How to remain invisible online

Posted February 19, 2012 at 11:14 pm

In light of Google’s latest user-tracking snafu, a guide to leaving behind fewer digital breadcrumbs and fingerprints.

by Quentin Fottrell

Online, everyone’s an open book — and an open wallet. Users increasingly wear their hearts on their screens, and security experts say sites are growing more adept at tracking their every move.

Privacy settings clearly aren’t enough judging from revelations Friday that Google and other advertisers found creative ways to exploit Apple’s Safari web-browsing software.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google disabled code that allowed it to circumvent privacy settings after being contacted by the paper. In a statement, Google says it didn’t use these “cookies” — little pieces of code stored on user computers or mobile devices that tell a company what sites consumers visit on the web and what they do there.

But this latest episode raises an important question for consumers: Can we maintain a healthy virtual lifestyle — interact with friends, buy products and visit our favorite sites — and still remain incognito?

“The odds are against you as a consumer, your online life is probably already compromised by spyware,” says Rick Dakin, CEO of IT security business Coalfire.

SmartMoney.com spoke to some experts about how to remain invisible online to advertisers, market researchers and other businesses who buy and sell information about consumer behavior.

Here are their tips [continue]…

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It’s time to arrest the government

Posted December 15, 2011 at 10:54 pm

by Andrew P. Napolitano

Can Congress make legal something that is inherently wrong, and can Congress take a freedom that is a part of our humanity and make its exercise criminal?

If there were no First Amendment, would we still have the freedom of speech? The answer, like many in the law, depends on what values underlie the legal system.

If the government is the source of our rights, then without the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech, any government could legally punish you for saying words and expressing thoughts it hated or feared; and it could even silence you before you spoke.

On the other hand, if our rights come from our humanity and our humanity is a gift from God, then we would still enjoy the freedom of speech, whether it is insulated from government interference by the First Amendment or not.

The wording of the First Amendment itself gives us a peek at what its authors thought. They wrote: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” It doesn’t say that Congress shall grant freedom of speech; rather, it prohibits Congress from interfering with it.

And by referring to free speech as the freedom of speech, the drafters recognized that the freedom of speech already existed before the country that they were founding even came to be.

The same founders who drafted the First Amendment also accepted Thomas Jefferson’s values articulated in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed by our “Creator with certain inalienable rights, (and) that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

It is clear beyond serious dispute from just scratching the surface of history that wedded to this country at its birth is the Judeo-Christian concept of the natural law.

The natural law is the self-evident truth that our rights come from our humanity; that we have them by virtue of our mortal existence; that they do not depend upon [continue]…

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What are google And facebook hiding from us?

Posted December 8, 2011 at 12:41 pm

from I Heart Wall Street

Did you know Google uses 57 different tags to identify you?

These tags are used to ‘customize’ the search results you are seeing.

Among the various tags used to identify you, you might expect the type of browser you’re using, your IP address, and the type of computer you are sitting at — but that’s three, only 54 more to go. And here’s the craziest part — even if you are logged out, your friends across the world are seeing very different results.

In this age of convenience we’ve been sold on the magic of personalization from the likes of Facebook and Google, but at what cost? [continue]…

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85-year-old, 110-lb grandmother strip-searched by TSA at JFK…

Posted December 5, 2011 at 2:32 am

‘I really look like a terrorist,’ 110-pound Long Island grandmother says

by Nicholas Hirshon

An 85-year-old Long Island grandmother says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport.

Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes.

“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.”

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the airport shows “proper procedures were followed.”

But Zimmerman, whose hunched back puts her at 4-foot-11, said her ordeal began after her son, Bruce, drove her to the JetBlue terminal for the Florida flight. She lives in warm Coconut Creek during the winter.

She checked her bags, waited for a wheelchair and parted ways with her doting son — her only immediate relative.

When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.

She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and [continue]…

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“We are in charge. You are not.”

