Miasma: Privacy and Free Speech

Chat room privacy argued in court

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 05:04:09 GMT

MS-NBC - Chat room privacy argued in court. Lawyers trying to get AOL to reveal name in defamation case

PITTSBURGH, March 4 -- Messages about public figures in Internet chat rooms are akin to anonymous pamphlets like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and their authors should have the same right to keep their identities secret, advocates told Pennsylvania's highest court. The American Civil Liberties Union and a number of Internet companies have lined up to protect the identity of a person who alleged in a political online chat room that a state court judge behaved unethically.

[Privacy Digest]

Privacy Activist Takes on Delta

Thu, 06 Mar 2003 04:55:34 GMT

Privacy News from Wired News - Privacy Activist Takes on Delta.

A boycott of Delta Airlines is being mounted in response to the airline's decision to test a controversial program that requires airline passengers to undergo background checks.

[ ... ]

Advocates of CAPPS II insist the system will identify terrorists while allowing law-abiding citizens to avoid the airport security shakedown. But privacy advocates like Scannell believe CAPPS II is highly intrusive and ineffective in identifying terrorists.

Delta will be trying out CAPPS II at three as-yet undisclosed airports during the month of March. It's a first step prior to potentially deploying CAPPS II screening throughout the country over the next year.

[ ... ]

Scannell first heard that Delta would be testing the CAPPS II program last Friday. He immediately registered BoycottDelta.org and worked all weekend to get the site up.

It went live late on Monday, and Scannell sent information about it to several security and privacy mailing lists. He said the site received about 25 e-mails an hour on Tuesday, all but one in complete support of the boycott.

Scannell argues that CAPPS II is ineffective in spotting would-be terrorists, as the system can easily be defeated by watching to see what sort of passengers it targets for special attention.

"CAPPS II threatens our liberty, but its security benefits are far from clear," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program. "It will leave security screeners at sea in an ocean of private data; some of that data will be fraudulent, and much of it just plain wrong."

[ ... ]

Information from files about those individuals could also be shared with other government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, as well as with intelligence agencies such as the CIA and with foreign governments and international agencies -- all of which could use those designations for many purposes, including employment decisions and the granting of government benefits, according to the ACLU.

Undersecretary of Transportation for Security James M. Loy said in a statement that CAPPS II will respect citizens' privacy.

[Privacy Digest]

And I'm telling you now I am refusing to give airlines my money just on principle

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 05:17:53 GMT

Bad credit? No credit? Then you might just be an airline security risk. CNN news story on yet another level of security checks for airline passengers. According to the Transportation Department Agency, CAPPS II will be rolled out within 90 days. CAPPS II (Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System) will check such things as credit report and bank account activity to determine the security level risk that each and every individual passenger poses. [kuro5hin.org]

Logical Fallacies and The Rush To War

Tue, 04 Mar 2003 05:13:43 GMT

Logical Fallacies and The Rush To War. Dave Koehler of PhillyBurbs.com has written an outstanding summary of the logical fallacies used by the Bush administration to try to convince the world at large of the necessity of invading Iraq in the absence of any sort of compelling evidence. If you think Bush is full of it, but couldn't put your finger on how, exactly, read the article. If you think Bush is making a good case for invading Iraq, read the article anyway. [kuro5hin.org

Let's review them, shall we?

One of the favorite methods of the current administration is a false dilemma. This is when only two choices are given when, in reality, there are more options. Right after 9/11 you heard, [base "]You are either with us or against us,[per thou] in the fight against terrorism. Actually, countries can be both against terrorism and not an ally of the U.S. More recently, many countries are showing that they are both against a pre-emptive war and against the current Iraqi regime. [...] Another arguing device is the argument from ignorance. This involves claiming that what hasn[base ']t been disproven must be true. We hear Iraq hasn[base ']t shown that they do not have WMD, therefore they do. The real burden of proof is on the party making the claim. The U.S. and/or U.N. must prove that Iraq has WMD. It is impossible for Iraq to prove that they don[base ']t. An argument portraying a series of increasingly bad events is called a slippery slope. This is used effectively by gun-control opponents who suggest handgun registration will eventually lead to government confiscation of all guns. On Iraq, we hear how Saddam will develop WMDs and give them to terrorists who will then use them on America. While this is one possible chain of events, it hardly justifies a pre-emptive attack on a sovereign nation. [...] Criticizing a person or group instead of an issue is called an ad hominem attack. The current talk about France by many Americans is a perfect example. It is not only childish, it distracts from the real issues. France is not obligated to go along with every American idea because we saved them from Nazi Germany 60 years ago. [...] Another common device we are seeing is a fallacy of exclusion. Colin Powell and President Bush have both talked about aluminum tubes being used for uranium enrichment for use in nuclear weapons. They always fail to mention that according to U.N. nuclear inspectors the tubes were actually conventional rocket artillery casings. They also mention Iraq[base ']s use of chemical weapons against Iran in the 1980[base ']s. They again leave out that we supported Iraq at that time in their war against Iran, and basically ignored the use of WMDs at that time. [...] Arguing a claim is true based on someone being an expert on the subject is known as an appeal to authority. In our case, the experts are defectors from Iraq. Powell claimed defectors reported there were 18 mobile biological weapons labs cruising around Iraq. First, these defector[base ']s stories are suspect due to their obvious dislike of Iraq. I[base ']m sure they would be happy to tell the U.S. what they wanted to hear if it hastened the destruction of the Iraqi regime and they could return to their homeland. More to the point, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said his men had examined some of the trucks and found them to be food-testing labs. [...] Why is the Bush Administration using these deceptive techniques to rush us into a war with Iraq? Is there any solid evidence that Iraq still processes weapons of mass destruction and has ties with terrorist groups? A few audio tapes and fuzzy satellite photos are not proof. All we hear is the same anecdotal evidence repeated over and over again. President Bush has said that if Saddam and his generals [base "]take innocent life, if they destroy infrastructure, they will be held accountable as war criminals.[per thou] Isn[base ']t the United States about to take innocent life and destroy infrastructure?

