LOU SABOTER-- Before there were chips, there were
home incarceration bracelets--the forerunners!
But we're getting more civilized!
----
http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/page.html?article=121552
Your cell phone is now a tracking device
By K. D. Seefeld
News-Chronicle
Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security.
--- Ben Franklin
A
few days ago, Governor Doyle signed legislation to improve 911 service
for cell phones. According to the Wisconsin Legislature/Associated
Press, the bill creates a new surcharge (if you didn’t know, surcharge
is another word for TAX), on monthly cell phone bills to help cover a
federally mandated program (which is contrary to the Constitution and
the tenth amendment) allowing law enforcement to pinpoint 911 calls from
mobile phones. (It doesn’t matter if you need an ambulance; law
enforcement will be involved.)
In the name of improving safety
and protection, what Doyle actually signed was a bill turning your cell
phone into a tracking device.
For the record, it wouldn’t make
any difference who was governor, this bill along with the .08 blood
alcohol level law was nothing short of blackmail and coercion by the
federales imposed on the states.
The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) has mandated that cell phone makers imbed tracking
technology, Enhanced 911 (E911), in the phones so that wireless carriers
can monitor your phone's whereabouts - even when the phone is turned
off.
Why would the government want to know where your phone is
24 hours a day, 7 days a week? We were led to believe the legislation
would improve 911 service. How many people are going to call 911 when
their phone is turned off? Answer: Approximately zero.
Your
wireless carrier will know where you and your phone are at all times.
Will your carrier share their tracking information with commercial
services?
McDonalds or Starbucks might like to know when you are
near by so they can e-text your phone a 10% off coupon. Seriously, this
can and will happen.
Tracking you through your cell phone
creates valuable information. The information can be stored and used to
profile your preferences and create a history of your movements. Once
that information is stored, unscrupulous carriers or hackers can steal
or sell it.
However, the most bothersome issue goes back to law
enforcement. An iBrief by Aaron Futch and Christine Soares of Duke
University explains:
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks
on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the privacy groups that had
earlier expressed concern over the implementation of the E911 standard
found that as the U.S. commitment to the war against terrorism deepens,
the need to track terrorists operating within the United States may lead
intelligence and law enforcement to seek a greater degree of access to
E911 tracking information than they would have needed before the
attacks.
As we have seen, the government’s desire to track
terrorists has become a war on the freedom of the citizens. The E911
legislation is another intrusion into our privacy by a government that
is becoming more of a police-state everyday.
Suppose,
unknowingly, you had been in the vicinity of an armed robbery when it
occurred. The only information the cops have from witnesses is a suspect
6’ tall, medium build, and wearing jeans and a shirt. With E911
technology and the required assistance of wireless carriers, the cops
could get a listing of every cell phone user in that vicinity at the
time of the crime.
Remember, you were in the vicinity and you
had your cell phone with you. You are 6’ tall. You have a medium build.
You own a pair of jeans and a shirt. Hello, suspect.
Farfetched?
Not really. Now, suppose your name is Jose Luis Alvarez. According to
an article in the Miami Herald the other day, Jose Luis Alvarez has been
detained at Miami International Airport perhaps 50 times because a
fugitive shares his name. Detained means held, questioned, searched, and
investigated.
Your cell phone has indicated that you could be
Jose Luis Alvarez the fugitive, and you, Mr. 6’ foot tall, medium build,
owner of jeans and a shirt are Jose Luis Alvarez, regular detained Joe.
So, what to do about protecting your cell phone/tracking device
privacy? You could spend 24 bucks on a thing called the Mcloak or email
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and complain to the big guy.
You may want to consider the former since the Secret Service collects and keeps all emails sent to the latter.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23372564-details/Britons+'could+be+microchipped+like+dogs+in+a+decade'/article.do
Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade'
30.10.06
Human
beings may be forced to be 'microchipped' like pet dogs, a shocking
official report into the rise of the Big Brother state has warned.
The
microchips - which are implanted under the skin - allow the wearer's
movements to be tracked and store personal information about them.
They
could be used by companies who want to keep tabs on an employee's
movements or by Governments who want a foolproof way of identifying
their citizens - and storing information about them.
The prospect
of 'chip-citizens' - with its terrifying echoes of George Orwell's 'Big
Brother' police state in the book 1984 - was raised in an official
report for Britain's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas into the
spread of surveillance technology.