Posted November 22, 2011 at 2:07 pm

by Simon Black

There are a lot of things to detest about traveling in, out, and through the United States. Coming in through customs can be one of the most demeaning experiences ever as the agents from the Department of Homeland Security tend to treat everyone like criminal terrorists.

Then there’s the TSA… standing there supervising the mass assembly line of fake security, crowned by the radiation-dousing body scanners.

The TSA currently uses two types of technology– millimeter wave scanner, and backscatter X-ray. Backscatter is the more insidious of the two as it emits ionizing radiation that is generally considered to be carcinogenic.

Not to worry, though, the TSA is armed with plenty of propaganda to make Americans feel good about their radiation baths. From the TSA website:

“Since imaging technology has been deployed at airports, more than 99 percent of passengers choose to be screened by this technology over alternative screening procedures. According to a new CBS poll, 4 out of 5 Americans support the use of advanced imaging technology at airports nationwide.”

So there you have it– since most Americans don’t care about the radiation from body scanners, neither should you! So GET BACK IN LINE!

Curiously, late last week the European Commission issued a new ruling suggesting that [continue]…

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TSA-style pat-downs coming to professional football stadiums

Posted September 18, 2011 at 5:58 pm

by Jonathan Benson

It is something that we here at NaturalNews have repeatedly warned our readers was coming, and that is now unfolding right before our eyes.

In seeming accordance with the US Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) total human control and monitoring agenda, the US National Football League (NFL) has announced that, effective immediately, all football game attendees will be subjected to full-body “enhanced” pat down upon entering NFL stadiums.

According to USA Today, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy announced just days after the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that NFL officials had instructed all 32 of the league’s stadium franchises nationwide to perform “enhanced” pat-down procedures on fans, which are similar to what the US Transportation Security (TSA) performs on travelers at airports.

The new procedures involve [continue]…

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Are you OWNED by your government?

Posted August 17, 2011 at 5:37 pm

For International individuals who wish to control their own destiny

by Dr. Charles Freeman

The report, is crammed with interesting and hopefully valuable information for international individuals who wish to control their own destiny.

Such individuals need all the impartial and informed news, reports and advice they can get to help them live freely from those who seek to tax and regulate them into servitude, I am happy to be of assistance and producing for such people is a great pleasure for me.

Let’s face facts. The more a person pays out in excessive and involuntary taxes, the more intrusive and/or pointless laws and regulations he must conform to and obey… the more he belongs to the dictates and whims of other men.

Governments by their nature believe that they own their citizens. They might not actually stand up and say as much, but they certainly think it.

And while I am on my soapbox… not only do men who make up “your” government want to own you (or at the very least, control you), they so often manage the actual various affairs of state with a degree of sometimes unbelievable incompetence.

For example, no government I can think of is currently inventing more new laws and regulations to marshal their citizens towards ever greater levels of “compliance” than that of the so called “European Union”.

When I look at the crazy bungling bureaucracy that runs it, I shudder. The essence of any bureaucracy is that it is a system that allows all those involved in it, whether officials or politicians, to avoid any moral responsibility for their own actions, which for them is probably just as well.

They always have plausible sounding arguments for every piece of new legislation that they produce.

But the eventual results are quite often insane as anyone who objectively follows the goings on in Brussels and the many crazy and out of touch edicts that flow our from there will know only too well.

If you are like me, you might quite rightly think that as a self providing adult you are quite capable of making your own decisions about how you live your life and run your business. Also that the faceless bureaucrooks in Brussels, Washington or wherever, are the very last people you would want to make any decisions for you, particularly important ones.

Ordinary business people risk getting squashed between the mafias and international bureaucracy. Organized crime could amount to $500 billion a year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or $1,000 billion, if United Nations crime consultant, Tim Wall, is to be believed. The truth is, nobody knows.

