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“Scarier Than Contracting The Virus” – Pandemic-Tracking Tech Raises Fears Of Global Surveillance State

April 16, 2020

“Scarier Than Contracting The Virus” – Pandemic-Tracking Tech Raises Fears Of Global Surveillance State

The world is sleepwalking into a surveillance state, under cover of the virus pandemic.

For the last several months, governments on both East and West hemispheres have been quickly imposing new digital surveillance measures to track and monitor citizens in quarantine. Governments have told their citizens that digital surveillance is being used to combat the virus and is temporary. 

Citizens of the world must remember the freedoms they had in a pre-corona world will likely not all exist in a post-corona world. The “new normal” is a global surveillance state that would make President Xi Jinping blush.

The emergence of digital surveillance to combat the virus originated in China, then spread to South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, all governments in these respected countries used cellphone location data to identify if people were abiding by the public health orders to stay-at-home. 

In Europe and the US, similar digital surveillance measures have been used, but have been implemented at a much slower rate because of more stringent regulation. 

France admitted last week that it was working on a “StopCovid” app that would march the country, and even maybe the bloc, towards an Orwellian society.

In the US, government agencies have been pulling data from mobile apps to monitor social distancing in states, counties, cities, and or even right down to the neighborhoods. 

We mentioned last month that a company called Unacast, launched a mobile app called “Social Distancing Scoreboard,” which tracks the GPS location of smartphones and grades geographical regions, such as a town, county, and or even a state, on how well residents in those areas are abiding by the government-enforced social distancing rules. The app creates an index, ranked from A to F, for whether people are staying home or not.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Social Media, Universal Basic Income, and Cashless Society: How China’s Social Credit System Is Coming To America

March 17, 2019

Social Media, Universal Basic Income, and Cashless Society: How China’s Social Credit System Is Coming To America

Some well-informed Americans may be aware of China’s horrifying “Social Credit System” that was recently unveiled as a method of eradicating any dissent in the totalitarian state. Essentially freezing out anyone who does not conform to the state’s version of the ideal citizen, the SCS is perhaps the most frightening control system being rolled out today. That is, until you consider what is coming next.

Unbeknownst to most people, there appears to be a real attempt to create a system in which all citizens are rationed their “wages” digitally each month in place of a paycheck, including the ability to gain or lose money. This system would see any form of dissent resulting in the cut off of those credits and the ability to work, eat, or even exist in society. It would not only be the end of dissent but of any semblance of real individuality.

Here’s how the Social Credit System operates in China.

First, however, for those who are unaware of the Social Credit System as it operates in China, we should briefly describe just what has taken place there. The Social Credit System in China isn’t merely a punishment for criticizing the state as is the case in most totalitarian regimes, the SCS can bring the hammer down for even the slightest infraction such as smoking in a non-smoking zone.

One summary of the SCS can be found in Business Insider’s article by Alexandra Ma entitled “China has started ranking citizens with a creepy ‘social credit’ system — here’s what you can do wrong, and the embarrassing, demeaning ways they can punish you,” where Ma writes,

 …click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

UK Mass Digital Surveillance Regime Ruled Illegal

February 21, 2018

UK Mass Digital Surveillance Regime Ruled Illegal 

On 30 January, the UK Court of Appeal ruled that the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act of 2014 (DRIPA), which made way for the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016 (IPA), did not restrict the access of confidential personal phone and web browsing records to investigations of serious crime. The IPA means that Internet service providers must now store details of everything we do online for twelve months and render it accessible to dozens of public bodies. 

This data can be virtually everything, from browsing records to personal information on private citizens, to include but not limited to: search engine activity, every phone call to text message plus geographical location, private financial and credit repair services, personal correspondence, medical records, and data from banking, insurance, and investment services which is stored on computers and mobile telephones.  This law obliges technology companies to hand over the data that they have about private citizens to intelligence agencies and it can force tech companies like Apple to remove encryption, ultimately weakening the security of their own products in total secrecy.

The ability of the government to spy on private citizens’ includes the encroachment upon the fundamental rights of privacy in financial matters, such that a “super-spy search engine” has become part of the arsenal that the Home Office is accused of hosting.  What does surveillance mean in an era where financial information needs to be safeguarded and when economic interests such as crypto robots and cryptocurrencies could face government spying?

