There are a host of new technologies that pass knowledge & control of you and your life to others, and even to other machines.

Most of us have grown up in an era where the past gradually fades away. We can't even imagine the ultimate consequences of having pretty much 'your every move' available to 'authority' as part of a permanent record.

The latest is RFID, which we are now being coyly encouraged to have implanted in ourselves and our pets. They are already in many of our products.
http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-5654872-1.html?tag=nl.e501

While this issue goes all the way back to the wristwatch & the stop sign, it is suddenly accelerating into a real change in our society's ability to coerce and control the individual.

What do you think?

The RFID technology is a true threat to privacy that seems to be escaping coverage in the MSM. There is talk of a national ID which would likely contain an RFID chip. There is already a school issuing "chipped" Student ID's. Products hitting store shelves are being embedded with RFID tags. There is speculation that currency already contains an RFID chip (that is how small they can be).

With this technology they government (and others) will be able to track nearly every financial transaction and your very location whenever you are near a "reader" or other detector. There is also the potential for others (businesses, individuals, etc) to track you and your habits and patterns. The potential for abuse / misuse is scary... and the infringement on your privacy effectively ends privacy.

Unfortunately, much of this is happening and will happen without people even realizing it. "Use our new discount card and save on all your purchases"... and in major stores it will replace the checkout line and clerks for paying for your purchases.

If we don't fight to keep our privacy by pushing to eliminate RFID devices... we will give up our privacy.

The latest news item in this "tech war" against our privacy is a plan by some states implement a new highway tax on vehicles based on mileage driven. This is designed to replace lost gas tax revenues due to hybrid / electric vehicles which do not use any (as much) fuel. The plan is to equip vehicles with GPS devices so that the mileage can be tracked... and taxes billed. Of course, this would mean the governement would have a record of every mile that someone (or at least their vehicle) travels.

At the rate that we are going the United States Constitution will be nothing but a historical document.

The way Lucifer wants to control every living creature of God. Remember, God gives us the will to make our choices. Has the Bush government sold their souls to the devil who has finally found the way to their hearts? Wealth and power? And they now do Lucifer's work?

In a word... YES

Funny how they have the religious right believing their lies and following them... like lambs to the slaughter.

It's funny how easy people can be so easily fooled by Lucifer. And good Christians do know that Lucifer creeps among us, doing dark things in secret. Remember how Adam was fooled? Lucifer always peddle glory. Lucifer has even got the Bush media to sell Bush's glory and the fundamentalist religious nuts' glory. It's so obvious that the naive is helping Lucifer grow powerful!

I go through the day knowing they know everything I do
Every item I buy at supermarket
Every resteraunt I eat at (and what I eat could be tracked too)
Everything

If I use my car, here in NY NJ and the east coast, we have E-Z pass, and they know where I drive

I pay for everything on my c/c card, so they know how much gas I buy and what stores I frequent etc...

Unless one pays for everything in cash (and the only thing I use cash for is at the deli basically and for newspapers), they know

Basically, if one is honest, knowing they already know, the new things don't necessarily matter, because they already know.If you have nothing to hide, they can't find anything

It is wrong for them to track it. Wrong to implant things you don't know about, but again, they know and will always know if they want to

What if you don't have EZ-pass ?

What if you don't use a cc card and use cash ?

That's the question. Why do you give in ?

It's not a matter of honesty, it's a matter of privacy.

Not if you don't buy "their" incentives.

If people don't do any of the above things, unless you are totally invisible, they could put you on a list just because you don't

I use EZ-pass because it saves 20 minute waits through tolls at times longer

I never have cash, and it takes me out of the way to go to cash machine (which is another record anyhow so they know you take cash out)

I know it is privacy-I am against these things much as you are. I am just being a realist and know they already know all these things.
Soon there may not even be any cash to use anyhow

Just like in the NY Subways, most people have to get a metro card, cash don't work in alot of stations anymore

About a year back, I saw a website that was putting U$ currency in the microwave. They were finding 'popped' scorch spots they claimed were chips.

Some car rental companies already use GPS to track their vehicles, and have reported 'anomalous use' back to the employer's etc.

Actually, the gummint is probably the lesser worry. It's the unregulated civilian contractors for hire who could cause the worst grief.

Wanna spy on hubby? Stalk the girl next door? Get the goods on a rival?

The tools are all there, you can already know more about somebody than they know themselves.

More Big Brother technology:

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopic...1,99843,00.html

RSA: Microsoft on 'rootkits': Be afraid, be very afraid
Rootkits are a new generation of powerful system-monitoring programs

News Story by Paul Roberts

FEBRUARY 17, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Microsoft Corp. security researchers are warning about a new generation of powerful system-monitoring programs, or "rootkits," that are almost impossible to detect using current security products and could pose a serious risk to corporations and individuals.
The researchers discussed the growing threat posed by kernel rootkits at a session at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco this week. The malicious snooping programs are becoming more common and could soon be used to create a new generation of mass-distributed spyware and worms.

With names like "Hacker Defender," "FU" and "Vanquish," the programs are the latest generation of remote system-monitoring software that has been around for years, according to Mike Danseglio and Kurt Dillard, both of Microsoft's Security Solutions Group.

The programs are used by malicious hackers to control, attack or ferret information from systems on which the software has been installed, typically without the owner's knowledge, either by a virus or after a successful hack of the computer's defenses, they said. Once installed, many rootkits run quietly in the background but can easily be spotted by looking for memory processes that are running on the infected system, monitoring outbound communications from the machine, or checking for newly installed programs.