If you think you’re overtaxed, consider the case of the owner of a Swedish fashion chain, Stefan Persson, who has worked all year only to find he owes more in tax than he has earned. Not surprisingly, he is now thinking of emigrating and taking his company with him.

On a taxable income of SKr178 million ($23 million) the tax grabbers are demanding SKr54 million in income tax plus SKr127 million wealth tax, leaving him out of pocket by SKr3 million after working all year. In this topsy turvy nanny state, rather than run a business creating jobs, wealth and tax revenue for the government, he would be better off signing on the dole and becoming a burden on the state.

How crazy can you get?

But there is worse to come, following increases in wealth tax. Assuming the same income and assets, he will be forced to find a further SKr45 million in the next tax year.

“It would be enormously beneficial for me to live in almost any other country,” he comments wryly. Although he loves his homeland and has no wish to live elsewhere, he has no choice but to consider moving himself and headquarters of his company Hennes & Mauritz, abroad.

Even though 80 per cent of his firm’s operations are outside Sweden, he has patriotically continued to support his country and pay his taxes. But there are limits to the price of patriotism.

One by one, major Swedish companies are being driven out to a more tax friendly environment. Some companies have already moved their headquarters not to offshore island tax havens, just to other European countries with “normal” rates of taxation.

Furniture company Ikea is now in neighbouring Denmark, and packaging group Tetra is based in Switzerland. Telecoms company Ericsson does 60 per cent of its research and manufacturing in Sweden but only sells six per cent of its production within the country, so is considering moving abroad. What logic is there in staying in such an over taxed environment.

A key reason for these moves is that high taxes and social security payments are making it difficult to recruit the foreign scientists and technicians essential for Sweden’s high tech companies if they are to develop new products and retain their world market share.

Would you be tempted to live in a country with tax rates up to 50 per cent, plus social security payments, high as 39 per cent levied on total earnings with no maximum limit and top of that a wealth tax on 100 percent of the listed value of shares.  100% Wealth tax in Sweden is not just of the super-rich. It affects 42 per cent of full time workers.

Sweden is an extreme case. but the same principal applies in many of the developed countries. When these companies pull out their money and transfer their production, they generally only take a fraction of their workers with them. Those left behind are on the dole – a – temporarily – so that the government has more unemployment benefits to pay out of – a reduced tax income.

Editors note: Dr. Charles Freeman is the offshore guru, consulting expert and the author of the best selling report, How To Legally Obtain a 2nd Passport” Updated & Revised – for 2011

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A life of power and privilege on your dime

Posted July 18, 2011 at 9:37 pm

by Simon Black

In March 2010, President Obama signed into law one of the most arrogant, unfeasible bills ever to hit the books.

Known as FATCA [Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act], it was enacted as part of the inappropriately titled HIRE Act; the law requires that foreign banks must disclose personal account details for their US clients, essentially agreeing to get in bed with the US government.

If a foreign bank does not agree to disclose information on all of its US customers, then the law further requires that noncompliant banks withhold a 30% tax on all payments that may have originated from the United States.

The arrogance of this law is overwhelming. It would be as if the Saudi King issued a decree forbidding US grocery store chains to sell pork to Saudi citizens while on US soil. Crazy, right? Americans would be up in arms– who do those Saudi’s think they are, trying to control a US company on US soil?

But that’s exactly what FACTA does. Needless to say, the international banking scene has been up in arms since March 2010 when the law was passed. Those cries have largely fallen on deaf ears… until late last week when the US government granted a brief extension for the law to take effect.

This is important, and I’ll explain why.

We’re in the early stages of what I call the Age of Turmoil– a tumultuous time in which governments turn to increasingly desperate, authoritarian measures in order to maintain the status quo.

The drive their economies into the ground, generate painful inflation, and destroy the livelihoods of millions, even hundreds of millions… and when you don’t like it, they turn their police forces after you to ensure they still get to live a life of power and privilege on your dime.