The report, drawn up by a team
of respected academics, claims that Britain is a world-leader in the
use of surveillance technology and its citizens the most spied-upon in
the free world.
It paints a frightening picture of what Britain
might be like in ten years time unless steps are taken to regulate the
use of CCTV and other spy technologies.
The reports editors Dr
David Murakami Wood, managing editor of the journal Surveillance and
Society and Dr Kirstie Ball, an Open University lecturer in Organisation
Studies, claim that by 2016 our almost every movement, purchase and
communication could be monitored by a complex network of interlinking
surveillance technologies.
The most contentious prediction is the spread in the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.
The
RFID chips - which can be detected and read by radio waves - are
already used in new UK passports and are also used the Oyster card
system to access the London Transport network.
For the past six years European countries have been using RFID chips to identify pet animals.
Already used in America
However,
its use in humans has already been trialled in America, where the chips
were implanted in 70 mentally-ill elderly people in order to track
their movements.
And earlier this year a security company in
Ohio chipped two of its employees to allow them to enter a secure area.
The glass-encased chips were planted in the recipients' upper right arms
and 'read' by a device similar to a credit card reader.
In their
Report on the Surveillance Society, the authors now warn: "The call for
everyone to be implanted is now being seriously debated."
The
authors also highlight the Government's huge enthusiasm for CCTV,
pointing out that during the 1990s the Home Office spent 78 per cent of
its crime prevention budget - a total of £500 million - on installing
the cameras.
There are now 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain and the average Briton is caught on camera an astonishing 300 times every day.
This
huge enthusiasm comes despite official Home Office statistics showing
that CCTV cameras have 'little effect on crime levels'.
They
write: "The surveillance society has come about us without us
realising", adding: "Some of it is essential for providing the services
we need: health, benefits, education. Some of it is more questionable.
Some of it may be unjustified, intrusive and oppressive."
Yesterday
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, whose office is investigating
the Post Office, HSBC, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland over
claims they dumped sensitive customer details in the street, said: "Many
of these schemes are public sector driven, and the individual has no
choice over whether or not to take part."
"People are being scrutinised and having their lives tracked, and are not even aware of it."
He
has also voiced his concern about the consequences of companies, or
Government agencies, building up too much personal information about
someone.
He said: "It can stigmatise people. I have worries about
technology being used to identify classes of people who present some
kind of risk to society. And I think there are real anxieties about
that."
Yesterday a spokesman for civil liberties campaigners
Liberty said: "We have got nothing about these surveillance technologies
in themselves, but it is their potential uses about which there are
legitimate fears. Unless their uses are regulated properly, people
really could find themselves living in a surveillance society.
"There
is a rather scary underlying feeling that people may worry that these
microchips are less about being a human being than becoming a barcoded
product."
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17127.html
Implantable Spy Chip Gets Green Light from U.S.
Tim McDonald
April 05, 2002
A Florida company Thursday said that it will begin marketing and selling a
microchip that can be implanted under the skin, after receiving the
go-ahead from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The FDA advised the company, Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX) ,
that its biochip, called "VeriChip," is not considered a medical device
and therefore is not subject to FDA regulation.
FDA officials said that as long as the biochip is used for identification
purposes only, it will not have to meet strict FDA guidelines. The ruling
saves the product from having to undergo the agency's rigorous and lengthy
safety testing procedures.
"The FDA said that VeriChip has no medical function, and Applied Digital
Solutions is now free to sell, market and insert the chips in
individuals," company spokesperson Matthew Cossolotto told NewsFactor.
'Distinction Without a Difference'
Although the company has advertised the VeriChip in the past as a
potential method of storing a person's complete medical history, at this
stage the device will contain only a number to be used for identification.
However, that ID code can be transmitted via Internet or phone to a secure
data storage site, where it can be cross-referenced, allowing authorized
personnel to obtain detailed medical information.
"In some ways, it's kind of a distinction without a
difference," Cossolotto said. "We could have, and we might in the future,
put more information on the chip. But right now we're very happy to put
just the ID verification code and start getting it into the marketplace."
The company said it has targeted VeriChip and its
"life-enhancing" technology toward patients who may arrive at hospitals
unconscious or unable to speak, as well as at workers who need
top-security clearance.