Let’s step back to 2004, when philosopher Giorgio Agamben refused to submit passport biodata in 2004 in the United States when he famously rescinded his appointment to lecture at New York University.  Resisting the submission of fingerprints required to enter

the United States as a foreign visitor, Agamben’s actions then foreshadowed what he would later address in his 2013 Athens lecture:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Oregon Senator Warns – The U.S. Government is Dramatically Expanding its Hacking and Surveillance Authority

May 29, 2016

Oregon Senator Warns – The U.S. Government is Dramatically Expanding its Hacking and Surveillance Authority

Screen Shot 2016-05-27 at 11.21.08 AM

The Patriot Act continues to wreak its havoc on civil liberties. Section 213 was included in the Patriot Act over the protests of privacy advocates and granted law enforcement the power to conduct a search while delaying notice to the suspect of the search. Known as a “sneak and peek” warrant, law enforcement was adamant Section 213 was needed to protect against terrorism. But the latest government report detailing the numbers of “sneak and peek” warrants reveals that out of a total of over 11,000 sneak and peek requests, only 51 were used for terrorism. Yet again, terrorism concerns appear to be trampling our civil liberties.

– From the post: More “War on Terror” Abuses – Spying Powers Are Used for Terrorism Only 0.5% of the Time

Ron Wyden, a Senator from Oregon, has been one of the most influential and significant champions of Americans’ embattled 4th Amendment rights in the digital age. Recall that it was Sen. Wyden who caught Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, lying under oath about government surveillance of U.S. citizens.

Mr. Wyden continues to be a courageous voice for the public when it comes to pushing back against Big Brother spying. His latest post at Medium is a perfect example.

Here it is in full:

Shaking My Head

The government will dramatically expand surveillance powers unless Congress acts

Last month, at the request of the Department of Justice, the Courts approved changes to the obscure Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which governs search and seizure. By the nature of this obscure bureaucratic process, these rules become law unless Congress rejects the changes before December 1, 2016.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Secret Text in Senate Bill Would Give FBI Warrantless Access to Email Records

May 29, 2016

A PROVISION SNUCK INTO the still-secret text of the Senate’s annual intelligence authorization would give the FBI the ability to demand individuals’ email data and possibly web-surfing history from their service providers without a warrant and in complete secrecy.

If passed, the change would expand the reach of the FBI’s already highly controversial national security letters. The FBI is currently allowed to get certain types of information with NSLs — most commonly, information about the name, address, and call data associated with a phone number or details about a bank account.

Since a 2008 Justice Department legal opinion, the FBI has not been allowed to use NSLs to demand “electronic communication transactional records,” such as email subject lines and other metadata, or URLs visited.

The spy bill passed the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, with the provision in it. The lone no vote came from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who wrote in a statement that one of the bill’s provisions “would allow any FBI field office to demand email records without a court order, a major expansion of federal surveillance powers.”

Wyden did not disclose exactly what the provision would allow, but his spokesperson suggested it might go beyond email records to things like web-surfing histories and other information about online behavior. “Senator Wyden is concerned it could be read that way,” Keith Chu said.

It’s unclear how or when the provision was added, although Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., — the committee’s chairman — and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have both offered bills in the past that would address what the FBI calls a gap and privacy advocates consider a serious threat to civil liberties.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Edward Snowden Demonstrates How To “Go Black”

May 29, 2016

Edward Snowden Demonstrates How To “Go Black”

When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden first exposed the world tojust how easily the government could compromise their technology and spy on them, many immediately sought ways to secure their data and protect their gadgets.

But, as Wired.com reports, Snowden is here to help. “‘Going Black’ is a pretty big ask,” he tells VICE’s Shane Smith, but not impossible, as Snowden shows how to “make sure your phone works for you… instead of working for someone else.”

US Hacking, Spyware Targets Include Mass Media, Phone, and Energy Companies

May 19, 2016

US Hacking, Spyware Targets Include Mass Media, Phone, and Energy Companies

Posted on May 19, 2016 by Robert Barsocchini

US corporate government wants to control and drain as much of the world as possible.  Reuters, The Register, and others summarize some of its methods:

“The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives …. giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world’s computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.

That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.

Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran [a US corporate target since 1953], followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.”

These hacking and spyware operations date back “at least 14 years and possibly up to two decades”.

