Microsoft Kinect Abre el Camino para Espiar en el Hogar

April 6, 2012

POR LUIS R. MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | 05 ABRIL 2012

La tiranía no es horrible sólo por el caos que causa, sino también por la forma en que extiende sus tentáculos antes de apretar la soga a las poblaciones inocentes. La tiranía vendrá en uniforme, dice un proverbio. Pero la mayor parte del tiempo el uniforme es sólo el último paso en el proceso de lograr un control total en una sociedad. Hitler, quizás el mejor ejemplo de lo que los tiranos pueden llevar a cabo, no llegó al poder con su ejército de matones en “camisas marrón” derribando puertas e invadiendo propiedades. Fue un proceso gradual que de manera inteligente llevó a cabo una serie de acciones a través de una serie de pasos que terminaron con los alemanes pidiendo medidas tiránicas en el nombre del bien común.

El tiempo que pasó en el siglo XX, después de que Hitler fue depuesto y el tiempo que ha pasado del siglo XXI, han visto el surgimiento de una tiranía con niveles que sólo HG Wells había sido capaz de imaginar. Esta es una señal de que los tiranos títeres no son la piedra angular de la tiranía, no son más que las mulas que transportan la tiranía a través de las décadas. A pesar de que la tiranía del siglo XXI parece tener sus raíces en el mismo principio que se originó al comienzo de los dos siglos anteriores – la seguridad -, este principio sólo puede convertirse en una razón para que la tiranía surja si se le transforma en una necesidad. Pero no es ni siquiera la seguridad como un principio el principal impulsor de los regímenes tiránicos. Para que un gobierno opresivo temporal o permanente tome el control, este utiliza otras herramientas para complementar el ataque a la libertad y el progreso de una red de seguridad fuera de control. Este complemento es desde luego la tecnología.

Se necesitaría mucho más tiempo para alcanzar un estado completo de tiranía si los tiranos intentaran  imponer este estado por la fuerza. Es por eso que los hombres y las mujeres detrás de los regímenes opresivos usan dos de sus mejores aliados para lograr su objetivo: el tiempo y los avances tecnológicos. Cambios progresivos a través de largos períodos de tiempo de una manera en que las condiciones pre-diseñadas promuevan un determinado escenario, son mejor aceptadas por las poblaciones que están preocupadas por su seguridad 24 horas al día. Esta es la razón por la cual un ambiente de inseguridad, junto con la aplicación de las políticas que reducen la libertad y desvían la atención de la pérdida de esa libertad son una combinación perfecta para lograr la mejor versión de la tiranía del siglo XXI. En el caso de nuestra sociedad moderna, la dependencia tecnológica ha asumido el papel que la escasez de alimentos y el conflicto, por ejemplo, que jugaron un papel importante en épocas anteriores.

Una de las mejores maneras de llevar a cabo políticas tiránicas es mantener a la población distraída mientras que las políticas se crean, se aceptan y son puesto a funcionar. En una era donde la inseguridad económica fácilmente distrae a la gente y no le permite abrir sus ojos y ver lo que realmente está pasando, la tecnología, ahora más que nunca, juega un papel monumental en el avance de la agenda tiránica pensada hace mucho tiempo. No sólo los países, pero las empresas y los individuos han  adoptado la tecnología como parte de su vida cotidiana, sino que han pasado a depender en un grado que ya no es una opción simplemente “desconectarse” de ella. Las transacciones financieras, el comercio, la gestión de recursos y la educación son sólo algunas de las áreas en las que la tecnología se ha convertido en un mal necesario. El problema es que, en su mayor parte, los usuarios de tecnología sólo tienen una visión miope de lo que ofrecen los avances tecnológicos. Este es un problema porque la tecnología es, sin duda, una espada de doble filo.

