Archive for the 'Surveillance' Category
White House to Abandon Spy-Satellite Program
June 23rd, 2009Via: Wall Street Journal: The Obama administration plans to kill a controversial Bush administration spy satellite program at the Department of Homeland Security, according to officials familiar with the decision. The program came under fire from its inception two years ago. Democratic lawmakers said it would lead to domestic spying. The program would have provided […]
Kiwis Moving Closer to Cashless Society
June 22nd, 2009Japan was the future cashless country in yesterday’s news cycle. Today it’s New Zealand. Well, New Zealand will probably use a Pan Asian digital currency, at some point, along with Japan and several other states…either that or Kongbucks. Via: New Zealand Herald: Cash is no longer king in New Zealand, according to the Retirement Commission’s […]
Japan Considering Taxing Cash; “Nominal Rates of -4% Might be Closer to What is Required to Rescue the Economy from Another Deflationary Spiral”
June 21st, 2009Japanese people will just buy more gold and park their speculative yen back in the carry trade pachinko parlor (this may already be happening). Why wouldn’t they? If holding cash means a guaranteed loss of 4% a year, that’s a pretty good incentive to gamble. Bonus points to the state for the totalitarian surveillance grid […]
City Asks Prospective Employees for Usernames and Passwords to Websites They Use
June 19th, 2009Oh sure. Via: Montana’s News Station: Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected. That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component […]
Cash to Become Extinct as Chips Take Off
June 18th, 2009Via: News AU: CASH is accelerating down the path to extinction as new technologies threaten to mark the end of loose change within a decade. Bank and credit union bosses say cash won’t be alone, with wallets and credit cards also likely to disappear too. They told The Advertiser’s round table forum that cash and […]
NSA Intercepts of the Private Telephone Calls and E-Mail Messages of Americans Are Broader Than Previously Acknowledged
June 17th, 2009In the New York Times piece below, we learn that an email database used by the NSA is called PINWALE. Back in 2006, William M Arkin, a Washington Post blogger, published a list of hundreds of terms that were allegedly associated with NSA projects. Along with the list, he wrote: I could write volumes about […]
Raytheon Surveillance Blimps: “Local Authorities Could Install a Built-in LED Screen to Attract Sponsors”
June 15th, 2009Is your city too broke to pay for one of these blimps? “Raytheon says local authorities could install a built-in LED screen to attract sponsors, generate revenue and defer operating costs.” What a country! Via: Newsweek: At first glance, there was nothing special about the blimp floating high above the cars and crowd at this […]
Federal Subpoena Seeks Names – and Lots More – of Web Posters
June 9th, 2009THE FEDS ALREADY HAVE THE DATA. Spend a few hours going through my Surveillance archive if you doubt it. Read about the Narus Intercept Suite, the Mark Klein-AT&T-NSA case and MAIN CORE. This is a little over two years old, but it describes the “full pipe” surveillance that federal law enforcement is doing: FBI turns […]
China to to Require Web Filtering Software on All PCs
June 8th, 2009The article doesn’t say this, explicitly, but PCs running this software will almost certainly be owned by the Chinese government. That is, when required, it would be as if a member of the Chinese state security services was sitting at the computer in question. They are a root user on the box. They would have […]
Mysterious ‘Chip’ is CIA’s Latest Weapon Against al-Qaida Targets Hiding in Pakistan’s Tribal Belt
June 2nd, 2009The ‘chip’ is a bit less mysterious to Cryptogon readers since the DARPA program was mentioned here months ago: Continuous Clandestine Tagging, Tracking and Locating (CTTL). Via: Guardian: The CIA is equipping Pakistani tribesmen with secret electronic transmitters to help target and kill al-Qaida leaders in the north-western tribal belt, in a tactic that could […]
