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Posts Tagged ‘big brother’

Government wiretaps increase by 34 percent in 2010

July 12, 2011 Comments off

dailycaller

NEW YORK, NY – MAY 31: A man speaks on his mobile phone on May 31, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The number of wiretaps conducted by federal and state law enforcement in 2010 jumped 34 percent from the prior year, according to a new federal report.

The 2010 Wiretap Report said federal and state courts approved 3,194 orders for intercepting wire, oral or electronic communications. That was up from the 2,376 intercepts approved in 2009.

Here’s some more fun facts from the report:

  • Of all the applications for wiretap intercepts, 84 percent (2,675) cited illegal drugs as the most serious offense under investigation. The top three state wiretaps resulting in the most arrests were all narcotics related.
  • The average cost of a wiretap was $50,085, down 4 percent from 2009.
  • The average number of persons whose communications were intercepted rose from 113 per wiretap order in 2009 to 118 per wiretap order in 2010.
  • Only 26 percent of intercepted communications in 2010 were incriminating. Only one request for authorization was denied.
  • The top three states with approved wiretap applications were California, New York and New Jersey.

The report did not include wiretaps regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) or those approved by the president outside the authority of the federal wiretap law and the FISA.

Categories: Big Brother Tags: , , , ,

Facial recognition now at all of Australia’s intn’l airports

July 1, 2011 Comments off

zdnet

Darwin International Airport has today launched its own SmartGate counters, ensuring that all eight of Australia’s international airports have the face-recognition technology.

(Ah ain’t long for this whorl image by
Chad Miller, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The technology uses electronic information embedded in e-passports and face-recognition technology to perform customs and immigration checks. During immigration, users scan their e-passports, which are equipped with an embedded chip, and have their photograph taken.

The technology maps the underlying bone structure of the face by measuring the distances between defining features such as the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. The measurements are digitally coded for comparison and verification purposes, and a mathematical algorithm is applied to determine whether the photo of the traveller’s face matches their e-passport photo.

It was first implemented at Brisbane International Airport in 2007, and since then it has been used by 3.5 million travellers, with close to one million using it in this year alone.

In this year’s Biometrics Institute Industry Survey, which canvasses opinions from 137 user organisations in Read more…

Categories: Australia, Biometrics Tags: , , , ,

Charges dismissed against woman arrested while videotaping traffic stop from her front yard

June 28, 2011 Comments off

rawstory

The case against a 28-year-old woman charged with obstructing governmental administration after refusing a police officer’s order to leave her front yard while she was videotaping a traffic stop has been dismissed.

WHEC reported a judge dismissed the case against Emily Good of Rochester, New York on Monday because there was insufficient evidence of a crime.

Good was arrested while she filmed police officers conducting a traffic stop in front of her home. Good’s recording shows the officers saying that they feel threatened by her standing behind them because she seemed “very anti-police.”

The arrest added to the already heated debate over videotaping police officers.

In a joint statement, Mayor Tom Richards, City Council President Lovely Warren and Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard said they agreed that the case should be dismissed.

“We believe that the incident that led to Ms. Good’s arrest and the subsequent ticketing for parking violations of vehicles belonging to members of an organization associated with Ms. Good raise issues with Read more…

Categories: New York, Rights Tags: , , , , , ,

‘Spy cameras’ are used to target student protesters

May 31, 2011 Comments off

independent.co.uk

Some fear the police are trying to ‘criminalise’ protesting by using CCTV

Police are using CCTV images taken on university and college campuses, sometimes with the collusion of university authorities, to “spy” on student demonstrators as young as 16, it was claimed yesterday.

University lecturers are demanding an independent investigation into the “over zealous” use of surveillance techniques against students during the policing of demonstrations against fees rises and public spending cuts.

A motion tabled for the University and College Union’s (UCU) conference this weekend condemns what it terms attempts to “criminalise protest” through “state surveillance of higher education and further education institutions for elicting intelligence regarding protest activities”.

Cases include the arrest of Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, Protests, United Kingdom Tags: , , , , ,

Iran Vows To Unplug The Internet

May 28, 2011 Comments off

wsj.com

Iran Internet Unplug
Iran is taking steps toward an aggressive new form of censorship: a so-called national Internet that could, in effect, disconnect Iranian cyberspace from the rest of the world.

The leadership in Iran sees the project as a way to end the fight for control of the Internet, according to observers of Iranian policy inside and outside the country. Iran, already among the most sophisticated nations in online censoring, also promotes its national Internet as a cost-saving measure for consumers and as a way to uphold Islamic moral codes.

In February, as pro-democracy protests spread rapidly across the Middle East and Read more…

Categories: internet, Iran Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid

May 26, 2011 1 comment

endoftheamericandream

Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic “big brother” control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled?  Well, that is exactly where things are headed.  We witnessed some really bad totalitarian regimes during the 20th century, but what is coming is going to be far more restrictive than any of the despots of the past ever dreamed was possible.  Today, nearly every government on earth is tightening their grip on their citizens.  Paranoia has become standard operating procedure all over the planet and nobody is to be trusted.  Global politicians will give speeches about liberty and freedom even as they undermine them at every turn.  There are very, very few nations on the planet where liberty and freedom are increasing.  Instead, almost everywhere you turn the “control grid” is getting tighter.  Governments don’t want us gathering together and interacting with one another.  Instead, they want us to work our tails off to support the system, they want us enslaved financially and constantly drowning in debt, and they want us addicted to television and other forms of entertainment.  They want us as numb and docile as possible.  Meanwhile, all over the globe they continue to construct a futuristic “big brother” control grid that will ensure that they will always be able to control us.

