PATH: BS | Privacy

Apple's SIRI System Stores And Shares All Your Queries

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It came as a surprise to some folks at a recent SXSW talk that Apple’s Siri “personal assistant” isn’t just working for us, it’s working full-time for Apple too by sending lots of our personal voice and user info to Apple to stockpile in its databases. Take a peek at Siri’s privacy policy (which, by the way, is pretty difficult to find) and you’ll realize what’s happening behind the scenes.

READ MORE | 4 comments since 2012-07-29 23:42:35 | Comment on this Article

Senior US Federal Attorney Is Outed On Public Messageboard

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The US Attorney General for Louisiana, Jim Letten, announced today that one of his top prosecutors has been using the handle "Henry L. Mencken1951" to criticize a local landfill owner and a raft of other local and national figures, including federal judges, in the comments section on Louisiana's Times-Picayune website. Perricone "readily admitted" using the pseudonym, and the matter has been referred to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, Letten said.

And what does a US Fed utter when he thinks he's protected by anonymity? Will this issue create a controversy over whether or not someone commenting publicly under an alias can be construed as an ethical conflict of interest?

READ MORE | 2 comments since 2012-04-29 01:55:55 | Comment on this Article

Symantec Asks Users To Disable Their Products For Protection

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Symantec, one of the world's largest purveyors of "security software" asked its users to disable pcAnywhere, unless it is needed for business-critical use, because malicious users with access to the source code could identify vulnerabilities and launch new exploits.

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OnStar's New Plan To Collect/Sell Your Personal Info

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Jonathan Zdziarski writes, "I canceled the OnStar subscription on my new GMC vehicle today after receiving an email from the company about their new terms and conditions. While most people, I imagine, would hit the delete button when receiving something as exciting as new terms and conditions, being the nerd sort, I decided to have a personal drooling session and read it instead. I’m glad I did. OnStar’s latest T&C has some very unsettling updates to it, which include the ability to sell your personal GPS location information, speed, safety belt usage, and other information to third parties, including law enforcement. To add insult to a slap in the face, the company insists they will continue collecting and selling this personal information even after you cancel your service, unless you specifically shut down the data connection to the vehicle after canceling."

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GPS Units Caught Sending Speed Data To Government

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It appears every gadget in your possession is tracking your location. First it was the iPhone, then Android phones and now it's your bleedin' sat-nav. TomTom, perhaps in a pre-emptive strike against its own user-tracking scandal, has admitted its sat-navs can track users and inform third parties about how fast they're going.

The sat-navs in TomTom's Live range all feature built-in 3G data cards, which feed location and route information back to a central server, which allows TomTom to create a map of congestion hotspots. It's now emerged that this data, however, along with a user's speed, is being made available to local governments and authorities.

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Stephen Colbert Weighs In On HBGary Scandal

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Stephen Colbert explains the details of the recent scandal involving a private security firm who was working on attacking Wikileaks in order to discredit them... which backfired horribly..

READ MORE | 1 comment since 2011-05-13 03:32:14 | Comment on this Article

Julian Assange Talks About WikiLeaks

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[News Media]
In the wake of controversy over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange being called everything from a terrorist to the last true journalist, we revisit an interview he gave earlier this year where he discusses how his organization works and why it's so important.

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New Apple Products Keep Constant Tabs On Their Customers

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Your GPS location coordinates, Wifi access point and GSM tower data is constantly saved by Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Snow Leopard and Safari browsers (also Windows version) and sent to Apple in batches every 12 hours...

READ MORE | 2 comments since 2010-09-11 21:39:51 | Comment on this Article

Lifelock CEO Victim Of Identity Theft More Than A Dozen Times

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Apparently, when you publish your Social Security number prominently on your website and billboards, people take it as an invitation to steal your identity.

LifeLock CEO Todd Davis, whose number is displayed in the company's ubiquitous advertisements, has by now learned that lesson. He's been a victim of identity theft at least 13 times...