Other outlets note:

NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives with Impossible-to-Remove Spyware

Spyware Linked To NSA Discovered In Hard Drives Across The World

The Only Way You Can Delete This NSA Malware Is to Smash Your Hard Drive to Bits

There’s no way of knowing if the NSA’s spyware is on your hard drive

Connected devices quietly mine our data, privacy experts say

February 1, 2016

Connected devices quietly mine our data, privacy experts say

Hackers could use them as stepping stone to another part of your network

The Internet of Things - gadgets we wear and install that are connected to a network - quietly mines information about us and can leave consumers vulnerable to a hacker, cybersecurity experts say.

The Internet of Things – gadgets we wear and install that are connected to a network – quietly mines information about us and can leave consumers vulnerable to a hacker, cybersecurity experts say. (iStock)

If you control your garage door, your heating and your fridge from your smartphone, expect that someone else could get control of them, too, cybersecurity expert Scott Wright says.

The explosion of the so-called Internet of Things — the gadgets we strap to ourselves or install in our homes, offices and cars that are connected and controlled by a network — leaves a data trail for hackers. It can tell them when we’re home, what we’re saying, and about our health.

And attacks on machines, like the Jeep Cherokee that had its brakes and other controls remotely disabled last summer, also shows that these connected devices can be a back door for hackers.

It’s largely happening because manufacturers push technology to what it’s capable of, says Wright, president of Security Perspectives Inc., says. But they aren’t designing with security in mind, he said.

And most of us aren’t buying things with that in mind either.

Voice-activated TVs

It may come as a surprise, then, that if you’re watching TV, it could be listening to you.

“Smart TVs and appliances are sort of communicating either with each other, just monitoring your activity and deciding what you might want to do next,” Wright says. “You can give them commands like the way you do to Siri, but the TV manufacturers haven’t really had a lot to think about in terms of security like Apple.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

TD Visa customers’ browsing activities open to ‘surveillance’ by bank

November 30, 2015

TD Visa customers’ browsing activities open to ‘surveillance’ by bank

Bank denies collecting general information about what customers do online

Colin Laughlan's special interest in privacy legislation made him notice the fine print that gives TD Canada Trust Visa cardholders access to clients' online activities.

Colin Laughlan’s special interest in privacy legislation made him notice the fine print that gives TD Canada Trust Visa cardholders access to clients’ online activities. (CBC)

A B.C. man decided to Go Public after discovering Canada’s second-biggest bank can access and collect information on all of its customers’ online activities, even those that aren’t banking-related.

CBC News investigates  ​

Colin Laughlan is one of thousands of Canadians who had his Visa cards switched from CIBC to TD in 2014 after the Aeroplan rewards program changed banks.

“When I saw this — I really had to read it two or three times to make myself believe I was reading what I was reading,” he said.

He points to two lines in the 66-page Visa cardholder agreement that allows TD to collect details about anything — and everything — customers do online.

Under the privacy section of the cardholder agreement:

“COLLECTING AND USING YOUR INFORMATION — At the time you request to begin a relationship with us and during the course of our relationship, we may collect information including:

  • Details about your browsing activity on your browser or mobile device.
  • Your preferences and activities.

Laughlan, from Vancouver, has a background in privacy issues as a former journalist and communications specialist. He said his radar was up when his new TD Visa card and cardholder agreement arrived in the mail.

“I couldn’t see any reason they had to do that sort of surveillance on Canadians and they weren’t being particularly forthright about it. This was slipped into the fine print of the policy and I’m well aware that the vast majority of people don’t read these things,” he said.

Laughlan said it took almost a year before his complaint finally reached TD’s privacy office.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

October 13, 2015 – The Day Digital Privacy Officially Dies in Australia

September 2, 2015

October 13, 2015 – The Day Digital Privacy Officially Dies in Australia

Screen Shot 2015-09-01 at 1.18.19 PM

At least in America, the authorities feel a need to lie to the public while engaging in invasive and tyrannical warrantless surveillance. In Australia, a nation in which you are more likely to die by hitting a kangaroo with your car than in a terrorist attack, government officials have no qualms with doing it right in your face.

We learn from the Sydney Morning Herald:

The digital privacy of Australians ends from Tuesday, October 13.

On that day this country’s entire communications industry will be turned into a surveillance and monitoring arm of at least 21 agencies of executive government.

The electronically logged data of mobile, landline voice (including missed and failed) calls and text messages, all emails, download volumes and location information will be mandatorily retained by Australian telcos and ISPs.

