ready to receive as much information on the participants as can be provided.
Soon after aerial robots are released in the hundreds -- small hardly noticeable (or micro/camouflaged) devices programmed to autonomously swarm and gather as much data about individuals in the crowd as possible.
Real-time digital images are shot back to the large platform UAVs and ground bases for instant analysis, entry into and comparison of this information to personal information gathered on huge databases. These supercomputers contain biometric identification, personal history, medical records, financial information not only on individual potential criminals and terrorists... but known political 'enemies' of the administration...and ordinary citizens.
This is followed by the release of millions of tiny computer chips called smart dust...or traceable polymer...or a variant of the RHID chip....landing on the heads and shoulders of individual participants. This release is an instant identification and tracking system as long as these devices or polymers remain embedded in the skin, hair and clothing of those attending this particular function.
Individual persons can be tracked to their cars, homes, jobs, friend's homes...adding a bushel full of information to their data files. At some point sensors that detect specific persons will be triggered by this 'smart material'...in buildings, train stations, airports and automatic searches at future 'security points'.
Rest of the story at http://www.rense.com/general47/uav.htm
The magnetic strips and bar codes on the back of most state's driver's licenses contain more information than people think. The way the swipers use the information might surprise them as well: Some bars and restaurants scan driver's licenses to catch underage drinkers and fake IDs, but they're also using the information for marketing purposes. More at:
http://www.rense.com/general48/greatst.htm
How The NSA Listens To Your Phone Calls
By Phillip Knightley
Excerpt:
From the National Security Agency's imposing headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, ringed by a double-chain fence topped by barbed wire with strands of electrified wire between them, America "bugs" the world.
Nothing politically or militarily significant, whether mentioned in a telephone call, in a conversation in the office of the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, or in a company fax or e-mail, escapes its attention.
Its computers - measured in acres occupied by them rather than simple figures - "vacuum the entire electromagnetic spectrum", homing in on "key words" which may suggest something of interest to NSA customers is being conveyed.
The NSA costs at least $3.5bn (£1.9bn) a year to run. It employs at least 20,000 officers (not counting the 100,000 servicemen and civilians around the world over whom it has control). Its shredders process 40 tons of paper a day . . . More at http://www.rense.com/general49/phone.htm
Thumbprints Needed To Ride School Bus?
District ponders $2 million system requiring students prove identity
http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2004/02/28/Tampabay/Have_your_thumb_ready.shtml
How To Ensure Your Private Conversations Stay That Way
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3522137.stm
Grocery Store Goes To Fingerprint Payments
Piggly Wiggly debuts feature, privacy expert slams new technology
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37415
Kay, I get those calls about twice a day. I thought someone was prank calling me. Thanks for the info. Uggg I hate telemarketers.
Say goodbye soon (later this year?) to enjoying the privacy of having unlisted cell phone numbers.
Cell-Phone Numbers to Become Public as Industry Launches Directory Assistance
See http://www.bcentral.com/articles/isyn/default.asp?newsid=200431810&cobrand=msn&LID=3800
Telemarketing Jobs Go To Jail
Rather than sending jobs to India or China, telemarketing firms are increasingly finding hired help in prisons . . . Critics of the practice warn that some prisoners have abused their access to personal information. In Washington state, for example, a jailed rapist harassed a woman with calls and cards.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116046,00.html
To LMS, in response to your "best driveway guard" question above, try the wireless solar driveway monitor at http://www.sharperimage.com/us/en/catalog/productview.jhtml?sku=DT700. If this link doesn't show the driveway monitor, go to http://www.sharperimage.com, type in "solar driveway monitor" in the search blank. It runs on batteries, but has solar back-up. Unlike competing motion detectors, this one is activated only by the movement of metal objects, so false alarms from neighbor's animals or falling leaves won't set off the alarm. This monitor alerts you from up to 1,000 feet away when a vehicle enters your driveway.