The biochip also could prove valuable for tracking children, Alzheimer's
patients and convicted felons on parole.
Similar technology has been used in the last few years to keep track of
pets.
Politicians, Felons and Kidnap Victims
A South Florida man, Jeff Jacobs, is expected to be the first recipient of
the VeriChip. The plight of the Jacobs family has been well
publicized: Jacobs, a 41-year-old dentist, must take up to 10 medications
a day for a variety of ailments, including cancer and a degenerative
spinal condition.
According to his family, Jacobs has arrived at emergency rooms several
times unable to speak.
The company also said the chip could be combined with a global positioning
system (GPS) and used for security purposes by potential kidnap victims.
ADS, which has estimated that the worldwide market for security chips will
reach US$450 million by 2007, already has deals in place in South America.
Brazilian politician Antonio de Cunha Lima has been trying to become the
first South American to use the implant chip, according to published
reports. Brazil has the fourth highest kidnap rate in the world, after
Colombia, Mexico and Indonesia.
First Florida, Then the World
The company, which first announced the chip in December 2001, said it will
launch the product in the next three weeks, first in Florida and then
nationwide and internationally.
The biochip is a miniature, implantable radio frequency identification
device (RFID) roughly the size of a grain of rice. It is composed of
"FDA-accepted materials," according to the company, and each chip contains
a unique verification number.
That number is "captured" by passing a scanner over the chip, causing a
small amount of radio frequency energy to pass through the skin and
activate the dormant chip. The chip then transmits the verification number
on a radio frequency of 125 KHz.
A doctor is required to perform the implant procedure, which can be done
for free at certified clinics under local anesthesia, according to ADS
officials. The chip itself is expected to sell for around US$200. The
scanner will cost up to $3,000, although ADS said it is considering giving
them away to hospitals and medical clinics.
'Mark of the Beast'
The VeriChip is not without controversy. It has been challenged by privacy
and political advocates, who say that if the chip were to fall into the
wrong hands, totalitarian regimes could use it to track political
dissidents.
The technology also could be used as a tool in a national ID system -- an
idea that has waned in popularity since peaking right after the September
11th terrorist attacks.
A March survey by Gartner Dataquest showed that 41 percent of those
surveyed in the United States oppose a national ID system, while just 26
percent support one.
Also, some religious sects have said the biochip is the "Mark of the
Beast" from the Book of Revelations. They claim that a graphic the company
used early in the product's life cycle "clearly" resembled the satanic
numbers "666."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/11655005.htm
Posted on Sun, May. 15, 2005
LA jail latest to use radio tags to track inmates
DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO
- Inmates can run, but they can't hide - not so long as a radio-linked
wristband remains attached, pinpointing their location within a few
feet.
Removing or breaking the bracelet sets off a computer
alarm, alerting guards to a possible prison escape. It's an emerging
technology that could transform the way convicts are managed, contained
and monitored.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
announced Sunday it will adopt the technology for the nation's largest
jail system, using an updated version of the devices tested at
California's Calipatria State Prison, a remote desert facility 35 miles
north of the Mexican border - the first in the nation to track its
inmates electronically.
The concept has since been exported to other states.
LA
county will spend $1.5 million to help control about 1,900 inmates and
protect guards in one unit of the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic,
about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, beginning early next
year.
If it works well, it may be expanded to the 6,000 residents
of LA County's Central Jail and then to other facilities, said Marc
Klugman, chief of the sheriff's department's Correctional Services
Division.
California state corrections officials may also consider increased use of the still-developing systems.
Beyond
tracking inmates around cell blocks, the technology has the potential
to create virtual prisons outside detention facilities that would let
work release crews roam within an electronic fence easily moved wherever
it is needed, said Harinder Singh, executive officer of the California
Department of Corrections' technology transfer committee.
Michigan's
Bureau of Juvenile Justice has had a $1 million system at a
maximum-security 200-ward prison since 2003, and is installing it at a
second detention facility. The technology also is being used at a
minimum-security prison in Chillicothe, Ohio, and at Logan Correctional
Center north of Springfield, Ill., home to 1,900 medium-security
inmates.
Calipatria spokesman Lt. Ray Madden recalls an assault
two years ago when investigators retraced inmates' movements using the
computerized system installed in the minimum-security unit. They soon
centered on an unlikely suspect - a disabled inmate who wasn't where he
was supposed to be.