Cuando se trata de la tecnología y sus aplicaciones, los dos filos de la espada se suelen definir como (1) la comodidad que proporciona a nuestras vidas diarias, y (2) el tipo de aplicaciones que puede tener. El pensamiento unidimensional siempre se centra en los beneficios y la conveniencia. De hecho, estos son los términos en los que la tecnología siempre se presenta. El otro lado, las consecuencias no tan positivas o el mal uso de la tecnología es lo que siempre se oculta al público desprevenido, que sólo entiende los avances tecnológicos como entretenimiento; el opio de una población que está herida económicamente, mentalmente y que carece de la capacidad — pues así fue diseñado — de ver más allá de sus necesidades de ocio. El pensamiento bidimensional o tridimensional, crea nuevas y diferentes formas de entendimiento. La forma tridimensional de pensamiento también ve el borde cortante de la espada, el que corta fácilmente a través de la ignorancia y que permite a los regímenes opresivos lograr su tiranía, siempre pues es siempre reconocida por los tiranos, pero no por los usuarios de tecnología.

¿Es conveniente contar con una herramienta de búsqueda que sabe lo que queremos encontrar, incluso antes de que lo hayamos escrito? Claro que lo es. Pero las personas deben preguntarse: ¿cómo funciona la empresa detrás de esa herramienta de búsqueda y como logra este avance tecnológico, y que otras aplicaciones tiene esta tecnología y si son o no tan beneficiosas como los resultados de búsqueda, o si son beneficiosas del todo. Google ha anunciado públicamente que va a utilizar cada cámara y micrófono integrado en los ordenadores para espiar a la gente con el fin de crear perfiles con fines comerciales. Aunque esta forma de espionaje es ya alarmante, uno debe preguntarse ¿qué otra cosa van a hacer? ¿Es cómodo tener nuevos y más eficientes electrodomésticos en su casa? Claro. Sin embargo, es nuestra tarea investigar si la comodidad de estos dispositivos vale la pena si perdemos nuestra privacidad. Por ejemplo, recientemente, el jefe de la CIA, David Petraeus, dijo públicamente que esa organización junto con la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional (NSA), estaría utilizando los avances tecnológicos para espiar a la gente a través de sus aparatos electrodomésticos usando la técnica de pasar información a través de las líneas y cables de electricidad. Esto, a propósito, no se limita a los Estados Unidos. De hecho, en estos momentos, Estados Unidos está construyendo una instalación del tamaño de siete estadios de fútbol que albergará el mayor aparato de espionaje en el planeta. La NSA es bien conocida por su programa Echelon y su trabajo con los Centros de Fusión a nivel nacional en los Estados Unidos. Tanto Echelon como los Centros de Fusión constituyen la mayor fuerza de espionaje con la capacidad de operar en todo el mundo.

¿Es conveniente contar con un dispositivo de comunicación que nos permite hablar con cualquier persona, en cualquier lugar, siempre y cuando haya una señal electromagnética disponible? Por supuesto. Pero, de nuevo, también debemos saber que, dejando a un lado las cuestiones de salud, los teléfonos celulares son, básicamente dispositivos portátiles de espionaje para un grupo de corporaciones cuyos propietarios reales no pueden dormir por la noche pensando en maneras de espiar todo lo que hacemos. Recientemente, los teléfonos móviles de Apple y Google hicieron noticias por su capacidad para registrar los movimientos de los usuarios y deliberadamente enviar dicha información a un servidor controlado por inteligencia artificial (IA). Esta información fue recogida sin que los usuarios estuvieran conscientes de ello, sin su permiso o consentimiento. ¿Qué tiene que decir al respecto Eric Schmidt, CEO de Apple? “Si usted tiene algo que usted no quiere que nadie sepa, tal vez no debería estar haciéndolo en el primer lugar.” ¿Por qué los usuários de tecnologías como los teléfonos móviles no se dan cuenta de que los iPhones, teléfonos de Microsoft y Android de Google se pueden utilizar para hacer muchas cosas más, además de llamar a alguien? Porque la tecnología se ha convertido — no por casualidad — en el opio del pueblo. Los consumidores han sido adoctrinados y programados por los sistemas educativos para perder su capacidad de pensar críticamente y de ser innovadores. Históricamente, los seres humanos se han transformado en usuarios en lugar de creadores. Por al menos un siglo — en la sociedad moderna — los creadores son los tiranos que se dieron cuenta de que la tecnología podría utilizarse para esclavizar al mismo tiempo que funcionaba como una distracción para las masas decadentes.

