This is an enlightening and disturbingly revealing discussion on the radically expanding levels of online surveillance that governments and corporations are able to wield today over your personal information on the internet.

It is about the new technology of “mass surveillance,” referred to as “strategic interception,” where corporations are helping to enable governments to record and store all phone transmissions, all internet communication from the entire population of a country. This is the militarization of cyberspace, which has been considered a form of civilian space, where a whole range of details of our lives flows to and fro through, and which are documented and stored upon.

This is staggering in its implications, and happening at a rate and to a degree which populations are not prepared for. It certainly challenges the fundamental basis of any notion of rights which are elaborated in the American Constitution, or any international covenants on human rights.

“Every civilian is now a target of military intelligence activity. Everyone.

“There is little left of democratic life that is not surveilled. But it is not being surveilled equally. It is not the public that is surveilling big corporations, secretive government agencies, and the rest of the public. Rather, there is a disproportionate flow of information from us, from the public, into organizations that are already very powerful. And that permits the elite - the surveillance elite, the national security state elite of any country - to lift off from its people. To disconnect from its people. To predict its people. That’s a dangerous situation.

“And what we’re dealing here is not merely the surveillance elite of one country operating alone, but rather an international surveillance elite; transnational companies selling these products all over the world, and then intelligence agencies swapping data that they collect with each other. That’s a worrying situation for western democracies.”

“That’s a worrying situation for western democracies.”

Understatement of the year.

And to think, the power establishment is working overtime to convince you that its this guy talking about this who is the threat to “freedom” and your rights to privacy and liberty..

Highly recommended, even essential viewing.

And while you’re at it, this is worth taking in, as well. Julian Assange Julian Assange speaking to The Cambridge Union Society, about freedom of information, freedom of discourse, the rise of the the modern technological national security state, and more.

[The internet is] a technology which can be used to set up a totalitarian spying regime, the likes of which we have never seen. Or, on the other hand, if taken by us, and taken by activists, and taken by all those who wish a different trajectory for a technological world, it can be something that we all hope for.

That battle between people wo want to use the internet as a tool of liberation, and those tremendous organizations that want to use the internet as a tool of control - mass control - is not over. It is only just beginning.

Watch The Video

They’re baaaack. Like an energizer bunny of mendacious stupidity, SOPA-sponsor Lamar Smith has changed tactics, and is now back to pushing provisions of his internet censorship agenda under the guise of protecting Americans from…wait for it…child pornographers. Yes, the new bogeyman with his online 24/7 surveillance act, H.R. 1981 is ostensibly child pornographers, as if *any* such activity like that is legal, and so needs all of these extra-judicial tools of control to stop it. Seems that “Stop Online Piracy” (SOPA) doesn’t resonate with enough people, so now he is resorting to giving private corporations, in conjunction with the government, wide-ranging arbitrary powers over just about any kind of content on the internet under the rubric of it being “The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″.

Tracking the private daily behavior of everyone in order to help catch a small number of child criminals is itself the noxious practice of police states. Said an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American.” Even more troubling is what the government would need to do in order to access this trove of private information: ask for it.

——

In Communist countries, where the ruling class routinely dug up embarrassing information on citizens as a bulwark against dissent, the secret police never dreamed of an information trove as perfect for targeting innocent people as a full Internet history. Phrases I’ve Googled in the course of researching this item include “moral panic about child pornography” and “blackmailing enemies with Internet history.” For most people, it’s easy enough to recall terms you’ve searched that could be taken out of context, and of course there are lots of Americans who do things online that are perfectly legal, but would be embarrassing if made public even with context: medical problems and adult pornography are only the beginning. How clueless do you have to be to mandate the creation of a huge database that includes that sort of information, especially in the age of Anonymous and Wikileaks? How naive do you have to be to give government unfettered access to it? Have the bill’s 25 cosponsors never heard of J. Edgar Hoover?

Unfortunately, this original crappy legislation has been moved through Congress, but what Smith seems to be doing now is working to amend that legislation with a new effort giving many more sweeping powers of oversight and control of content on the web. All in the name of “protecting our children,” of course. There is nothing more pathetic in politics than when people use “our children” as a human shield to ram through some of the most pitiful and self-serving policies around. As if Smith or many of his cohorts give a s**t about America’s “children,” in a country setting new records in child poverty, and where public education, public health, and child care are being drained of any support in the name of maintaining our global military presence and an ever-bloated national security state.

