Posts Tagged ‘Surveillance’
A Blueprint for a Transition to a Peacetime Economy
(This post is a little different from my usual writings, but I think it’s important to understand the relationship between militarism and the loss of civil and political rights. It’s also important to understand there is a way out of militarism, as discussed in the conclusion.) America has been at war my entire life. In [...]
Mind the Snail Mail!
By L. Burke Files We seem to be very conscious of e-mail security, but are often oblivious to the security of the “snail mail” we receive at our homes and offices. Recently, in our role as consultants in the due diligence arena, we were asked a series of questions relating to personal and corporate snail [...]
Can Obama Send U.S. Citizens to Guantanamo Bay?
The blogosphere has been humming the last couple of weeks with condemnation of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. This bill, which funds U.S. military forces for the coming year, has a neat little provision tucked away in Sec. 1031. It permits anyone the government claims is “a member of, or part of, al-Qaida or [...]
Who’s Protecting Your Privacy Online? No One…Except You!
The Internet is everywhere. It’s not just on your laptop anymore…nearly 1 billion consumers worldwide now carry Internet-connected smartphones. That means “malware” spread over the Internet—viruses that steal your data, pfishing scams that trick you into giving a thief access to passwords—and other threats will only get worse. How can you protect yourself? Here are [...]
My New Smart Meter
Last week, I experienced a momentary power interruption at my home in Phoenix. I thought nothing of it; these sorts of things happen occasionally here. Later that day, I noticed a note on my door. It was from the electric company and apologized for the momentary power outage. The reason the power had to be [...]
States Tell Online Shoppers to Fess Up to the Taxman
Today, April 15 is “Tax Day,” that once a year occasion when we bare our collective souls to the IRS, and lighten our bank accounts as well. To help celebrate the occasion, I thought it appropriate to focus not on IRS Big Brother but on the 50 state tax Little Brothers now scrounging for revenue. [...]
Internet Telephony: Cheap, but NOT Private
Only a few years ago, it seemed like a dream: place—or receive calls—from anywhere you have an Internet connection, for only a few dollars a month—or for free? With a technology called “voice over Internet Protocol,” or VOIP, you now can. VOIP technology chops your phone conversations into digital packets and sends them over the [...]
How Elvis Presley Got an “Ultra-Secure” Passport
Elvis Presley died in 1977. But that didn’t prevent hackers from inserting his digital photo into a U.K. passport, and using it at a self-service passport machine at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport to gain clearance to board a plane. This incident occurred in September 2008. But this security vulnerability persists, as proven by the recent assassination [...]
Congress Inveighs Against Surveillance Abuses—in China
It’s great to know that our elected representatives are vigilantly guarding civil liberties. Only, they’re much more concerned about surveillance in other countries, not here in the USA. Case in point: China. Over the last few weeks, congressional civil libertarians have revived legislation that, if enacted, would forbid U.S. companies from selling electronic surveillance equipment [...]
How Babies are Like Sex Offenders
Your DNA is your genetic blueprint. It’s unique to you and your DNA profile is the equivalent of a bar code stamped on your forehead. Only, you don’t own this information. In the USA, for instance, 15 states now collect DNA samples from anyone who’s arrested. In more than a dozen others, anyone convicted of [...]