No Privacy

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

2006-05-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made - across town or across the country - to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

Google Judge's Questionable Past

2006-03-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

Within the next few days, U.S. District Court Judge James Ware is expected to order Google to hand over search results from as many as 50,000 websites as well as 5,000 individual Web searches. This would be in an effort on the part of the Bush administration to revive a law intended to shield children from explicit online material.

Read the complete article here

Japan Plans Foreign Fingerprinting

2006-03-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Japan's Cabinet has approved controversial plans to fingerprint and photograph most foreign visitors, in an effort to tighten security.

Read the rest of the article at BBC News

Police Cameras Spark Privacy Debate

2006-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Police in Chicago -- and elsewhere in the state of Illinois -- are dramatically expanding the deployment of stealth cameras to catch alleged speeders. The cameras may be a massive invasion of privacy - read the complete story at TechNewsWorld

Employees Injected With RFID Microchips

2006-02-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

According to this Spychips.com news release, two u.s. employees were injected with rfid microchips at company request.

Cincinnati video surveillance company CityWatcher.com now requires employees to use VeriChip human implantable microchips to enter a secure data center, Network Administrator Khary Williams told Liz McIntyre by phone yesterday. McIntyre, co-author of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID," contacted CityWatcher after it announced it had integrated the VeriChip VeriGuard product into its access control system.

According to Williams, a local doctor has already implanted two of CityWatcher's employees with the VeriChip devices. "I will eventually" receive an implant, too, he added. In the meantime, Williams accesses the data center with a VeriChip implant housed in a heart-shaped plastic casing that hangs from his keychain. He told McIntyre he had no qualms about undergoing the implantation procedure himself, and said he would receive an implant as soon as time permits.

Bank of America Debit Card Security Breach

2006-02-10T05:21:00.000-08:00

A security breach involving an undisclosed company has prompted Bank of America to cancel the debit cards of numerous customers, a spokesman for the country's largest bank said Tuesday.

This from a report by ZDNet.

Bank of America refused to release the name of the company involved, the exact number of customers affected or whether the company in question was online or a traditional brick-and-mortar establishment.

Bank of America issued letters to many customers notifying them of the breach and that their debit cards were no longer good. The bank is also telling customers to watch out for any unauthorized transactions on their statements.

Does the new Google Desktop pose a privacy risk?

2006-02-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

According to this EFF article, that may be the case.

The new "Search Across Computers" feature will store copies of the user's Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google's own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user's computers.

Said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index. The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn't even be notified in time to challenge it. Other litigants—your spouse, your business partners or rivals, whoever—could also try to cut out the middleman (you) and subpoena Google for your files."

Massive Data Collection Planned

2006-02-08T18:42:00.000-08:00

According to this article in The Christian Science Monitor, "The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity. "

"The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security"

"What sets ADVISE apart is its scope. It would collect a vast array of corporate and public online information - from financial records to CNN news stories - and cross-reference it against US intelligence and law-enforcement records."

Who's helping the NSA?

2006-02-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

CNET News.com asked telecommunications and Internet companies about cooperation with the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping scheme. We asked them: "Have you turned over information or opened up your networks to the NSA without being compelled by law?"

Here are the companies and their answers:

Company	Response
Adelphia Communications	Declined comment
AOL Time Warner	No [1]
AT&T	Declined comment
BellSouth Communications	No
Cable & Wireless*	No response
Cablevision Systems	No
CenturyTel	No
Charter Communications	No [1]
Cingular Wireless	No [2]
Citizens Communications	No response
Cogent Communications*	No [1]
Comcast	No
Cox Communications	No
EarthLink	No
Global Crossing*	Inconclusive
Google	Declined comment
Level 3*	No response
Microsoft	No [3]
NTT Communications*	Inconclusive [4]
Qwest Communications	No [2]
SAVVIS Communications*	No response
Sprint Nextel	No [2]
T-Mobile USA	No [2]
United Online	No response
Verizon Communications	Inconclusive [5]
XO Communications*	No [1]
Yahoo	Declined comment
* = Not a company contacted by Rep. John Conyers. [1] The answer did not explicitly address NSA but said that compliance happens only if required by law. [2] Provided by a source with knowledge of what this company is telling Conyers. In the case of Sprint Nextel, the source was familiar with Nextel's operations. [3] As part of an answer to a closely related question for a different survey. [4] The response was "NTT Communications respects the privacy rights of our customers and complies fully with law enforcement requests as permitted and required by law." [5] The response was "Verizon complies with applicable laws and does not comment on law enforcement or national security matters."