Al igual que los romanos tenían sus luchas de gladiadores, hoy tenemos los juegos de fútbol, programas de televisión y por supuesto nuestros iPhones, ordenadores portátiles y consolas de juegos de video. ¿Has oído hablar de Kinect? Si no es así, esta plataforma de juego de Microsoft es la madre de todas las herramientas de espionaje para el uso en el hogar. Si te gustan los Happy Meals o Jack-in-a-Box, te encantará Kinect.  Mientras todos estábamos durmiendo, los tiranos descubrieron una manera de hacernos disfrutar nuestra servidumbre, y han hecho un trabajo excelente. No sólo la gente se distrae jugando juegos de video que, o bien los hacen psicópatas o entonces los transforman en retardados mentales, sino que también van a ser víctimas de espionaje directo el cual es realizado por el complejo militar-industrial. El alcance de las tecnologías como Kinect, que sólo se anuncian como dispositivos de moda y de diversión, va más allá de lo que la mayoría de sus usuarios pueden comprender. Con los contratistas militares ya trabajando en formas de “mejor” usar la tecnología incorporada en la consola de juegos Kinect, así como diciendo públicamente que tienen la intención de espiar a la gente a través de ella para robar su información, ¿qué es lo que hay exactamente dentro de Kinect? Según lo explicado por múltiples medios de comunicación, la más reciente plataforma de juegos de Microsoft Xbox 360 tiene:

* Cuatro micrófonos, una en primer lugar, según el consejero delegado de Kyle Wiens. “Hemos desmontado dispositivos binaurales antes, pero esta es nuestra primera configuración de un sensor quadaural!”

* Dos cámaras

* Un diodo transmisor de infrarrojos

* Un ventilador

* 64 MB de memoria SDRAM DDR2 de Hynix

* Un pequeño, diminuto, motor

* Un acelerómetro de tres ejes

* Un Sensor Primer PS1080-A2. “Kinect se basa en la tecnología de Sensor Primer para detectar  movimiento”, explica Kyle. “Este chip es el cerebro del Kinect – todos los sensores están conectados a él para el procesamiento antes de transmitir con profundidad refinada imágenes de color a la Xbox”.

Si la descripción arriba es un desafío tecnológico para usted, o si simplemente no está interesado en los detalles técnicos en absoluto, porque todo lo que le interesa es divertirse con Kinect, está en problemas. El Sensor Kinect Quadaural permite escuchar e identificar hasta cinco voces distintas. Las dos cámaras son capaces de tomar fotografías y grabar vídeo. El transmisor diodo infrarrojo (IR) puede crear y grabar una imagen térmica de la gente en la sala, que es una poderosa herramienta de identificación. La unidad de disco duro y la memoria de 64 MB se aseguran de que toda la información recogida se almacene cómodamente para facilitar el acceso de usuarios externos — espías militares y piratas informáticos — y el Sensor Primer, el cerebro, completa la lista de herramientas con las que cualquier fanático del control soñaría. El chip simplemente detecta cualquier movimiento que se lleva a cabo en la sala donde Kinect esta. Lamentablemente, este tipo de tecnología no se limita a la consola Kinect de Microsoft. Otras consolas de juegos como Nintendo Wii y Playstation ya utilizan componentes similares que se venden como la mejor manera de mejorar la experiencia de juego. Que bueno por los creadores! Lo mismo hacen los que fabrican los televisores inteligentes, los recibidores de TV por satélite y cable, y los frigoríficos de uso domestico, que al igual que Kinect no son más que Big Brother en una caja.

