Technocracy

Indian government now snooping on SMSs, online chats

"The government last month quietly began rolling out a project that gives it access to everything that happens over India's telecommunications network—online activities, phone calls, text messages and even social media conversations. Called the Central Monitoring System, it will be the single window from where government arms such as the National Investigation Agency or the tax authorities will be able to monitor every byte of communication. But privacy and internet freedom advocates are worried that in the name of security, the government could end up snooping on people, possibly abusing a system that does not have enough safeguards to protect ordinary citizens." Continue reading →

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Use of secretive ‘Stingray’ FBI cell phone tracking tool ruled lawful by judge

"Despite the fact that the FBI was accused of hiding information from judges when obtaining authorization for use of the secretive 'Stingray' cell phone tracking device, a judge has ruled that the use of the device by federal agents was lawful. On Wednesday, Judge David Campbell dismissed the motion to suppress the information gathered through the Stingray device in the case of Daniel Rigmaiden. Campbell ruled that the use of the Stingray did not in fact constitute a 'severe intrusion' and ruled that 'no Fourth Amendment violation occurred.'" Continue reading →

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Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

"The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system. Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named 'photo tool,' a massive federal database administered by Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID." Continue reading →

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California: Privacy Groups Sue LAPD Over License Plate Readers

"Police agencies and politicians claim the high-speed tracking cameras are only used to find stolen cars, but the machines in Los Angeles have already collected 160 million pieces of information on the public, including individuals not suspected of having committed any crime. The ACLU and EFF sought last August to obtain a sample week's worth of the actual data LAPD collected so that the public could judge for itself. In September, LAPD refused to hand over the sample data, claiming it 'contains official information' and was part of an investigative file exempt from the public records law." Continue reading →

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America’s Roads Have Been Turned Into A Revenue Generating Surveillance Grid

"Back in the old days, the highways of America were great examples to the rest of the world of the tremendous liberties and freedoms that we enjoyed. Americans loved to hop into their vehicles and take a drive. But now government is sucking all of the fun out of driving. The control freak bureaucrats that dominate our political system have figured out that giant piles of money can be raised by turning our roads into revenue raising tools. At this point things have gotten so bad that even some police officers are admitting what is going on. Just check out what a few of them told Car and Driver." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s Roads Have Been Turned Into A Revenue Generating Surveillance Grid

Bloomberg News Spying on Goldman Sachs Employees

"Irked Goldman Sachs brass recently confronted Bloomberg LP over concerns reporters at the business news service have been using the company’s ubiquitous terminals to keep tabs on some employees of the Wall Street bank, The Post has learned. The ability to snoop on Bloomberg terminal users came to light recently when Goldman officials learned that at least one reporter at the news service had access to a wide array of information about customer usage, sources said." Continue reading →

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TSA Charges ‘Unnecessary’ $130M ID Card Program Directly To Truckers

"The TSA in its mind-boggling stupidity came up with a scheme it called 'TWIC' ('Transportation Worker Indentification Credential'). TSA forced drivers to undergo background checks and fingerprinting and Lord-knows-what-all. And get this: 'TWIC enrollment centers' were often hundreds of miles from drivers’ homes and depots, forcing these professionals to work thousands of hours of unpaid overtime. TWIC also costs those hard-working serfs around $130. Remember that many drivers work as independent contractors, in business for themselves, so no company picks up such expenses for them." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTSA Charges ‘Unnecessary’ $130M ID Card Program Directly To Truckers

Sweden’s War on Cash: News from the Frontlines

"Three of the four largest banks in Sweden continue to phase out the manual handling of cash at their branch offices at a rapid pace. Taken together, Swedbank, Nordea, and SEB, have stopped offering cash services at their branches at the rate of three branches per week since 2010. Thus during the period 2010-2012, cash disappeared from 465 Swedish bank branches. At Swedberg bank, only 75 of its 340 branches still handle cash. Leif Faithful, Head of Financial Infrastructure at the Swedish Bankers’ Association, believes that eventually all Swedes will need a bank card and sees this development as beneficial to 'both consumers and trade.'" Continue reading →

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Should Libertarians Join the ‘Underbanked’?

"Big Data – that immense plethora of worldwide digital information that is now easily tracked, stored, and analyzed through increasingly powerful technology – is redefining the study of consumer behavior across the economy and raising critical questions about consumer privacy and security in its wake. The availability of digital consumer information continues to expand. The volume of the digital universe is projected to multiply 50 times between 2010 and 2020 to 40 zettabytes (ZB) of usable data. For the underbanked financial services market in particular, Big Data’s most profound impact lies in unlocking access to credit." Continue reading →

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DOJ: We don’t need warrants for e-mail, Facebook chats

"The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don't need a search warrant to review Americans' e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal. Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they're not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail." Continue reading →

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