What I've found in all the listservs I've been on since 9/11 is that there are TWO things Americans need most in this world. I've hollered and yelled, "Oh my kingdom for just these two little things!" They are: 1. For everyone to retake 8th grade civics class, with particular focus on the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 2. A university-level course in rhetoric and argumentation, Logical Fallacies 101, if you will. If we just had these two things, fewer people would be DUPED by stupid and poorly constructed arguments. I swear, it is if the Enlightenment never happened, and all those poor postmodernists NEED the Enlightenment to rebel and rail against. Would you take such a precious thing away from them?! Miasma

Secret Irish Data Repository Uncovered

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 04:35:11 GMT

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Secret Irish Data Repository Uncovered.

topgold writes "During an initial public meeting yesterday, the Irish Justice Ministry revealed that for nearly a year, the Irish government has mandated all telecommunications operators store traffic information from every landline, fax and mobile phone call for at least three years. Irish Times journalist Karlin Lillington offers insights regarding this secret data retention regime in several national newspaper columns. A considerable citizen reaction is at the boiling point, stoked by a civil liberties discussion board and the rejuvenation of the Electronic Freedom Ireland citizen group. By law, the Irish government can deep-six any Cabinet discussions related to the 'deliberative process' and since this decision to retain phone records happened at Cabinet level, it could have remained hidden for more than five years."

[Privacy Digest]

FIGHT R.F.I.D. Chips! NOW!!!!

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 04:31:55 GMT

This shit is SCARIER than people chipping their children for fear a terrorist will abduct them. Instead of one mark of the beast embedded under your skin, your entire household could be profiled by hundreds or thousands of items. My god, it is a marketing and demographic person's wet dream, to drive down a street and run a RFID scan on a house and know exactly how to target market a sales pitch. And worse, for that same sales person to know virtually everything about you. I mean, if it is true that we are what we eat, erm, I mean we are what we buy? Miasma

New York Times - free registration required A Radio Chip in Every Consumer Product.
And, yes, Procter & Gamble will notice if a case of Pantene shampoo does not make it to the Wal-mart Supercenter in Broken Arrow, Okla. Its truck is equipped to monitor signals continuously from chips hidden in each case. If any case stops sending its "Hi, I'm still here" signal, a monitor in the "smart truck" will record exactly when and where.

Such technology, known as radio-frequency identification -- the same techniques that enable an electronic sensor to record data from an E-ZPass tag or an office door to open for people with chip-equipped cards in their pockets -- could one day stymie pilferers. But it is also capable of doing much more for commerce. Beyond Gillette and Procter & Gamble, companies as diverse as International Paper and Canon USA are teaming up with retailers and customers to apply R.F.I.D., as it is known, to tracking products from the time they leave an assembly line to the time they leave the store.

The companies are tagging clothes, drugs, auto parts, copy machines and even mail with chips laden with information about content, origin and destination. They are also equipping shelves, doors and walls with sensors that can record that data when the products are near. "We want to track all of our merchandise, and that includes items that people are unlikely to steal," William C. Wertz, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores, said.

[ ... ]

Consumer privacy is also an issue. It would be easy to combine credit card data with information from the retail chips to know who bought what, and when -- and, conceivably, track the product even after it left the store.

"I don't think the average consumer understands the threat to personal privacy that these kinds of technologies can present," said Alan N. Sutin, a partner specializing in information technology at the law firm of Greenberg Traurig.

William H. Steele, a consumer products analyst with Bank of America, doubts companies will "succumb to the temptation to keep tracking products in the consumers' hands," but he, too, stops short of calling the issue specious. "There should be a certain level of skepticism on the part of the U.S. consumer," he said.
[Privacy Digest]

ACLU Targets Attorney General's Insatiable Appetite for New Powers With New Full-Page Ads in Washington Times and New York Times

Wed, 26 Feb 2003 04:24:02 GMT

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Targets Attorney General's Insatiable Appetite for New Powers With New Full-Page Ads in Washington Times and New York Times .