READ MORE | 1 comment since 2010-05-18 22:59:31 | Comment on this Article

I Bet I Can Find 1,000,000,000 People To Cough Up Their Privacy

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Someone won't friend you on Facebook and you want to stalk them, or maybe find out more personal info?

No problem. Due to Facebook's new "features", here's a clever way to gain access to their profile as if you were their friend!

READ MORE | 5 comments since 2010-11-21 12:16:58 | Comment on this Article

The Dark Secret Of Copy Machines

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What if almost every copy machine made in the last year has a secret in it? That undermines everyone's privacy and personal security...

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New Facebook "Feature" Exposes Everyones Personal Info

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This past week, Facebook announced Instant Personalization, whereby select websites would "personalize your experience using your public Facebook information." The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp and Microsoft Docs. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, this means that when you visit "Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you've liked." Pandora, and other partners, can also link your real name and other Facebook information with everything you do on their site.

More specifically, these sites "may access any information you have made visible to Everyone ... as well as your publicly available information. This includes your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages." On Monday, Facebook announced a transition where a "new type of Facebook Page" will make the "current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests sections of your profile" publicly available after you go through the transition tool (or those items will be deleted).

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Energizer USB Battery Charger Has Secret Access To Your PC

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[Faulty Products]
That cool USB-based battery charger you connected to your computer? Who knew it secretly installed software on your machine that allows someone to connect and control your computer remotely without your knowledge?

READ MORE | 2 comments since 2010-11-21 12:18:55 | Comment on this Article

Chinese Hack Google Through Government Snooping Back Door

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Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already -- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the hackers.

In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.

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Congress Makes Operating WiFi Dangerous And Potentially Illegal

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The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

READ MORE | 1 comment since 2009-07-27 14:28:11 | Comment on this Article

Who's Reading Your Communication And Where?

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Believe it or not, the government is outsourcing surveillance of Americans to two Israeli companies.

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FEMA Investigates Katrina Victims' Personal Data Put Online

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Personal information on people who applied for disaster aid after Hurricane Katrina was recently published on the Web without authorization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

FEMA is investigating the unauthorized posting of the names, Social Security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses and other personal information that the agency collected from applicants, FEMA announced in a news release dated Dec. 19 and modified Dec. 23. FEMA was alerted Dec. 16 to a Web site posting of a spreadsheet that contained 16,857 lines of personal information about Hurricane Katrina evacuees from the Gulf Coast to Texas, the news release states.

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Feds Say Air Fresheners Are Now Probable Cause

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Federal appeals court ruled that motorists can be stopped for 30 minutes and searched if they are nervous and use an air freshener.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson. A federal appellate court ruled last week that police can delay a routine traffic stop as long as necessary to conduct a search for drugs. In its decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the validity of a thirty-minute traffic stop in Maryland because the arresting officer claimed the nervous driver had an air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror and had previously been spotted driving in a run-down neighborhood.

READ MORE | 3 comments since 2009-11-17 00:12:15 | Comment on this Article

Have You Used A Phone In The Last Five Years?

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The ACLU wants you to know something...

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All Of Congress Covers Up Administration's Crimes

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For six years, the Bush Administration and the nation’s communication companies have been illegally spying on Americans’ phone calls and e-mails. They did this in direct violation of the Constitution’s 4th Amendment and a federal statute – FISA. Both laws emphatically forbid such surveillance unless the government first obtains a warrant from an independent (eg, FISA) court.

Your Congress, including the Democrats are now working to give the companies that colluded with the administration immunity for these crimes.

By the way, both Barak Obama and John McCain sold out on this one. Obama voted for it; Every single republican voted for it. McCain was too much of a coward to even vote, but we all know which way he would have voted - certainly not against party lines.

READ MORE | 4 comments since 2008-07-16 21:38:41 | Comment on this Article

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