This act was already pushed last year, but it seems Lamar Smith is trying to re-energize this in light of the failure of SOPA, due to the overwhelming opposition against it. This new effort is looking “To amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to child pornography and child exploitation offenses,” making child pornography “double illegal,” I guess, and most everything else we say and do on the internet liable to oversight and censorship. (Lamar is definitely one Mr. Smith who needs to go AWAY from Washington, and as soon as possible.

This whole legislative effort is quite the act of political engineering, in that Smith and his cohorts are framing this in a manner which makes it politically untenable to oppose it. After all, if you are against corporate control of content on the internet, then you must be for child porn! It was bad enough having to engage in arguments with people about the negative impacts of online piracy, as if one was a cheerleader for it, just because one doesn’t abide well with the idea of sweeping arbitrary powers of control over online content by large media corporations, working in cahoots with government. I figure if this tack doesn’t work, they’ll resort to that old chestnut of blaming al Qaeda for digital “threats,”, and start claiming that you must be “for the terrorists” if you don’t support SOPA and PIPA.

What’s really scary about this bill, though, isn’t just the fact that this gives such sweeping power over internet content, but that it requires ISP’s to keep all of that personal and financial information stored for such an extended length of time. Besides the crazy amount of storage space that requires these companies to invest in, it makes every single ISP and web server a honey pot target for financial and identity theft.

So let’s make this perfectly clear everyone. These legislative efforts have NOTHING to do with internet security, property rights, protecting people from child pornography, etc… This is about control, plain and simple. Control over information, and the means and the ability for people “to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights). In other words, this is about the very core of power itself, and about who wields preeminent power over society. Information is the fundamental ingredient of power, its primary source and enabler. This is more true than ever in today’s “Information Age.”

So don’t worry, your information will be “stored securely” so noone else can access it! But if they do access it, your ISP will give you “prompt notice” so you can change all your credit card numbers, hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband. This bill has currently cleared its committee, this meaning that the next step is a full vote. This bill needs to be stopped, and if I might go one better, Lamar Smith needs to be stopped, for the good of the internet and YOUR privacy.

This legislation needs to be stopped. Now.

UnCommon Sense TV - “The Patriot Act” What is it and why was it created? What are its intended purposes and the actual ramifications of its implementation? Is it an effective protection of America or an insidious threat threat to the core values and functioning of our democratic society? A new way of fighting terrorism or just a rehash of the days of domestic surveillance and political intimidation as experienced for decades by the FBI’s “Cointelpro” operation? Should its provisions be extended indefinitely, or allowed to expire, and how does all this relate to “Patriot Act II” and the newly-unveiled “Victory Act”?

This is pretty creepy stuff. I know it isn’t directly related to federal power or the laws of the national (in)security state, but the implementation of the technology itself gives serious pause, especially considering the symbiotic and arguably overly-cooperative role communications corporations have with the government (and their willingness to serve as unofficial organs of the national surveillance apparatus). Total information awareness, indeed…

If you have some tinfoil handy, now might be a good time to fashion a hat. At the Digital Living Room conference today, Gerard Kunkel, Comcast’s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room.

The idea being that if you turn on your cable box, it recognizes you and pulls up shows already in your profile or makes recommendations. If parents are watching TV with their children, for example, parental controls could appear to block certain content from appearing on the screen. Kunkel also said this type of monitoring is the “holy grail” because it could help serve up specifically tailored ads. Yikes.

Read The Full Article

Stephen Colbert provides this spot on send up regarding the sell out of American rights to corporate power.

Watch The Video

Boy, I feel safer already…

The demand to put armed air marshals on to the flights is part of a travel clampdown by the Bush administration that officials in Brussels described as “blackmail” and “troublesome”, and could see west Europeans and Britons required to have US visas if their governments balk at Washington’s requirements.

According to a US document being circulated for signature in European capitals, EU states would also need to supply personal data on all air passengers overflying but not landing in the US in order to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, senior EU officials said.

And within months the US department of homeland security is to impose a new permit system for Europeans flying to the US, compelling all travellers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or buying a ticket, a procedure that will take several days.

————

While armed American guards would be entitled to sit on the European flights to the US, the Americans also want the PNR data transfers extended from travellers from Europe to the US to include the details of those whose flights are not to America, but which overfly US territory, say to central America or the Caribbean.

