Category Archives: Surveillance

Blessed incompetence

Posted on June 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

I had frankly forgotten about Real ID, the previous administration’s ill-conceived national identity plan. Apparently it’s not quite dead and is being pushed forward by the current administration as Pass ID, according to this ARS Technica article:

Real ID has faced intense criticism from privacy advocates and state governments. The implementation costs are far exceeding Congressional estimates and states are facing enormous technical challenges as they attempt to boost the interoperability of their legacy identity database systems in order to meet the law’s requirements. Not a single state was able to implement the program by the original May 2008 deadline, forcing the government to extend the deadline to the end of 2009.

The new deadline is approaching swiftly and the vast majority of states are still not on track. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona and a vocal critic of Real ID, is said to be drafting a new proposal that will scale back the law’s requirements so that it can be reasonably accomplished by states within the allotted time.

The Washington Post reports that the new proposal, which is called Pass ID, could boost the program’s privacy safeguards and eliminate the costly national database requirements. The law would still require the identity cards to include a machine-readable mechanism. According to the Post, the Obama administration has been in talks with the National Governors Association for months in an effort to devise a reasonable compromise.

The failure of every single state to be able to technically implement Real ID is one of the fortuitous moments of blessed incompetence. I expect the ultimate form of Pass ID to be something like a “Time Served” sentence and we will just call the whole thing done.

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Posted in Identity, Security, Skeptic, Standards, Surveillance

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Digilante

Posted on June 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

What is a digilante? Go here to find out. I don’t have any particular insight on the topic of being a digilante, I am just trying to help Robin Wilton out.

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Downright creepy

Posted on March 26, 2009 | 2 Comments

Now this is downright creepy. The Orwellian land of Britain is now using airborne IR cameras to detect homes that are wasting energy:

Our movements are already tracked by CCTV, speed cameras and even spies in dustbins.

Now snooping on the public has reached new heights with local authorities putting spy planes in the air to snoop on homeowners who are wasting too much energy.

Thermal imaging cameras are being used to create colour-coded maps which will enable council officers to identify offenders and pay them a visit to educate them about the harm to the environment and measures they can take.

“educate them”. How wonderful of the government.

I can only imagine that trying that where I live would likely result in “education” as well. Only it would be the education by the tax-paying home owners on how they feel about the government spying on their energy usage. I suspect they would educate with extreme prejudice. Not that I am condoning or encouraging such actions.

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Posted in Freedom, Surveillance

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Web 2.0, Border Security, and Alcohol

Posted on March 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

In one of the strangest new ways that the internet is affecting our lives, pub patrons in Australia are patrolling the US border with Mexico while they drink:

The United States has unveiled an unlikely weapon in its battle against drugs gangs and illegal immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border – pub-goers in Australia.

The drinkers are the most far-flung of a sizeable army of hi-tech foot soldiers recruited to assist the border protection effort.

Anyone with an internet connection can now help to patrol the 1,254-mile frontier through a network of webcams set up to allow the public to monitor suspicious activity. Once logged in, the volunteers spend hours studying the landscape and are encouraged to email authorities when they see anyone on foot, in vehicles or aboard boats heading towards US territory from Mexico.

So far, more than 100,000 web users have signed up online to become virtual border patrol deputies, according to Don Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriffs’ Coalition, which represents 20 counties where illegal crossings and drugs and weapons smuggling are rife.

“We had folks send an email saying, in good Australian fashion, ‘Hey mate, we’ve been watching your border for you from the pub in Australia’,” he said.

Truth is stranger that fiction. And the internet is stranger still.

Not everyone is amused, however:

Opponents have dismissed the project as “the perfect Google border” and say the cameras do little to deter criminal activity. “Border security deserves trained professionals, not pub-goers in Perth,” said Eliot Shapleigh, a state senator from El Paso, Texas, who claims that the programme has resulted in only a handful of arrests. “It’s wholly ineffective for the governor’s stated goal of security, it panders to extremists for political purposes and it’s not an effective use of $2m for just three apprehensions.”