Intelligence and law enforcement agencies will have immediate, warrantless and accumulating access to all telephone and internet metadata required by law, with a $2 million penalty for telcos and ISPs that don’t comply.

There is nothing in the Act to prevent investigative “fishing expeditions” or systemic abuse of power except for retrospective oversight by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. That’s if you somehow found out about an agency looking into your metadata – which is unlikely, as there’s a two-year jail sentence for anyone caught revealing information about instances of metadata access.

Pretty soon, the penalty will be beheading. That’ll show ISIS!

Over time, your metadata will expose your private email, SMS and fixed-line caller traffic, consumer, work and professional activities and habits, showing the patterns of all your communications, your commercial transactions and monetized subscriptions or downloads, exactly who you communicate with, and how often.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

 

FBI says that citizens should have no secrets that the government can’t access: the Orwellian cyber police state has arrived

August 7, 2015

FBI says that citizens should have no secrets that the government can’t access: the Orwellian cyber police state has arrived

The police and surveillance state predicted in the forward-looking 1940s classic “1984” by George Orwell, has slowly, but steadily, come to fruition. However, like a frog sitting idly in a pan of steadily-warming water, too many Americans still seem unaware that the slow boil of big government is killing their constitutional liberties.

The latest sign of this stealth takeover of civil rights and freedom was epitomized in recent Senate testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who voiced his objections to civilian use of encryption to protect personal data – information the government has no automatic right to obtain.

As reported by The New American, Comey testified that he believes the government’s spy and law enforcement agencies should have unfettered access to everything Americans may store or send in electronic format: On computer hard drives, in so-called i-clouds, in email and in text messaging – for our own safety and protection. Like many in government today, Comey believes that national security is more important than constitutional privacy protections or, apparently, due process. After all, aren’t criminals the only ones who really have anything to hide?

In testimony before a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee entitled “Going Dark: Encryption, Technology, and the Balance Between Public Safety and Privacy” Comey said that in order to stay one step ahead of terrorists, as well as international and domestic criminals, Uncle Sam’s various spy and law enforcement agencies should have access to available technology used to de-encrypt protected data. Also, he believes the government should be the final arbiter deciding when decryption is necessary.

What could go wrong there?

Find more articles on the police state at PoliceState.news

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050653_police_state_national_security_FBI.html#ixzz3i8PWQ4tC

 

The Surveillance State Goes Mainstream: Windows 10 Is Watching (& Logging) Everything

August 2, 2015

The Surveillance State Goes Mainstream: Windows 10 Is Watching (& Logging) Everything

If Edward Snowden’s patriotic exposure of all things ‘super secret surveillance state’ in America were not enough, Newsweek reports that, as 10s of millions of hungry PC users download the free upgrade, Windows 10 is watching – and logging and sharing – everything users do… and we mean everything.

Thomas Fuchs @thomasfuchs

Windows 10 should be renamed to Spyware OS https://jonathan.porta.codes/2015/07/30/windows-10-seems-to-have-some-scary-privacy-defaults/ …

From the moment an account is created, Microsoft begins watching. The company saves customers’ basic information – name, contact details, passwords, demographic data and credit card specifics – but it also digs a bit deeper… and finding answers is not easy, as one privacy expert exclaimed, “there is no world in which 45 pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13 different Settings screens and an external website constitutes ‘real transparency’.”

As NewsWeek reports,

More than 14 million devices are already running Microsoft’s Windows 10 after its global launch on Wednesday, but it’s unclear how many of their users read the company’s Privacy Policy and Service Agreement before downloading. Tucked away in the 45 pages’ worth of terms and conditions (effective August 1) is a substantial power grab: The company is collecting data on much of what you do while using its new software.

From the moment an account is created, Microsoft begins watching. The company saves customers’ basic information – name, contact details, passwords, demographic data and credit card specifics – but it also digs a bit deeper.

Other information Microsoft saves includes Bing search queries and conversations with the new digital personal assistant Cortana; contents of private communications such as email; websites and apps visited (including features accessed and length of time used); and contents of private folders. Furthermore, “your typed and handwritten words are collected,” the Privacy Statement says, which many online observers liken to a keylogger. 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

 

 

Chatting in Secret While We’re All Being Watched

July 15, 2015

Chatting in Secret While We’re All Being Watched

When you pick up the phone and call someone, or send a text message, or write an email, or send a Facebook message, or chat using Google Hangouts, other people find out what you’re saying, who you’re talking to, and where you’re located. Such private data might only be available to the service provider brokering your conversation, but it might also be visible to the telecom companies carrying your Internet packets, to spy and law enforcement agencies, and even to some nearby teenagers monitoring your Wi-Fi network withWireshark.

