Topic: 
Pownce it!
Is this the major effort we have been waiting for as Bush tries in vain for any legacy, as he prepares for retirement… and relies on his Supreme Court Appointees to rein over freedom and American privacy for the next decade ?
Wikipedia profiles - Mukasey | Hayden | Bush | Mueller
It took the US Department of Justice 4 times in 2005 to get the courts to grant the Bush White House the ability to force cell phone providers to turn over real-time, continuous physical location data on cell phone users, without first having to obtain a warrant or even demonstrate probable cause - remember that ?
The Feds are at it again wiretapping cell phones - this time its the FBI using a method of eavesdropping known as a “roving bug”, to eavesdrop on some mobsters in a sting of the Genovese family. The defense objected, and recently the Federal court ruled that the use of the roving bug technology was covered under the federal wiretapping law.
“The FBI can access cell phones and modify them remotely without ever having to physically handle them. Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone’s location to within just a few feet,” explained counterintelligence security consultant James Atkinson.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is in play. On a vote of 80 to 15, the Senate officially began debate on a sweeping rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, with an eye toward final passage of the bill as early as June 26 2008. It is amazing that a bill with such far reaching legislation for most Americans - gets passed literally in a day, and Congress took 1.5 years to investigate the Justice Department and all of it’s wrong doing.
Senators Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) had threatened a fillibuster - and have the support of many Americans.
The telecom immunity provision continues to be the bill’s source of conflict.
Wiretapping is so classified, and the language of the bill so opaque, that no one without a “top secret” clearance can say with any authority just how much surveillance the proposal will authorize the government to do
The 114-page bill’s main provisions:
• Requires FISA court permission to wiretap Americans who are overseas.
• Prohibits targeting a foreigner to secretly eavesdrop, without court approval, on an American’s calls or e-mails.
• Requires the government to protect American information or conversations that are collected when in communications with targeted foreigners.
• Allows the FISA court 30 days to review existing but expiring surveillance orders before renewing them.
• Allows eavesdropping in emergencies without court approval, provided the government files required papers within a week.
• Prohibits presidents from superseding surveillance rules in the future.
Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), offered an honest appraisal: “I think the White House got a better deal than even they had hoped.”
“A cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone,” confirms the U.S. Commerce Department. Atkinson, who has worked closely with government agencies. “They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time,” he said. “You can do that without having physical access to the phone.”
Surreptitious activation of built-in microphones by the FBI has been done before. A 2003 lawsuit revealed that the FBI was able to surreptitiously turn on the built-in microphones in automotive systems like General Motors’ OnStar to snoop on passengers’ conversations.
When FBI agents remotely activated the system and were listening in, passengers in the vehicle could not tell that their conversations were being monitored.
According to one security expert, telephone systems are often fitted with “back doors” enabling them to be activated at a later date.
And because the cell phone can be used in this way even when it is turned off, the only way to disable it is to actually pull the battery out of the cell phone. Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone–all without the owner knowing it happened.
Court documents, including an affidavit prepared by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Kolodner in September 2003, refer to them as a “listening device placed in the cellular telephone.”
It was mandated in 2005 by the Federal Communications Commission that the majority of wireless providers be able to locate 911 calls within about 100 feet of the originating cellular phone so that emergency services can find the callers. This feature is called E-911. Cell phone carriers can either provide the location information that resides in the cellular network (triangulation of location based on the distance of the cell phone’s signal to nearby cellular towers), or they can rely on satellite data from global positioning system (GPS) chips embedded in the handsets of their customers.
The requirement that cell phones be embedded with location-tracking technology has spawned a new industry of location-based services such as targeted advertising. Here’s how it is expected to work. As your car approaches a freeway exit where a restaurant features your favorite food, you could receive a text message on your phone or handheld device with a special offer. Or as you walk past a coffee house, your phone could receive an ad offering you a discount on a double latte’.
How To Eavesdrop on Bluetooth Conversations
CEO Todd Morris speaks about spying on your kids and teens on the “Mike and Juliet Morning Show”
George Orwell futuristic novel “1984,” which described a society whose members were closely watched by those in power and was published in 1949.
While some might welcome this form of advertising, others are concerned about the privacy implications of location-based advertising. After all, in order to send you such ads, the service must know something about your interests as well as your specific location. If location records were kept over time, an in-depth profile could be compiled for both marketing and surveillance purposes.
In August 2002, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) turned down the wireless industry’s request to adopt location information privacy rules. The proposed rules were based on the privacy principles of notice, consent, security, and integrity of consumer data.
There are three types of fraud risks in cell phones - cloning, theft, and subscription fraud (also known as identity theft). Cloning has declined dramatically in recent years, while subscription fraud is increasing.
The Republican Nixon Administration, helped into power by its pledge to restore law-and-order, has never made any secret about its intention to use the bug as an anticrime weapon. Former Attorney General John Mitchell justified this policy by saying: “Any citizen of this United States who is not involved in some illegal activity has nothing to fear whatsoever.” John Mitchell was the only Attorney General convicted of a federal crime.
What is surprising about Watergate is that, despite fine equipment, the Republican operatives used such sloppy techniques; they broke into the office of the Democratic National Committee and planted two electronic bugs, consisting of tiny microphones and transmitters that could broadcast a distance of several hundred yards. They hid one in the ceiling, but it failed. The other, intended for Democratic Chairman Lawrence O’Brien’s phone, was inadvertently planted in an aide’s phone. It was when they returned three weeks later to repair the foul-up and also to take some photographs that they were caught.
Current scenario - an imposter armed with someone else’s Social Security number, applies for cell phone service in that person’s name but the imposter’s address. As with other forms of credit-related identity theft, the imposter fails to pay the monthly phone bills and phone service is eventually cut off. When the phone company or a debt collection company attempts to locate the debtor, it finds instead the victim who is unaware of the fraud. That person is then saddled with the long, laborious process of settling the matter with the phone company and repairing his or her credit report.
The Federal Trade Commission reports that phone/utilities fraud is the second most common form of identity theft following credit fraud, half of which is wireless subscription fraud.
Legislatures provides a chart of federal and state electronic surveillance laws. Read “How Wireless Technology Works“
43 Things Tags: Business, U.S. Government, G.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Wiretapping, Domestic spying, Privacy