Brussels has told Washington that its demands raise legal problems in Europe over data protection, over guarantees on how the information is handled, over which US agencies have access to it or with whom it might be shared, and over issues of redress if the data is misused.

What, don’t those wussy Europeans trust the U.S. Government to handle all these secretive details with full efficiency and propriety? Of course, those in charge of this program will be fully accountable to transparent legislative oversight. (Note for the facetiously deprived, yes, this is meant as a joke).

Read the Full Article from The Guardian U.K.

The so-called “progressive” organization “Third Way” are revealed to be, once again, little more than shilling water carriers for the corporations.

A think tank with close ties to the telecommunication industry has been working with a key Democrat in the Senate on a domestic surveillance bill that would provide telecommunications companies with retroactive immunity for possibly violating federal law by spying on American citizens at the behest of the Bush administration.

Third Way, a non-profit “progressive” think tank that is funded and controlled by hedge fund managers, corporate lawyers and business executives has advised Sen. Jay Rockefeller on a domestic surveillance bill that includes immunity for telecommunications companies with which Third Way board members have close ties.

Rockefeller is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and has been the leading Democratic proponent of granting immunity to telecommunication companies that allegedly gave spy agencies access to their communication networks and databases without a warrant.

Read The Full Report

Your Loss of Privacy Is a Package Deal
By David Lazarus
Newsday

The all-you-can-eat packages of voice, video and Internet services offered by phone and cable companies may be convenient, but they represent a potentially significant threat to people’s privacy. Take, for example, Time Warner Cable, which has about 2 million customers in Southern California. The company offers a voice-video-Net package called “All the Best” for $89.85 for the first 12 months.

But for anyone who has the wherewithal to read Time Warner’s 3,000-word California privacy policy, you discover that not only does the company have the ability to know what you watch on TV and whom you call, but also that it can track your online activities, including sites you visit and stuff you buy.

Remember all the fuss when it was revealed last year that Google Inc. kept voluminous records of people’s Web searches, and that federal authorities were demanding a peek under the hood? Multiply that privacy threat by three. Internet, TV, phone — it’s hard to imagine a more revealing glimpse of your private life. “All your eggs are in one communications basket,” said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. “If a company wants to, it can learn a great deal about you — and it probably wants to.”

More often than not, it’ll also want to turn a fast buck by selling at least a portion of that info to marketers. Find the privacy policies of three providers:

AT&T U-Verse: https://uverse1.att.com/launchAMSS.do
Time Warner Cable: http://help.twcable.com/html/twc_privacy_notice_CA.html
Verizon FiOS TV: http://www22.verizon.com/about/privacy/fiosprivacy/

Read the rest of the Newsday report Here

Welcome to the USSA.

From the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (http://www.acte.org/)

I believe this is from an ACTE Quarterly Business Journal (from last winter).

Company executives and employees traveling across the American border may be subject to random searches of files and information stored on their laptop computers, computer discs, and other electronic media.

These searches affect both American citizens and non-citizens, and customs agents do not need to suspect any criminal activity before performing a search. In a typical search, customs agents seize a laptop computer and inform the owner that the laptop will be returned by mail at a later date. Agents then create a “mirror image” of the laptop’s hard drive, copying every document, photograph, email, and other file on the computer. Agents may perform forensic searches of the files and may store the copied files indefinitely. Usually, the government their laptops have never been returned.

Sometimes a search may be less intrusive. For example, an agent may ask a traveler to turn on the laptop computer at a customs checkpoint. Agents then scan various files for suspicious information without actually copying the files or seizing the computer.

Either type of search poses risks for executives whose computers contain privileged legal communications, trade secrets, or other confidential and proprietary information. These searches also threaten to inhibit the travelerХs ability to conduct business during the trip.

Companies and executives need to prepare for the possibility of a seizure and search of laptop computers at U.S. points of entry. Go to (http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/admissability/authority_
to_search.xml). Below are some specific issues to consider.

HELPFUL HINTS FOR COMPANIES

1. Minimize the Risk.
In light of the possibility that the government could take possession of all the information stored on a laptop computer, international travelers should minimize the amount of proprietary, privileged, or otherwise confidential information they store on the laptop during their trip. Laptops carried internationally should contain no more sensitive information than is necessary for that trip. Some companies are choosing to designate “travel computers” that do not contain large volumes of stored information and can be erased between trips.

