Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Frontline: Spying on the Homefront
The PBS investigative news show Frontline has an episode about government surveillance in the U.S. since 9/11. You can watch the video online and read the full interviews excerpted in the documentary.
Frontline used this quotation to introduce the documentary on their website:
Frontline used this quotation to introduce the documentary on their website:
"So many people in America think this does not affect them. They've been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that's wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs," --former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne Spaulding
Labels: privacy, surveillance
Scientific American Privacy Issue!
Read about the Future of Privacy in the the September 2008 edition of Scientific American. These articles provide a great summary of the key issues in the conflict between privacy and surveillance in the digital age.
You can also listen to the SciAm podcast that describes the content of this issue of the magazine.
You can also listen to the SciAm podcast that describes the content of this issue of the magazine.
Labels: privacy, surveillance
Digital Privacy Watch Dogs
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Description: "From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people's radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today."
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Description: "EPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. "
ACLU Technology & Liberty Project
Description: "The Technology & Liberty Project monitors the interplay between cutting-edge technology and civil liberties, actively promoting responsible uses of technology that enhance privacy and freedom, while opposing those that undermine our freedoms and move us closer to a surveillance society."
Description: "From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people's radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today."
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Description: "EPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. "
ACLU Technology & Liberty Project
Description: "The Technology & Liberty Project monitors the interplay between cutting-edge technology and civil liberties, actively promoting responsible uses of technology that enhance privacy and freedom, while opposing those that undermine our freedoms and move us closer to a surveillance society."
Labels: privacy, surveillance
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
DARPA: Video Surveillance in Real-Time?
Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus describes the latest in video surveillance technology employed in Iraq. According to a DARPA report this technology captures:
"Real-time streaming video of Iraqi and Afghan battle areas taken from thousands of feet in the air can follow actions of people on the ground as they dig, shake hands, exchange objects and kiss each other goodbye.Pincus relates that the key to the success of this video technology is not in its ability to distinguish greater detail but that it will be able to be searched and indexed in real time so that this video intelligence becomes useful to the military. Here is the key quote cited by Pincus from the DARPA paper (March 2008):
The video is sent from unmanned and manned aircraft to intelligence analysts at ground stations in the United States and abroad. They watch video in real time of people getting in and out of cars, loading trunks, dropping things or picking them up. They can even see vehicles accelerate, slow down, move together or make U-turns."
"The U.S. military and intelligence communities have an ever increasing need to monitor live video feeds and search large volumes of archived video data for activities of interest due to the rapid growth in development and fielding of motion video systems."
New systems of video surveillance using drones can capture much more video at greater resolution in real-time. But who can watch all of this? It would take an army of analysts watching 24/7 to react to the data and act on it. So there is a race to create software that can take this raw footage and index and archive it for searching in real-time. This will allow cross-referencing of a vast amount of video. According to Pincus:
"Systems also exist that allow tracking, moving-target detection of objects under forest or other cover and determination of exact geographic location. Development is underway of systems that allow recognition of faces and gait -- in other words, human identification.
Currently, because there are so many activities or objects to be watched for hints of suspicious behavior, "more analysts . . . watch the same, real-time video stream simultaneously," according to DARPA. "If any of the given activities or objects are spotted, the analyst issues an alert to the proper authorities."
Future collection systems are expected to provide even more imagery, cover areas greater than 16 square miles and make it more difficult "for a limited number of analysts to effectively monitor and scrutinize all potential activities within the streaming field of view," DARPA wrote.
Today's volume of intelligence data, beyond just streaming video, already "makes it very difficult to detect specific events in real time and too time intensive to search archived video," the DARPA paper said. The effort underway is designed to find a way to index similar activity, then search and retrieve it from archives. The proposed new system should be able to analyze real-time streaming video as it is received in a ground station and match it on command to archived video from more than one video library."
Predator drones are well known for there ability to lob missiles at targets without endangering an American pilot. These aircraft were first created as collectors of intelligence, not killers. They engage in "armed reconnaissance." The development of this software for processing raw video data will allow the Predator to become an even more efficient killer.
Labels: DARPA, surveillance, WOT
Text Message Monitoring
Source: Alana Semuels,
"I'm an employer, and I do not approve of this text message,"
Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2008.
Alana Semuels of the L.A. Times reports that employers are starting to install software that can monitor, filter and block text messages sent on company phones. The article discusses Onset Technology's METAmessage Advanced Compliance Tool:
"We scan and block text messages so the company makes sure there are no text messages going out that violate company policy," said Zack Silvinger, the company's vice president of business development and marketing.This "Advanced Compliance Tool" can be used to safe guard data and prevent leaks as well as for surveillance of employees. There is another company is selling a similar software to parents so that they can read their children's text messages and block messages from unwanted senders.
That means if your company has decided that curse words, sexually explicit words, or even the word "beer" aren't acceptable, you'll be thwarted every time you try to send a text message with banned words on it. What's more, your message will be sent to the human resources department. Yikes!