¿Cuáles son las recomendaciones para evitar que Big Brother entre en nuestras casas a través de la tecnología Kinect? De acuerdo a un ‘luchador por la libertad’, es una buena idea “asegúrese de desconectar Kinect siempre que no lo está utilizando”. ¿En serio? ¿Qué tal no comprar un Kinect? ¿Cómo es que las personas se han vuelto tan parecidas a los animales domésticos? Comprar un Kinect, o un Playstation y desconectarlo cuando no se esta usando, es como decir que esta bien comprar bebidas gaseosas, pero solamente beberlas un sorbo a la vez para que el aspartame en ellas te mata lentamente y no de repente. Es como decir que esta bien comprar un teléfono celular, pero solamente utilizarlo con poca frecuencia para que el cáncer tarde una o dos décadas en aparecer en lugar de uno o cinco años.

Verdaderamente nos hemos convertido en esclavos quienes no solo nos sentimos cómodas con nuestra esclavitud, sino que también amamos nuestra servidumbre.

Creo que HG Wells se quedo corto cuando describió el escenario que sería un Nuevo Orden Mundial.

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Loving your Servitude: Microsoft’s Kinect Console Paves the Way for In-Home Spying

April 5, 2012

By LUIS R. MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | APRIL 5, 2012

Tyranny isn’t awful only because of the mayhem it achieves, but also because of the way it spreads its tentacles before it tightens the noose around unsuspecting populations. Tyranny will come in a uniform, says a proverb. But most of the time the uniform is just the last step in the process of achieving total control in a society. Hitler, perhaps the best example of what tyrants can accomplish, did not come into power with his brown shirt goon army stomping into people’s homes. It was an incremental process that intelligently carried out a series of actions through a series of steps which ended with Germans begging for tyrannical measures in the name of common good.

The remaining time of the twentieth century after Hitler was deposed and what has passed of the twenty-first century, has seen the rise of tyranny to levels that only H.G. Wells had been able to envision. This is a sign that puppet tyrants are not the bedrock of tyranny; they are just temporary mules that make it portable throughout the decades. Although twenty-first century tyranny seems to be rooted on the same principle that originated it back in the previous two centuries — security –, this principle can only be turned into a reason for tyranny if there is a necessity for it. But it isn’t even security as a principle the main driver of tyrannical regimes. For a temporary or permanent oppressive government to take control, it uses other tools that sort of complement the loss of freedom and the advancement of an out-of-control security grid. This complement is of course technology.

It would take much longer to achieve a complete state of tyranny if the tyrants intended to impose this state of affairs through force alone. That is why the men and women behind oppressive regimes use two of their best allies to achieve their goal: time and technological advances. Incremental changes through long periods of time in a way that conditions are engineered to promote a certain scenario are better accepted by populations who are worried 24 hours a day about their security. This is the reason why a heightened environment of insecurity together with the implementation of policies that reduce freedom and deviate attention from the loss of freedom are a perfect combination to bring about the best version of tyranny in the twenty-first century. In the case of our modern society, technological dependence has taken on the role that food scarcity and conflict, for example, played in previous eras.

One of the best ways to carry out tyrannical policies is to keep a population distracted while policies are created, accepted and put in place. In an era where self-security and economic imbalances are easily distracting people from opening their eyes and seeing what is really going on, technology is now more than ever playing a monumental role in advancing the tyrannical agenda thought out a long time ago. Not only have countries, companies and individuals embraced technology as part of their daily lives, but they’ve also become dependent to a degree that is no longer a choice to simply ‘get disconnected’ from it. Financial transactions, commerce, resource management and education are just a few of the areas in which technology has become a necessary evil. The problem is that technology users for the most part only have a myopic view of what technological advancements offer. This is a problem because technology is undoubtedly a double edge sword.

When it comes to technology and its applications, the two edges of the sword are usually defined as (1) the convenience it provides to our daily lives, and (2) the type of applications it can have. One-dimensional thinking always focuses on the benefits and the convenience. In fact, these are the terms in which technology is always presented. The other side, the not so positive consequences or misuse of technology is what is always hidden from the unsuspecting public, who only understand technological advances as entertainment; the opium of a population that hurts economically, mentally and that lacks the capacity — by design — to see beyond their leisure needs. Two-dimensional or three-dimensional thinking renders new and different ways of understanding. The three-dimensional way of thinking that also sees the sharper edge of the sword, the one that easily cuts through ignorance and that allows oppressive regimes to bring about their tyranny, is always acknowledged by the tyrants, but not by technology users.

