Declassified But Still Redacted CIA Report That Launched Invasion Of Iraq Released

After 12 Years, CIA Releases Classified Document Used To Justify Invasion Of Iraq

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” John Greenewald, the operator of The Black Vault, a hub for declassified government documents, contacted the CIA in 2014, requesting an updated version of the NIE that contained more details. The CIA provided Greenewald with a newer version in Jan. 2015, which he first shared with VICE News.

  VICE News noted that the release of this document marks the first time the public has access to the “hastily drafted CIA document that led Congress to pass a joint resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq.”

  While the newly released version of the NIE still keeps some details from the public, it provides more information about the intelligence the US claimed to have when choosing to invade Iraq, and it points out some holes in the stories of the US officials who were justifying the invasion to the American public.

  When presenting the war on March 19, 2003, Bush stated that the United States’ goals were to disarm Iraq of its supposed weapons of mass destruction, to overthrow Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and to free the Iraqi people.”

 

 

Ben Swann has more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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No Matter How Paranoid Or Conspiracy-Minded You Are …

What The Government Is Doing …

 

 

 

 

… Is Worse Than You Imagined

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NYC Installs “ShotSpotter” Listening Posts … Privacy Be Gone

Big Brother Fears As NYPD Attaches Microphones To Lampposts To Listen Out For Gunshots… But They Can Also Record Your Conversations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” Technology now in use by the New York Police Department may be picking up stray conversations.

  Three hundred ShotSpotter microphones are being placed in high crime areas of the Bronx and Brooklyn, with the aim of alerting police immediately when they overhear the sound of gunshots.

  However, the devices pick up more that just the bang of shots being fired in potential crimes, and evidence from conversations they’ve listened in on has been used in court.”

We find the raven emblematic of the death of our privacy

” Audio recordings from ShotSpotter have been used to corroborate testimony that led to convictions in a 2011 Massachusetts murder where a voice was heard shouting ‘No Jason, no Jason!’ before shots were fired. 

  NYPD officials and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a pilot program for the microphones earlier this week.

  Sensors in seven districts of the Bronx have already begun working, and the devices will be turned on in ten districts of Brooklyn on Monday, according to the New York Times. “

   ShotSpotter amounts to “Big Brother” listening posts throughout the public streets , and despite assurances to the contrary raise legitimate privacy concerns:

” The restrictions on triggering events have not stopped some privacy advocates from saying that evidence procured by the ShotSpotters may violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. 

‘ If [ShotSpotter] is recording voices out in public, it needs to be shut down,’ the ACLU’s Jay Stanley told Take Part.

  He said his organization is ‘always concerned about secondary uses of technology that is sold to us for some unobjectionable purpose and is then used for other purposes.’ “

   One thing that has become readily apparent in recent years is that if there is a way to abuse and/or misuse technological advances , the State will find a way … Read more on the huge potential for civil rights abuses represented by State ears recording on public streets here . 

   If public eavesdropping becomes socially acceptable , in the name of “public safety” of course , then it follows that the next step , also for “the public good” , will be something along the lines of what the head of Scotland Yard recently proposed … surveillance cameras in our homes .  

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Sniper: Inside The Crosshairs

Sniper: Inside The Crosshairs – Full Documentary

 

 

 

 

Published on Nov 6, 2014

” The deadliest weapon on the battlefield is neither bullet nor gun; it’s the lone sniper. Journey inside the science and psychology behind the greatest shots in military history, through the scope of the world’s most extreme marksmen. Deconstruct the missions, ranging from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan, presented by the men who were there and pulled the trigger. For the first time on American television Canadian sniper Robert Furlong, tells the story of his history-making shot in Afghanistan–striking a Taliban fighter from 1.5 miles away. Ballistics… Tactics… Weaponry… Stalking… This two-hour special examines these critical components in vivid detail, combining interviews with cinematic reenactments, CGI and present day shooting demonstrations to put the viewer squarely inside the crosshairs.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Secret Service: It’s “SOP” To Erase Security Tapes Of Drunken Agents

Secret Service Erased Tapes Of Latest White House Incident

 

 

 

 

 

” The Secret Service told members of Congress that the majority of the surveillance videos documenting the latest allegations of misconduct, a March 4 crash at the White House, have been erased and that the destruction of the tapes is standard operating procedure.

  Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy showed him two existing surveillance tapes of that night, when two Secret Service agents have been accused of bumping into a White House barricade while driving after a night of drinking, but they offered only severely limited views of the sequence of events that night.”

 

Read more

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gallup: Majority Of Americans Polled List Government As Biggest Problem

Americans Name Government As No. 1 U.S. Problem

 

 

 

 

” Americans continue to name the government (18%) as the most important U.S. problem, a distinction it has had for the past four months. Americans’ mentions of the economy as the top problem (11%) dropped this month, leaving it tied with jobs (10%) for second place.

  Though issues such as terrorism, healthcare, race relations and immigration have emerged among the top problems in recent polls, government, the economy and unemployment have been the dominant problems listed by Americans for more than a year.

  The latest results are from a March 5-8 Gallup poll of 1,025 American adults.

  While the ranking of the top two problems is similar to what Gallup found in February, mentions of the economy dropped from 16% to the current 11%. In a separate measure, Americans’ confidence in the economy had been dipping further into negative territory in late February and early March, but has been improving in recent days. “

 

 

    Read it all and rejoice as the truth finally begins to dawn on the general public …

 

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Investigative Reporter Uncovers Extensive Surveillance Program At Colorado Post Offices

Mysterious Spy Cameras Collecting Data At Post Offices In Colorado

 

 

 

 

” Within an hour of a KDVR reporter discovering a hidden camera, which was positioned to capture and record the license plates and facial features of customers leaving a Denver post office, the device was ripped from the ground and disappeared.

  Investigative reporter Chris Halsne confirmed the hidden camera and recorder is owned and operated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement branch of the U.S. Postal Service.

  The recording device appeared to be tripped by any vehicle leaving the property on Johnson Road, but the lens was not positioned to capture images of the front door, employee entrance, or loading dock areas of the post office.

  A customer first noticed the data collection device, hidden inside a utilities box, around Thanksgiving 2014. It stayed in place, taking photos through the busy Christmas holidays and into mid-January.”

 

 

    While the Postal Service tried to maintain that the surveillance was just a “routine security measure” privacy groups see it a bit differently , and rightly so …

 

 

” Lee Tien, an attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, says more and more federal agencies are getting away with conducting surveillance and collecting personal data of citizens without a warrant signed by a judge.

“ Part of being a responsible, constitutional government is explaining why it is doing surveillance on its citizens,” Lee told Halsne. “The government should not be collecting this kind of sensitive information. And it is sensitive! It`s about your relationships, your associations with other people, which can be friendship or political or religious. The idea that we give up that privacy simply because we use the U.S. mail is, I think, a silly idea.” “

 

 

     As if the Postal Service wasn’t endangered enough , now they are actively driving their ever-dwindling customer base further into the arms of private delivery services by spying on them … Read it all and head to your nearest UPs/Fedex office to send your mail .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 14th Is “International Drone Day” , And Your Opportunity To Show #DronesAreGood

Join Us For International Drone Day

 

 

 

 

 

” Drones have a bad reputation, and even though many of us call our Multi-rotors by different names, the public does associate our fantastic machines with the word drone.   We are here to make sure that Drones are seen in a positive light.  International Drone Day is held every year on the second Saturday in the Month of March. This year is will be held on March 14, 2015

  What is International Drone Day?”

” The purpose of International Drone Day is to show the world that drones are good, and can be used for many good purposes. Movie making, search and rescue, police work, architecture, inspections, emergency response, and for just having fun.

  Groups of drone enthusiast get together into organized groups all across the world to fly their drones, and invite friends, neighbors, and the media to showcase drones in a good way

  The goal is to get as many Newspapers, blogs, TV News, Magazines, and groups to see drones being used for good.

  How do I participate in International Drone Day?

