Jan 07
I think this article is getting around various places….I just saw it hit slashdot late last night, though I pulled it out of EFFector myself…
Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists is an interesting article on pulling information out of Amazon wishlists. Basically, the author downloaded the first page of 260,000 wishlists and then [...] [...more]
Posted: under Internet, Privacy, Software, Technology.
I think this article is getting around various places….I just saw it hit slashdot late last night, though I pulled it out of EFFector myself…
Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists is an interesting article on pulling information out of Amazon wishlists. Basically, the author downloaded the first page of 260,000 wishlists and then searched through the data to find “dangerous” (That is, if you were a paranoid government.) books and keywords. Included are books like On Liberty, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984. Some of the keywords were Michael Moore, Rush Limgaugh, and Koran. You get the idea. He comes up with a list of what books people seem to be interested in and goes on to demonstrate how he can easily find where many of these people live and even generate a map showing everyone.
And in case you were wondering, it was all fairly simple. It didn’t require any special resources of any kind. Anyone who knows how to program could do the same.
This is all pretty straightforward though. And although it is disturbing as a concept, there are two reasons why it’s even more disturbing as a reality.
First of all, the author links what he’s doing to the whole Patriot Act wiretap thing. This is where the government spies on it’s own citizens even in order to get those terrorists. Bush had said that while there were wiretaps, they were only being used on international calls amongst people who were known to have ties to terrorists. What he didn’t mention was that apparently, data mining such as this was used to determine who should get those wiretaps. So in a way, everyone was being spied on anyways.
Secondly, the Patriot Act can make the whole thing transparent to everyone and the FBI seems to be considering some data mining of their own. From the article:
This is what’s possible with publicly available information, but imagine if one had access to Amazon’s entire database – which still contains every sale dating back to 1999 by the way. Under Section 251 of the Patriot Act, the FBI can require Amazon to turn over its records, without probable cause, for an “authorized investigation . . . to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” Amazon is forbidden to disclose that they have turned over any records, so that you would never know that the government is keeping records of your book purchases. And obviously it is quite simple to crossreference this info with data available in other databases.
On a final note, the FBI is now hiring computer scientists to implement a project that sounds very similar to what I just did:
“Currently, the FBI is strengthening systems engineering in order to tie new systems together architecturally and ensure that standards for custom and packaged applications are enforced, and it needs engineers to accomplish this goal, the agency said.
“The FBI is also focusing on data warehousing as well as federated search technology, which allows a single search query to be deployed across a number of databases, regardless of whether those databases belong to the same protocol or platform.
“‘Warehousing has been very successful, yet enterprise extraction, translation and loading processes must be fine-tuned,†the FBI said. “Data engineers are needed to model legacy databases for federated search and participate in legacy transition planning.’”(Computerworld)
Dec 18
It’s been a good bet for years that the government has been spying on it’s own citizens without even getting warrants since the Patriot Act allows for it, but it’s nice to see Bush confirm that it’s happening.
Of course, not only does he openly admit to the practice, but he’s upset that he’s looking at [...] [...more]
Posted: under Politics, Privacy.
It’s been a good bet for years that the government has been spying on it’s own citizens without even getting warrants since the Patriot Act allows for it, but it’s nice to see Bush confirm that it’s happening.
Of course, not only does he openly admit to the practice, but he’s upset that he’s looking at a situation that won’t allow him to do it any more. The senate failed to renew the Patriot Act, so he’s faced with the possibility of having to ask a judge for permission to do things. Damned constitution…
Jul 29
I know what a malware infested computer is like now. It’s not fun at all. It (almost) amazes me what some people will do to try to make a buck… I used to fix/upgrade/build computers at a little shop when I was in high school, and thankfully that was before all this crap started happening. [...] [...more]
Posted: under Internet, Privacy, Technology.