Big Brother To Watch Over Island
If you have ever seen the cult '60s British television program, The Prisoner, in which captured Cold War spies live on an island under constant surveillance, you can imagine what life may soon be like on Ayers Island, on the Penobscot River near the University of Maine. In coming years, visitors to Ayers Island, the site of an abandoned paper and textile mill in Orono, Maine, will be spied upon by a comprehensive network of video cameras, motion detectors and sensors. Lurking behind all of those sensors will be an artificial intelligence system, called Intelligent Island, that will decide who can be trusted and who is deserving of greater scrutiny . . . "People everywhere are being watched a lot more than they realize," said Markowsky.
http://www.rense.com/general52/sder.htm
The Patriot Search
Buying a home? Prepare to have your name checked against a government list of suspected terrorists. With the passage of the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which required that financial institutions create anti-money-laundering compliance programs, anyone purchasing property must be checked against a list of names of known and suspected terrorists. The list has been around since before the September 11 attacks, but increasingly the ritual closing ceremony has involved writing yet another check to the title company that runs the homebuyer’s name against that list.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5131685/site/newsweek/
Stories below are from Oct. 15, 2004.
Privacy Eroding, Bit By Byte
"It's this whole new world. It's sort of like all these little details about our lives are being recorded," said Richard M. Smith, an Internet security consultant in Boston. "We love the conveniences. We love the services. But people kind of instinctively know there's a dark side to this. They just hope it won't happen to them."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6251541/
Security Under The Skin
A US company has been given the green light to implant microchips in humans. It's intended to provide medical information ... but will it turn into a surveillance system?
http://www.infowars.net/Pages/Oct_04/151004_security_skin.html
The Future of Identity Checking
This is how we could prove our identity in the future. After signatures, fingerprints and iris recognition, 3-D face maps encoded onto ID cards and passports are unveiled today. The ground-breaking system of recording biometric information could be the key to our security.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2004/151004identitychecking.htm
Now Employers Can Spy On Staff Out of Office
Bosses can now use "big brother" technology to keep track of their workers throughout the day. A new service allows companies to find where staff are anywhere in the country by tracing their mobile phone signal. The information sent back enables managers to pinpoint their location on a map – and potentially catch out those who claim to be elsewhere. MobileLocate, the firm behind the service, admit bosses can now spy on their workers when they are out of the office but say it has plenty of other valid uses. http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/Oct%2004/171004_employers_spy.html
‘Smart Dust’ May Soon Be Watching You
It's a project first dreamed up by the military to get information from the battlefield. They call it "Smart Dust" and it may soon make it possible to keep track of anything, anywhere, including you. They are the world's smallest wireless sensors. And at about the size of a wristwatch, the contain a battery powered microphone, an accelerometer, as well as temperature and humidity sensors, according to Sam Godwin, Vice President of Crossbow. Scatter them 250 feet apart and they will form their own wireless network similar to a spider's web.
http://www.infowars.net/Pages/Nov_04/201104_dust.html
The biggest "intruder" in most homes is the one people invite in daily—TV.
How Dominating Are US Television And The Media?
The average American spends 1,550 hours watching television every year. That's an average of 194 eight-hour days a year. Or, 39 forty-hour work weeks spent staring at the tube.
If you watch the "normal" amount of television, you will see 100 TV ads per day.
The average American child spends 1,680 minutes per week watching TV and only 39 minutes per week in meaningful conversations with their parents.
Furthermore, the average American listens to 1,160 hours of radio, and spends 290 hours reading newspapers and magazines.
If you were hired to do the average amount of watching, listening, and reading of the mass media, you'd be at it 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, 375 days a year. Yes, that's 375...meaning you would have to work overtime to fit it all in.
http://www.rense.com/general62/dom.htm
Closer To The Remote-Controlled Home
A Young California Company, Is Launching A Web-Based Service That Lets People Monitor Their House, Business, Or Even The Kids.
(Business Week, February 14 2005)
The prospect of "Big Brother" is frightening to most. That is, of course, unless you get to be Big Brother. A small company in Palo Alto, Calif., called iControl Networks, on Feb. 14 will unveil a new Internet-based service that allows people to monitor their homes remotely.
The new service, which will get its first public test drive at the DEMO tech-industry confab in Scottsdale, Ariz., allows people to view live feeds from surveillance cameras and motion sensors on their own homes. They'll also be able to adjust thermostats that have been outfitted with special wireless Internet technologies and turn lights on or off.
All the homeowner needs is a PC, a personal digital assistant, or even a cell phone. "Essentially, it will let you be somewhere when you're not." says Reza Raji, chief executive of iControl and one of its three founders. "This is a product to let people manage a second home, a small business, or their kids."