"He parked his walker outside the building,
went in and stabbed somebody, then went back and picked up his walker,"
Madden said. "He was hard-pressed to say he wasn't inside, because we
could track him through the building."
LA County jails'
revolving-door population poses the toughest test yet for the
technology. The facilities house about 18,000 inmates on a given day,
but nearly 200,000 people pass through the system each year, some for a
few hours, others for months. Several thousand each day must be moved to
and from court appearances.
Last year alone there were an
estimated 1,330 violent incidents that injured 88 jail employees and
1,742 inmates. Five prisoners were killed.
"It's just
mind-boggling what these guys have to deal with," said Greg Oester,
president of Technology Systems International Inc., which installs the
TSI PRISM systems. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company is a subsidiary
of Alanco Technologies Inc.
Previously, the company has worked
with much more captive audiences - prison inmates serving multi-year
sentences so long that electronic bracelets can be locked on until the
batteries die. For jails such as in LA County, it's had to develop a
quick-release version.
Alanco estimates there is $1.5 billion in
potential sales for the technology if it were used throughout the
federal, state and county prison and jail systems nationwide.
Singh praised TSI's product but thinks other technology could soon surpass the system's versatility.
He's
intrigued by the Wheels of Zeus Inc. system developed by a Los Gatos
firm headed by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak that uses radio
frequencies indoors but switches to Global Positioning System satellites
outdoors.
Though wOz is marketing its product for people who
want to monitor the locations of people, pets or possessions, company
officials met last month with Singh to discuss adapting the technology
to corrections.
Inmates could be tracked not only within prisons
or jails, or inside moveable electronic fences, but to and from
courthouses or other locations, Singh said, providing more tracking
mobility. Transmitters could be mounted on vehicles and shifted with
work crews, letting them move freely while still being monitored by
satellites.
Singh expects more correctional facilities to adopt
tracking systems as the technology improves, and more competition as the
market expands.
"They know we have the customers," he quipped.
California's
increased use of technology has been stalled by several years of budget
cuts and paralyzing turnovers in prison leadership, said both Singh and
Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Hickman. The prison
system is now going through a sweeping bureaucratic reorganization that
will take months, but Hickman and Singh say technology is a key to
reform.
Singh's committee hasn't met since October 2002 because
of the budget and bureaucratic uncertainty, but he anticipates efforts
will get underway this fall to set priorities for which technology can
best help transform the massive, troubled prison system.
"There's going to be opportunities for all kinds of new innovations. This might be one of them," Hickman said.
ON THE NET
TSI Inc.: http://www.tsilink.com/
Alanco Technologies Inc.: www.alanco.com
Wheels of Zeus: http://www.woz.com/2005/index.html
Logan Correctional Center: http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/facilities/instaddress.shtml
California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency: http://www.yaca.ca.gov
California Department of Corrections: http://www.corr.ca.gov
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/11655005.htm
Posted on Sun, May. 15, 2005
LA jail latest to use radio tags to track inmates
DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO
- Inmates can run, but they can't hide - not so long as a radio-linked
wristband remains attached, pinpointing their location within a few
feet.
Removing or breaking the bracelet sets off a computer
alarm, alerting guards to a possible prison escape. It's an emerging
technology that could transform the way convicts are managed, contained
and monitored.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
announced Sunday it will adopt the technology for the nation's largest
jail system, using an updated version of the devices tested at
California's Calipatria State Prison, a remote desert facility 35 miles
north of the Mexican border - the first in the nation to track its
inmates electronically.
The concept has since been exported to other states.
LA
county will spend $1.5 million to help control about 1,900 inmates and
protect guards in one unit of the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic,
about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, beginning early next
year.
If it works well, it may be expanded to the 6,000 residents
of LA County's Central Jail and then to other facilities, said Marc
Klugman, chief of the sheriff's department's Correctional Services
Division.
California state corrections officials may also consider increased use of the still-developing systems.
Beyond
tracking inmates around cell blocks, the technology has the potential
to create virtual prisons outside detention facilities that would let
work release crews roam within an electronic fence easily moved wherever
it is needed, said Harinder Singh, executive officer of the California
Department of Corrections' technology transfer committee.
