More Privacy Issues From The Private Sector: Update

Update:
It seems not only was Google cataloguing SSIDs and MAC addresses, according to Google:

"It's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks," Google Senior VP of Engineering and Research Alan Eustace said in a post on Google's official blog on Friday.

What total bullshit. Mistakenly? More likely they got caught and now Eric, Sergei, and Larry, the three stooges of Menlo Park have some explaining to do.

Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, did not specify what kind of data it collected, but a security expert said that email content and passwords for many users, as well as general Web surfing activity, could easily have been caught in Google's dragnet.

You know, knowing this now, I have to wonder why they couldn't work out a deal with China. It seems second nature for them to snoop on people, and I am sure China would have paid them well for it.

"As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible," Google's Eustace said, noting that Google had "failed badly" in maintaining its users trust.

Really? What are you going to do about it? Give the people whose trust you've violate free gmail accounts?

Thank you again, for reading this blog.

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2010

More Privacy Issues From The Private Sector

More privacy issues in the private sector. Earlier in the week I commented onWellmark Blue Cross' non-smoking policy that extends to current employees off work activities.

Now we see that Google is logging people's MAC addresses and SSIDs in the process of doing Google Street Views.


Google's roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it's got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.
Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he's "horrified" by the discovery.
"I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View," according to German broadcaster ARD.
Spooks have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user's connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.
Other companies have logged broadcasting WLAN networks and published the information. By contrast Google has not published the WLAN map, or Street View in Germany; Google hopes to launch the service by the end of the year.


While some will say this information can be gotten by anyone in the area of networks with simple equipment, the key here is that it is being collected by an international firm with no oversight about how the information is used or even what gets collected. I have to wonder if comrade Brin and company have nefarious intentions. Remember, Google had been complicit with china in some of it's privacy practices or should I as violation thereof. Anything for a buck? Or is it sympathetic? Whatever the case Google comes across as a digital voyeur in the very least. I wouldn't trust them. Can you imagine a future where they will sell people's information to the highest bidder, who in turn wants to compromise someone's ambitions? It would make the cloak and dagger crap in DC much easier.

People used to complain that Microsoft was the dark force and evil. Right below our noses Google with it's friendly child-like multicolored corporate logo has positioned itself as the big brother of the future. Can we ever go back? Will we want to? Privacy has become an archaic word that seems to have lost it's original meaning.

Another company I wouldn't work for, for any amount of money.

Thank you for reading this blog.

More Privacy Issues From The Private Sector

More privacy issues in the private sector. Earlier in the week I commented on Wellmark Blue Cross' non-smoking policy that extends to current employees off work activities.

Now we see that Google is logging people's MAC addresses and SSIDs in the process of doing Google Street Views.


Google's roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it's got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users' unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.
Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he's "horrified" by the discovery.
"I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View," according to German broadcaster ARD.
Spooks have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user's connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.
Other companies have logged broadcasting WLAN networks and published the information. By contrast Google has not published the WLAN map, or Street View in Germany; Google hopes to launch the service by the end of the year.


While some will say this information can be gotten by anyone in the area of networks with simple equipment, the key here is that it is being collected by an international firm with no oversight about how the information is used or even what gets collected. I have to wonder if comrade Brin and company have nefarious intentions. Remember, Google had been complicit with china in some of it's privacy practices or should I as violation thereof. Anything for a buck? Or is it sympathetic? Whatever the case Google comes across as a digital voyeur in the very least. I wouldn't trust them. Can you imagine a future where they will sell people's information to the highest bidder, who in turn wants to compromise someone's ambitions? It would make the cloak and dagger crap in DC much easier.

People used to complain that Microsoft was the dark force and evil. Right below our noses Google with it's friendly child-like multicolored corporate logo has positioned itself as the big brother of the future. Can we ever go back? Will we want to? Privacy has become an archaic word that seems to have lost it's original meaning.

Another company I wouldn't work for, for any amount of money.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Privacy In The Era Of Obama

While the left harangued Bush for the Patriot at, it would seem that Obama is much further along in violating privacy rights than Bush ever was.

It seems the Department of Justice wants to be able to do warrantless searches of emails. According to CNET, "the Justice Department has taken a legalistic approach: a 17-page brief it filed last month acknowledges that federal law requires search warrants for messages in "electronic storage" that are less than 181 days old. 


But, Assistant U.S. Attorney Pegeen Rhyne writes in a government brief, the Yahoo Mail messages don't meet that definition. "Previously opened e-mail is not in 'electronic storage,'" Rhyne wrote in a motion filed last month. "This court should therefore require Yahoo to comply with the order and produce the specified communications in the targeted accounts." (The Justice Department's position is that what's known as a 2703(d) order--not as privacy-protective as the rules for search warrants--should let police read e-mail.)


