Bruce Schneier: CCTV doesn’t keep us safe, yet the cameras are everywhere | Technology | The Guardian. via lukas.

Wesabe Automatic Uploader. i set it up today. that’s right, i gave them my bank password. much nicer since i use safari over firefox.

Unintended Consequences | Newsweek.com. Elliot Spitzer was caught because of the Patriot Act and “Suspicious Action Reports” from his bank about ATM withdrawals. On top of that, there were 1.2M of these reports last year. what a fucking waste of US authorities.

Facebook To Launch New Privacy Controls; Confirms Chat Is Coming. so now you can sort out what your co-workers see versus your drinking buddies.

NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data - WSJ.com. well that’s terrifying. via ram.

The Anonymity Experiment | Popular Science. how to try to get off the grid. via josh.

Senate Passes Bill to Expand U.S. Spying Powers - New York Times. this bill also gives telco’s immunity for breaking the law and essentially allows warrent-less wiretaps. way to go democrats!

Canada provides the best privacy protection according to Privacy International’s 2007 Report.

zefrank.com: “privacy”. solid ze frank commentary.

Conflicts Of Interest: Why Do Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, Red Hat And Others Support The National ID Card?. everyone loses their scruples when there’s a chance for a fat government contract.

footle » Protecting Your Users’ Data with a Privacy Wall. the privacy scheme is pretty obvious but they have some good tips on other production problems that come up.

“Gene Carson worked for the National Security Agency since its founding in 1952. After forty-six years of service, Carson died, leaving a retirement account worth close to one million dollars to a woman that he felt he knew and loved, but who herself didn’t even know that Carson existed.” He listened to her calls for 40 years. via ram.

patriot act ruling

On Thursday, a federal court struck down the National Security Letter provision of the Patriot Act. The provision allows the government to serve a warrant and prevents the party who received the warrant for telling anyone that they recieved the warrant or what was divulged. In the related case, the plantiff was an Internet Service Provider who, presumably, couldn’t tell it’s customers that it had divulged information about them. Oddly enough, the case’s title is John Doe vs (former Attorney General) Alberto Gonzalez. Why? Well, the ISP also can’t be named because of the National Security Letter.

The ACLU, who represented John Doe, has a pretty thorough press release on the ruling and about the case in general. The press release makes an interesting point about how anyone who is served with a NSL is then under a gag order to not talk about it and essentially can’t criticize it. From the release:

In its case, the ACLU and the NYCLU said that the gag provision has had significant effects on the John Doe plaintiff. John Doe was prevented from participating in the contentious Patriot Act reauthorization debate that raged across the nation in late 2005 and early 2006. Even though Doe had firsthand knowledge of this sweeping FBI power, he could not speak about the fact that he had received an NSL, divulge the breadth of the letter, or discuss the ramifications on his business relationships.

But here’s the part of the press release that blew me away. You would think that something like this isn’t used that widely. That, is definitely not the case. In the last two years the government has issued… wait for it… over 143,000 NSLs. That’s one NSL for every 2000 Americans in just 2 years.

While reports previously indicated a hundred-fold increase to 30,000 NSLs issued annually, an extraordinary March 2007 report from the Justice Department’s own Inspector General puts the actual number at over 143,000 NSLs issued between 2003 and 2005. The same investigation also found serious FBI abuses of the NSL power and numerous potential violations of the law.

Anyways, I’m so glad I renewed my membership to the ACLU last week.

See Who’s Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign. oh reverse ip lookups. via ram.

Whole Foods Executive Used Alias - New York Times. Their CEO was posting on yahoo investing forums with an alias for 7 years. way to go dumbass.

How credit-card information went out wireless door. they stole 40 million credit cards from a stores crappy wireless network? i’m kinda suspicious of this being true. via josh.

TSA loses hard drive with personal info - Yahoo! News. this is a security agency! honestly, how is their a hard drive lying around with info like this? via boris.

Retailers Whose Slips Show Too Much Attract Lawsuits - WSJ.com. people are filing rather foolish class-action lawsuits against companies who print your full credit card on receipts. though i have no problem with them suing companies that lose 40 million customers information.

Google’s latest tool for democracy activists | FP Passport. seems google earth images of the lavish homes of bahrain’s ruling family are coming in handy for activists.

Analyzing 20,000 MySpace Passwords - CyberKnowledge Blog. it seems the word “poop” came up a lot.