Michigan's
Bureau of Juvenile Justice has had a $1 million system at a
maximum-security 200-ward prison since 2003, and is installing it at a
second detention facility. The technology also is being used at a
minimum-security prison in Chillicothe, Ohio, and at Logan Correctional
Center north of Springfield, Ill., home to 1,900 medium-security
inmates.
Calipatria spokesman Lt. Ray Madden recalls an assault
two years ago when investigators retraced inmates' movements using the
computerized system installed in the minimum-security unit. They soon
centered on an unlikely suspect - a disabled inmate who wasn't where he
was supposed to be.
"He parked his walker outside the building,
went in and stabbed somebody, then went back and picked up his walker,"
Madden said. "He was hard-pressed to say he wasn't inside, because we
could track him through the building."
LA County jails'
revolving-door population poses the toughest test yet for the
technology. The facilities house about 18,000 inmates on a given day,
but nearly 200,000 people pass through the system each year, some for a
few hours, others for months. Several thousand each day must be moved to
and from court appearances.
Last year alone there were an
estimated 1,330 violent incidents that injured 88 jail employees and
1,742 inmates. Five prisoners were killed.
"It's just
mind-boggling what these guys have to deal with," said Greg Oester,
president of Technology Systems International Inc., which installs the
TSI PRISM systems. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company is a subsidiary
of Alanco Technologies Inc.
Previously, the company has worked
with much more captive audiences - prison inmates serving multi-year
sentences so long that electronic bracelets can be locked on until the
batteries die. For jails such as in LA County, it's had to develop a
quick-release version.
Alanco estimates there is $1.5 billion in
potential sales for the technology if it were used throughout the
federal, state and county prison and jail systems nationwide.
Singh praised TSI's product but thinks other technology could soon surpass the system's versatility.
He's
intrigued by the Wheels of Zeus Inc. system developed by a Los Gatos
firm headed by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak that uses radio
frequencies indoors but switches to Global Positioning System satellites
outdoors.
Though wOz is marketing its product for people who
want to monitor the locations of people, pets or possessions, company
officials met last month with Singh to discuss adapting the technology
to corrections.
Inmates could be tracked not only within prisons
or jails, or inside moveable electronic fences, but to and from
courthouses or other locations, Singh said, providing more tracking
mobility. Transmitters could be mounted on vehicles and shifted with
work crews, letting them move freely while still being monitored by
satellites.
Singh expects more correctional facilities to adopt
tracking systems as the technology improves, and more competition as the
market expands.
"They know we have the customers," he quipped.
California's
increased use of technology has been stalled by several years of budget
cuts and paralyzing turnovers in prison leadership, said both Singh and
Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Hickman. The prison
system is now going through a sweeping bureaucratic reorganization that
will take months, but Hickman and Singh say technology is a key to
reform.
Singh's committee hasn't met since October 2002 because
of the budget and bureaucratic uncertainty, but he anticipates efforts
will get underway this fall to set priorities for which technology can
best help transform the massive, troubled prison system.
"There's going to be opportunities for all kinds of new innovations. This might be one of them," Hickman said.
ON THE NET
TSI Inc.: http://www.tsilink.com/
Alanco Technologies Inc.: www.alanco.com
Wheels of Zeus: http://www.woz.com/2005/index.html
Logan Correctional Center: http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/facilities/instaddress.shtml
California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency: http://www.yaca.ca.gov
California Department of Corrections: http://www.corr.ca.gov
http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,841827,00.html
Surgical tags plan for sex offenders
Silicon chip to be inserted under skin
Martin Bright, home affairs editor
Sunday November 17, 2002
The Observer
Britain
is considering a controversial scheme to implant surgically electronic
tags in convicted paedophiles amid fears that the extent of the abuse of
children has been massively underestimated.
Documents obtained by
The Observer reveal the Government could track paedophiles by satellite,
with a system similar to that used to locate stolen cars.
The
tags can be put beneath the skin under local anaesthetic and would also
be able to monitor the heart rate and blood pressure of the abuser,
alerting staff to the possibility that another attack was imminent.
A
letter from Hilary Benn, the Minister responsible for the supervision
of sex offenders in the community, reveals the Home Office's electronic
monitoring team is already developing technology to track paedophiles
constantly. The team is now investigating the 'implant tag' after it was
alerted to its capabilities by a campaign group for victims of
paedophiles.