Congress Quizzes Phone Records Brokers

2006-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

Politicians on Friday lobbed a dozen questions at companies that operate Web sites offering to sell a person's telephone calling record to anyone with $110 to spend.

This, according to an article in News.com

The article also states that "Members of the House and the U.S. Senate have already introduced proposals aimed at making such practices a crime, with prison time a possible sentence."

"Last week, the same House committee asked the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that the top five wireless and wireline providers were taking adequate steps to guarantee the privacy of their customers' records."

"The FCC responded by threatening two major providers, AT&T and Alltel, with $100,000 fines for failing to have a corporate executive personally sign off on the companies' compliance with federal regulations about protecting their customers' records."

EFF Sues AT&T Collaborating with Illegal Domestic Spying Program

2006-01-31T14:52:00.000-08:00

The EFF is going after AT&T, accusing them of violating the law and privacy of their customers, according to an article on their website.

In their lawsuit, EFF says that AT&T is continuing their spying, and the lawsuit is attempting to stop this.

The lawsuit says that AT&T gave access to over 300 terabytes of cutomer database files to the NSA.

VoIP Phone Tapping?

2006-01-30T12:36:00.000-08:00

According to an aticle in the Washington Post , the FCC's plans may pose a threat to your privacy and security.

In the article, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC),the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation ,say they will fight the FCC's plan to expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994. It filed a brief this week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Wal-Mart & Costco Consider Fingerprint Scanning

2006-01-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

An article in CNNMoney.com reports that both Wal-Mart and Costco are considering using fingerprint scanning.

Your fingerprint would then be linked to your credit card.

With the Patriot Act in place, the government could then request Wal-Mart and Costco's records, which of course, would include your fingerprint.

New Jersey Schools Now Using Iris Scanning

2006-01-24T07:08:00.000-08:00

"When a parent arrives to pick up their child at one of three grade schools in the Freehold Borough School District, they'll need to look into a camera that will take a digital image of their iris. That photo will establish positive identification to gain entrance into the school."

This, according to an article in TechWeb.

This program is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.

"The system takes a digital photograph of the iris, the color portion of the eye, each time a parent, teach or administrative and school employee gains access to the school. "The algorithm can map out up to 242 unique points in the iris," Bolling said. "A good fingerprint patch is anywhere from seven to 22 points."

"The idea is to improve school safety for the children," said Phil Meara, superintendent, Freehold Borough School District"

Verizon To Begin Tracking Children

2006-01-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

According to this article in Red Herring, Verizon plans to roll out their child tracking service in May.

Banks To Use Fingerprints and RFID To Track You

2006-01-20T05:36:00.000-08:00

Isn't that convenient?

For the banks, that is.

Read the article here

Yahoo Hands Over Search Data To Feds

2006-01-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

A TechWeb article says that Yahoo handed over search data to government attorneys, but that no personal information was handed out.

According to the article, a Yahoo spokeswoman stated "In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue," "We complied on a limited basis and did not provide any personally identifiable information."

Bush Administration Going After Google Records

2006-01-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

According to an article in The Mercury News , the Bush administration asked a federal judge to turn over it's database records.

According to the article, Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort ``vigorously.''

My Auto Insurance Company Wants To Know More

2006-01-17T12:51:00.001-08:00

My auto insurance company (during a policy renewal interview) asked me some probing personal questions today that have nothing to do with auto insurance.

One of the questions was "do you have any medical conditions", and the interviewer ran through a laundry list of medical conditions.

What do medical questions have to do with auto insurance? I asked the interviewer that same question. She told me that they needed to know these answers, just in case you "passed out while behind the wheel" -- of course they want to know those answers. They want to know if you have a medical condition, so that they can use your own answers to deny you any future claims in the event you have an accident.

The other question was "do you have any children under the age of fifteen"?

I asked the interviewer why they were asking that question. She told me "we track children" I'm not making this up! Her complete quote was "We track children under fifteen years of age for the purpose of rating"

When asked, she couldn't explain to me what she meant by "rating"

She did explain that "they track children year by year, as they grow older."

The implications of this type of interviewing should be obvious. In addition to privacy issues, there is the issue of security. Do you want to tell a virtual stranger how many children you have, and how old they are? I intend to further investigate this and try to determine just what purpose the insurance company has for these type of questions. I'd also like to know if they are sharing the data with other companies, or with the government.