We’ve already seen these people in action– they’ve seized pension accounts, turned the nation into a police state, ruined the economy with corrupt, reckless spending programs, inflated the currency to dangerous levels, and made it extremely difficult to do basic things like establish a business or even open a bank account.

There are a few things you can try to do about it [continue]…

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Is Online Privacy Dead?

Posted July 7, 2011 at 2:50 am

via International Man

In today’s interview with privacy expert Paul Rosenberg, you’ll discover how to protect your information from online hackers, nosy businesses and intrusive government. Essential reading for all who use the Internet and especially for those who have internationalized and use the Internet as a way to manage their affairs across borders.

Xavier Calendar: Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the privacy business.

Paul Rosenberg: I have a construction industry background and am originally from Chicago. I’m a long-time “freedom advocate”, for a lack of a better word.

I got into this business in kind of a cool way. In 2002, I wrote a novel called The Lodging of Wayfaring Men, which was a big hit with the crypto guys [computer professionals who study cryptography and related topics]. One of them turned out to be a very special guy. He contacted me in a roundabout way and said he wanted to get to know me. We happened to be living not too far apart at that time, so we ended up getting together and taking a long road trip. Somewhere towards the end of the trip he said, “Okay, here is what I want to do, and here is why it has to be done. This needs to be done and I want you to do it with me.” I said “yes” and that become Cryptohippie.*

XC: Great stuff. Now, before we get into some of the nitty, gritty details, can you take us on a brief private internet history lesson? How did we get to the point that we are today?

PR: That’s a really good question.

Privacy wasn’t really built in to the original Internet. It’s also important to remember that the worldwide use of the Internet was a surprise to everybody. One or two sci-fi guys and a few other people saw it coming, but very few.

As soon as the Net became popular worldwide in the mid-90s, the threats started popping up.

The first one was the usual criminal problem—people trying to scam other people to get something out of them. Because the Internet is nothing except information, they began to learn how to steal information and how to use information against people.

The other problem was the State. The Internet was a surprise to almost all of them. The ability to encrypt data, which I’ll talk about that a bit later, slipped out. Encryption makes it possible for people to hide whatever they want from anybody else, including income. So the State, for a variety of reasons but certainly one of them being income, had to try to bring this thing under control. Over the years, they’ve been steadily working on it. However, because the Internet is inherently decentralized (though not as much as people think), controlling it is very difficult.

So they have done the next best thing. They started surveilling everything and trying to identify every user of the Internet. If they can’t control the Net itself, they’ll try and control the users. It seems they prefer the driver’s license model and every now and then some of their people try to introduce a new program like that. They have all sorts of names for it such as “Computer Health Certificate” but it’s all a variation on the same theme. But some sort of universal Internet ID is essentially the model.

Such programs would allow them to “get in” and basically access anything they would want about anyone. That brings up encryption.

There’s a great story there about a gentleman named Phil Zimmerman. The US government tried very hard to [continue]…

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Canada Introduces New, Plastic Cash

Posted June 27, 2011 at 1:10 am

from NPR.org

The Bank of Canada introduced brand new polymer bills, yesterday. As the Toronto Sun puts it, the move is designed to use high-tech materials to “thwart counterfeiters.” The notes, which have two see-through windows, are also cheaper to make and last about 2 1/2 times longer than paper money.

Here’s a short video from the Bank of Canada showing off the money.

The Globe and Mail has put together a list of facts about synthetic money. Among the highlights: Plastic money dates back to the early 1980s, when it was used in Costa Rica and Haiti. Other countries like Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador also used them in the ’80s.

But here’s our favorite: Unlike paper money, plastic bills don’t curl or fray at the corners, so “it causes about 40 percent fewer jams in automated teller machines and bill-counting devices.”

Alas, we haven’t found any word on how well the bills would survive a wash-and-dry cycle.

The Sun adds that the $100 bills will be issued in November; the $50 bills in March of 2012 and the new $20 bills will be introduced late next year.

[ Source: NPR ]

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