Tracker, the company which runs Britain's largest
stolen vehicle monitoring network, has already been approached about
paedophile monitoring and computer company Compaq has been asked to
develop the software.
Compaq Software Solutions has developed
similar technology for Nasa to monitor remotely the bodily functions of
astronauts. In the case of paedophiles, the technology would not measure
sexual excitement, but would monitor the offender's state of
nervousness and fear.
Technology currently used can tell only
whether an offender is where he is supposed to be, which is usually a
curfew address. New 'reverse tags' can also monitor whether an offender
is approaching a former victim's house or a high-risk area such as a
school, but it can not track every movement.
In a letter to
Labour MP Andrew Mackinley, Benn wrote: 'The Electronic Monitoring Team
is... looking actively at the possibilities for using tracking
technology to monitor offenders' whereabouts as they move from one place
to another. To date... the team is unaware of any available technology
which uses bodily implants to track offenders' movements or which can
measure bodily functions to predict likely criminal activity. Such
future improvements are, however, worthy of consideration if it can be
demonstrated to be feasible and reliable in delivering improvements in
public protection.'
Ministers would need to pass new legislation to oblige offenders to be surgically fitted with the tags.
Civil
liberties groups expressed horror at the proposals last night.
'Implanting tracking devices provides a very frightening vision for the
future. We already know that the rules protecting our privacy are
inadequate. Where would this stop?' said John Wadham, director of
Liberty. 'This would be used initially for sex offenders, but we would
soon find that other marginalised groups, such as asylum seekers, would
find they were forced to have implants.'
The implant tag has
been proposed by Phoenix Survivors, a group of child abuse victims who
were traded as child prostitutes in the north-west of England. Their
name is taken from Operation Phoenix, an investigation into the
activities of 72-year-old Stanley Claridge.
Claridge's
stepdaughter and Phoenix Survivors' spokeswoman Shy Keenan said: 'I am
sick to death of it being acceptable that I am a victim because these
people have to have their human rights. These people live outside the
law and cannot be controlled, so you have to know what they are doing
all the time.'
The news of the implant tags comes after the
first wave of arrests from a list of 7,000 suspected British paedophiles
was passed to British police by investigators from the US Postal
Inspection Service.
Credit card details had been traced to
British customers of a portal on the internet, which gave access to
hundreds of child porn sites. An investigation by Northumbria police as
part of the nationwide Operation Ore led to the seizure of hard drives
from more than 100 computers. Police in the North East had been given
around 70 names from the list of 7,000 to arrest. In all, 56 men and
four women were arrested. They were not picked up by the usual vetting
procedures because most had no previous criminal record.
The
computer files seized included the scenes of the rape of children as
young as two. One man had 12,000 images of child abuse on his computer.
As a result, Northumbria Police has estimated that the numbers of people
on the Sex Offenders' Register in the area will increase by 10 per
cent. If the hit-rate of the Northumbria investigation is replicated
across the country, it could lead to as many as 5,000 arrests.
http://www.okgazette.com/news/templates/cover.asp?articleid=423&zoneid=7
http://www.okgazette.com/news/anmviewer.asp?a=423&print=yes
The watchers
Wednesday, April 05, 2006 - Ben Fenwick
It’s
supposed to protect you from predators spying on your computer habits,
but a bill Microsoft Corp. helped write for Oklahoma will open your
personal information to warrantless searches, according to a computer
privacy expert and a state representative.
Called the “Computer
Spyware Protection Act,” House Bill 2083 would create fines of up to a
million dollars for anyone using viruses or surreptitious computer
techniques to break on to someone’s computer without that person’s
knowledge and acceptance, according to the bill’s state Senate author,
Clark Jolley.
“The bill has a clear prohibition on anything going
in without your permission. You have to grant permission,” said Jolley,
R-Edmond. “You can look at your license agreement. It will say whether
they have the ability to take that information or not.”
But therein lies the catch.
If
you click that “accept” button on the routine user’s agreement, the
proposed law would allow any company from whom you bought upgradable
software the freedom to come onto your computer for “detection or
prevention of the unauthorized use of or fraudulent or other illegal
activities in connection with a network, service, or computer software,
including scanning for and removing computer software prescribed under
this act.”