BROADBAND BOOST. The iControl starter kit, which includes a camera, a motion sensor, a lamp module, a door/window sensor, and a key-chain remote, will cost around $399, with a monthly subscription fee of $9.95.
It'll be intriguing to see how the marketplace greets this do-it-yourself, monitor-yourself security system because Internet service providers will have to act as a channel for the services. Raji says iControl has plans to do a market trial with a "household-name" ISP, though he wouldn't name it.
There's no doubt companies like iControl that depend on high-capacity Internet connections have a much greater chance to make a go of it today than they did a few years ago. By yearend, about 38% of American households are expected to have broadband Internet access, according to Forrester Research. Moreover, most analysts figure that of the people now connecting to the Net, the majority are doing so with broadband rather than dial-up services. This shift has happened just within the last year.
EMERGENCY HELP. Analysts figure that consumers are ready to take advantage of so-called broadband peripherals as service providers start pushing them in an attempt to make up for deep discounting to basic services.
iControl's founders hope they have one of those peripherals the ISPs will depend on. The 12-employee company was started two-and-a-half years ago by Chris Stevens, former president of home audio company Harman/Kardon; Raji, a former engineer and director of business development at computer-networking company Echelon (ELON), and Gerry Gutt, a software architect also from Echelon.
iControl plans to include a huge number of add-ons, including the Wi-Fi thermostat, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and emergency pendants for elderly or ailing people who live alone. When a button on the pendant is pressed, it will automatically send a text message or e-mail alert. "It's 'I've fallen, and I can't get up,' taken to a whole new level," says Raji.
UNINVITED MONITORS? This is how the system works: A customer sets up the motion detectors, cameras, or other add-ons in the house. The devices are then connected to an iControl box. That box, through the customer's usual Internet connection, automatically uploads all the data to iControl's servers. This allows the customer to access data via the Web without tinkering with any of the electronics in the house.
Most intriguing is the "automation," feature, which lets people coordinate motion sensors with the cameras or other devices. When a door opens, for instance, the camera can snap a picture of whoever enters. iControl automatically text-messages an alert to the owner's cell phone, to say the door has opened.
Consumers will no doubt have questions about security. If a hacker taps into an iControl account, will he be able to make the temperature in the house suddenly freezing? Or turn the lights off and on at will? Or cause a false alarm to be sent? iControl execs say they've built in good security to keep ne'er-do-wells out, but it will certainly be a juicy target for them.
Of course, whether the public has such an appetite for self-monitoring is the biggest question of all.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/Feb05/140205_Remote_home.html
The Company That Would Sell Your Soul to the Devil
Why am I not surprised that ChoicePoint, the consumer data-mining company that was recently conned into sharing 145,000 consumer credit profiles with identity thieves, is the same company that helped Florida "purge" its voter rolls of felons and other undesirable voters during the 2000 election?
More about ChoicePoint at http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0225-24.htm
New Tracking Devices Monitor Teen Drivers
It used to be that teenagers had to worry about their little brother or sister snitching on them. Now, Big Brother is watching, too.
A new class of monitoring devices is hitting the market that lets parents keep close tabs on how their kids are behaving behind the wheel - whether they're driving recklessly, whether they're wearing seat belts, whether they are really just going to the library like they promised.
Based on technology long used by trucking companies to track driver behavior, the gadgets, which typically are installed under the dashboard, can track a vehicle's acceleration, braking and distance traveled.
Some of the new devices are interactive, capable of notifying parents if their child speeds or drives beyond a predefined boundary - like to a boyfriend's house, or Tijuana. Depending on the product, the alerts come via e-mail, phone or logging onto a Web site.
Alltrack USA, an online retailer that offers a product it calls Real-Time Tracking, even sells a $40 add-on that lets parents immediately tell their kid to knock it off. From their computer, they can flash a light on the dashboard or blow the car's horn at the driver. It also allows parents to prevent a car from being restarted once it's parked somewhere.
Gadgets like these can range in price from $140 or so for a basic system without instant tracking, to more than $400 plus monthly fees for options that use global-positioning satellite technology.
In about a month, for instance, Road Safety International Inc., maker of the RS-1000 Teen Driving System, plans to add an optional GPS receiver that will push up the total cost of that product to about $480 from about $280 now. Currently, its device records the car's speed and other data that parents can only retrieve later.
