Free Talk Live - Published news - Privacy

Examples of Government Hacking its own Citizens -- TEDTalks

jeffersonish — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:42:18 +0000

This video entitled, "Mikko Hypponen: Three types of online attack" is really about the 3rd type of attack... governments hacking their own citizens citing specific instances.

Start at 4:15. In the closing he says, "This is not a question of privacy against security, it is a question of freedom against control. And while we might trust our government right now... any right we give away will be given away for good."

Warrantless GPS Tracking Heads to the Supreme Court

MuslimNonarchist — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:36:29 +0000

FBI Special Agent Joseph Schadler said, “court decisions have consistently upheld that there is no warrant necessary for GPS tracking of a vehicle.” but that’s not entirely true. This issue in full of legal vagaries with contradictory rulings from the Ninth Circuit Court and the DC Court of Appeals.

New Mac OS X Trojan horse hijacks GPU, steals user data (BItCoin!)

dogcow — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:19:48 +0000

A new Trojan horse hidden in a Mac OS X application can steal sensitive user data and take control of the computer’s GPU to generate Bitcoins, a form of currency used online.

Homeland Security moves forward with 'pre-crime' detection

George.Safford.Parker — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:13:22 +0000

An internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on some members of the public.

Yahoo sharing user activity information with Facebook

wtfk — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:37:45 +0000

If you've avoided Facebook because of their poor behavior as a custodian of personal information, you may wish to keep an eye on Yahoo. This story describes how Facebook and Yahoo are sharing your information to do many of the same things.

Blogger Threatened With Defamation Suit For Writing About TSA 'Rape'

Sgt Jarhead — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:37:32 +0000

Amy Alkon graphically described how she sobbed loudly while a TSA agent put her hands “into” her — four times. She screamed “You raped me” after the LAX patdown and took the agent’s name with plans to file charges of sexual assault.

Obama avoids scrutiny of his respect for civil liberties

Sgt Jarhead — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:00:37 +0000

In its 2004 report, the 9/11 Commission called for "a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence to the privacy guidelines we recommend and the commitment the government makes to defend our civil liberties." President Obama waited until last December, halfway through his term, to nominate anyone for the board.

UK wishes to put 20,000 camera's into private homes

young92782 — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:52:48 +0000

The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

TomTom admits to sending your routes / speed info to the cops

RevolutionNewsDotUS — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:42:41 +0000

Daily News @ http://RevolutionNews.US - TomTom admits to sending your routes and speed information to the police...

It appears every gadget in your possession is tracking your location. First it was the iPhone, then Android phones and now it's your bleedin' sat-nav. TomTom, perhaps in a pre-emptive strike against its own user-tracking scandal, has admitted its sat-navs can track users and inform third parties about how fast they're going.

Feds mine Facebook for info

RevolutionNewsDotUS — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:29:05 +0000

Daily News @ http://RevolutionNews.US - DETROIT — There have been a few dozen search warrants for Facebook accounts nationwide since May 2009, including three approved recently by a federal magistrate judge in Detroit, according to a Detroit News analysis of publicly available federal court records.

The trend raises privacy and evidentiary concerns in a rapidly evolving digital age and illustrates the potential law-enforcement value of social media, experts said.

Private records of 3.5 million people exposed by Texas

XD45 — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:33:07 +0000

The personal records of some 3.5 million Texans were inadvertently exposed after they were placed on a state computer server that was accessible to the public for about a year, state officials said on Monday.

Man With 4th Amendment Written on Chest Sues Over Airport Arrest

Causarius — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:49:00 +0000

A 21-year-old Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area is demanding $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.

Judge Lets Sony Unmask Visitors to PS3-Jailbreaking Site

XD45 — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:05:25 +0000

A federal magistrate is granting Sony the right to acquire the internet IP addresses of anybody who has visited PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz’s website from January of 2009 to the present.

How Facebook and Myspace can help lead to the death penalty

Sussex County Angel — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:46:13 +0000

This is the second case of someone getting the death penalty from information gained from social networking sites. Would they have had a case without using their personal pages?

President Obama creating an ''Internet ID'' for Americans

boardsofcanada — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:59:26 +0000

>>President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.

>>It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.

Police can now read the messages on your phone at will!

NHNative — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:57:49 +0000

Police can now read the messages on your phone at will!

A ruling of the California Supreme Court declared that if you are suspected of any wrongdoings, police officers can read the messages on your phone without needing a warrant. It's yet to be seen how this decision, part of the People versus Gregory Diaz case, will be implemented in practice and in the different states.

Common Sense and Security...$2.4 Billion Worth of Security Theater

iambinarymind — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 21:16:00 +0000

The Transportation Security Administration is feeling public heat these days over its combination of whole-body-image scanners and heavy-handed pat-down searches, and deservedly so.

There’s no question that reform is needed to curtail TSA’s excesses. We especially applaud the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s efforts to increase public awareness about the body scanners. But will the heat now being generated produce the kind of light we really need?

One Hundred Naked Citizens: One Hundred Leaked Body Scans

iambinarymind — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:39:31 +0000

At the heart of the controversy over "body scanners" is a promise: The images of our naked bodies will never be public. U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal courthouse saved 35,000 images on their scanner. These are those images.

The “Cyberwar” Is Over and the National Security Agency Has Won

THCPower — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:49:06 +0000

A “Memorandum of Agreement” struck last week between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Security Agency (NSA) promises to increase Pentagon control over America’s telecommunications and electronic infrastructure.

Pilot to TSA: 'No Groping Me and No Naked Photos'

assawyer — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 06:55:13 +0000

In his own words, ExpressJet Airlines pilot Michael Roberts discusses his refusal to go through the AIT (full-body scanners) and enhanced "pat-downs" at Memphis International Airport.