Is it convenient to have a search engine that knows what you want to search, even before you type it in? Sure it is. But one needs to ask how does the company behind the search engine achieves this and what other applications would this technology have and whether or not they’d be as beneficial as the search results, or if they are beneficial at all. Google, has publicly announced that it will use every camera and microphone embedded in computers to spy on people in order to create profiles for commercial purposes. Although that way of spying is already alarming, one must wonder what else are they going to do. Is it comfortable to have newer, more efficient appliances at home? Sure. However, it is within our purview to investigate whether the comfort these devices bring are worth loosing privacy. For example, recently, the head of the CIA, David Petraeus publicly said that that organization along with the National Security Agency (NSA) would be using technological advances to spy on people through their appliances. This by the way is not limited to the United States. In fact, as we speak, the United States is building a seven football-stadium-sized facility that will house the largest spying apparatus in the planet. The NSA is well-known for their Echelon program and their work with Fusion Centers nationwide in the United States. Both Echelon and the Fusion Centers make up the largest spying force with the capacity to operate around the world.

Is it convenient to have a communication device that allows us to talk to anyone, anywhere, as long as there is an electromagnetic signal available? Absolutely. But again, we should also know that, leaving health issues aside, cell phones are basically portable spying devices for a group of corporations whose real owners cannot sleep at night thinking of ways to learn about everything we do. Recently, both Apple and Google devices were in the news for their ability to record users’ movements and deliberately sending such information to an Artificial Intelligence-controlled hard drive or server somewhere. This information was collected without the users being aware of it, without their permission or consent. What did Eric Schmidt, Apple’s CEO had to say about it? “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Why isn’t the public able to realize that iPhones, Microsoft phones and Android Google phones can be used to do many more things besides calling someone? Because technology has become — again not by accident — the opium of the people. They have been indoctrinated and programmed by the educational systems to lose their ability to think critically and to be innovators. Historically, humans have been transformed into users instead of creators. For at least a century — in modern society — the creators are the tyrants who figured out that technology could be used to enslave while it functioned as a distraction for the decadent masses.

Just as the Romans had their gladiator fights, we have football games, TV shows and of course our iPhones, Laptops and Game Consoles. Have you heard about Kinect? If not, this Microsoft gaming platform is the mother of all spying tools for in-home usage. If you like Happy Meals or Jack-in-a-Box, you’ll love Kinect. That’s right. While we were all sleeping, the tyrants figured out a way to make us like our servitude, and they’ve done a superb job. Not only will people be distracted playing games that will either make them psychos or dummies, but they’ll also be victims of direct spying by the military industrial complex. The reach of technologies like Kinect, which are only advertised as trendy, fun devices, goes beyond what most of its users even begin to fathom. With military contractors already working on ways to ‘better’ use the technology embedded in the game console, as well as publicly saying they intend to spy on people through it to steal their information, what exactly is there inside Kinect? As explained by multiple media outlets, Microsoft’s latest Xbox 360 has:

* Four microphones — a first, according to CEO Kyle Wiens. “We’ve taken apart binaural devices before, but this is our first quadaural sensor setup!”

* Two cameras (pictured).

* An IR transmitting diode.

* One fan. Wiens says that for a 12-watt device, Microsoft seems very paranoid about heat dissipation and blames this paranoia on the infamous red-ring-of-death problems that have plagued the 360. “This is a good thing for consumers, but we can’t help but wonder if they’ve gone overboard in the cooling department,” Kyle said.

* 64 MB of Hynix DDR2 SDRAM.

* A “tiny, diminutive, even” motor (pictured).

* A three-axis accelerometer.

* A Prime Sense PS1080-A2. “Kinect is based on Prime Sense’s motion detection technology,” explains Kyle. “This chip is the Kinect’s brains —– all the sensors are wired into here for processing before transmitting a refined depth map and color image to the Xbox.”