I know what a malware infested computer is like now. It’s not fun at all. It (almost) amazes me what some people will do to try to make a buck… I used to fix/upgrade/build computers at a little shop when I was in high school, and thankfully that was before all this crap started happening. I imagine that repair shops get a lot of this stuff now. Your average user doesn’t stand a chance against this stuff. It’s not hard to deal with if you know what you’re doing (obviously), and even if you don’t all you need to do is show some initiative, google for your problem, and follow the directions available on numerous websites. I don’t think your average user is capable of doing that though.
Someone I worked with said their computer was running slow. I said I’d take a look at it, because what could be more fun? I figured it was full of spyware and crap. I was right….
Once I got the thing started up, I was immediately assailed with programs saying that there was spyware found and I should click here, here, and here to remove it, register the program, etc. I didn’t recognize the programs so I went ahead and googled them and found that they were all fake, or at least too fake for my liking. Several of these programs were what some would call extortionware…..they want you to buy their program, but it’s really them that’s creating the problem in the first place. It’s no wonder how they all got there though. Some popups would show up prompting you to download some program. Clicking on cancel or closing the window (presumably if clicked on OK it would too…) would cause it to try to install the program anyways. Thankfully, IE has a security check, so you have to OK it, but if you have no clue what you’re doing you might just click OK and let it install…
It did need some help though….saying it ran slow would be a bit of an understatement. As soon as I opened up IE, everything went to hell. more_link_text
Jul 16
Last Chance to Stop Renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act!
Congress will vote any day now on new legislation that would renew parts of the USA PATRIOT Act scheduled to expire or “sunset” at the end of the year, while possibly handing the FBI even more unchecked power to snoop on your mail and private records, [...] [...more]
Posted: under Politics, Privacy.
Last Chance to Stop Renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act!
Congress will vote any day now on new legislation that would renew parts of the USA PATRIOT Act scheduled to expire or “sunset” at the end of the year, while possibly handing the FBI even more unchecked power to snoop on your mail and private records, including logs of your Internet activities.
PATRIOT’s notorious Section 215 allows intelligence investigators to demand private records about citizens who aren’t suspected of spying or terrorism, including medical, financial, and library records, while other parts of PATRIOT radically expanded the government’s power to subpoena records or conduct wiretaps to see what you’re doing online.
The current PATRIOT bills could make these and a host of other highly controversial provisions permanent. Some in the Senate want to go even further, and allow the FBI to secretly demand any and all types of records without a judge’s permission, using new do-it-yourself “administrative subpoenas.” Meanwhile, the sensible checks and balances proposed in the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (SAFE), an alternative PATRIOT reform bill, have yet to be seriously considered.
Don’t let Congress defy the bipartisan will of the hundreds of local communities that have passed resolutions opposing the PATRIOT Act. Contact your legislators today and tell them to vote against PATRIOT renewal and for PATRIOT reform!
If you’re unfamiliar with the PATRIOT Act, then I’d recommend you read up on it (The EFF also has a nice summary). Basically, it’s legislation that was passed after 9/11 that gave up some basic civil rights in exchange for security. It’s an idea that made some amount of sense at the time (though it wasn’t worthwhile if you ask me). The idea was of course to combat terrorism, but really the act can be (and is) applied to any crime (or rather, potential crime). It allows law enforcement to do things without getting a warrant first. This is terrible. The only protection we have against surveillance and searches is that a court must approve that there is just cause to do so before it can happen. When that is removed, so is our protection.
They could begin debating these bills as early as this coming Wednesday, so head on over to the EFF Action Center and you can send a letter to your legislators.
Nov 15
I managed to find someone….the American Family Association (morons) (I have to maintain a fair pageranking here… )
They seem to support all kinds of dubious causes. They’re against gay marriage and porn among other things….what a bunch of fucking pussies. Oh well, they can go fuck themselves. I’ve run out [...] [...more]
Posted: under Privacy.
I managed to find someone….the American Family Association (morons) (I have to maintain a fair pageranking here… 
)
They seem to support all kinds of dubious causes. They’re against gay marriage and porn among other things….what a bunch of fucking pussies. Oh well, they can go fuck themselves. I’ve run out of tolerance for the day (started when I woke up….shrug)
