WhO KnOwS WhErE YoU ArE, AnD WhY?

By Andrew J. Blumberg and Peter Eckersley, August 2009

San Francisco – Innovative new technologies can make it easier to pay your bridge toll or bus fare, to search for nearby businesses from your cell phone, and to get in and out of secure areas with a card instead of a key. But these systems also pose a dramatic threat to locational privacy — your ability to move in public spaces without the systematic recording of where you are and when you are there.

In a report released today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) documents how your location information is collected by various popular electronic devices and services, and argues for concrete technological solutions that would allow you to enjoy these systems’ benefits without sacrificing your privacy in your everyday life.

"There are nifty new location-based technologies like electronic road-toll tags and cell-phone apps that alert you when your friends are nearby — but these systems often create and store records of your movements,” said EFF Staff Technologist Peter Eckersley, one of the co-writers of the white paper. “This could make it possible for others to know when you visited a health clinic, what church or bar you spend time in, or who you go to lunch with. It is essential that privacy-protecting algorithms are built into these devices and services, so we can enjoy their convenience without making our private lives into open books."

Systems that track people’s movements are gaining in popularity, and over the next decade, it’s likely that these technologies will be indelibly woven into the fabric of everyday life. The report tackles specific services in use today, and details encryption strategies and designs that would protect sensitive location information.

“The technical solution to preserving privacy in digital services lies in modern cryptography and careful design,” said Stanford University mathematician Andrew J. Blumberg, the white paper’s other co-writer. “It may seem counterintuitive, but using cryptography, these systems can function without collecting and storing personal data at all. The best way for systems to protect user data is not to collect it in the first place; then the information is not available for anyone to buy, steal, or obtain by subpoena — it would stay truly private.”

===snipped===>"And Ye Shall Know The Truth And The Truth Shall Set You Free"

WAKE UP AMERICA….ITs OUR COUNTRY!!!

Love “Light” and Energy

_Don (((3)))

[ FBI Misuse of Authority to Obtain Phone Records]

[EFF Helps Blogger Subpoenaed by TSA, TSA Backs Down]

[Lawsuit Demands Answers About Social-Networking Surveillance]

[An open letter to Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt.]

All of the mp3 audio recordings & pdf FOIA scans included on this page can be found in this .zip file (100Mb). Please mirror!

[Using the GPS for People Tracking]

[8 Million Reasons for Real Surveillance Oversight]

It is unclear if Federal law enforcement agencies' extensive collection of geolocation data should have been disclosed to Congress pursuant to a 1999 law that requires the publication of certain surveillance statistics -- since the Department of Justice simply ignores the law, and has not provided the legally mandated reports to Congress since 2004.

[ACLU: Patriot Act - Eight Years Later]

[TwCIAtter Turns On Opt-In GeoLocation Feature]

[Justice Dept. asked for news site's visitor lists!]

[From EFF's Secret Files: Anatomy of a Bogus Subpoena]

[Related: Geospatial Intelligence: Seeing With Your Brain]

[EFFs Best Practices for Online Service Providers]

[Update: Court to FBI: No spying on in-car computers]

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-5109435.html

[WOW Feds Denies Themselves Delay Release of Telecom Records A G A I N]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/10/federal-court-denies-goverment-attempt-delay-relea

[Who's in Big Brother's Database?]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23694.htm

[Telephone Company Is Arm of Government]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/att-doj-foia/

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery White disagreed and ruled on September 24 that the feds had to release the names of the telecom employees that contacted the Justice Department and the White House to lobby for a get-out-of-court-free card.

“Here, the telecommunications companies communicated with the government to ensure that Congress would pass legislation to grant them immunity from legal liability for their participation in the surveillance,” White wrote. “Those documents are not protected from disclosure because the companies communicated with the government agencies “with their own … interests in mind,” rather than the agency’s interests.”

Obama administration is asking for a 30-day emergency stay so it can file a further appeal.

[Your Privacy Matters: Daniel Ellsberg, the USA PATRIOT Act & You]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Your-Privacy-Matters-Dani-by-Michael-Anne-Conle-091006-57.html

[What next for the Patriot Act?]

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/10/20091011412660183.html

[Exposing How the Government Lied about National Security Letters and the Patriot Act]

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8581

[Update: Cops Can't Convert Car Into Tracking Device Without Court's OK]

[Now enforce it against the 'rouge' elements destroying lives here in the U.S.!]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/cops-cant-convert-car

[Brain Scanner Can Tell What You're Looking At] Not even the tip of the R&D icebury!

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/mri_vision

[RFID BRACELET ONCE YOU HAVE HAD THE US666 & EU666 VACCINATION]

References:

[Update: How online tracking companies know most of what you do online]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/online-trackers-and-social-networks

[Boston launches flu shot tracking]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/21/boston_launches_flu_shot_tracking/

[Related: Guardian Threat Tracking System]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Guardian_Threat_Tracking_System

[New cookie technologies: harder to see and remove, widely used to track you]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/new-cookie-technologies-harder-see-and-remove-wide

[Flash Player Manager Interface]

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html

[What information is "personally identifiable"?]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/what-information-personally-identifiable

[Update: Behavioral Tracking and Targeting]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/behavioral-tracking

[DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS]

http://www.cataphora.com/

[Feds Urge Dismissal of High-Profile Spy Case]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/feds-urge-dismissal-of-high-profile-spy-case/

[Action Center: The Onion: Google's New Opt-Out Privacy Protections]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/onion-googles-new-opt-out-privacy-protections

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/08/05