  We have groups that meet up all across the world, simply find a group in your area and sign up (its all free). Or if there is not a group, you can form a group or you can go out on your own and fly this day. Click here to become a captain or form your own group in your area

  A documentary film is being made on this historic event. So its a great time to be interviewed, and showcase your work or your companies work in a big media day, its time to be apart of something big Join here

  How do I show my participation in International Drone Day?

  You simply take a picture or video on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the tag #InterntationalDroneDay
And you let the local news, radio, tv stations, blogs, meet up groups, etc know what this day is about.

  Even if you can not fly this day, you can still help by spreading the word about drones, use the hash tag #InternationalDroneDay #dronesforgood .”

 

 

Sign up to join a team and participate here at That Drone Show

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Are These “Privacy Glasses” The Next Tool In The Battle For Privacy ?

These ‘Privacy Glasses’ Make You Invisible To Facial Recognition

 

 

 

” You’re going out with friends mid-week, and you don’t want the boss/significant other/parole officer to find out. But it’s a birthday celebration, and Facebook’s auto-tagging the pictures your buddies upload like a dirty snitch. The first piece of advice: never “friend” your parole officer. The second? Maybe grab a pair of these “privacy” glasses from software security firm AVG. You, of course, can see my visage above, but AVG claims the technology in the specs means facial recognition software (like that of Facebook) will not.

  How does it work? “

 

EnGadget explains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Third Time’s A Charm: Irish Car Thief Knocks Self Cold With Brick … LOL Video

Thief Knocks Himself Out With Brick After Failed Carjacking

 

 

 

Published on Mar 1, 2015

” http://www.vladtv.com – A man from Ireland was jailed and embarrassed after he knocked himself out with a brick during a failed carjacking attempt.

  According to the Huffington Post, Gerry Brady talked to reporters about the incident when he found the man knocked out near his vehicle. Brady, who owns the local bar nearby says he watched the culprit attempt to break into his car several times. After a rock didn’t break the window, he tries to use a brick and knocks himself out. Brady says the suspect tried to tell the police he was the one who injured him, but they discovered his own actions caused the entire thing.

” You should have heard the [guards] laughing when they saw the video,” Brady said. “They were in stitches. Credit to them, they were straight out when we called and found the guy within minutes.”

  The culprit was arrested while police continue to investigate the incident.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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City Of Cleveland Lays Blame On Tamir Rice For Cop Killing Him

Tamir Rice ‘Directly And Proximately’ Responsible For Own Police Shooting Death, Says City

 

 

 

 

 

” The death of Tamir Rice was “directly and proximately” caused by the 12-year-old’s own actions, the city of Cleveland has argued in a defense document following a civil claim from the boy’s family. Rice was shot dead by a police officer last November.

  When he was shot, Rice was holding a toy gun which police mistook for a real firearm. The incident sparked widespread criticism that officer Timothy Loehmann, who killed Rice, employed a drastic overuse of force.

  The city of Cleveland’s defense, filed with the US district court on Friday, argues that both Rice and members of his family are to blame for any damages, injuries and losses arising from the incident. The argument lists 20 lines of defense, including that Rice did not “exercise due care to avoid injury” and that members of his family, including his mother and teenage sister, who have lodged the claim, sustained damages “caused by their own acts”. “

 

 

   Read more on the city of Cleveland’s attempt to excuse their police officer’s wanton killing of Tamir Rice by blaming the victim at the Guardian and in case you’ve missed it you can catch on the horrifying execution and it’s aftermath by reading our previous posts here , here and here .

   Be sure to watch the above video and see the young man gunned down before the police car is even brought to a stop and bear in mind that the city medical examiner ruled the shooting a homicide .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Infusion Of Investor Cash Boosts BlackPhone Company Silent Circle

BlackPhone Maker Silent Circle Announces $50 Million In Funding

 

 

 

 

 

” The BlackPhone, a $600-plus encrypted Android handset designed to keep the prying eyes of criminals and the government out of mobile communications, is now fully owned by Silent Circle thanks to the company raking in investment cash.