That means that Microsoft (or another company
with such software) can erase spyware or viruses. But if you have, say, a
pirated copy of Excel — Microsoft (or companies with similar software)
can erase it, or anything else they want to erase, and not be held
liable for it. Additionally, that phrase “fraudulent or other illegal
activities” means they can:
—Let the local district attorney know that you wrote a hot check last month.
—Let the attorney general know that you play online poker.
—Let the tax commission know you bought cartons of cigarettes and didn’t pay the state tax on them.
—Read
anything on your hard drive, such as your name, home address, personal
identification code, passwords, Social Security number … etc., etc.,
etc.
“I think in broad terms that is still a form of spying,”
said Marc Rotenberg, attorney and executive director of the Electronic
Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. “Some people say, ‘Well,
it’s justified.’ I’m not so clear that should be the case. Particularly
if the reason you are passing legislation is to cover that activity.”
The
bill is scheduled to go back before the House for another vote. Will
the Oklahoma House, on behalf of all computer users in the state of
Oklahoma, click “accept”?
Where did you go yesterday?
Computer
users first accepted updates when anti-virus makers, such as Symantec
Corp. or McAfee, began back in the Nineties offering regular updates in
an attempt to stay current with the alarming number of viruses
introduced over the Internet. This was followed by Windows ME and 2000
allowing updates to their programs via downloads. By the time Windows XP
came out, regular online updates became part of the product one
purchased.
At around the same time, the Napster phenomenon pushed
music corporations, courts and lawmakers into taking action against
online file sharing of music. Hip, computer-savvy listeners traded
pirated MP3 recordings beyond count, leading to action by the music
industry to go on a search and destroy mission against the online music
traders, even in Oklahoma. In 2000, Oklahoma State University police
seized a student’s computer containing thousands of downloaded songs
after he was traced by a recording industry group.
Anti-spyware bill author Jolley said that’s what people like the OSU student get for sharing their information online.
“You
have to look at the other side of that issue,” Jolley said. “When they
agreed to put their files online, they literally agreed to allow people
to come on their computers and search the files online. On a P-to-P
(peer-to-peer) network, you are inviting other people to see what you
have. That’s a risk you run by participating in file share.”
Jolley
said his spyware bill is supposed to stop “phishers” from stealing
one’s identity off of one’s computer, is supposed to stop “Trojan horse”
viruses from being installed on the computer and is supposed to make
illegal a host of other techniques for spying on a user’s personal
information.
“It prohibits them from taking things as basic as
your home address, your first name, your first initial in combination
with your last name, your passwords, any personal identification numbers
you have, any biometric information, any Social Security, tax IDs,
drivers licenses, account balances, overdraft histories — there is a
clear prohibition on that,” Jolley said.
Indeed, Sections 4 and 5 of the act specifically forbid anyone from doing so without the user’s permission.
However,
Section 6 of the act says such a prohibition “shall not apply” to
“telecommunications carrier, cable operator, computer hardware or
software provider or provider of information service” and won’t apply to
those companies in cases of “detection or prevention of the
unauthorized use of or fraudulent or other illegal activities.”
Which
means software companies updating a user’s software or the cable
company monitoring that user’s activities on a broadband modem hookup
can turn over that user’s history of writing hot checks to the district
attorney if the company feels like it, said Rotenberg.
“You go
back to the old-fashioned wiretap laws,” Rotenberg said. “There was an
exception to allow telephone companies to listen in on telephone calls.
The theory was that it was necessary to make sure that the service was
working. Part of what’s going on here is to significantly expand that
exemption to a whole range of companies that might have reason for
looking on your computer. The statute will give them authority to do so.
I think it’s too broad. I think the users in the end need to be able to
allow that themselves.”
Jolley insists his proposed law would not allow Microsoft, Symantec or Cox Communications to become “Big Brother.”
“The
goal of this is not to allow any company to go through and scan your
computer,” Jolley said. “If they are, it has to be for a specific
purpose. If you don’t want them doing that, don’t agree to (the user’s
agreement).”
Which means, when a user accepts Microsoft’s Windows
operating system on that new computer, or Norton AntiVirus, or Apple’s
operating system or a host of other online-upgradable programs, that
user agrees to being watched by the company.
Who on Earth would write such a law? It wasn’t Jolley, or anyone in Oklahoma.
