FBI Wants More Authority to Spy Live on Gmail, Skype, Dropbox and Cloud
Intellihub.com
March 2, 2013
Apparently not satisfied with the ability to read everyone’s emails and demand private bank and telephone records without a warrant, the FBI will not be content until it can legally listen in on citizens’ live conversations on email and social networks like Gmail, Skype, Dropbox and Cloud.
by Matt Bewig
All Gov
April 2, 2013
Calling court approval for government surveillance “obsolete,” FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann last month stated that getting the power to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage will be a “top priority” this year.
Specifically, law enforcement wants Congress to amend a 1994 surveillance law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). At present, CALEA allows the government to force Internet providers and phone companies to have surveillance equipment on their networks, but the law does not cover email, cloud services, or online chat providers like Skype. Although the FBI can use a “Title III Order” under the Wiretap Act to ask such providers to conduct surveillance, the FBI wants to be able to force them to do it—without a warrant signed by a judge.
Speaking to a luncheon organized by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security on March 20, Weissmann admitted that the FBI wants the power to mandate real-time snooping on all online communications, even including chat associated with online games like Scrabble because, he claims, “Those communications are being used for criminal conversations.” By that logic, law enforcement should have the power to listen in on all telephone conversations and to open and read all mail, since both are undoubtedly used for “criminal conversations” as well.
Further illustrating the Orwellian nature of his project, Weissmann—whose overzealous prosecution of one-time accounting giant Arthur Andersen was unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court in 2005—admitted that “it’s something that there should be a public debate about” even as he refused to reveal the FBI’s specific proposals because “it’s a very hard thing to talk about publicly.”
Because the requirement that law enforcement get a neutral judge to sign a search warrant based on probable cause is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment, if the FBI believes that search warrants are obsolete, it believes the Fourth Amendment is obsolete as well, and ought to have the honesty and integrity to say so publicly.
Senate Approves Internet Sales Tax by 3-to-1 Margin
Activist Post
March 24, 2013
The U.S. Senate voted yesterday to approve the concept of an Internet sales tax by an overwhelming 75-to-24 margin.
The vote was largely symbolic and non-binding, but its support has some wanting to bypass the committee process for the easy passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act, according to The Verge.
The law, which opponents more accurately call the “National Internet Tax Mandate”, would allow states to demand sales taxes from online retailers.
More exactly, “the Marketplace Fairness Act grants states the authority to compel online and catalog retailers (“remote sellers”), no matter where they are located, to collect sales tax at the time of a transaction,” according to a lobbyist website supporting the idea.
In its current form, Internet retailers with less than $1 million in sales would be exempt, which at first glance seems palatable. But consider that if a retailer only makes a 10 percent profit margin, then they only take home $100K net profit before expenses. That’s hardly a large company with the resources to learn a new system or hire someone to handle the extra bookkeeping.
Even foreign retailers (no matter where they are located) will have to charge, account for, and remit sales taxes for customers who may reside in a participating U.S. state. It doesn’t matter that the retailer has no attachment to the customer’s state or country for that matter. Can anyone see how this may hinder commerce freedom for U.S. customers?
“Collecting sales tax is—or rather should be—simply part of selling online, just as it’s part of selling on Main Street,” argue the lobbyists, adding “Collecting sales tax? That’s just part of doing business.”
Furthermore, the customer must now pay sales tax on every single item they buy while residing in a certain state regardless of where they bought it from. The lobbyists say you should be okay with that because “As a consumer, the sales tax you pay funds projects and services in your community.”
Large e-tailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Target have lobbied for the tax. Of course, they also have brick-and-mortar storefronts, but their online sales have jumped in recent years.
This new regulation tax is precisely how small businesses are regulated out of the brick-and-mortar marketplace. They start with small, seemingly reasonable requests which are sometimes quasi-voluntary like this proposal, then bit by bit the regulations become mandatory and they keep squeezing for more.
The lobbyists for this bill argue it will be good for all businesses. “Thousands of businesses are forced to do business at a competitive disadvantage because they have to collect taxes and online sellers do not, which in some states can mean a 5 to 10% price advantage,” they claim.