  Terms of the buyout deal with Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone, the phone’s hardware manufacturer, were not disclosed. Silent Circle said Thursday that it has raised $50 million and plans on showing off an encrypted “enterprise privacy ecosystem” at World Mobile Congress next week. A BlackPhone tablet is on the way, too.

” Silent Circle has brought tremendous disruption to the mobile industry and created an integrated suite of secure enterprise communication products that are challenging the status quo,” Mike Janke, cofounder and chairman of the Silent Circle board, said in a statement. “This first stage of growth has enabled us to raise approximately $50M to accelerate our continued rapid expansion and fuel our second stage of growth.”

  The cash infusion and the push for encrypted communications are in part a direct result of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about massive government surveillance.”

 

Details at Ars Technica

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Beware” Software Allows Cops To Monitor Your Social Media & Assign Threat Risks

Fresno Police Scanning Social Media To Assess Threat

 

 

 

 

” Fresno police are at the forefront of a new technology designed to figure out how much danger officers may be getting into as they respond to 911 calls. But the product is drawing comparisons to Big Brother because of the massive amount of personal information it collects.

  At least two cops might be alive today if they had access to the software we got to see. But once it’s put to use by police, you have to watch what you say or risk being labeled a threat.

  Before the assassination of two New York police officers in December, an obvious warning was there for anyone to read. But the message in the killer’s public Instagram post never reached officers Liu and Ramos. Two months later, every call to Fresno police dispatchers could give similar warnings the chance to reach officers through new software known as Beware.

” To the extent that there is information that is in the public domain, regardless of where the input was derived, it could potentially be surfaced through a Beware query,” said Allen Carr, vice president of Intrado, the company producing and marketing Beware to first responders of all types.

  Intrado buys billions of pieces of commercially available personal information — the same stuff credit agencies have. It adds arrest records from police databases and within seconds, gives a quick look at who lives at any address and a profile for every person associated with the address.”

 

ABC30

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cops Efforts To Conceal “Stingray” Surveillance Technology Allows Criminals To Walk

Secrecy Around Police Surveillance Equipment Proves A Case’s Undoing

 

 

 

” The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time pot dealer of $130 worth of weed using BB guns. Under Florida law, that was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four years in prison.

  But before trial, his defense team detected investigators’ use of a secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police to show the device —a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a StingRay — to the attorneys.

  Rather than show the equipment, the state offered McKenzie a plea bargain.

  Today, 20-year-old McKenzie is serving six months’ probation ­after pleading guilty to a second-degree misdemeanor. He got, as one civil liberties advocate said, the deal of the century. (The other two defendants also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years’ probation.)

  McKenzie’s case is emblematic of the growing, but hidden, use by local law enforcement of a sophisticated surveillance technology borrowed from the national security world. It shows how a gag order imposed by the FBI — on grounds that discussing the device’s operation would compromise its effectiveness — has left judges, the public and criminal defendants in the dark on how the tool works.”

 

Washington Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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US Has Fallen From 21st to 49th In Press Freedom Since Obama Took Office

The Government’s War On Freedom Of The Press

 

   Ed. Note: The US is so far down the list that we had to shrink the screen down to 25% to get this screen shot and even then we were unable to capture the top seven nations . They are Finland , Norway , Denmark , Netherlands , Sweden , New Zealand and Austria . Click the image for all of the details.

 

 

 

” The U.S. plummeted to a dismal 49th place on the Reporters Without Borders annual Press Freedom Index, marking the country’s second lowest ranking since the list was created in 2002 and its lowest since 2006. Other countries ranked in the 40s and 50s include Haiti, Mongolia, and Chile.

  The index cited “judicial harassment” of New York Times reporter James Risen, the arbitrary arrest of at least 15 journalists during the Ferguson, Missouri clashes, and the fact that U.S. journalists are still not legally entitled to protect sources who reveal confidential information about their work.

  The U.S.’s slip in press freedom rankings mirrors its seven-place drop in Freedom House’s Global Press Freedom Index from 2013-2014, though the country still ranks among the 14 percent of countries whose press is classified as “free” in the latter scale.

  Reality may be even worse than the rankings suggest. Legal protections for the press have only eroded since the 2006 trough year when the Bush Administration threatened to prosecute Risen for publishing stories chronicling warrantless wiretapping of citizens’ phone calls.

