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An extreme threat to the privacy of people all over the world.
Echelon is perhaps the most powerful intelligence gathering organization in the world. Several credible reports suggest that this global electronic communications surveillance system presents an extreme threat to the privacy of people all over the world. According to these reports, ECHELON attempts to capture staggering volumes of satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic traffic, including communications to and from North America. This vast quantity of voice and data communications are then processed through sophisticated filtering technologies.
This massive surveillance system apparently operates with little oversight. Moreover, the agencies that purportedly run ECHELON have provided few details as to the legal guidelines for the project. Because of this, there is no way of knowing if ECHELON is being used illegally to spy on private citizens.
This site is designed to encourage public discussion of this potential threat to civil liberties, and to urge the governments of the world to protect our rights.
SOURCE :http://www.echelonwatch.org/
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 1:40 PM
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DO you KNOW what a WEB BUG is?
6. What information is sent to a server when a Web Bug is viewed? - The IP address of the computer that fetched the Web Bug
- The URL of the page that the Web Bug is located on
- The URL of the Web Bug image
- The time the Web Bug was viewed
- The type of browser that fetched the Web Bug image
- A previously set cookie value
7. What are some of the uses of a Web Bug on a Web page? Ad networks can use Web Bugs to add information to a personal profile of what sites a person is visiting. The personal profile is identified by the browser cookie of an ad network. At some later time, this personal profile which is stored in a data base server belonging to the ad network, determines what banner ad one is shown.
Another use of Web Bugs is to provide an independent accounting of how many people have visited a particular Web site.
Web Bugs are also used to gather statistics about Web browser usage at different places on the Internet.
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 1:14 PM
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Trusted Computing
Computer security is undeniably important, and as new vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited, the perceived need for new security solutions grows. "Trusted computing" initiatives propose to solve some of today's security problems through hardware changes to the personal computer. Changing hardware design isn't inherently suspicious, but the leading trusted computing proposals have a high cost: they provide security to users while giving third parties the power to enforce policies on users' computers against the users' wishes -- they let others pressure you to hand some control over your PC to someone else. This is a "feature" ready-made for abuse by software authors who want to anticompetitively choke off rival software.
SOURCE:http://www.eff.org/Infrastructure/trusted_computing/
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 12:48 PM
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A central data bank removes completely this safeguard.
One of the most practical of our present safeguards of privacy is the fragmented nature of personal information. It is scattered in little bits across the geography and years of our life. Retrieval is impractical and often impossible. A central data bank removes completely this safeguard. Congressman Frank Horton, more than twenty-five years ago:
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 12:34 PM
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The answer is simple. $$$Money$$$
You are being placed into a targeted marketing group. Do you have good credit? Credit card companies will by your name. Bad credit? I'm sure a mortgage company can still get you that loan. You like to read Sports Illustrated? I'm sure you will be solicited for magazine offers. ITs All About The Benjamins!!
posted by
maybe
on November 12, 2004 at 11:50 AM
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PGP 5.0
PGP 5.0
The latest and greatest edition of Pretty Good Privacy uses both RSA and Diffie-Helman 128-bit algorithims to ensure practical unbreakability. It comes bundled with
Eudora, and includes a simple point-and-click interface that not only encrypts your data, but will find the recipient's public key as well, eliminating the ol' time consuming process of cutting and pasting keys. The commercial version is available at the
company's website and the free version (a PGP tradition will be available soon. Current federal restrictions disallow the use of the software outside the country, but a hacked version is floating around Scandanavia as we speak.
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 10:18 AM
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KlaraRoberts
Thank you for reading and for your comment. You're lines are sincerely appreciated.
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 7:49 AM
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Hi Horus.
I've been enjoying your work for some time now, as I find you do bring up some very deep points. I read each of these posts here, but will comment on this one right now, and come back later for the others.
You're correct that all the information collecting can have some rather dire consequences. But there are also more mundane reasons for it. Marketing, general population stats, etc. As a business owner, I do run credit checks as well as criminal checks on others I'm considering bringing into my business. You'd be surprised at how reliable a credit check can be. If someone has bad credit, it tells me a lot about their reliability. For me, then information collecting serves a practical purpose. It's like this for many government agencies, too, I'm assuming.
posted by
KlaraRoberts
on November 12, 2004 at 7:37 AM
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BEGIN SURFING ANONYMOUSLY
Anonymizer.com
The Anonymizer allows people to surf the web anonymously without giving away information like ip addresses and E-mail addresses. Simply click on a link that says "BEGIN SURFING ANONYMOUSLY" and everything that follows is anonymized. It prevents Web sites from finding your address in its referral logs. It tremendously and makes normal Web cruising seem like a point-and-click experience. But it does protect your privacy. It also comes, not coincidentally, from c2.org, also known as Community Connexion, a company that provides
privacy services like remailing, anonymous Internet access, and anonymous Web pages.
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 7:33 AM
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State Eavesdropping Laws
Federal law gives states power to pass more stringent eavesdropping regulations, if they choose. A few states have laws that make it a crime to secretly record conversation, even if you participate in that conversation.
In those states, it is a felony to record your telephone calls — to record any conversation whatsoever — unless everyone whose voice is intercepted knows the microphone or "bug" is picking up what is being said.
In states that have not adopted more stringent laws and use the federal standard, you may record your telephone calls without telling the other person, if you use a suction cup or other inductance pickup that does not physically tap into the telephone wires. You can wear a small recorder to tape conversation.
In those states, reporters can secretly record what you say and use it later in their stories.
In the more stringent states, reporters cannot secretly record your voice. If a recorder is in use, they must tell you.
SORCE: http://www.winning-newsmedia.com/privacy.htm
posted by
Luxbring
on November 12, 2004 at 7:13 AM
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Horus
But of course. You didn't think they had any altrustic aims in knowing all about us, did you!
A big concern now is that identity theft is on the rise, and getting much more sophisticated. That can be a worry! 
posted by
David1Spirit
on November 12, 2004 at 7:07 AM
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