The American Civil Liberties Union today targeted Attorney General John Ashcroft's continuing push for expanded surveillance and intelligence gathering powers with a new full-page newspaper advertisement in this morning's Washington Times and New York Times.

"Americans of all ideological stripes - right, center and left - are up in arms about the unnecessary and intrusive powers being pushed for by John Ashcroft's Justice Department," said Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "This new advertisement highlights the serious concerns shared by an unlikely alliance that includes groups and individuals as ideologically disparate as the ACLU and well-known conservative Bob Barr."

The ad describes examples of the slew of new intelligence gathering and law enforcement powers either asserted unilaterally by the Administration or granted to the President by Congress since September 11, 2001. It also warns against the proposed Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, the Department of Justice's follow-up wish list of expanded powers not granted in the original USA PATRIOT Act.

[Privacy Digest]

Sitting on the moral high ground

Tue, 25 Feb 2003 05:47:09 GMT

Salon.com | Raise Limbaugh's blood pressure! Keep Salon in business [Daypop Top 40] [chest tumping alert!] Yup, I am a Salon subscriber, premium service. I resisted for a long time, but eventually admitted that I was powerless over my addiction, and I had to turn it over to a higher power along with doing a searching and fearless moral inventory... Wait, wrong meeting. Sorry. What I mean is that I sucked it up and bit the bullet after long resisting, because I don't believe in the subscription model on the web, and figuring I'd resent it even as I resent having registered for the NYTimes site and having been a long time hater of the Time Warner Pathfinder site in the mid-90s asking me to sign over rights to my first born child before I could even log on... As in, this STUNK of OLD MEDIA. But then I did it. I wanted an article dammit! And since I know how to get around the NYTimes archive fee charge (not gonna tell how...), this is the ONLY one I did cough up for. Funny thing happened on the way to being co-opted. I started really using the premium service and liking it. Liked the little music compilation thingie too. Not to mention the Mother Jones and Utne Reader subscriptions. Good will. Then they added blogs, and I'm still happy even tho my blog isn't in that club. Worse, I would be sad if Salon went away in a way that I would not be sad if Slate went away (has it gone away?). Obviously I subscribe to it in my news feed reader and Radio aggregator. I like its righteous ballsy streak. I miss Suck.com, and that sucks. There are a lot of things we could and do miss because VC interpreted the dot.com bomb as an excuse to take leave of what little imagination and vision the pathetic souls had in the first place. So they say Salon spends too much money and lives too high in its offices. That these periodic death throes are con jobs to get more money and get propped up a bit longer. To that, I say, "What the fuck? It is a hell of a lot better than those far more periodic beg-fests on public radio and television, and I cough up for those every 5 years or so when I am flush and when the guilt hits me." Salon is like a less serious and more mouthy version of NPR, and for that I love it. And if you need more reasons, here's their version of a beg-fest. Come on, y'all. Cough it up. It isn't as bad as you might think. Miasma

Did you ever get the feeling that some people want you dead? Last week's flurry of news stories about Salon's imminent demise produced another wave of hate mail from those eager to dance on our grave. (The fact that Salon never seems to actually die -- despite the tone of absolute certainty in these perennial press obits that this time, yes, it MUST be going under! -- never diminishes these letter writers' bloodlust.) [...] Stan Willock offers these words of consolation to Salon readers: "[They] will still have PBS, where hundreds are misinformed and entertained at taxpayer expense, as well as CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC. All are losing viewers to the fair and balanced Fox News Channel and to conservative talk radio. Best of luck looking for a new job. Hopefully you qualify as a member of a preferred group (person of color, female, gay, lesbian, etc)." [...] Salon -- and I -- take all these attacks in stride. As Ishmael Reed observed, "writin' is fightin'." When you publish a rambunctiously independent daily in a time marked by conservative backlash and martial fever, you're bound to make some enemies. And we're proud of those we've made over the years, from Ken Starr to John Ashcroft and, of course, the right-wing guidance counselors at the Wall Street Journal's editorial pages. [...] Chris Broderick wrote, "As a subscriber, I don't really know what I can do, but damn, there's got to be a way. With the way things are now in the world, I really rely on you people to give the news that I perceive to be the truth. I am so goddam frustrated with the mainstream media and their neglect of truthful reporting. It's going to be like a death in the family if you guys go down." Mark E. Michael e-mailed: "I stumbled on you a few years back and then told my wife and her sister about this great e-zine (as it was once called). You have given us some wonderful memories, but we don't want them to end. And we cannot let right-wing voices be the only ones heard. There are elements in the government that wish to silence dissent and do it permanently. There will be no marketplace of ideas, only the authorized, approved one ... How can Salon be saved?" [...] If every one of our 53,000 subscribers brings in just ONE additional subscription, Salon will finally break even this year. In the current economic climate, advertising cannot be counted on to secure Salon's future. But YOU can help do that by buying at least one gift subscription. The enemies of a free and critical press -- like the ministers of information at the Wall Street Journal -- want to write off Salon as dead. With our voice silent, there will be one less bullhorn to question the wisdom of our country's current direction. The world is becoming increasingly dangerous. As reader Mark E. Michael warned, don't let the "authorized" version become the only one you read. Help us fight the good fight. Thank you. -- David Talbot Editor, salon.com

BBC NEWS | Technology | Is Google too powerful?