If you are technologically challenged or simply are not interested in technical details at all, because all you care about is having fun with Kinect, you are in trouble. The Quadaural sensor enables Kinect to listen to and identify up to five different voices. The two cameras are capable of taking pictures and recording video. The Infrared (IR) transmitting diode can create and record a thermal image of people in the room, which then becomes a powerful identification tool. The 64 MB hard drive makes sure that all the information collected is comfortably stored for easy access by outside users — military spies and hackers — and the Prime Sense sensor, the brain, closes the gift list that any control freak would dream about. The chip simply detects any movement that takes place in the room where Kinect is. Sadly, this kind of technology is not limited to Kinect. Other game consoles like Nintendo Wii and Playstation already use similar components which are sold as the best way to enhance gaming experience. How thoughtful of the creators! Much like the makers of the latest television sets, satellite boxes and fridges, Kinect is simply Big Bother in a box.

Any recommendations to stave off Big Brother from coming into our houses? According to a ‘freedom fighter’, it is a good idea to “make sure you disconnect Kinect whenever you are not using it”. Really? How about not buying a Kinect? How cattle-like have people become! Have your Soda pop, but make sure you drink it only one sip at the time so that the aspartame in it kills you slowly. Buy a cell phone, but use it less often, that way the cancer will take a decade or two to appear. We have indeed become comfortable slaves who not only enjoy but actually love our servitude.

I guess H.G. Wells fell way short of what a New World Order would look like.

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NSA Admits to Tracking Americans Via Cell Phones

July 27, 2011

PrisonPlanet.com
July 27, 2011

The general counsel of the National Security Agency testified to a Senate hearing yesterday that he believes the agency has the authority to track Americans via cell phones.

“There are certain circumstances where that authority may exist,” said Matthew Olsen the current nominee to head up the National Counterterrorism Center.

Olsen made the comments to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) repeatedly asked if the government has the authority to “use cell site data to track the location of Americans inside the country.”

Olsen added that the reason his answer was not definitive was that “it is a very complicated question”, assuring the committee that the NSA would provide more information in a future memo.

Sen. Wyden recently wrote (full letter below) to the Director of National Intelligence demanding to know whether the CIA and the NSA “have the authority to collect the geolocation information of American citizens for intelligence purposes.”

“If yes, please explain the specific statutory basis for this authority,” the letter, co signed by Sen. Mark Udall (D., Colo.) states.

The Senators also requested information on how many Americans have been monitored under authority granted by 2008 legislation amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “Have any apparently law-abiding Americans had their communications collected by the government?” the letter asks.

Two months ago Wyden expressed concern that the law relating to surveillance is unclear. “The law is being secretly interpreted by the executive branch” Wyden noted.

Along with Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), Wyden has introduced a joint bill that would force any government agency to secure a search warrant and show probable cause before tracking the location of any American.

Read Full Article…

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A Healthy Disease: Facebook Fatigue

June 14, 2011

Hundreds of thousands in Europe and Canada close their Facebook accounts. What will Americans do?

by Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
June 14, 2011

Privacy scares, invasion of privacy and boredom prompted hundreds of thousands of Facebookers to close their accounts in Europe, Canada and it is estimatedthat thousands of Americans will follow them. Although social networking became an everyday practice, a part of people’s life, there is only so much users can get from a social network before it turns boring, annoying and unsafe.

Is the world experiencing Facebook fatigue?

Recent estimates show that so far, at least 100,000 people dropped from Facebook in Britain. In Canada some 1.5 million users decided to say goodbye to their “blue home”. Meanwhile, in the U.S. preliminary accounting reveals that 6 million people have logged off. But is this a surprise? Hardly. Privacy advocates complained about Facebook’s use of technology to gather more than the necessary information for people to become users.

According to the Mail Online, membership growth on Facebook has slowed around the world. Still, the social network is bullish about getting to the magic number of 1 billion members. Although Facebook membership continues to decrease in the developed world, in third world countries the number of people who sign up continues to increase. A reason for this is the fact that third world nations suffer from lack of access to technology such as internet, satellite and cable television, and so on. This makes it harder for people in those parts of the world to learn about social networks and consequently to use them.

