[Vision2020] Are the police tracking your calls?

Thu May 24 18:00:34 PDT 2012

Security, not just against police surveillance but against all forms of 
intrusion, is best served by a layered defense.  The first layer is the 
one you suggest - if you don't want it compromised, don't put it out 
there.  There are other steps that can be taken, such as:

- don't open attachments from strangers
- don't run an email client that automatically runs attachments
- don't tell your email client to run an attachment manually
- keep up on your updates  for your OS, email client, browser, flash, 
and java
- use a browser that doesn't run any attachments by default
- turn off javascript or use something like NoScript to enable only the 
sites you trust
- use an adblocker to keep advertisers from tracking you through image 
requests and to keep malware ads from doing harm
- disable third-party cookies, or use an extension to manage them for you
- use something like FlashBlock to keep flash advertisements from trying 
to track you
- use a private VPN
- use an OS like linux that isn't hacked as often
- probably lots of others I'm forgetting at the moment

I think of these things like common street smarts, but for the net.  You 
shouldn't click on an attachment any more than you should look that mean 
looking dude in the eye when you walk past him.  As a bonus, if you do 
these things you won't see most advertisements that are trying to 
distract you, and your browsing experience will be twice as fast because 
of all the javascript and images you are not downloading.  Just remember 
to donate to your favorite websites to make up for the loss of ad 
revenue, should you feel so inclined.

Paul

On 05/24/2012 02:02 PM, Ted Moffett wrote:
>
> "You already have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." ^1 Sun 
> Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy
>
> ----------------------------------------
> I assume anything I place on my computer, or send over the Internet, 
> or any phone call I make anywhere, even from a public phone, is 
> subject to potential surveillance.
>
> I am way far from super well educated on these complex issues, but 
> from what I have gathered, encryption does not necessarily assure 
> privacy, with key stroke loggers such as Magic Lantern.
>
> What if when you are not home, the FBI or government black-op 
> operatives, or others from who knows where, break-in, with 
> surveillance technology placed on your computer, that records or sends 
> every keystroke?  Maybe there are safeguards against Magic Lantern or 
> tampering directly with a computer to surveil it:
>
> Info on Magic Lantern:
>
> https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=20+J.+Marshall+J.+Computer+%26+Info.+L.+287&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=3addc849b1738f1c82c98f8bd294a0ab 
> <https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=20+J.+Marshall+J.+Computer+%26+Info.+L.+287&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=3addc849b1738f1c82c98f8bd294a0ab>
>
> COMMENT: THE "MAGIC LANTERN" REVEALED: A REPORT OF THE FBI'S NEW "KEY 
> LOGGING" TROJAN AND ANALYSIS OF ITS POSSIBLE TREATMENT IN A DYNAMIC 
> LEGAL LANDSCAPE
>
> McNealy "You already have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." ^1 
> Although this quip from Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy seems 
> extreme, it strongly illustrates the current tension between the power 
> of technology and an individual's expectation of privacy. ^2 This 
> tension creates an incessant struggle, because for power of 
> surveillance technology to increase, privacy must decrease, and vice 
> versa. These struggles are best illustrated through the Federal 
> Government's attempts to maintain national security through 
> surveillance of communications and activities while attempting to 
> sustain the legitimate expectations of privacy in the American people. 
> ^3 One of the most recent developments resulting from this quandary is 
> the FBI's new enigmatic surveillance tool - a "keystroke logger" 
> Trojan horse/computer worm they have dubbed "Magic Lantern." ^4
>
> ." ^6 Historically, the FBI has been thwarted by certain 
> counter-intelligence technologies, specifically encryption. ^7 Magic 
> Lantern would assist the FBI by recording the passwords used to 
> encode/decode the encrypted messages, thereby permitting the Bureau to 
> access the content of the otherwise indecipherable documents. ^8 
> However, critics of the software raise serious concerns about the 
> software's conflict ...
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> The Carnivore program may be old fashioned, given the speed of 
> computer technology advances, but it was major news, even discussed in 
> the US Congress by tech savvy US Senator from Washington, Maria 
> Cantwell, along with Magic Lantern, in questions to former US Attorney 
> General Ashcroft:
>
> http://www.salon.com/2001/12/08/ashcroft_15/
>
> Info on Carnivore:
>
> Carnivore: US Government Surveillance
> of Internet Transmissions
>
> http://www.vjolt.net/vol6/issue2/v6i2-a10-Jennings.html
>
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
> From "Wired" magazine, a recent article on the NSA's spying 
> expansion.  Orwell rolls in his grave!
>
>
>   The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You
>   Say)
>
>   * By James Bamford
>     <http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/author/james-bamford/>
>   * Email Author <mailto:washwriter at gmail.com%3C/a%3E>
>   * March 15, 2012
>
> http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1
>
> Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the 
> blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National 
> Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece 
> in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to 
> intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world's 
> communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the 
> underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and 
> domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be 
> up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and 
> routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of 
> communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell 
> phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal 
> data trails---parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore 
> purchases, and other digital "pocket litter." It is, in some measure, 
> the realization of the "total information awareness" program created 
> during the first term of the Bush administration---an effort that was 
> killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its 
> potential for invading Americans' privacy.
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>
> On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 5:24 PM, Art Deco <art.deco.studios at gmail.com 
> <mailto:art.deco.studios at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Good advice.  Do you have any recommendations for a VPN provider?
>
>     w.
>
>
>
>
>
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