Digital Liberty
…Did you know that all Intel modern CPU chips have one of hell of a backdoor built into them all?
It's called the Intel Management Engine.…
And AMD has something similar.…
…Local administrators, dazzled by “digital learning initiatives” and shiny tech toys, have sold out vulnerable children to Silicon Valley. Educators and parents who expose and oppose this alarmingly intrusive regime are mocked and marginalized. And Beltway politicians, who are holding Senate hearings this week on Big Tech’s consumer privacy breaches, remain clueless or complicit in the wholesale hijacking of school-age kids’ personally identifiable information for endless data mining and future profit.…
During a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, FBI Director James Comey stood by his advice to put tape over computer webcams, calling it a “sensible” privacy precaution, on par with locking your doors at night.…
Facebook could be tapping into not just users personal information, interests, and online habits but also your private conversations… Facebook admits that it “uses your microphone to identify the things you’re listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we’re able to identify.” …some experts believe …Once the microphone feature is enabled, Facebook can listen in to your private conversation, even when one is not actively engaging with the app.…
…Without appropriate password protection, many people are unwittingly providing a live feed of their daily lives even within the walls of their own homes.…
Cornell Tech researchers Vitaly Shmatikov and Martin Georgiev claim web URL shorteners are built on predictable syntax that can be searched and identified in a potential breach of privacy.
The academics studied URL shorteners – including those created by Google, Bit.ly and Microsoft – finding that attackers could find private documents and foist malware by enumerating pre-existing addresses with ease, and that well-resourced adversaries could find out existing URLs of all shortening services.…
Legislation permanently banning taxes on Internet services is headed for President Obama’s desk.
The Senate voted 75-20 Thursday afternoon to approve a conference bill on customs and border policy that includes the ban, the last step needed before it is signed by the president.…
Hello Barbie," the world's first artificial intelligence-enabled Barbie doll, has become both the subject of delight for little girls and fear for some parents, worried their children's privacy could be at stake.…
The online-only vote will take place Oct. 27 in Canada, when Leamington, Ontario, will become the first Canadian municipality to cast all ballots via an Internet-only voting process. … The municipality’s website says “this sole method of voting follows Council’s strategic plan to be environmentally friendly and to embrace technology.”
No way in hell would i ever use a cloud account, might as well start a blog and put all your personal info on it, pretty much the same thing.
When the Spanish, online voting company SKYTL bought the largest vote processing corporation in the United States, it also acquired the means of manufacturing the outcome of the 2012 election. For SOE, the Tampa based corporation purchased by SKYTL in January supplies the election software which records, counts and reports the votes of Americans in 26 states–900 total jurisdictions–across the nation.
As the largest election results reporting company in the US, SOE provides reports right down to the precinct level. But before going anywhere else, those election returns are routed to individual, company servers where the people who run them “…get ‘first look’ at results and the ability to immediately and privately examine vote details throughout the USA.” In short, “this redirects results …to a centralized privately held server which is not just for Ohio, but national; not just USA-based, but global.”
And although the votes will be cast in hometown, American precincts on election day, with the Barcelona-based SKYTL taking charge of the process, they will be routed and counted overseas.
SKYTL itself is a leader in internet voting technology and in 2010 was involved in modernizing election systems for the midterm election in 14 American states.
But although SKYTL’s self-proclaimed reputation for security had won the company the Congressionally approved task of handling internet voting for American citizens and members of the military overseas, upon opening the system for use in the District of Columbia, the University of Michigan fight song “The Victors” was suddenly heard after the casting of each ballot. The system had been hacked by U of M computer teachers and students in response to a challenge by SKYTL that anyone who wished to do so, might try!
Nevertheless, in spite of warnings by experts across the nation, American soldiers overseas will once again vote via the internet in 2012. And because SKYTL will control the method of voting and—thanks to the purchase of SOE–the method of counting the votes as well, there “…will be no ballots, no physical evidence, no way for the public to authenticate who actually cast the votes…or the count.”