According to the Mail, there is a possible “natural membership saturation” that may help Facebook and other social networks memberships to become stagnant. “In the U.S, user numbers dropped from 155.2million to 149.4 million throughout May. In Canada there was also a fall, of about 1.5million users, while in Russia and Norway numbers also fell by more than 100,000 use,” says the Mail.

When interviewed, Inside Facebook’s Eric Eldon says that once Facebook reaches half of a country’s population, the trend is for growth numbers to stop. Facebook users become bored just as any man or woman tries the next new thing, says psychologist Graham Jones.  “People get terribly excited about something new and after a while the novelty wears off. ‘Even if it is a new TV series everybody thinks it is fantastic at the beginning and things tail off.”

But how much of the decline stems on security concerns? Facebook just as Google and Apple have been caught lately using technology to gather information that many privacy advocates and users labeled as unnecessary and a violation of privacy. Facebook activated a feature that traces people in photos posted on the social network using face recognition software. The problem is, they did not warn users about it. Apple on the other hand, recorded iPhone users’ movements without warning users about it. And Google? Well, it is just one invasion of privacy after another.

Amazingly, most if not all of the data gathering occurring on Facebook Apple and Google was mandated by the United States Telecommunications Act of 1996. That means corporations are obligated to gather and record such data because the United States government demands it. Information gleaned from the Internet raises constitutional and evidentiary issues that must be considered, including privacy and the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, said Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen, who also is an evidence professor at Wayne State University. Evidence obtained from the Internet and social media sites also raises issues about whether the information can be authenticated, he said. To the Telecommunications Act of 1996 one needs to add the Cybersecurity Act of 2010, which greatly expanded the powers of government and its agencies to snoop around.

Facebook has continuously rejected accusations of invasion of privacy and through its spokespeople has always claimed that although they receive “significant volume of third-party data requests” all of those requests are individually and carefully analyzed for “legal sufficiency.”

But perhaps a more serious problem that Facebook alone gathering user data, is the fact that the government itself uses social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and others to influence people. As reported by Russia Today in April, government intelligence officials make their rounds in Facebook and other social networks with the specific intent to gather information. According to former intelligence analyst, Wayne Madsen, government agencies use software such as Carnivore not only to spy on what people do, but to tell people how to do it.

The trend raises privacy and evidentiary concerns in a rapidly evolving digital age and illustrates the potential law-enforcement value of social media, experts said. “The FBI and other government agencies are facing a potentially widening gap between our legal authority to intercept electronic communications pursuant to court order and our practical ability to actually intercept those communications,” FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni testified.

Invasive technology issues is not limited to the United States. In the United Kingdom, the government pledged to spy on every e-mail, call and web click under the excuse of national security and the war on terrorism. According to Tom Burghardt, state agencies ranging from the CIA to the National Security Agency are pouring millions of dollars into data-mining firms which claim they have a handle on who you are or what you might do in the future.

In July, security journalist Noah Shachtman revealed in Wired that “the investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time–and says it uses that information to predict the future.”

Shachtman reported that the CIA’s semi-private investment company, In-Q-Tel, and Google Ventures, the search giant’s business division had partnered-up with a dodgy outfit called Recorded Future pouring, according to some estimates, $20 million dollars into the fledgling firm.

A blurb on In-Q-Tel’s web site informs us that “Recorded Future extracts time and event information from the web. The company offers users new ways to analyze the past, present, and the predicted future.”

A report concerning the current trend on Facebook fatigue published on mashable.com says that if the slowing trend continues for a couple of months, executives at Facebook may need to think about the company’s future. Could it be they have not done that yet? And if the reports about government involvement in data mining are as serious as described by Madsen, Burghardt and others -it wouldn’t be a surprise- then that fact alone may be the trigger for a massive migration of users to alternative communication technology. For example, people worried about Google keeping tabs on what they look at online, have the option to use StartPage.com, which is a search engine that does not record users’ data, although it has the benefit of providing Google search results.

