Posts in "Privacy"

Shaun Bowen's picture
By Shaun Bowen at 3:05PM

Welcome, Mark Zuckerberg, to the world you created . . . like it or not.

When recently asked about his company's privacy problems, Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook, stated "the age of privacy is over." Sadly for Mr.Zuckerberg, he didn't know how true that statement would turn out to be.

The well known Hollywood gossip website Gawker combined with another website known as Valleywag to start a new campaign to photograph the Facebook CEO everywhere and anywhere he goes and put it up on the web. Photos ranging from him at a park to sitting at home have all been put together and posted at Gawker in an attempt to destroy any privacy that Zuckerberg might have.

"Facebook's CEO doesn't seem too preoccupied about your privacy, or about ours," says Ryan Tate, editor of the gossip website Valleywag, which posted the photographs. "Likewise, we weren't bothered by the notion of tailing him around the Valley for a few days, or about sharing the experience with you...

"If it feels a little naughty to take such a close look into Zuckerberg's life, remember that this is the executive who pushed the private information of Facebook's hundreds of millions of users progressively further into the public sphere," Tate said.

Though I doubt much will actually change from this, I applaude these bloggers for standing up for the right of privacy, though -- ironically -- their careers are spent destroying it for the Hollywood elite.

Aaron Ricks's picture
By Aaron Ricks at 10:24AM

State Governments Have Your Baby's DNA

This information seemed kind of obvious to me, but still it's worth reporting.  Some state governments have decided to store samples of newborn DNA -- in some cases indefinitely. And only Minnesota and Texas have the necessary forms and process to destroy the DNA samples.

For all the crap the rest of the union gives to Texas  (I remind you, I'm a New York elitist), I am glad the Lone Star State is an example in this regard.

Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 1:36PM

Creepy Proposal from the Head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

The Head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a close confidant of Obama, proposed less than two years ago in an academic paper that the government pay covert agents and "independent" advocates to infiltrate groups which speak against the government and/or propose conspiracy theories.  The idea, Glenn Greenwald explains, is that "[t]his would be designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists.  The paper's abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here. "  Though the administration has not yet moved toward accepting this proposal, it is certainly concerning given the fact that the paper was written recently and its writer is now in exactly the position he would need to execute the scheme.

Jihan Huq's picture
By Jihan Huq at 10:32PM

Man Convicted of Indecent Exposure for Being Naked in His Own Home

"Most people have done it or do it on a daily basis. I think it's a common thing to be naked in your home," said Erick Williamson.

Yes, it's true. Erick Williamson was convicted of indecent exposure for being naked in his own home.

The story gets interesting when Yvette Dean, a wife of a local county officer, insinuated that Williamson was purposely exposing himself from his own home. Dean was also reported to have been content with the conviction (according to Fox 5).

The judge ruled out that since Williamson was seen more than once in the course of several hours (even though it was still in his home), he labled the demeanor "indecent."  Though Williamson was convicted, all witnesses testified that he made no inappropriate gestures and didn't even step out of his own home!

Williamson stated: "I feel the exact feelings that they're speaking-I've put onto the other people. They're looking into my home. I live in a fishbowl, an ant farm. Everyone's looking inside my house now. That's ok."

Williamson is not anticipated to serve any jail time.

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Barry Kuzay's picture
By Barry Kuzay at 1:01PM

FBI biometric photo scanning at the DMV

AHuxley at Slashdot reports:

DMV

The FBI is getting fast new systems to look at local North Carolina license photos via the DMV. As the FBI is not authorized to collect and store the photos, they use the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. The system takes seconds to look at chin widths and nose sizes. The expanded technology used on millions of motorist could be rolled out across the USA. The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is also getting an upgrade to DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans.

Slashdot is a great site for those who love technology, but more importantly, it seems to be run by libertarians. (They ran quite a few stories on Ron Paul during the presidential campaign.)

Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 12:37PM

The FBI is stalking you...even though the DHS told them not to.

Newly declassified information has revealed some concerning activity on the part of the FBI:

A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store...

imageIn other words, the FBI is keeping track of a lot of information about private citizens and obtaining it without warrants.   Moreover, the Bureau wants to quadruple the staff of the tracking program to allow them to better keep an eye on all the terrorists this is supposedly going to catch.

The best part of this story is that even the Department of Homeland Security has said (albeit about a different specific program, but it's basically the same thing) data mining for terrorists is an ineffective plan which could lead to violations of privacy -- yes, that DHS, the one which runs the TSA, or airport security.  And if those guys are concerned about privacy violation, this data mining stuff must be bad...I thought that's what the Fourth Amendment was supposed to be for?

Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 8:58AM

You might want to turn off your phone...

...next time you go to a protest.  A couple months ago while waiting in line somewhere, I was playing with my cell phone and noticed a GPS function of sorts which would allow my phone to be located by satellite.  Since I don't use GPS through my phone, I decided that was a little weird and turned the function off. 

According to a recent post on the Cato@Liberty blog, that may have only been so effective:  all mobile devices can be tracked within 60 to less than 10 meters, depending on what kind of capabilities your phone has enabled.  If government gets its hands on this data, it could be used not only to predict your location at any given time based on your past movements, but also to seriously limit free speech:

A government not so keen on free speech could use such data to see a crowd converging towards a protest site and respond before the swarm takes form — detected and preempted, this protest never happens. Or worse, it could be used to understand and then undermine any political opponent.

Concerning, no?  Read the rest here.