But if you take careful steps to protect yourself, it’s possible to communicate online in a way that’s private, secret and anonymous. Today I’m going to explain in precise terms how to do that. I’ll take techniques NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden used when contacting me two and a half years ago and boil them down to the essentials. In a nutshell, I’ll show you how to create anonymous real-time chat accounts and how to chat over those accounts using an encryption protocol called Off-the-Record Messaging, or OTR.

If you’re in a hurry, you can skip directly to where I explain, step by step, how to set this up for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and Android. Then, when you have time, come back and read the important caveats preceding those instructions.

One caveat is to make sure the encryption you’re using is the sort known as “end-to-end” encryption. With end-to-end encryption, a message gets encrypted at one endpoint, like a smartphone, and decrypted at the other endpoint, let’s say a laptop. No one at any other point, including the company providing the communication service you’re using, can decrypt the message. Contrast this with encryption that only covers your link to the service provider, like an HTTPS web connection.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Jade Helm, Terrorist Attacks, Surveillance and Other Fairy Tales for a Gullible Nation

July 7, 2015

Jade Helm, Terrorist Attacks, Surveillance and Other Fairy Tales for a Gullible Nation

“Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then.” ― Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly

Once upon a time, there was a nation of people who believed everything they were told by their government.

When terrorists attacked the country, and government officials claimed to have been caught by surprise, the people believed them. And when the government passed massive laws aimed at locking down the nation and opening the door to total government surveillance, the people believed it was done merely to keep them safe. The few who disagreed were labeled traitors.

When the government waged costly preemptive wars on foreign countries, insisting it was necessary to protect the nation, the citizens believed it. And when the government brought the weapons and tactics of war home to use against the populace, claiming it was just a way to recycle old equipment, the people believed that too. The few who disagreed were labeled unpatriotic.

When the government spied on its own citizens, claiming they were looking for terrorists hiding among them, the people believed it. And when the government began tracking the citizenry’s movements, monitoring their spending, snooping on their social media, and surveying their habits—supposedly in an effort to make their lives more efficient—the people believed that, too. The few who disagreed were labeled paranoid.

When the government let private companies take over the prison industry and agreed to keep the jails full, justifying it as a cost-saving measure, the people believed them. And when the government started arresting and jailing people for minor infractions, claiming the only way to keep communities safe was to be tough on crime, the people believed that too. The few who disagreed were labeled soft on crime.

 

– See more at: http://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/jade_helm_terrorist_attacks_surveillance_and_other_fairy_tales_for_a_g#sthash.R7bFRwYi.dpuf

 

Are You Ready for the e-PATRIOT Act?

July 7, 2015

Are You Ready for the e-PATRIOT Act?

Are You Ready for the e-PATRIOT Act?

Earlier this month, news emerged that the US government had suffered its worst cyberattack ever.

On June 4, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revealed that hackers had penetrated its networks, possibly for many months. The data thieves stole personal information of up to 18 million current and former federal government applicants and employees.

There’s a good chance the attack is even worse than what you’ve read about. The OPM hack included a database holding security clearance information on hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors. This database contains details of applicants’ financial and investment records, family members, and even names of neighbors and close friends.

Another database that may have been breached includes criminal history, psychological records, and information about past drug use. The hackers might even have acquired detailed personal and sexual profiles obtained through lie detector tests.

With all the talk of Edward Snowden and the supposed “irreparable” damage he did to US interests, this theft is a lot worse. While OPM doesn’t hold personnel records for the CIA, it does for other US intelligence agencies. The hackers now know the identity of hundreds of thousands of federal employees with security clearances. Not only that, they also have sensitive background information on each of them, which they could easily use for blackmail.

Oh, and get this – the breach wasn’t actually discovered by the OPM. It was only uncovered during a sales demonstration by a security company named CyTech Services.

So what does the Obama administration want to do to solve the problem?

For starters, it’s proposed “economic sanctions” against China, which it holds responsible for the attack. We’ve seen how effective those were against Russia after the US imposed them last year in the wake of its takeover of Crimea. There’s no reason to think that sanctions against China will be any more effective.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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