  Since the Obama Administration took power, it has used the Espionage Act to prosecute data leakers a record seven times—more than every other president combined in the law’s nearly 100-year history—a Fox News journalist has been spied on by the Justice Department under the justification that he’s a criminal conspirator, Wikileaks creator Julian Assange has been declared “a hi-tech terrorist,” and the Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court ruling against Risen stating that the First Amendment doesn’t protect him from refusing to testify about a whistleblower that allegedly leaked classified information about the CIA’s efforts to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

  Reports from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald even suggest that media outlets routinely vet their articles with government officials before publishing them.”

 

 

 By way of comparison , in 2009 when Obama took office the US was ranked in a tie with the UK for 21st place by Reporters Without Borders (again , click the image for the details) :

 

 

Reason has more on this “Change” we can believe in …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Title II Control Of The Internet … What Could Go Wrong ?

Internet Groups In Tricky Position Over US Net Neutrality

 

 

 

 

” The problem comes with the form the rules will take. With heavy nudging from the White House, the FCC has opted to repurpose an authority it was given under an old telecoms law, known as Title II, to make it apply to the internet era.

  Like all deeply technical issues that become political footballs, it has not been hard for the rival camps to turn this into opposing talking points. Depending on where you stand, it is either bold action to protect an open internet or inappropriately sweeping, utility-style regulation.

  What is indisputable is that the legislation the FCC is relying on was designed for circuit-switched telephone networks in a different age. The only way to adapt it to modern times is to suppress certain parts of Title II and implement it piecemeal. The FCC promises a light touch: in particular, it says it will avoid price regulation or any requirements that might force operators to unbundle their networks.

  If history is any guide, a challenge in the courts will follow. There is simply too much at stake for the regulations not to be tested. And, as was the case with the last approach to net neutrality, it is not beyond the courts to reject the FCC’s compromise as unduly arbitrary.

  This is where things could become dicey for companies such as Google and Facebook. Who knows how some future FCC would interpret its new Title II powers, or whether a court would order a different implementation of the law. Price regulation of the internet’s interconnection agreements would always be a looming threat.

  It is not just the impact in the US itself that is at stake. There is also the question of what message US regulators are about to send to the rest of the world. The risk is that Washington will be seen to be giving a nod of approval to the idea of extending traditional telecoms rate regulations to the internet.”

 

 

Read the whole piece at Financial Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Utah State Gov Suffers 10,000-Fold Increase In Cyber-Attacks Since NSA Opened Spy Facility

Massive Utah Cyberattacks — Up To 300 Million Per Day — May Be Aimed At NSA Facility

 

 

 

” Five years ago, Utah government computer systems faced 25,000 to 30,000 attempted cyberattacks every day.

  At the time, Utah Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires thought that was massive. “But this last year we have had spikes of over 300 million attacks against the state databases” each day: a 10,000-fold increase.

  Why? Squires says it is probably because Utah is home to the new, secretive National Security Agency computer center, and hackers believe they can somehow get to it through state computer systems.

” I really do believe it was all the attention drawn to the NSA facility. In the cyberworld, that’s a big deal,” Squires told a legislative budget committee Tuesday. “I watched as those increases jumped so much over the last few years. And talking to counterparts in other states, they weren’t seeing that amount of increase like we were.” “

Read more

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Two Philly Cops Indicted After Girlfriend Of Beating Victim Uncovers Video Proving Cops Lied

Two Philadelphia Police Officers Charged With Beating A Man And Falsely Accusing Him Of Assault

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” Two police officers in Philadelphia have been charged with beating a man nearly two years ago and claiming that he attacked them, authorities said this week.

  The charges, which come amid a heightened focus on police tactics in the country, came as a result of surveillance footage showing that the officers, rather than being assaulted as they had reported, knocked the man off a motor scooter before beating him so severely he required stitches and staples, according to a grand jury report, the Philadelphia district attorney and the city’s police commissioner.