However, clearly they weren’t talking about small online retailers which employs untold millions of workers.
It’s dangerous to even open the door to this type of intrusion into the Internet free market. Internet entrepreneurs everywhere should be protesting this law.
Read other articles by Activist Post Here
Upload Your Brain Into a Computer [video]
Mark Dice
March 13, 2013
Scientists are building systems they claim will allow humans to upload their brains into a computer so we can become Gods in a cyberspace virtual reality world.
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Mark Dice is a media analyst, political activist, and author who, in an entertaining and educational way, gets people to question our celebrity obsessed culture, and the role the mainstream media and elite secret societies play in shaping our lives. Check out Mark’s books in paperback on Amazon.com or e-book on Kindle, iBooks, Nook, or Google Play.
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Mark Dice appears in several documentary films including Invisible Empire, The 9/11 Chronicles, and has been featured on the History Channel’s Decoded, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, the Sundance Channel’s Love/Lust: Secret Societies and more. He enjoys enlightening zombies, as he calls them, (ignorant people) about the mass media’s effect on our culture, pointing out Big Brother’s prying eyes, and exposing elite secret societies along with scumbag politicians and their corrupt political agendas. You can support Mark’s work by sending a PayPal donation to Donate@MarkDice.com or by using the Donate link on MarkDice.com.
He has called into several top-rated talk shows dozens of times, including the Sean Hannity Show, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage, and verbally battles with the hosts on various issues since he has never been asked to be a guest on them as of yet. Audio of some of these calls are then posted online.
The term “fighting the New World Order” is used by Mark to describe some of his activities, and refers to his and others’ resistance and opposition (The Resistance) to the overall system of political corruption, illegal wars, elite secret societies, mainstream media, Big Brother and privacy issues; as well as various economic and social issues.
Dice and his supporters sometimes refer to being “awake” or “enlightened” and see their knowledge of these topics as part of their own personal Resistance to the corrupt New World Order. This Resistance involves self-improvement, self-sufficiency, personal responsibility and spiritual growth.
Mark Dice is the author of several books on current events, secret societies and conspiracies, including his newest book, Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True which is available on Amazon.com, Kindle and Nook. While much of Mark’s work confirms the existence and continued operation of the Illuminati today, he is also dedicated to debunking conspiracy theories and hoaxes and separating the facts from the fiction; hence the “Facts & Fiction” subtitle for several of his books. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication from California State University.
If you have an iPad or Android tablet, then you can download the Kindle app and then download any of Mark’s books from the Kindle store for only $6.99 or $7.99. Some of them are also available in e-book on Google Play. Or you can get paperback copies from Amazon.com too if you prefer a physical book. They are not available in stores. A lot of work and research went into them and they’ll save you countless hours of web surfing or YouTube watching in your search for pieces of the puzzle. Your support also funds more of Mark’s videos and other operations. Equipment, software, travel, and the props all cost money, so by purchasing his paperback books and e-books, you are helping The Resistance continue and your help is greatly appreciated. Be sure to subscribe to Mark’s YouTube channel, and look him up on Facebook, and Twitter. http://www.YouTube.com/MarkDice http://www.Facebook.com/MarkDice http://www.Twitter.com/MarkDice http://www.MarkDice.com
Facebook knows your secrets: ‘Likes’ reveal users’ personality
by End the Lie – Independent News
March 12, 2013
Stephen Lam/Getty Images/AFP
Facebook’s ‘like’ button can reveal more than you realize, a new study has showed. By liking posts and links, you may be revealing personal secrets, like your sexuality or religious and political views. The findings have raised privacy concerns.
A study by the National Academy of Sciences examined 58,000 Facebook users in the US, who volunteered their likes, demographic profiles and psychometric test results. Researchers managed to draw “surprisingly accurate” findings about a given user’s race, IQ, sexuality, substance use, personality and political views by analyzing the topics and items they ‘liked,’ even if they set strong privacy settings for their page.