The American advocacy group Project Vote has concluded that SKYTL’s internet voting system is vulnerable to attack from the outside AND the inside, a situation which could result in “…an election that does not accurately reflect the will of the voters…” Talk about having a flair for understatement!
It has also been claimed that SKYTL CEO Pere Valles is a socialist who donated heavily to the 2008 Obama campaign and lived in Chicago during Obama’s time as Illinois State Senator. Unfortunately, given what is known about the character of Barack Obama, such rumors must be taken as serious threats to the integrity of the 2012 vote and the legitimate outcome of the election.
Though much has been written about the threat of nationwide voting by illegals in November, it is still true that most election fraud is an “inside” job. And there now exists a purely electronic voting service which uses no physical ballots to which an electronic count can be matched should questions arise. Add to this the fact that the same company will have “first count” on all votes made in 14 US states and hundreds of jurisdictions in 12 others and the stage is set for election fraud on a scale unimaginable just a decade ago.
Perhaps Obama had reason for supreme confidence when he said “After my election” rather than “in case of” to Russian President Medvedev a week ago. ...
London's Metropolitan Police have created a Flickr page, entitled "London Disorder — Operation Withern," which includes the "first of many" CCTV images of rioters suspected of looting, committing violence and other criminal acts. Police hope the public can help identify the alleged criminals and bring them into custody. ... Police also launched the Twitter hashtag #tweetalooter, which they urge citizens to use if they have information about rioters or criminal acts. ... Police aren't the only ones setting up websites to help catch looters. ...
A New Jersey Supreme Court decision announced Tuesday should make it easier for individuals associated with online publications and traditional media to invoke the protections of the state's shield law.... While the court... found that the shield law does not apply to the defendant in the case, the decision threw out parts of an appellate court decision that would have required those seeking the law's protections to show that they adhere to professional journalistic standards or have credentials from traditional media
Believe it or not I found this on a Progressive Organization's website that is made up of residents that are against Smart Meters. Funny how the Government and the Utility Companies are the only ones who think this is a good idea.
A Marion County judge has ruled, for the first time in Indiana, that news media outlets can be ordered by the court to reveal identifying information about posters to their online forums.
As part of routine background checks, the city asks job applicants to provide their usernames and passwords for their social-networking sites. And it has been doing it for years... City officials maintain the policy is necessary to ensure employees' integrity and protect the public's trust, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana says they may be crossing the line.... [MAY be crossing the line? MAY BE????!!!!!]
Dutch twin brothers who mugged a teenager in the northern town of Groningen were arrested after being caught on camera by a car gathering images for Google's online photo map service
A new type of robot being developed will make it easier to detect drugs, weapons, explosives and illegal immigrants concealed in cargo containers.
A Nevada newspaper says it has been served a federal grand jury subpoena seeking information about readers who posted comments on the paper's Web site. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that its editor, Thomas Mitchell, plans to fight the request, which the newspaper received after reporting on a federal tax fraud case against business owner Robert Kahre.... prosecutors told the judge in the case that some comments hinted at acts of violence and the subpoena was issued out of concern for jurors' safety....
Thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled today... [OMG! Imagine Britain ruling this on print during the Revolution!]
An advocacy group for online poker said Tuesday that the federal government has frozen more than $30 million in the accounts of payment processors that handle the winnings of thousands of online poker players.
The decision is a setback for the music and movie industries, which had praised the French law as a solution to illegal file sharing.
report on broadband strategy for rural America on Wednesday. ... Copps called this report on rural broadband strategy a starting point for developing a national broadband policy. And even with the $7.2 billion of money from the stimulus package, Copps said that more money will be needed to ensure that every American has access to broadband. ... [FREE MONEY! WHEEE!]
President Obama is expected to announce late this week that he will create a "cyber czar," a senior White House official who will have broad authority to develop strategy to protect the nation's government-run and private computer networks, according to people who have been briefed on the plan.
The Obama administration on Friday launched Data.gov, a Web site intended to increase public access to data collected by the government.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts directed employees earlier this month not to log onto the Drudge Report website with government-issued computers due to potential viruses on the site.