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 07:12:05 GMT

BBC NEWS | Technology | Is Google too powerful? [Daypop Top 40] Tracking users Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool. It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for. It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038. This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is. It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes. And the much-loved Google toolbar tells Google about every web page you look at. Yet it so dominates the search engine market that no website can afford to ignore it, and it indexes so much of the web that few users think of using another. The way it ranks pages is a commercial secret, outside any external supervision or control. If Google decides it does not like you then you can be dropped from the index.

Slashdot: Bookseller Purges Records to Avoid PATRIOT Act

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 06:27:06 GMT

Slashdot | Bookseller Purges Records to Avoid PATRIOT Act.

Skyshadow writes "Vermont Bookseller Bear Pond Books has announced that they will purge their sales records at the request of customers . This would effectively sidestep typically insideous a provision of the PATRIOT Act which allows government agencies to secretly seize sales records. The store's co-owner, Michael Katzenberg, put it this way: 'When the CIA comes and asks what you've read because they're suspicious of you, we can't tell them because we don't have it... That's just a basic right, to be able to read what you want without fear that somebody is looking over your shoulder to see what you're reading.' Now if only certain other booksellers would show that same conscience, we might have something here."

[Privacy Digest]

ROFLMAO! I'm loving this I'm LOVING this!

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 05:51:09 GMT

Homeland Security Alerts now with extra subtext.

Wacky Neighbor interprets Homeland Security Alerts. via Boing Boing via Michael.

[a klog apart propagandart]

[a klog apart]

So, is Accenture (who did they used to be--Is this Andersen Consulting?) EVIL?

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 05:11:31 GMT

"PC Magazine" - A Watchful Assistant Raises Privacy Concerns.

It is always on, passively listening. The Personal Awareness Assistant prototype from consulting firm Accenture has a speech recognition engine, two small microphones, a small camera and a scrolling audio buffer. But it's more than a recording system. For example, if a user meets someone new and says "it's nice to meet you," the Assistant takes a low-resolution picture of the person being greeted and then, when that person responds, records the name, storing the dated and time-stamped information in an address book.

[Privacy Digest]

About time somebody got around to fighting supermarket tracking systems

Sat, 22 Feb 2003 04:57:12 GMT

At least 4 years ago I used to harass supermarket clerks because EVEN IF I bought groceries with cash, they would not SELL the groceries to me without me giving my phone number or a zip code. Motherfuckers. Miasma

CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering. [Privacy Digest] Breaking news: RFID is on the way! RFID tags, tiny tracking devices the size of a grain of dust that can be inserted in virtually any product, are about to enter the retail world. Industry insider comes clean Insurance companies seek card data THE CASPIAN mailbox always makes for interesting reading, and we thought you might enjoy an excerpt from one email that was recently sent to us. The writer, who wished to remain anonymous, was employed in software development and worked on a data mining system to be used with card programs. The most interesting comments concern other businesses that were closely watching the project: [...] one of my jobs was to wow potential customers. I had to take them through my data center and development labs and show them our stuff. The usual suspects were there - various marketers and database mongers. But the most interesting were the reps from the insurance companies. we had a BUNCH of 'em." The reason they were interested is that they wanted to collect lifestyle information on people so that individuals can be charged according to their lifestyles. "We see that you eat too much red meat so your life insurance will be higher than the norm". "We see that you've bought a lot of electrical supplies which means you're doing unauthorized electrical work on your house. Therefore we're canceling your homeowners policy." that kind of stuff. He goes on to predict that the companies will publicly deny this, especially since it would be difficult to prove their involvement at this stage. Then he makes this astute observation: Once stored in a database, data has a nasty habit of not ever going away so even if they don't do something in the near future, all this data is out there just waiting to be exploited. Consumers should also keep in mind that It doesn't matter how "innocent" a purchase might be; when twisted in whatever manner is to the benefit of someone else it can come back to haunt you.

Card Makers Say UK Citizens Want Biometric ID Cards

Wed, 05 Feb 2003 04:03:28 GMT

No accounting for lack of foresight, eh? Miasma

Slashdot | Card Makers Say UK Citizens Want Biometric ID Cards.
ArsonPanda writes "ZDnet is running a story on a recent survey in the UK showing overwhelming 80% public support of universal, biometricly enhanced citizen ID cards. Everybody here's fine with supplying the gubmit w/ your retinal scans and fingerprints, right?"
[Privacy Digest]

Living under the Patriot Act, like cowering under a dark shadow

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 05:31:59 GMT

U-WIRE.com - FBI task force tracks student activity, privacy concerns raised.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Some students are wondering how much privacy they still have now that Joint Terrorism Task Forces overseeing counterterrorism include collegiate police officers on a dozen campuses. Paying attention to college campuses and working with campus police to check any tips or leads is one way federal agencies have been monitoring potential terrorist threats.