Sadly, this is not the plot to some post-apocalyptic science fiction movie.

This is really happening.

When you read the list below, each of the 32 signs may not seem to be all that significant individually.  However, when they are all taken together, they paint a truly frightening picture….

#1 The days of the free and open Internet are slowly coming to an end.  Many nations around the world have implemented strict Internet censorship and many other nations are moving in that direction.  With each passing year the level of freedom on the Internet diminishes.

Regulation of the Internet has even become a primary topic of discussion at G-8 meetings.  According to The New York Times, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the charge for a more “civilized Internet”…. Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, World Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Feds to Mandate Black Box on all New Cars

May 24, 2011 Comments off

infowars

The feds will mandate next month that all new cars be fitted with a black box, according to news reports. So-called black boxes record information about speed, seat belt use and brake application.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been involved in the use of black boxes since their introduction. In 2006, the safety administration encouraged but did not require automobile manufacturers to install the systems and also did not set a single standard for the way data would be recorded, according to the New York Times.

In February, NHTSA administrator David Strickland said the government was considering making the technology mandatory in the wake of recalls of millions of Toyota vehicles. Strickland made the disclosure to a subcommittee hearing by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Now they will make the installation of these device mandatory under federal law. If we are to gauge the reaction of the corporate media, this story is not very important. Outside of industry and technology publications, the story was not reported.

Computer chip manufacturer Intel showed off its event recorder last year following the Toyota recall. “With new vehicles, there will very likely be video cameras inside and outside,” said Intel’s chief technology office, Justin Rattner, in a July, 2010, interview. “It’s not particularly new or stunning, but when you combine the cameras with GPS, you’re geo-tagging the video.”

In other words, your car – like your smart phone – may soon become a surveillance device and high-tech snooping will be mandated by the federal government.

Categories: Coming Events, GOVERNMENT, United States Tags: , , , , ,

Google CEO: Phone tracking to enrich lives

May 17, 2011 Comments off

rt.com

Image from trassa-e99.livejournal.com

Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt came out to defend tracking technology in smartphones arguing the technology will ultimately enrich and benefit the lives of consumers.

Recent debates regarding privacy have surfaced following the discovery of tracking files native to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system.

“Today, you’re phone knows who you are, where you are, where you’re going, to some degree, because it can see your path. And with that and with your permission, it’s possible for software and software developers to predict where you’re going to go, to suggest people you should meet, to suggest activities and so forth,” he said. “So ultimately what happens is the mobile phone does what it does best, which is remember everything and make suggestions.”

Allowing your phone to know you, follow you and help you will allow users to enjoy their social experience more, he contended. The experience of will become increasingly Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, GOOGLE, Technology Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Texas cameras to track school lunches

May 12, 2011 Comments off

guardian

FOOD ANALYSIS

Dr Roger Echon of the Social and Health Research Centre displays the digital food analysis equipment which will track chlidren’s eating habits at WW White elementary school in Texas. Photograph: Tom Reel/AP

The next time children in some elementary schools in the state of Texas try to sneak extra french fries on to their tray in the cafeteria queue, the eye in the sky will be watching them.

Using a $2m (£1.3m) grant from the US department of agriculture, the schools in San Antonio are installing sophisticated cameras in the cafeteria that read barcodes embedded in the food trays.

“We’re going to snap a picture of the food tray at the cashier and we will know what has been served,” said Dr Roberto Trevino of the Social and Health Research Centre in San Antonio, which is implementing the pilot programme at five schools with high rates of childhood obesity and children living in poverty.

“When the child goes back to the disposal window, we’re going to measure the leftover.”

The goal is to cut childhood obesity by providing parents and school nutrition specialists with information on what types of Read more…

Categories: Big Brother, Texas Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now, a spy plane that can be flown with or without a pilot!

May 12, 2011 Comments off

sify

A new intelligence and surveillance aircraft that falls into the category of an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) with its ability to be flown robotically or with a human pilot on board was unveiled recently.

It is claimed that the Firebird will allow the U.S. military to simultaneously gather real-time high-definition video, view infrared imagery, use radar and eavesdrop on communications, reports the Daily Mail.

Incredibly, it has an interface like a memory stick that can be plugged into a PC without the need for additional software.

Measuring 34ft-long and 9.7ft-high, the twin-tailed plane can reach a maximum altitude of 30,000ft and has a maximum flying time of between 24 and 40 hours, depending on its configuration.

Its wing span is 65ft and it has a pushed-propeller at the rear of its fuselage.he Firebird, which performed its first flight in February 2010, was designed and built in California’s Mojave Desert by Scaled Composites and unveiled yesterday by U.S. aero defence firm Northrop Grumman.

The aircraft was designed with the certainty of cuts in U.S. defence spending in mind.

“Firebird addresses future budgetary constraints by combining the best of our piloted and unmanned systems,” said Paul Meyer, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman.

Rick Crooks, Firebird program manager, described it as an adaptable system that is highly affordable because of the number of different missions that can be accomplished in a single flight.

The Firebird will be demonstrated in public from May 23 to June 3. It is currently unclear how much it will cost. (ANI)

Categories: spy, Technology, United States Tags: , , , , , , ,