More at http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/63345.php
"Morality is the property of doing what is right when nobody is looking. If you place your kids (or your population) under constant surveillance, how can they ever learn to be moral people?"—WhatReallyHappened.com
Aerial Photos Could Track Home Projects
New technology soon could let government officials look right into your back yard to see your new deck - and then check whether you filed the proper permits.
http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-27/1111321203140000.xml
Scans That Read Your Mind Fuel Ethical Worries
Soon they could be used to tell if a person is lying, to predict that a violent criminal could soon attack again or that they are not really in constant pain as they claim.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1441799,00.html
Google Feature Incorporates Satellite Maps
Online search engine leader Google has unveiled a new feature that will enable its users to zoom in on homes and businesses using satellite images, an advance that may raise privacy concerns as well as intensify the competitive pressures on its rivals.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=738&e=1&u=/ap/20050405/ap_on_hi_te/google_maps&sid=84439559
How to Keep Safe in a Dangerous Digital World
http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/security/
So Your Employer ‘Lost’ Your Information
Millions of employees and consumers have gotten some unwelcome news in 2005. They were told that their personal information was lost or had been stolen. Here's what to do if you get the bad news.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/03/pf/security_employees/index.htm
Montana Supreme Court Justice Warns Orwell's 1984 Has Arrived
Believe it or not, it's perfectly legal for police to rummage through your garbage for incriminating stuff on you -- even if they don't have a warrant or court approval.
The Supreme Court of Montana ruled last month that police could conduct a warrantless "trash dive" into the trash cans in the alley behind the home of a man named Darrell Pelvit. The cops discovered evidence of pseudoephedrine and Naptha -- a solvent with uses including the manufacture of methamphetamine -- and Pelvit eventually ended up in prison.
Pelvit's attorney argued that his client had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his trash, but the court rejected the argument and said the trash was, well, meant to be thrown away.
What's remarkable is the concurring opinion of Montana Supreme Court Justice James C. Nelson, who reluctantly went along with his colleagues but warned that George Orwell's 1984 had arrived. We reproduce his concurring opinion in full:
Justice James C. Nelson concurs.
I have signed our Opinion because we have correctly applied existing legal theory and constitutional jurisprudence to resolve this case on its facts.
I feel the pain of conflict, however. I fear that, eventually, we are all going to become collateral damage in the war on drugs, or terrorism, or whatever war is in vogue at the moment. I retain an abiding concern that our Declaration of Rights not be killed by friendly fire. And, in this day and age, the courts are the last, if not only, bulwark to prevent that from happening.
In truth, though, we area throw-away society. My garbage can contains the remains of what I eat and drink. It may contain discarded credit card receipts along with yesterday's newspaper and junk mail. It might hold some personal letters, bills, receipts, vouchers, medical records, photographs and stuff that is imprinted with the multitude of assigned numbers that allow me access to the global economy and vice versa.
My garbage can contains my DNA.
As our Opinion states, what we voluntarily throw away, what we discard--i.e., what we abandon--is fair game for roving animals, scavengers, busybodies, crooks and for those seeking evidence of criminal enterprise.
Yet, as I expect with most people, when I take the day's trash (neatly packaged in opaque plastic bags) to the garbage can each night, I give little consideration to what I am throwing away and less thought, still, to what might become of my refuse. I don't necessarily envision that someone or something is going to paw through it looking for a morsel of food, a discarded treasure, a stealable part of my identity or a piece of evidence. But, I've seen that happen enough times to understand--though not graciously accept--that there is nothing sacred in whatever privacy interest I think I have retained in my trash once it leaves my control--the Fourth Amendment and Article II, Sections 10 and 11, notwithstanding.
Like it or not, I live in a society that accepts virtual strip searches at airports; surveillance cameras; "discount" cards that record my buying habits; bar codes; "cookies" and spywear on my computer; on-line access to satellite technology that can image my back yard; and microchip radio frequency identification devices already implanted in the family dog and soon to be integrated into my groceries, my credit cards, my cash and my new underwear.