If the boredom and monotony of Facebook and the rest of the social networks is not enough to make people shut down their accounts, maybe the explicit invasion of privacy carried out by the social networks on behalf of the government or through government intelligence agencies themselves will be a reason to consider disconnecting themselves from them. It is likely that the real impact of the so called “fatigue” shows its real effects once third world countries’ users -who lag behind- realize how dull and unsafe Facebook is.

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U.S. NSA – Google ‘cozy’ relationship raises concerns

January 26, 2011

Pc World
January 26, 2011

Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group largely focused in recent years on Google’s privacy practices, has called on a congressional investigation into the Internet giant’s “cozy” relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.

In a letter sent Monday, Consumer Watchdog asked Representative Darrell Issa, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate the relationship between Google and several government agencies.

The group asked Issa to investigate contracts at several U.S. agencies for Google technology and services, the “secretive” relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency, and the company’s use of a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration airfield in California.

Federal agencies have also taken “insufficient” action in response to revelations last year that Google Street View cars were collecting data from open Wi-Fi connections they passed, Consumer Watchdog said in the letter.

“We believe Google has inappropriately benefited from close ties to the administration,” the letter said. “Google is most consumers’ gateway to the Internet. Nonetheless, it should not get special treatment and access because of a special relationship with the administration.”

Consumer Watchdog may have an ally in Issa, a California Republican. In July, he sent a letter to Google raising concerns that White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin, the former head of global public policy for Google, had inappropriate e-mail contact with company employees.

A Google spokeswoman questioned Consumer Watchdog’s objectivity. Some groups have questioned the group’s relationship with Google rival Microsoft, and Consumer Watchdog’s criticisms of online privacy efforts have also exclusively zeroed in on Google, with the group rarely mentioning Microsoft, Facebook and other Web-based companies in the past two years.

“This is just the latest in a long list of press stunts from an organization that admits to working closely with our competitors,” said the Google spokeswoman.

But Consumer Watchdog gets no funding from Microsoft or any other Google competitor, said John Simpson, consumer advocate with the group. “We don’t have any relationship with Microsoft at all,” he said. “We don’t take any of their money.”

Consumer Watchdog has decided to focus on Google’s privacy practices because the company’s services serve as a gateway to the Internet for many people, Simpson said. If the group can push Google, “without a doubt the dominant Internet company,” to change its privacy practices, other companies will follow suit, he said.

“Google’s held itself to be the company that says its motto is, ‘don’t be evil,’ and they also advocate openness for everyone else,” he said. “We’re trying to hold them to their own word.”

Consumer Watchdog, in January 2009, suggested that Google was preparing a lobbying campaign asking Congress to allow the sale of electronic health records. Google called the allegations “100 percent false and unfounded.”

In September, Consumer Watchdog bought space on a 540-square-foot video screen in New York’s Times Square, with the video criticizing Google’s privacy practices.

In April, Consumer Watchdog officials called for the U.S. Department of Justice to break up Google. They appeared at a press conference with a representative of the Microsoft- and Amazon.com-funded Open Book Alliance.

Consumer Watchdog’s latest complaints about the relationship of Google and the Obama administration are outlined in a 32-page report.

The paper questions a decision by NASA allowing Google executives to use its Moffett Federal Airfield near Google headquarters. Although H211, a company controlled by Google top executives, pays NASA rent, they enjoy access to the airfield that other companies or groups don’t have, Simpson said.

The paper also questions Google contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies, suggesting that, in some cases, Google contracts were fast-tracked. The paper also questions Google’s relationship with the U.S. National Security Agency and calls for the company to be more open about what consumer information it shares with the spy agency.

When asked if other companies, including broadband providers, should disclose what customer information they share with the NSA, Simpson said they should, too.

“I understand the NSA is a super-secret spook organization,” he said. “But given Google’s very special situation where it possesses so much personal data about people, I think that there ought to be a little more openness about what precisely goes on between the two.”

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