I’m sure there is a Google PR person cringing even now thinking “why do you have to drag us into this?”

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Posted in Security, Surveillance

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A really bad idea but an interesting benchmark

Posted on February 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

Gerry Beuchelt has this to say about a privacy disaster being considered by the state of Massachusetts:

However, one suggestion Mr. Patrick made yesterday immediately got my attention: there are apparently plans on the table to introduce a “chip” in the state’s vehicle inspection stickers, so that cars can be tracked as they use the Commonwealth’s highway system. What might seem like a prudent idea to shift the cost of the transportation infrastructure to those that are causing them, is in reality an attempt to introduce an Orwellian surveillance system of European proportions.

I love the term “Orwellian surveillance system of European proportions”. How bad has the situation gotten in Europe that it is now the benchmark by which other privacy destroying initiatives are ridiculed? Not gloating from me, however. The US seems determined to catch up to Europe in the race to surrender every last shred of dignity and privacy in the most feckless manner possible.

Gerry goes on to say this about the proposal:

The potential for abuse is scary:

  • With location data, one can attempt to create a political profile by tracking conventions, conferences, and events a person goes to. I am not a lawyer, but this seems to be getting rather close to infringing a couple of First Amendment rights.
  • The collected data can be subpoena in all kinds of litigations, including sensitive things like divorce proceedings or insurance disputes.
  • If the database is ever breached, the hacker could have a field day, exposing location profiles of individuals. Depending on whose data is stolen, this could actually result in increased personal risk for exposed persons.

Gerry is absolutely right. I have previously blogged here about the second bullet point in reference to toll road transponders. That data has already been abused and that is only used by a small portion of the driving population.

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Posted in Freedom, Privacy, Surveillance

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The coming recording arms race

Posted on November 12, 2008 | Leave a comment

The Speculist discusses the possibility of an arms in ubiquitous recording (hat tip to InstaPundit):

The Futurist Magazine has published its annual Top 10 Forecasts.

I found the first prediction the most interesting: “Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030.”

I think it would be possible to do this much sooner. Data storage devices are getting smaller (in physical size) and bigger (in storage capacity) all the time. In five years we could see iPod sized devices with the storage capacity to record for days bluetoothed to a tiny camera and mic mounted to eyeglass frames.

Possible, of course, doesn’t mean wide adoption. It will only be widely adopted when it becomes an arms race.

These “Recorders” will be in possession of history. If, for example, there were a disagreement a Recorder could edit a version of the events to favor his point of view. Perhaps he could even add or delete data. Unless the other party were also recording, they’d have no defense against historical revisionism. This is becoming a problem already. Glenn Reynolds argued in the New York Post that political candidates should bring their own cameras to interviews.

Of course this reality is already here in small ways. We assume everything we email is retained by our employer. When we call a support line we are told that the conversation “May be recorded” for “Quality Control Purposes”. Actually this means the conversation will be recorded, and not for your benefit.

Speak into the eyeglasses please.

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Posted in Privacy, Surveillance

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The permanently gloved overlords of Britannia

Posted on November 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

The magnificent bastards of NO2ID have struck again. From the Guido Fawkes blog (hat tip to Samizdata.net):

Jacqui Smith gave a speech today at midday on ID cards to an audience invited by the Social Market Foundation, at the end of the event the glass she was drinking from during the Q & A was whisked away* by a NO2ID sympathiser. This picture was taken this lunchtime – the glass is now undergoing a technical process at an undisclosed location. This will not only identify Big Jacqui’s fingerprints, it will allow them to create a plastic foil stamp that will enable anyone to leave her fingerprints behind. Last March German hackers cloned the German Interior Minister’s fingerprints.

The picture is priceless.

BTW, I mentioned the previous incident here.

As the UK rushes headlong into the Orwellian abyss, I see a future where everyone of importance wears special gloves with a built in flap that can be pulled aside for authentication purposes. These gloves would be worn at all times to prevent inadvertent biometric information leakage.

 

I suspect this has been done up in some dystopian sci-fi story. If not it should be.