2. Be Prepared.
These searches can happen to anyone and when the U.S. government seizes a computer, it may take time for the computer or other hardware to be returned. If a computer contains information (documents, presentations, contact information, etc.) that the traveler will need, the company should maintain a backup to replace the materials in the event of a border seizure. For example, a company could maintain a backup version on system servers that can be emailed or express delivered by disc.

3. Be Insured.
Many companies have insurance policies that cover the loss of computers and electronically stored information. Border seizures of laptop computers represent another way in which a company can suffer such losses. By negotiating to have a policy cover these seizures, companies can protect themselves against the cost of replacing computers that are not returned and against the possible disclosure of confidential information.

WHAT COMPANIES SHOULD TELL THEIR EXECUTIVES AND EMPLOYEES

1. Cooperate but don’t consent.
If agents confiscate an employee’s computer, the employee should be cooperative and respectful. These seizures are legal, and customs agents are just doing their jobs. But if an agent asks the employee for permission to search the contents of the computer, the employee should respectfully decline to consent either verbally or in writing. Although the agents may still take the computer and perform the search, the company will retain more legal rights if employees decline to consent.

2. Get a receipt and as much information as possible.
Customs agents usually provide receipts for computers they confiscate - make sure your employees get one. Employees should also try to get as much information as possible about who to contact if they do not receive the computer back, if the computer is damaged, etc.

3. Inform the Company as Soon as Possible.
Employees should immediately inform the company’s legal department or a designated supervisor if their computer is seized.

A FINAL LEGAL NOTE

The law governing these searches is currently in flux. A federal court in Los Angeles recently ruled that these laptop searches violate the Constitution. Other federal courts, however, have allowed these searches, and customs agents likely will continue this practice until the federal courts or Congress resolve the issue. A clear resolution is unlikely to come soon, so for the foreseeable future, international travelers should prepare for the possibility that their laptops, computer discs, and other electronic media can be searched and seized at the border.

Freedom on the march.

The symbiotic merging of our society into full-fledged Corporate State continues….

The Bush administration wants the power to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that are slapped with privacy suits for cooperating with the White House’s controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.

The authority would effectively shut down dozens of lawsuits filed against telecommunications companies accused of helping set up the program.

Here is a money shot (literally) line from this piece from The New York Times…

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell considers the issue a key element of any legislation that Congress considers this fall to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA.

Trying to make his point, McConnell recently confirmed that the private sector assisted with the surveillance work — and faces lawsuits. ‘’If you play out the suits at the value they’re claimed, it would bankrupt these companies,'’ McConnell told the El Paso (Texas) Times in an interview posted online last week.

Is it a legitimate question to ask why in regards to this important issue the pre-eminent concern of the National Intelligence Director, a so-called ‘public servant’, is not whether the future protection of the personal freedoms and liberties of Americans is at risk of invasive and unaccountable power challenging the very fabric of our understanding of the republic, but is rather instead the protection of the financial status of global telecommunications corporations, the same corporations which are being charged with serious transgressions against those very freedoms?

Another interesting comment….

Conventional wisdom has long been that the bulk of the surveillance operations — groundbreaking because they lacked judicial oversight — involved primarily telephone calls. However, officials say the Bush administration’s program frequently went after e-mail and other Internet traffic, which al-Qaida has embraced as a key means of communication.

So THAT is why the internet needs to be controlled by these same corporations! Its a tool of al-Qaida and we need to make sure we let AT&T control the flow of content in order to keep us all safe from the terrorists. It won’t be long before they’ll use this as the political sales pitch against net neutrality. Its supporters are actually enabling the ‘Terrorists’ and hate America and ‘Freedom’.

I like the term ‘groundbreaking’. There is nothing ‘groundbreaking’ about this. The KGB, the Stasi, the Mukhabarat and countless others have been using these techniques since the technology was invented.

For black comic (un)relief, there is this line about the Democrats, many of which still can’t seem to call balls and strikes, even when the pitch is right down the middle (or when they are getting beaned by them)…

There is a divide among Capitol Hill’s majority Democrats about whether the companies deserve any protection. Some believe they were operating in good faith, on orders that appeared to be lawful. Others believe lawyers at the companies had a responsibility to ensure the requests weren’t an abuse of presidential power.

This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Read The Complete Article from The New York Times