The study’s authors developed an algorithm that uses Facebook ‘likes’ to create personality profiles, potentially revealing a user’s personality. Anyone with training in data analysis could be able to derive such information, even if users had not explicitly shared it, they explained.
As a result, researchers were able to predict whether men were homosexual with 88 percent accuracy by their ‘like’ clicks on sites related to gay marriage or same-sex relations. Preferences of music and TV shows, for example, were also more revealing than users may have imagined: Men who liked the musical TV show ‘Glee’ were more likely to be gay, the study showed.
In 82 percent of cases, Christians and Muslims were correctly identified among the volunteer profiles. And the study was not only predictive of sexuality or religion, but also a user’s IQ.
Those with higher IQs tended to more frequently like ‘The Colbert Report’ TV show, for example, or films like ‘The Godfather’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Those with lower IQs liked Harley Davidsons and Bret Michaels of the rock band Poison.
Similarly accurate predictions were also made about users’ political views, and could even predict potential voting patterns during elections, mapped to users’ relationship status, their number of Facebook friends and a half-dozen other personality traits.
“The important point is that, on one hand, it is good that people’s behavior is predictable because it means Facebook can suggest very good stories on your news feed,” South China Morning Post quoted Michal Kosinsky, one of the academics behind the study as saying.
While the study could be seen as a new step towards creating more personalized content, it also highlighted the potential threats to privacy posed by Facebook. “What is shocking is that you can use the same data to predict your political views or your sexual orientation. This is something most people don’t realize you can do,” Kosinsky warned.
Similar profiles could be created using other digital data, including Web searches, emails and mobile phone activity, according to a co-author of the study: “Your likes may be saying more about you than you realize,” David Sitwell, a Cambridge University researcher said, according to AFP. “But you don’t realize that years later all those likes are building up against you.”
Facebook declined to comment on the study.
Source: RT
Canadian Government Folding To American Pressure To Implement “ACTA” With Introduction Of Bill C-56 “Combating Counterfeit Products Act”?
by Terry Wilson
Canadian Awareness Network
March 4, 2013
On Friday March 1st 2013, Bill C-56 was introduced in the house of commons by Conservative MP Christian Paradis. The bill strongly resembles ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), Which Canada has signed on to, but has not ratified.
Read the full test of Bill C-56 HERE
The United States has been pushing for Canada to comply with ACTA regulations very recently.
In the 2013 Trade Policy Agenda and 2012 Trade Policy Report, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has encouraged Canada to “meet its Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) obligations by providing its customs officials with ex officio authority to stop the transit of counterfeit and pirated products through its territory.”
Source
Bill C-56 will:
– Give border officers the authority to detain suspected commercial shipments and contact the rights holders;allow Canadian businesses to file a request for assistance, with the CBSA, in turn, enabling border officers to share information with rights holders regarding suspect shipments.
– Provide new criminal offences for the commercial possession, manufacture or trafficking of counterfeit trademark goods.
– Provide rights owners with new tools to protect their rights and take civil action against infringers.
– Create new offences for trademark counterfeiting, and
– Provide better tools to investigate commercial counterfeiting.
Source
Bill C-56 seems to fall right in line with the Americans suggestion to implement ACTA. Which should be sounding alarm bells in the Canadian public.
Despite being rejected by the European Parliament, 31 nations have signed on to ACTA and the agreement only requires that 6 of them ratify the agreement for it to come into force. We as Canadians must ensure that Canada does not become one of those 6 nations, regardless of external pressures.
If you are not aware of ACTA here is a brief video explaining what it involves.
Twitter Watch: Library of Congress keeps tweets on file unavailable to public [video]
Russia Today
March 9, 2013
In the 7 years since its inception, Twitter has become an integral part of twenty first century life. Reflecting everything, from people’s routine habits, to revolutionary political messages. And for the last 2 years, every single tweet sent in the U.S. has been stored in a massive archive at the Library of Congress – raising concerns over privacy. The official reason is for research purposes – but so far the data has been kept behind closed doors.
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