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Posted in Authentication, Identity, Privacy, Science Fiction, Security, Surveillance

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Rocket sled to privacy hell

Posted on October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment

Some days it seems the UK is on a rocket sled to privacy hell, the rails of which are being laid with ostensibly good intentions. This ARS Technica article lays out some of the near term way points. One marker that just flew by:

Last year one of the more troubling provisions of the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) finally came into effect. This piece of legislation made it a criminal offense to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data residing within the UK if demanded by authorities as part of a criminal investigation. The penalty for failure to decrypt is up to two years imprisonment for “normal” crime, and up to five years for “terrorism.”

As always, its all about terrorism. Or crime. Perhaps drugs. Whatever.

Another marker coming up quick:

Moving swiftly on, the British government has outlined a number of options it is considering legislating next year. Chief among these is the creation of an immense database containing information about every phone call and Internet connection made within the UK. Unsurprisingly, this has been widely branded as an Orwellian, Big Brother database.

Of course to make this database work there are rules being considered to require a passport or other form of identification to purchase a cell phone.

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Posted in Freedom, Privacy, Security, Surveillance

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Three things we know about personal data collection

Posted on October 9, 2008 | 1 Comment

Jenni Russell writes about three things we know about personal data collection (from the Guardian):

This is only the worst manifestation of an official intrusion into our lives that is just about to hit us, but of which we seem strangely unaware. The UK’s network of speed cameras will soon be able to track every journey we make by road under the automated number-plate recognition system. Mobile network records can already place us, at any time, within 100 yards of our phone’s location. The ID database will record every time we go to a hospital or a benefit centre, fill in a prescription or a draw a large sum from a bank. The children’s database will give access to every piece of gossip or fact about our children or their family, perhaps in perpetuity. It will record that an older sister may be alcoholic, or that a father is in jail, or that a 14-year-old is thought to be having sex. Nobody will be able to break free of this information about their past.

Most alarming of all, for its breadth of knowledge about us, the NHS database will give hundreds of thousands of staff the ability to discover when we lost our virginity, the drugs we’re on, our mental health history. And none of this information will be safe, because we know three things about the mass collection of data. The first is that the authorities will mine it where it suits them. The second is that the data will be lost. And the third is that it will leak.

Well said.

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Posted in Freedom, Identity, Privacy, Security, Surveillance

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The mask slips

Posted on October 3, 2008 | Leave a comment

A security flaw on the part of the Chinese partner of Skype apparently reveals the extent to which Skype is selling out its customers (from ARS Technica):

The report published yesterday, titled “BREACHING TRUST: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform” (PDF), explains that full chat text messages from TOM-Skype users were found on insecure, publicly-accessible web servers along with the encryption key required to decrypt the data (TOM Online is Skype’s operating partner in China). This-along with “millions of records containing personal information” such as IP address, usernames, and landline phone numbers-were stored along with additional data detailing Skype users outside of China who have communicated with TOM-Skype users in China.

Keep in mind that this is surveillance not only of traffic in China (which would be bad enough) but of anyone worldwide who has used Skype to communicate with anyone in China.

Unfortunately I suspect that this sort of practice is a lot more common that is believed. You just don’t usually see the mask slip like this to reveal the ugly truth.

If find EBay’s response to this to be quite risible:

When asked for comment about the findings, eBay (Skype’s parent company) spokesperson Jennifer Caukin only responded to the security implications. “The security breach does not affect Skype’s core technology or functionality,” she told the New York Times. “It exists within an administrative layer on Tom Online servers. We have expressed our concern to Tom Online about the security issue and they have informed us that a fix to the problem will be completed within 24 hours.”

In other words they wont stop spying on you for the Chinese, they will just hide it better.

This is a big problem for SaaS vendors. As a customer you need to find out if you SaaS provider does business in China, Russia, or any other country where there rule of law is non-existant. In those countries your service provider will be forced to choose between compromising the privacy of your data or being kicked out of the country.

History has shown they will choose the former.

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Posted in China, Freedom, Privacy, Security, Surveillance

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