The Department of Public Safety regularly works and exchanges information with the FBI on different security issues like the ban on flyovers over the University of Michigan Stadium, said DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown.

"Only if any of the law-enforcing agencies, like the FBI, received a credible tip about an issue on campus, that would be investigated," Brown said. "However the FBI could find out public information like details on the [University] directory."

However, students and faculty are weary of zealous federal agencies after the USA Patriot Act was passed in October 2001, which took away significant privacy protections from students, said Noel Saleh, staff attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.

"The FBI could really find out anything they wanted," Saleh said. "They are interested in student activists or organizers. Like the divestment conference that happened late last year was an interest to the FBI."

Prior to the USA PATRIOT Act, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 stated that, unless the school had been mandated by court order or subpoena, an academic institution was generally barred from releasing a student's education records without a student's consent.

[Privacy Digest]

Microchip tracking in Michelin tires

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 05:36:04 GMT

"Michelin plans to embed trackable microchips in tires." The tire maker has begun testing a UHF transponder that it adapted for use inside rubber sidewalls. Jan 17, 2003 - Michelin this week revealed that it has begun fleet testing of an RFID transponder embedded in its tires to enable them to be tracked electronically. After it completes testing, which will likely last 18 months, Michelin will begin offering automakers the option of purchasing tires with embedded transponders.

Reason to finish my Christopher Hitchens book on 'Why Orwell Matters'

Thu, 23 Jan 2003 05:09:17 GMT

Privacy: Going, Going.... Privacy invaders are like termites. They undermine, eating away at the structure of your personal life, until you wake up... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] This from ACLU on "Bigger Monster, Weaker Chains: The Growth of an American Surveillance Society (why can't I get the damn PDF version to load?!)

"Too many people still do not understand the danger, do not grasp just how radical an increase in surveillance by both the government and the private sector is becoming possible, or do not see that the danger stems not just from a single government program, but from a number of parallel developments in the worlds of technology, law and politics."

Privacy Digest on RFID: See? This is what I been saying all along

Tue, 14 Jan 2003 05:42:08 GMT

If I could only find the post I did on this before. Oh, I did: "Guns vs Books. Which are more dangerous?"

CNET NEWS.COM Perspectives By Declan McCullagh - RFID tags: Big Brother in small packages.
Could we be constantly tracked through our clothes, shoes or even our cash in the future?

I'm not talking about having a microchip surgically implanted beneath your skin, which is what Applied Digital Systems of Palm Beach, Fla., would like to do. Nor am I talking about John Poindexter's creepy Total Information Awareness spy-veillance system, which I wrote about last week.

Instead, in the future, we could be tracked because we'll be wearing, eating and carrying objects that are carefully designed to do so.

The generic name for this technology is RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.

[ ... ]

You can imagine nightmare legal scenarios that don't involve the cops. Future divorce cases could involve one party seeking a subpoena for RFID logs--to prove that a spouse was in a certain location at a certain time. Future burglars could canvass alleys with RFID detectors, looking for RFID tags on discarded packaging that indicates expensive electronic gear is nearby. In all of these scenarios, the ability to remain anonymous is eroded.

Don't get me wrong. RFID tags are, on the whole, a useful development and a compelling technology. They permit retailers to slim inventory levels and reduce theft, which one industry group estimates at $50 billion a year. With RFID tags providing economic efficiencies for businesses, consumers likely will end up with more choices and lower prices. Besides, wouldn't it be handy to grab a few items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase automatically debited from your (hopefully secure) RFID'd credit card?

The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store. That's the scenario that should raise alarms--and currently the RFID industry seems to be giving mixed signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default.

In an interview with News.com last week, Gillette Vice President Dick Cantwell said that its RFID tags would be disabled at the cash register only if the consumer chooses to "opt out" and asks for the tags to be turned off. "The protocol for the tag is that it has built in opt-out function for the retailer, manufacturer, consumer," Cantwell said.

[ ... ]

If the tags stay active after they leave the store, the biggest privacy worries depend on the range of the RFID readers. There's a big difference between tags that can be read from an inch away compared to dozens or hundreds of feet away.

[ ... ]

But what about a more powerful RFID reader, created by criminals or police who don't mind violating FCC regulations? Eric Blossom, a veteran radio engineer, said it would not be difficult to build a beefier transmitter and a more sensitive receiver that would make the range far greater. "I don't see any problem building a sensitive receiver," Blossom said. "It's well-known technology, particularly if it's a specialty item where you're willing to spend five times as much."

Privacy worries also depend on the size of the tags. Matrics of Columbia, Md., said it has claimed the record for the smallest RFID tag, a flat square measuring 550 microns a side with an antenna that varies between half an inch long to four inches by four inches, depending on the application. Without an antenna, the RFID tag is about the size of a flake of pepper.