However, kernel rootkits that modify the kernel component of an operating system are becoming more common. Rootkit authors are also making huge strides in their ability to hide their creations, said Danseglio.

In particular, some newer rootkits are able to intercept queries or "system calls" that are passed to the kernel and filter out queries generated by the rootkit software. The result is that typical signs that a program is running, such as an executable file name, a named process that uses some of the computer's memory, or configuration settings in the operating system's registry, are invisible to administrators and to detection tools, said Danseglio.

The increasingly sophisticated rootkits and the speed with which techniques are migrating from rootkits to spyware and viruses may be the result of influence from organized online criminal groups that value stealthy, invasive software, said Dillard

One rootkit, called Hacker Defender, released about a year ago, even uses encryption to protect outbound communications and can piggyback on commonly used ports such as TCP Port 135 to communicate with the outside world without interrupting other applications that use that port, he said.

The kernel rootkits are invisible to many detection tools, including antivirus, host and network intrusion-detection sensors and antispyware products, the researchers said. In fact, some of the most powerful tools for detecting the rootkits are designed by rootkit authors, not security companies, they said.

There are few strategies for detecting kernel rootkits on an infected system, especially because each rootkit behaves differently and uses different strategies to hide itself.

It is sometimes possible to spot kernel rootkits by examining infected systems from another machine on a network, said Dillard. Another strategy to spot kernel rootkits is to use Windows PE, a stripped-down version of the Windows XP operating system that can be run from a CD-ROM, to boot a computer and then compare the profile of the clean operating system to the infected system, according to Dillard and Danseglio.

Microsoft researchers have developed a tool called Strider GhostBuster that can detect rootkits by comparing clean and suspect versions of Windows and looking for differences that may indicate that a kernel rootkit is running, according to a paper published by Microsoft Research.

The only reliable way to remove kernel rootkits is to completely erase an infected hard drive and reinstall the operating system from scratch, Danseglio said.

Although rootkits are not unique to Windows, the popular operating system is a rich target and makes it easy for malicious hackers to disguise the presence of such programs, according to Jonathan Levin of Symantec Corp.'s @stake division, who attended the presentation at the RSA conference.

The operating system's powerful application programming interfaces make it easy to mask behaviors on the system. Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser is also a frequent avenue for malicious hackers, viruses and worms that could drop a rootkit on a vulnerable Windows system, Levin said.

Better tools could be built to detect the current crop of kernel rootkits. However, rootkit authors are adept at spotting new detection techniques and modifying their programs to slip around them, Danseglio said. "These people are smart. They're very smart," he said.

Periodic scan of your system files.
Make a boot diskette with a simple checksum program and a list of the kernel files and a file length counter, checksum the kernel files and compare with a set of checksum values and lengths saved after installing the OS.

There's nothing dishonest or illegal about anything I do - I don't even speed, I come to a complete stop at stop signs, I return the overage if a clerk gives me too much change, etc. I have never cheated on my taxes; I don't use illegal computer programs, hacks or cracks; I maintain my car so I use fuel as efficiently as possible; I don't drive where I can walk; I do not lie, cheat or steal.

But I have a HUGE problem with the government or anyone else deliberately tracking what I have for dinner, how much I spend on groceries, whether I choose paper or plastic and exactly where I drive my car. I have an even bigger problem with someone being able to locate me on a GPS without my knowledge - or even WITH my knowledge if I am given no other choice. I use a shopper saver card at my local grocery because I like the discounts and I don't care if they're tracking my purchasing habits - but I have the choice to make those same purchases without being tracked, by simply not using the card.

But what if in 3 years time, I apply for health insurance and am denied because the insurance company uses the information from my shopper saver card to determine that I've bought too many packages of Oreo cookies? What if I apply for an auto lease and I'm denied because the lender runs a check and sees that on my last car, I drove over 20,000 miles a year and only had 3 oil changes?

It is interesting to me that our Nation is moving towards being a packrat when it comes to collecting and storing information about her people - where everything you do and say is recorded by someone - but we just can't seem to make the changes to ensure that a voter gets a printout of how their vote was cast. They can prove what you had for dinner - but good luck proving who you voted for in November.

And I'm sorry - but I do not trust my government, my employer, the medical & insurance industry, etc. to treat me fairly simply because I am a law-abiding citizen. I am involved in enough "anarchist" organizations - like CGCS by THEIR definition - that someone may simply decide to shut up me, and others like me, some day. I'd like to make it as difficult for them to find and track me as possible.

It has become abundantly clear in light of recent events that our government does not make morally sound decisions about people - the sanctioned torture of prisoners comes to mind, as does the recent criminal charges brought against that female attorney claiming terrorism, are just a few examples. The entire Patriot Act scares the beejeezus out of me - and every time I hear "Homeland Security," I can't help but think of the Nazis.

These are the same people who want access to your most personal activities and choices - do you trust them to use good judgment about how to use that information? I don't.

Ummmm, okee dokee. First, let me figure out what a boot diskette is then we'll take it from there.

Anybody tried to download Microsoft's anti-spyware yet? First, it 'validates' your that your OS is legal...

Actually, I did download it. I didn't realize that it checked whether my OS was legal. I probably wouldn't have downloaded it if I knew that it was also spyware. It did find 10 items that Spybot and Ad-Aware missed.