“ The same rules should apply to everyone,” Seth Williams, Philadelphia’s district attorney, said Thursday at a news conference announcing the charges. “Rich or poor, black or white, or a sworn officer with a badge.”

  A grand jury had investigated the May 2013 incident after Williams’s office received surveillance video from the scene. The grand jury said in its findings that Sean McKnight and Kevin Robinson, the two Philadelphia police officers, “assaulted Najee Rivera by knocking him off of his motor scooter and then hitting him repeatedly with a baton and fists causing him bodily injury, including a fractured orbital and numerous facial cuts requiring stitches and staples.” 

  The surveillance video showed the police car, without its lights or siren activated and not issuing any commands, hitting Rivera on his scooter and knocking him onto the ground, according to the grand jury presentation. This video then shows the officers getting out of the car and hitting Rivera with a baton, first while being held against a wall and then while he was on the ground.

  This is how the grand jury presentation describes the scene:

  Throughout the entire encounter that is captured on the video, Rivera was wailing loudly and uncontrollably. Although he was moving around on the ground while being struck, he was not resisting the officers or engaging in any aggressive actions. After about 40 seconds of continued repeated strikes, McKnight and Robinson placed Rivera into handcuffs and held him down with a foot on his back. For at least four minutes, either McKnight or Robinson kept a foot on Rivera’s back as he lay on the ground bleeding. “

 

 

Washington Post

 

    In it’s typical Statist way the WaPost omits the fact that it was the determination and diligence of Mr Rivera’s girlfriend , Dina Scannapieco , that finally brought this case against the officers involved thanks to her tireless efforts to locate surveillance video of the incident , something that the authorities failed to do .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Canadian Kids Attack Each Other With Roman Candle-Armed Drone

FPV Quadcopter – Gun Cam

 

 

 

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How License Plate Readers Are Eroding Your Privacy

They’re Tracking You Everywhere You Drive

 

 

 

” Towing companies are a necessary evil when it comes to parking enforcement and property repossession. But in the Google Earth we now inhabit, tow trucks do more than just yank cars out of loading zones. They use license-plate readers (LPRs) to assemble a detailed profile of where your car will be and when. That’s an unnecessary evil.

  Plate readers have long been a tool of law enforcement, and police officers swear by them for tracking stolen cars and apprehending dangerous criminals. But private companies, such as repo crews, also photograph millions of plates a day, with scanners mounted on tow trucks and even on purpose-built camera cars whose sole mission is to drive around and collect plate scans. Each scan is GPS-tagged and stamped with the date and time, feeding a massive data trove to any law-enforcement agency—or government-approved private industry—willing to pay for it.

  You’ve probably been tagged at the office, at a mall, or even in your own driveway. And the companies that sell specialized monitoring software that assembles all these sightings into a reliable profile stand to profit hugely. Brian Hauss, a legal fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says: “The whole point is so you can figure out somebody’s long-term location. Unless there are limits on how those transactions can be processed, I think it’s just a matter of time until there are significant privacy violations, if they haven’t already occurred.”

  (How Is This Even Legal? License-plate-reader companies don’t have access to DMV registrations, so while they can track your car, they don’t know it’s yours. That information is guarded by the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994, which keeps your name, address, and driving history from public view. Mostly. There are plenty of exceptions, including for insurance companies and private investigators. LPR companies say only two groups can use its software to find the person behind the plate: law-enforcement agencies and repossession companies. In addition, the encrypted databases keep a log of each plate search and allow the ability to restrict access.)

  The companies that push plate readers enjoy unregulated autonomy in most states. Vigilant Solutions of California and its partner, Texas-based Digital Recognition Network, boast at least 2 billion license-plate scans since starting the country’s largest private license-plate database, the National Vehicle Location Service, in 2009.

  In total, there are at least 3 billion license-plate photos in private databases. Since many are duplicates and never deleted, analytics can paint a vivid picture of any motorist. Predicting where and when someone will drive is relatively easy; software can sort how many times a car is spotted in a certain area and, when fed enough data, can generate a person’s driving history over time.”