[ ... ]

To the credit of the people in the nascent RFID industry, these trials are allowing them to think through the privacy concerns. An MIT-affiliated standards group called the Auto-ID Center said in an e-mailed statement to News.com that they have "designed a kill feature to be built into every (RFID) tag. If consumers are concerned, the tags can be easily destroyed with an inexpensive reader. How this will be executed i.e. in the home or at point of sale is still being defined, and will be tested in the third phase of the field test."

If you care about privacy, now's your chance to let the industry know how you feel. (And, no, I'm not calling for new laws or regulations.) Tell them that RFID tags are perfectly acceptable inside stores to track pallets and crates, but that if retailers wish to use them on consumer goods, they should follow four voluntary guidelines.

First, consumers should be notified--a notice on a checkout receipt would work--when RFID tags are present in what they're buying. Second, RFID tags should be disabled by default at the checkout counter. Third, RFID tags should be placed on the product's packaging instead of on the product when possible. Fourth, RFID tags should be readily visible and easily removable.

Given RFID's potential for tracking your every move, is that too much to ask?
[Privacy Digest]

Dumping on Creative Commons?

Tue, 14 Jan 2003 05:19:48 GMT

Believing in Copyright and a Public Commons. Dumping on Creative Commons, Arnold Kling (or a headline writer at Tech Central Station has posted an interesting essay called... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] Dan Gillmor:

I'd like to address the following statement from Kling's essay: The Commons enthusiasts believe that content publishers earn their profits by using copyright law to steal content from its creators and charge extortionary prices to consumers. No, that's not what I believe, though it does happen on occasion. What I do believe includes the following:
Copyright is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Copyright has been abused by the copyright industry in a number of ways including endless extension of terms and relentlessly aggressive political pushes to restrict fair use and other rights of customers.
The copyright cartel has stolen from the public domain -- from all of us.
Some balance is needed.

1,300 in Kiddie Porn Sweep: More than meets the eye?

Tue, 14 Jan 2003 04:05:25 GMT

Something doesn't smell right in this story. How many US police depts sweep up 1,300 Johns and say nothing about the prostitutes? The US FBI has info on the folks who collected the credit card numbers. I want to know how long the FBI ran the site, for one, if they did. I want to know what criminal charges the people who ran the site are getting. Next thing I want everyone to do is go read the lyrics of Pete Townshend's 'Rough Boys' on the Internet. Google it. You know you can find it. Disturbing? Yes. Convictable offense? No, not yet. I don't want to see this issue become a new kind of McCarthyism for Ashcroft and that weird gleam in his eye. I think there is something really fucking disturbing about kiddie porn, really fucked up. By if we turn into wide sweeps and name-trashing (the Paul Reubens thing is starting to look really odd, at least the parts that were leaking out), then Ashcroft would be successful in building the thing he wants more, his own J Edgar Hooverville complete with a powerful culture of fear and accusation centered around it. On the other hand, there is something really odd in this intense, addictive, something-or-other that some people get from kiddie porn. What the hell is it? Are you automatically "addicted" to this visual stimulus or worse if it happens to you as a kid? Why would that be? If the experience were BAD when you were a kid, why as an adult would one want to relive it? Some would say power, but a powerfuck is not that addictive. OK, so maybe some abused kids end up conflicted, emotionally manipulated. Those are some complicated conflictions. I'll buy that. And recidivism with child abusers has led to laws that violate some of our cherished civil liberties.The horror of what these people do makes us react worse than we do to drug addicts. Clearly we are saying this addiction is more intoxicating than DRUGS. Chemical stimulation. Think about that a second. KIDS ARE ADDICTIVE? Why? Their beauty? Their innocence? There are a lot of other beautiful and innocent things that are not addictive. Pheremones? Are they the chemical? I refuse to believe the power trip is the chemical, and I know feminists would argue with me on that, with a lot of excellent research on battered women's syndrome and hate crimes. I was once a victim of such a beating and attempted rape. I do understand the power element in the equation. But I cannot cite that as THE addictive element that COMPELLS recidivism. And it hints of this below in kuro5in. This is one of two things: the tip of the iceberg with well known people being pulled in, or our next witchhunt on the borderline of the absurdity of the incident at Wee Care Day Care Center in 1989 (I think) and the "believe the children" movement, backed by highly questionable hypnotic regression of adults. (the Nat Hentoff article in the Village Voice from Wee Care story is what I consider the definitive take on this issue, altho there was an excellent Atlantic Monthly article as well). In all, it requires we all watch carefully. More importantly, if the curtain of taboo descendes and prevents anyone asking the "why" and "how" question, all that will be left are people to be destroyed by accusations, and when it is all over, kiddie porn will go deep underground, to deep to ever give us the opportunity to ask these questions ever again, at least in our generation. We will simply pass it on to the next generation and whatever horrors it can dream up to do to its children. Miasma