Labels: Cell Phones, SMS, surveillance
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Behind the Golden Shield: Internet in China
China Digital Times: Video: Sino-Korean Online Gaming Tensions, (October 8, 2008.)
Description: "This video of a Korean gamer’s rant against Chinese gamers and Chinese civilization in general has been making the rounds in Chinese cyberspace."
Journeyman Pictures video about "Internet Addiction--China" (January, 2008)
Description: "Pressure on Chinese children to succeed is turning them into reclusive computer junkies. The Internet has become the only place they can escape. "
Journeyman Pictures video about "The Great Fire Wall of China" (May, 2008)
Description: "China has the most sophisticated censorship and Internet surveillance in the world. But despite this autocratic control some guerrilla bloggers are still managing to get their message through. "
"Virtual Carnivores," China's Online Vigilantes, The Economist, (October 2, 2008)
Description: "Untold legions police the Internet in China to block information deemed politically threatening. But the world’s biggest online population still has a wild streak. Worries are growing about Internet vigilantes who mount “renrou sousuo”, or “human-flesh searches”, to ferret out perceived wrongdoers.""
Labels: China, Internet, surveillance
Shadow Factory: NSA Surveillance of Americans
Journalist James Bamford has been covering the National Security Administration for decades. He is the author of three books on the subject. His latest book is The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 To The Eavesdropping On America. He discusses the role of the NSA increasing surveillance of American citizens at home and around the world
Listen to a great interview with Bamford on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Watch Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! interview with Bamford (You can also read a transcript.)
Here is a speech by Bamford and Chris Calabrese (Program Counsel of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project) hosted by the Washington ACLU (February 2007):
Listen to a great interview with Bamford on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross
Watch Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! interview with Bamford (You can also read a transcript.)
Here is a speech by Bamford and Chris Calabrese (Program Counsel of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project) hosted by the Washington ACLU (February 2007):
Labels: nsa, privacy, surveillance
Monday, December 10, 2007
My Favorite Topic
It is hard for me to decide which topic has been my favorite this semester. I learned a lot from each of the topics and every one of them has something that interests me. I'm torn between my own blog on Wal-Mart which is something that is very dear to me but I think my favorite topic was the surveillance topic. The article written by Ted Koppel, "Take My Privacy Please" was one that really kept my interest. Everything that he touched on was something that I had thought about but didn't really pay too much attention to. I didn't want to be another paranoid, conspiracy theorist but this facts are out there. Every day we trade in our privacy for so called safety when we aren't even sure who we are being protected against. If someone is going to do us harm, there is no GPS, Onstar, or VeriChip that will be able to save us. Surveillance covers so many aspects of our lives that it is hard to get away from. In times of tragedy or war, the public is so much more complacent with the government watching what is going on and sometimes they take advantage of the nations vulernablity. It is so easy to give away our privacy for safety and a piece of mind. It is sad that we can not trust our government enough to protect us for good reasons and not for them to take advantage.
Labels: surveillance
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Welcome to Shenzen
China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People - New York Times
The City of Shenzen near Hong Kong in southern China is a fast growing manufacturing center with a population of almost 13 million people. Shenzen is also a laboratory for the latest in urban surveillance technology. According to the New York Times, a new generation of surveillance software and digital ID cards are being introduced in Shenzen. These identity cards will contain chips that not only carry a lot of information but also allow for the geographical location of the bearer. The combination of geo-location with personal information makes urban population control a reality for the Chinese government. The Times Keith Bradsher reports that:
The City of Shenzen near Hong Kong in southern China is a fast growing manufacturing center with a population of almost 13 million people. Shenzen is also a laboratory for the latest in urban surveillance technology. According to the New York Times, a new generation of surveillance software and digital ID cards are being introduced in Shenzen. These identity cards will contain chips that not only carry a lot of information but also allow for the geographical location of the bearer. The combination of geo-location with personal information makes urban population control a reality for the Chinese government. The Times Keith Bradsher reports that:
"Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card."The role of American corporations and investment firms in making this system possible is important to note. China Public Security has been financed in part by American investment groups. According to the Times:
"Incorporated in Florida, China Public Security has raised much of the money to develop its technology from two investment funds in Plano, Tex., Pinnacle Fund and Pinnacle China Fund. Three investment banks — Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach, Calif.; Oppenheimer & Company in New York; and First Asia Finance Group of Hong Kong — helped raise the money."The software used is based on the Windows platform and must work on servers manufactured by American corporations like Cisco and HP. The point is that the political security system of China could not work without the material assistance of American companies:
"The role of American companies in helping Chinese security forces has periodically been controversial in the United States. Executives from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco Systems testified in February 2006 at a Congressional hearing called to review whether they had deliberately designed their systems to help the Chinese state muzzle dissidents on the Internet; they denied having done so."
Labels: China, surveillance