On December 3, 2009, U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered Yahoo to hand to prosecutors certain records including the contents of e-mail messages. Yahoo divulged some of the data but refused to turn over e-mail that had been previously viewed, accessed, or downloaded and was less than 181 days old."

Google, The Electronic Frontier Foundation The Center For Democracy and Technology, The Progress and Freedom Foundation, The Computer and Communications Industry Association and TRUSTe have formed a coalition with Yahoo to contest the judge's order and try to put a stop to the infringement on privacy. We wish them well.

In a seemingly unrelated case, a youth in Penn Valley Pennsylvania discovered that the laptop he received from school was used to take photographs and videos of him at all times of the day and night of all imaginable conditions. We are talking thousands of pictures. This was done with the authority of the Lower Merion School District. It seems there is a loophole that allows them to do this. Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) introduced legislation to close what he said was a loophole in federal wiretap laws and prevent unauthorized monitoring. Specter recently held a hearing in Philadelphia on the issue.

"Many of us expect to be subject to certain kinds of video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day - at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores, for example," Specter, who is running for reelection, said on the floor of the Senate. "What we do not expect is to be under visual surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms and, most especially, we do not expect it for our children in our homes."

According to the article, Robbins, a sophomore at Harriton High School, and his parents, Michael and Holly Robbins, contend e-mails turned over to them by the district suggest Carol Cafiero, the person that administrates the laptop program, "may be a voyeur" who might have viewed some of the photos on her home computer.

This is a case of pedophilia, no? I don't understand why this person is still employed. Tying this in with the DOJ issue may seem tangential at best, but it is a harbinger of what privacy issues that come with the further integration of technology in our lives and the government's position in either affirming our rights or trampling them. Because schools receive federal money, they have to operate under the same constraints that governmental organizations do. While there seems to be a loophole, why? I think this kid has a damn good case and I bet he is not the only one.

Understand that every digital bit of communication in this country is monitored. The government has sniffing facilities in the three major telecoms offices that mirror all internet and voice communications through NSA equipment that filters messages and sends "suspicious" messages to listening posts where they are analysed. Look up ECHELON or Room 641A, if you doubt me. Also, this isn't snooping foreign Al Qaeda operatives, it's us. Somewhere, sometime, we have to draw the line.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Big Brother is Here:Google and NSA form relationship

I have been waiting for this for a long time now. Google is teaming up with the NSA in an effort to investigate and thwart cyber attacks and intrusions from external threats, particularly the Chinese. While this may seem patriotic on some level, Remember, the beast can be turned inward and usually is as some point.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.


What also bothers me is that one, Google is run by neocom progressive socialists. These guys make the big brother character that has been trademarked on Microsoft look like grandma's love. Two, Google had no issues int he past selling their soul to get into China. With the amount of information they have on us, and it's more than anyone thinks, it's a relationship I am uneasy with. Businesses aligning with government have a taste of fascism to me. What do you think?

Thank you for reading this blog.

Hysteria from the left: Why they don't trust you, even with your own life

I was reading an article today about Google's proposed datacenters at sea. Google is mulling over putting it's datacenters on barges 3-7 miles off the coast in order to save on taxes, and energy costs. What caught my attention was a comment left by a reader who was concerned about the carbon footprint left by these datacenters and ecological damage. I swear, someone could come up with a non-carbon based zero carbon foot print cold fusion costs nothing to produce source of energy and some eco-terrorist living in a redwood tree in California because he doesn't want UC Berkley to cut it down to make way for a sports complex complains that this particular process is no good because it puts unnecessary burden on Quarks and it's Gluon foot print might cause massive destruction if it accumulated enough to form a black hole, which shall from now on be know as a dark energy matter compactor because black hole is racist and insensitive. The reason these ninnies are spouting crap all the time is that one, they live in fear. They are so risk averse that driving through Lloyd Harbor in a Volvo XC 90 while wearing a class IIIA bullet proof vest is too risky. The other reason is that they are fairly intelligent, know it, and they have an elitist attitude where they believe they are smarter than anyone else. Top this off with a healthy dose of having never been tested under trial and tribulation, and you have the start of something special (This is for humor effect. More on this in later posts. ed.). Send these people to the finest communist re-education camps for 4 years, and you'll have some of the most hysterically left wing eco-weanie nanny-staters that money can buy. What it comes down is that they don't trust you with your own life is that they believe they are smarter than you. Of course I could be totally wrong, but the fact remains that our colleges are turning out more and more of these people every year to lead the charge against free market economics, classical liberal philosophy, and conservative values. Joseph Stalin could not do this in all his cold war wet dreams. Still, the best thing to do when presented with such false propriety is to keep on walking. Arguing with these people is like wrestling with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it, and if you must, cut them down quickly.

Thank you for reading this blog.