Celebrity Caught Paying to Access Child Porn; Pleads "Research". Former The Who guitarist Pete Townshend has admitted giving his credit card details to a child pornography website in order to gain access and view illegal pictures, after being caught in a massive international child porn investigation. However, he claims that this was purely innocent research for his autobiography, which will deal in part with child abuse. These claims will be viewed skeptically by some; however, he was publically supported by celebrity friends such as Jerry Hall, who said Townshend was about as different from "the profile" of a child abuser as it was possible to be. More than 1,300 people have already been arrested as part of the police investigation, based on data passed on by the US FBI - including judges, teachers, doctors, care workers, soldiers and more than 50 police officers. Incidentally, amongst the subscribers of the US-based "child porn portal" in question, it has emerged, were two Labour Members of Parliament, reported to be former ministers (high-ranking government officials). The two MPs have not yet been named. [kuro5hin.org]

Futuristic Govt Surveillance is Scarier than Current TIA

Thu, 09 Jan 2003 04:41:50 GMT

ZDnet Commentary By Declan McCullagh - News: Gov't spying: What's the real threat?.

The biggest problem with criticism of Adm. John Poindexter's massive spy proposal is not in the argument over the system being so darn creepy.

Of course it's creepy. This new federal agency deliberately chose the motto "knowledge is power," crafted a logo certain to inspire conspiracy theories, and is itching to assemble a detailed computerized dossier on every American. And that a figure such as Poindexter--disgraced in the Iran-Contra scandal and with a database addiction dating back to at least 1987--is running the show is a detail worthy of a Jonathan Swift satire.

No, the biggest problem with the criticism of the Total Information Awareness system is that it's too shortsighted. It's focused on what the Poindexters of the world can do with current database and information-mining technology. That includes weaving together strands of data from various sources--such as travel, credit card, bank, electronic toll and driver's license databases--with the stated purpose of identifying terrorists before they strike.

But what could Poindexter and the Bush administration devise in five or 10 years, if they had the money, the power and the will?

That's the real question, and therein lies the true threat. Even if all of our current elected representatives, appointed officials and unappointed bureaucrats are entirely trustworthy--and that's a pretty big assumption--what could a corrupt FBI, Secret Service or Homeland Security police force do with advanced technology by the end of the decade? What if there were another terrorist attack that prompted Congress to delete whatever remaining privacy laws shield Americans from surveillance?

For a hint at what the future might bring, it's worth reviewing some of the projects already underway at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA), which is the parent agency for Poindexter's Information Awareness Office. Combine that information with the technology trends toward smaller sensors, cheaper hardware and ubiquitous wireless networks, and the possibilities are immensely disquieting. We could face the emergence of unblinking electronic eyes that record where we are and what we do, whenever we interact.

[Privacy Digest]

Andre Durand on 3 Tiers of Identity: Let's Turn Foucault Loose on this, eh?

Fri, 03 Jan 2003 04:43:53 GMT

Who, who, who, who and who.
Andre loops back to everybody else in the DigID conversation, and also to a seminal document: his Three Tiers of Identity paper.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]

This from Andre Durand:

As I contemplate the landscape of existing and potentially new identity-based applications, it appears to me that not all identities were created equal. There are in fact at least three different types of identities, each having different attributes and each likely to experience different adoption characteristics and market longevity. For simplicity sake, think of these identities as falling into one of three tiers: Tier 1: Personal Identity - T1 identities are both timeless & unconditional. They are your true personal digital identity and are owned and controlled entirely by you, for your sole benefit. T1 identities exist for people as well as for devices & programs, with the exception that a device or program T1 operates in AGENT mode only, meaning, it is controlled entirely by another Personal T1. Tier 2: Corporate Identity - A T2 identity is both conditional & temporary in its issuance to you. We typically denote these identities as being assigned or issued to us, and they typically refer to us in the context of a business relationship. For example, nearly every 'identity' we have with a business is a T2 identity, our job title is a T2, our cell phone is a T2, our United Mileage Plus is a T2, our social security is a T2. T2's comprise the bulk of our digital identities today. Tier 3: Marketing Identity - A T3 identity is a marketing or abstracted identity. T3 identities speak to the way in which companies aggregate us into different marketing buckets for the purposes of advertising or communicating with us. For example, we're either a 'frequent buyer' or a 'one time customer' etc. etc. T3's are typically based upon our demographics or our behavior in our interactions with business. The entire CRM market caters to T3 identities.

Will McCain Side With Consumers' Fair Use Rights?

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 06:44:51 GMT

Will McCain Side With Consumers' Fair Use Rights?.

Last week, The Washington Post ran a story about Senator John McCain's return to the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation. Commerce Power Shift Could Shake Up Piracy, Broadband Debates speculates how the change from media puppet Fritz Hollings to McCain could affect broadband policy, telecom deregulation, and copyright law. While I agree that it's too difficult to predict how these issues will fare under McCain, I do think fair use rights stand a better chance at McCain-governed hearings than in any session Hollings ever controlled.

This article has been making the rounds of the blogosphere and it's definitely worth your read, but I haven't seen anyone highlight my favorite quote from it yet, so here it is for posterity.