I know that the notes from the visit to my doctor's office may be transcribed in some overseas country under an out-sourcing contract by a person who couldn't care less about my privacy. I know that there are all sorts of businesses that have records of what medications I take and why. I know that information taken from my blood sample may wind up in databases and be put to uses that the boilerplate on the sheaf of papers I sign to get medical treatment doesn't even begin to disclose. I know that my insurance companies and employer know more about me than does my mother. I know that many aspects of my life are available on the Internet. Even a black box in my car--or event data recorder as they are called--is ready and willing to spill the beans on my driving habits, if I have an event--and I really trusted that car, too.
And, I also know that my most unwelcome and paternalistic relative, Uncle Sam, is with me from womb to tomb. Fueled by the paranoia of "ists" and "isms," Sam has the capability of spying on everything and everybody--and no doubt is. But, as Sam says: "It's for my own good."
In short, I know that my personal information is recorded in databases, servers, hard drives and file cabinets all over the world. I know that these portals to the most intimate details of my life are restricted only by the degree of sophistication and goodwill or malevolence of the person, institution, corporation or government that wants access to my data.
I also know that much of my life can be reconstructed from the contents of my garbage can.
I don't like living in Orwell's 1984; but I do. And, absent the next extinction event or civil libertarians taking charge of the government (the former being more likely than the latter), the best we can do is try to keep Sam and the sub-Sams on a short leash.
As our Opinion states, search and seizure jurisprudence is centered around privacy expectations and reasonableness considerations. That is true even under the extended protections afforded by Montana's Constitution, Article II, Sections 10. and 11. We have ruled within those parameters. And, as is often the case, we have had to draw a fine line in a gray area. Justice Cotter and those who have signed the Opinion worked hard at defining that line; and I am satisfied we've drawn it correctly on the facts of this case and under the conventional law of abandonment.
That said, if this Opinion is used to justify a sweep of the trash cans of a neighborhood or community; or if a trash dive for Sudafed boxes and matchbooks results in DNA or fingerprints being added to a forensic database or results in personal or business records, credit card receipts, personal correspondence or other property being archived for some future use unrelated to the case at hand, then, absent a search warrant, I may well reconsider my legal position and approach to these sorts of cases--even if I have to think outside the garbage can to get there.
I concur.
/S/ JAMES C. NELSON
http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/lead-story86.htm
World Tracker Turns Anyone into a Cellphone Spy
A UK service called World Tracker apparently uses cell tower data (or GPS, when available) to track the location of just about any GSM cellphone. Just enter the number you want to track into the service's handy Google Maps-based interface, and you'll be able to zoom in on the device's location, with accuracy somewhere between 50 and 500 meters.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/20/world-tracker-turns-anyone-into-a-cellphone-spy/
Think Your CellPhone Is Private? Think Again!
For the past week I've been tracking my girlfriend through her mobile phone. I can see exactly where she is, at any time of day or night, within 150 yards, as long as her phone is on. It has been very interesting to find out about her day. Now I'm going to tell you how I did it...
Full article at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1699080,00.html
Seems to me this world tracker is a great way to harvest cell numbers for sales calls, i'd avoid the temptation to enter anyones cell number for fun or whatever.
The trackers are a great way to destroy trust in all your relationships by spying on loved ones, trying to play God and see or know all or make irrational, too-quick judgments, or to lose your own abilities of discernment by relying on technical gadgets. I view cellphone snooping as just one more way worldliness and technology are used as NWO tools to further break down and divide the family. It reminds me of those $19-24 telephone recording devices that Radio Shack started selling decades ago, the kind which are now available almost anywhere. Everyone gets along fine at home for years. Then one family member starts prying and snooping on another…there goes trust and valuing one another’s privacy out the window. There goes one friendship after another. The home which should have been a sanctuary from the world now becomes like a police state.
As for me, I own a cellphone and carry it with me for driving or other emergencies, but other than that, I never use it. I’ve never understood why so many people love cellphones which track their every move. In a home invasion, though, if the ground wires are cut, a cellphone is handy. Still, I could live without my cellphone and never miss it.
There's health problems with cell phones also. I've read that with normal cell phones, EMF wave effect is big. With the type cell phone that attaches to the ear, the EMF effect is tripled. These waves not only affect your mental perception, they can cause horrible physical problems like tumors. The EMF waves caused by cell towers might be affecting the public's mental and physical condition as a whole. Who knows, maybe the real reason for cell phones might be for this purpose alone. I wouldn't doubt it. I see the logic for having one for emergency reasons, like when driving on long open roads, but other than that I wouldn't even own one.