Tag Archives: Privacy

Senator Feinstein, the stimulus, and censoring the internet (for your own good)

As I predicted, the feds are trying to use the threat of child porn to spy on our internet traffic, and open the door to censorship.

“US Senator Dianne Feinstein hopes to update President Barack Obama’s $838bn economic stimulus package so that American ISPs can deter child pornography, copyright infringement, and other unlawful activity by way of ‘reasonable network management.’ . . .

According to Public Knowledge, Feinstein’s network management amendment did not find a home in the stimulus bill that landed on the Senate floor. But lobbyists speaking with the Washington DC-based internet watchdog said that California’s senior Senator is now hoping to insert this language via conference committee – a House-Senate pow-wow were bill disputes are resolved.

‘This is the most backdoor of all the backdoor ways of doing things,’ Public Knowledge’s Art Brodsky told The Reg. ‘Conference committees are notorious for being the most opaque of all legislative processes.’ . . .

But the ‘network management’ bit sounds like ISP speak. As Art Brodsky and his colleagues pointed out, network management is used to manage networks – not filter content. Content filters are used to filter content. But American ISPs – particularly cable ISPs – will take any excuse they can find to throttle certain traffic.

And if they’re using copyright infringement and child porn as excuses, they’ll have to start sniffing packets. So, Feinstein’s amendment would also destroy net privacy – if there’s any out there.” (Read more from www.theregister.co.uk)

Missouri: Ground zero in the fight against Real ID

Missouri State Representative Jim Guest, a noble statesman and patriot has been given his own committee regarding Real ID and personal privacy. Representative Guest has been a strong leader in the fight against Real ID. His bill, HB361 can be read here:

www.house.mo.gov/b…

In short, it says that Missouri will have nothing to do with Real ID, biometric scanning, or the data basing and distribution of information collected by the department of revenue. (Read more from dailypaul.com

Four Issues you won’t hear about from McBama and the Republicrats

“The Republican/Democrat duopoly has, for far too long, ignored the most important issues facing our nation. However, alternate candidates Chuck Baldwin, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader agree with Ron Paul on four key principles central to the health of our nation. These principles should be key in the considerations of every voter this November and in every election.

We Agree

Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea, Japan, Europe and the entire Middle East. We must cease the war propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran, nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia. We must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture, eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and excessive use of executive orders.

The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place this burden on a future generation.

The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended. There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted for their crimes and frauds.”

(More from campaignforliberty.com)

FBI Data-Mining Slashed After G-Men Dis Congress

A rare assertion of Congress’s authority:

“‘By refusing to answer even the most basic questions about this program, the Department of Justice has given us little choice. In fact, we’re only doing what they told us to do,’ said Congressman Brad Miller in a statement. ‘The Department of Justice… said that if Congress didn’t like what they were doing, we could pull their funding. Well, that’s what we’ve done… Until an agency can provide reasonable explanations, and assurances that our citizens’ privacy won’t be violated, it would be irresponsible to give the Department of Justice this large increase in funds.’

The project, known as the National Security Analysis Center (NSAC), is supposed to bring together ‘hundreds of millions of electronic records created or collected by the FBI and other government agencies,’ ABC News notes. The idea is to use that ‘vast ocean of data to ‘predict’ who might be a potential terrorist, in the absence of intelligence linking the man or woman to any radical or extremist group.'”

Read more from blog.wired.com

States resist federal Real ID mandate

“Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano signed a bill today that prohibits the implementation of the REAL ID in Arizona. SB2677 received a Final vote of approval in the House last week by an overwhelming margin of 51 to 1. Napolitano’s signature was uncertain until today when she signed the bill into law.

The bill prohibits implementation of the REAL ID Act of 2005, which was passed by Congress as part of a supplemental spending bill for tsunami relief and the War on Terror. The bill did not receive a hearing in either the House or the Senate, and the public was largely unaware of it until it had already been signed into law.

‘Everyone thinks that the REAL ID is just about protecting us against terrorism,’ said co-sponsor Senator Karen Johnson (R-18). ‘But it really represents a cash cow for technology companies as well as the birth of the National ID card, complete with all the biometric information that technology can handle face recognition, fingerprints, etc.’

‘Corporations which specialize in selling identity cards stand to gain millions of dollars in profits if the Real ID Act is implemented,’ said Johnson, ‘so, of course, they’re eager for everyone to be required to carry a National ID card everywhere they go.’ Two of those corporations are Digimarc ID Systems and L-1 ­ the Number 1 and Number 2 companies for the manufacture of state driver’s licenses and identity cards. L-1 is considered the main driver behind the REAL ID and last year had nearly $100 million in federal contracts involving identity cards. Digimarc spent $350,000 in the first six months of 2007 lobbying Congress on the Real ID Act. Apparently the two companies are soon to be merged, resulting in a powerhouse corporation, pushing the ‘identification-as-security’ concept to the maximum in order to increase company profits as they add more and more biometric features to state driver’s licenses.

. . . .

‘It’s odious, onerous, and a violation of our civil liberties.’

‘I refuse to be tagged and numbered,’ said Johnson. ‘Requiring people to carry papers takes away their freedom. There are other, better ways to stop terrorism and to protect us against criminals. The federal government needs to butt out and let the states handle driver licensing. It’s not the business of the Dept. Of Homeland Security to tell us how to run our state.’

Real ID ­ SB2677
1. Proponents always claim that the sole purpose of the Real ID is to prevent another 9/11-type attack by disrupting terrorists travel. That is bogus. If the government really wanted to prevent such an attack, they would secure our borders, which would (1) cost less than implementing Real ID, (2) would be more effective at keeping terrorists out, and (3) would be less intrusive and less inconvenient for American citizens. Until the borders are secure, all the rosy pleas for the Real ID are just so much hogwash.
2. The Real ID will cost the states billions of dollars. The Dept. Of Transportation estimates that in Arizona alone, it will cost $40 to $70 million to implement just in the first year, and $15 to $20 million in subsequent years. But they really don’t have a clue ­ they don’t know what the regulations are going to be yet. They are just estimating. It will depend on what the Rules say when they are finally issued.
They already do some things that will be part of the requirements. For example, they already check citizenship, or whether or not someone is legally authorized to be in the country. So that would not be an additional expense. But even factoring in that some things required by REAL ID are already being handled, the $40 to $70 million is over and above what we already do!!!
3. The Real ID is an invasion of privacy. Why should so much personal information be compiled on one place for so many people to have access to?
* medical history
* social security number
* insurance information

4. The Real ID increases the risk of Identity Theft. Identity theft is a major problem in Arizona already. Throwing everyone’s personal information ­ including social security numbers, birth dates, medical information, driver’s license and auto licensing information, etc. ­ into one massive data base just makes it easier for identity thieves to harvest identities for fraudulent purposes. The Real ID requires all Arizona driver’s license information to be compiled with all the information for the other 49 states and the District of Columbia into one massive database that will be accessible by thousands of clerks and government employees throughout the country. This is a horrendous idea, an invitation to identity theft on a massive scale.”

from rumormillnews.com

On Privacy

Here’s a great CNBC special on privacy. What I learned:

1) Every digital picture you take is encoded with the camera’s serial number.

2) Every Google search you do is stored and can often be connected to your name. Already, a man’s Google searches have been used against him in court. (He deserved it, but that doesn’t justify the invasion of privacy.)

3) Federal agencies are forbidden from keeping information on private citizens, so contractors do it for them. You’ve never heard of these companies, but they’ve heard all about you.

You can Google search anonymously here or here.