"I never want to underestimate the (MPAA's) ability to lobby these issues," Miller said. "If Jack Valenti had been around at the time of Gutenberg he would have organized the monks to come and burn down the printing press." - Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America

[The Shifted Librarian]

Shift Magazine: Top 15 Key and Stupid Web Moments of 2002

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 06:41:00 GMT

We're Number Ten. Shift Magazine has posted their top 15 Key and Stupid Web Moments of 2002, and look who made the list! Kuro5hin and Metafilter's April Fools prank made it in as the #10 key web moment of the year, beating out competitors such as the debuts of Google News and The Sims Online. Also mentioned was Kuro5hin's fundraising drive, arguably more important than the prank in the grand scheme of things:10. On April Fool's Day, the community site Kuro5hin.org announces that it has purchased fellow community site Metafilter.com. This turns out to be a hoax, of course. (What wasn't a hoax was when Kuro5hin appealed to its users in June to help it raise the $70,000 it will cost to keep the site afloat. Within one day, they had put up $10,000.) [kuro5hin.org]

This is a good story, but I like some others from the Shift lists, excerpted here:

15 Stupid Web Moments [...] 7. HOW TO MAKE $$$ FAST!!! JUST BY READING SPAM!!! Harold Hickok of Portland, Oregon, sends an email to a large multinational corporation that's been spamming him. He states he'll be charging them twenty-five dollars for every email they make him read. They keep spamming him. He takes them to small claims court. And wins. 6. "Hey, my foot tastes like Onion!" says the Beijing Evening News after reprinting a satirical article -- claiming that U.S. Congress threatened to leave Washington unless they were built a new Capitol building with a retractable dome -- in their June 3rd edition. It may be excusable for a foreign news service to be duped into thinking America's online spoof tabloid is a reputable source, but it's less excusable when, four months later, Michigan police are also taken in. The Battle Creek sheriff's office issues a press release stating that the Al-Qaeda are involved in a dastardly telemarketing campaign, "making phone solicitations for vacation home rentals, long distance telephone services, magazine subscriptions and other products." 4. In the first week of the new year, Time Canada spoils Apple's big surprise party by posting its top-secret iMac feature on Timecanada.com a week early. By midday the link is down, but resourceful Mac fans around the web have copied the article onto their own sites. [...] 2. The "Nice try but no cigar" award for 2002 goes to British Telecommunications plc, who start the year off by claiming they own the patent on hyperlinking. ISPs should pay them licensing fees for using links, says BT. Yeah, right. Needless to say, they're laughed out of court. 1. Molson tries to claim rights to canadian.biz. Were they drunk? 15 Key Web Moments 15. Everyone's favourite search engine just keeps getting better. Google launches "Google News" in January (a meta-index of the world's top headlines, updated every day), "Google Answers" in April (think eBay meets support newsgroups) and later "Google Sets" (think Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Bashful, Doc... Shit, what are the other two?) 14. Electronic Arts announces in September that The Sims Online, the massively-multiplayer version of the best-selling videogame of all time, will feature product placement by McDonald's and Intel. The deal allows players to own a Mickey D's franchise and gain happiness points for eating there. (Only question is whether Sims' bladder meters will explode twenty minutes after consumption.) 13. On August 28th, hackers break into the Recording Industry Association of America's website and replace text on their homepage to the effect that the RIAA endorses filesharing. According to reports, visitors could download a dozen pirated MP3s directly from riaa.org. [...] 9. While commercial web content flounders, weblogs rise to mainstream prominence. Print journalists start taking note, using them as sources. Advertisers target them. Even celebrities get in on the act, as blogging pioneers like Wil Wheaton are joined by Jeff Bridges and William Shatner, among others. [...] 7. Chinese censorship officials decide to ban access to Google. [...] 3. On the anniversary of 9/11, people flock to the web to discuss the media coverage and the possibility of an attack on Iraq. Multiple sources, from online newspapers to weblogs to community websites, post everything from timelines to photo essays to ruminations to complete victim databases. Dean Allen posts eight words on textism.com: "Silence, and respect. Anything else is grave-robbing." 2. Lawrence Lessig, author of The Future of Ideas, launches Creative Commons (Creativecommons.org), a non-profit organization that allows artists, writers and programmers to define their own legally-binding copyright terms, for free. 1. New royalty legislation is approved in June, which forces web broadcasters to pay seventy cents for every song they stream to a thousand listeners, effectively killing web radio. Within two months of the decision, hundreds of web broadcasters have folded.

Some folks are more equal than others?

Wed, 01 Jan 2003 06:05:23 GMT

Slashdot | Going Through the Garbage.

frankejames writes "This is a very funny piece on how Portland politicians said it was okay for police to seize a citizen's garbage without a search warrant. But when some reporters swiped their garbage (and reported the contents!) they screamed foul play! Read Portland's top brass said it was OK to swipe your garbage--so we grabbed theirs."

[Privacy Digest]