 

Read the rest at Popular Mechanics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Escorts Required For Media Lapdogs At Dem’s Retreat … Even To The Loo

At Retreat, Dem Staffers Escort Reporters To Restroom

 

 

 

” Reporters covering the House Democrats’ retreat in Philadelphia this week are having a much different experience than when they’re on their home turf on Capitol Hill. 

  Reporters are being escorted to and from the restroom and lobby and are being barred from entering the hotel outside of scheduled events, even if they’ve been invited by a member of Congress. 

  During Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks at the retreat Friday, reporters were required to have a staff member, usually a junior member of the press team, escort them when going to the bathroom or to the lobby. The filing center for reporters was at a separate hotel from where the retreat was taking place, so access was limited to members of Congress specifically made available to the press.

“ It was a police state. It was absurd how heavy handed the capitol police and Democratic staff were in trying to control everywhere the press went,” New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters said in an interview.”

 

Read more about the media being shut out by their own home team here . The irony is delicious .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Drone News: Maldrone Can Hijack Your Drone & DJI Makes DC A No-Fly Zone

This Malware Can Hijack A Drone In Seconds

 

 

 

 

 

” If the White House wants to keep drones off the lawn, they might want to give Rahul Sasi a call. He’s developing malware that can hijack a drone in just a few short seconds.

  He calls his malware (fittingly enough) Maldrone, and it doesn’t gain control over its victims the way that previously-demonstrated attacks do. Most others have leveraged the APIs — like the one provided by Parrot for developers who want to tinker with their AR Drones — to do the hijacking.

  But a “Parrot drone is a toy,” Rahul says, and he went to work on an attack that was a bit more generic, able to wreak havoc on multitudes of drones regardless of whether or not the manufacturer exposes anything via an API. Maldrone is the result, and it’s impressive even though it’s very much a work in progress.”

 

    Read more about Maldrone here . In other drone news , DJI has upgraded their firmware creating a 15.5 mile radius no-fly zone around Washington DC .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Friendly Reminder From The NSA …

… Clean Your Camera Lens!

 

 

 

 

 

” The NSA has issued a Public Announcement today saying that everyone who owns a laptop, cell phone, smart TV, and any other modern social device with video recording, is advised to clean their camera lens regularly.

  An unnamed member of the NSA has released the statement through their Twitter account adding that “It’s really not good for morale when you see a chick in her bedroom through the laptop, and the camera lens blurs the image because of a smudge or something, especially when she’s pretty hot.” The NSA Twitter account later stated that “if you are under a 5 out of 10 on the hotness scale then you can disregard the advisory.”

  This is not the first very open statement the NSA has made in recent months when they released a tweet saying, “You know what? Everyone knows we’re watching, so we might as well save billions on secrecy and be blatant about it. I mean, the cat’s out of the bag and we, as a tax-powered institution, should just admit it.”

  There have also been hundreds of complaints recently from all collective genders about receiving random and untraceable phone texts while at home, asking the recipients things like, “Turn around a few times” and “It’s a little warm for that sweater, don’t you think?”

  When asked about the recent unprofessional attitude they officially state that “it’s 2015, so get with the times, this is the new standard of government professionalism.”

 

Thanks to Chedoh at The People’s Cube

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How Well Does Your State Protect Your Privacy Rights ?

Does Your State Protect Your Privacy In The Digital Age?

 

 

 

 

” New technologies make it possible for state and local law enforcement agencies to engage in surveillance that used to be prohibitively expensive and/or effectively impossible. The ACLU has been working with legislators across the country to put in place rules to ensure that we can take advantage of these new technologies without becoming a surveillance society in which our every movements are tracked, monitored, and scrutinized by the authorities. Much of our work to that end focuses on: law enforcement access to electronic communications content, location tracking,automatic license plate readers, and domestic surveillance drones.

  If we can address these four issue areas, we will go a long way toward protecting privacy in the digital age. This map provides a snapshot of the states that have already provided privacy protections for some or all of them. Of course, the devil is in the details of these laws, and we encourage you to review the bill text or to check out the ACLU’s blog for more information on just how much protection there is in your state.”

 

Thanks to the ACLU

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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