Who's wired into the system? Well, better question might be, who isn't? It's become very normal to have all the gadgets..it always precedes from luxury to necessity. At one time everyone lived a normal life without a cell phone...who does that now? At one time, everyone survived without telephone at all...and without television, computers, gps systems, etc.

There are carefully calculated advantages to having any one of these things. There are draw backs too. Most don't calculate the cost past their wallet but there is a greater price to pay nonetheless. We all have computers obviously...and those computers have been the means of waking one another up..passing vital information...even setting the stage for a vast educational experience that contradicts the intentions for which the internet was created. (halleluYah).

We know what it costs us in our privacy, i'm sure..we all are aware there is no such thing as private internet activity. Where is a wise place to draw the line in being "connected"? Well, that depends on the price you're willing to pay for convenience, communication and entertainment. As for us....we drew the line at cell phones, gps, television of any kind and still haven't given up the old stand by dial up internet connection (because you know there's a reason the government wants us all on wifi, right?).

It was a price worth paying to share information about those things that are hidden from the public's eye....but weighed in the balances, we are not willing to pay the price of brain tumors for communication convenience or being tracked wherever we might go rather than buying one of those outdated atlases.The price of entertainment was too high too...being subject to whatever signals are routinely spread across the digital landscape of television was not worth the pretty pictures on the screen. Wall-mart's great, low prices weren't worth their CIA cameras or their RFID.

"Peer pressure" won't tip the scales...being "normal" won't either. Normal doesn't even enter the range of my radar.As the world makes it harder to live without their luxuries..we simply have to work harder to go around them. Convenience will never pay for itself.

Everyone can make their own decisions about where their own line gets drawn..but everyone should definitely do so with all the information they can get about what prices they will pay for wiring into the system.

9 Reasons Wired Readers Should Wear Tinfoil Hats: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/reasons-to-wear-tinfoil-hats/

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Nokia patents a tattoo that vibrates when you get a call
 
By Deborah Netburn
 
"Nokia is taking steps to make sure you never miss another phone call, text or email alert again: The company has filed a patent for a tattoo that would send "a perceivable impulse" to your skin whenever someone tried to contact you on the phone.
 
Talk about letting technology get under your skin!
 
According to the patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the phone would communicate with the tattoo through magnetic waves. The phone would emit magnetic waves and the tattoo would act as a receiver. When the waves hit the tattoo, it would set off a tactile response in the user's skin.
 
The patent also suggests that it would be possible to customize the physical response depending on who is calling -- similar to having a different ring tone for different family members. So if your husband calls, you might only feel a dull tingling, but if it's your teenage daughter calling you'd feel a mighty itch..."
 
 
Well...so much for turning off the ringer....

Some already do talk to thier invisible friends.... May not look all that different from today?

 

 

DHS Cellphone Alert System ‘Follows You Around’

Presidential messages to have their own distinctive ring tone

Paul Joseph Watson


Prison Planet.com
Monday, June 25, 2012

Not only does the Department of Homeland Security’s new emergency alert system force cellphone users to receive text messages directly from President Obama, it also "follows" the user wherever they go, according to newly released details of the program.

As we reported last week, Apple’s eagerly awaited iOS 6 update for iPhones and iPads will feature the alerts, along with updates of other operating systems. All new cell phones will be required to comply with the PLAN program (Personal Localized Alerting Network), which will broadcast emergency alert messages directly to Americans’ cell phones, either through chips directly embedded in new phones or with software upgrades for older models.

According to Todd Krause, the weather-warning coordinator at the National Weather Service’s Chanhassen office, the WEA alert system tracks cellphone users wherever they go in order to deliver region-specific warnings.

"What the system does is actually follow you around wherever you are going," based on users’ proximity to cellular towers," Krause told TwinCities.com.

The fact that the system will empower Big Sis to "follow" cellphone users around the country has been kept under wraps until now, and is sure to prompt a firestorm of criticism from privacy advocates on both the left and right.

Since almost everyone who is active in public life now has a cellphone and carries it at all times, such a tracking system is barely much different from having an implanted microchip that constantly beams out your location. Indeed,newer microchips for cellphones can now pinpoint a user’s location down to just a few centimeters.

While users can opt out of receiving extreme weather alerts and Amber alerts, messages sent from the president will be mandatory, and will even have their own distinctive ring tone.

"The new 90-character-or-less alerts resemble regular texts but are a different form of messaging that includes a distinctive ring tone and also makes a device vibrate," states the report, adding that the messages will be able to circumvent potential cellular disruption that would prevent ordinary messages from getting through.

"If the United States faces a nationwide crisis of some sort, the president can transmit a mobile alert that pops up automatically on phones across the country," adds the article, noting that cellphone users will not have to fiddle around with apps to receive the alerts.

Confirming earlier reports, the story notes that users, "can’t block presidential alerts."

As we have previously highlighted, early tests of the emergency alert system in New Jersey caused panic after Verizon customers received text messages warning them that a "civil emergency" was in progress and to "take shelter," prompting alarmed citizens to flood 911 lines with anxious calls.

Verizon Wireless later apologized to its customers for causing alarm, admitting that the confusion was caused by a "test" of the PLAN emergency alert system.

As we have documented, the PLAN program is part of the wider move on behalf of Homeland Security to create a public environment dominated by a pervasive sense of fear and paranoia, a context in which the safe exercise of constitutional freedoms doesn’t normally thrive.

Concerns have also been raised at the potential for the federal government or the Obama presidential campaign to use the messages to create unwarranted fear for political purposes.

The emergency alerts are eventually designed to be incorporated into the Intellistreets system which turns all street lights into surveillance hubs that can record conversations and broadcast messages.

 

http://www.prisonplanet.com/dhs-cellphone-alert-system-follows-you-...

Here's how inventions that are supposedly for the public's convenience are used to control and spy on them

"Seeing Through Walls With a Wireless Router

"...Wi-Fi radio signals are found in 61 percent of homes in the U.S. and 25 percent worldwide, so Karl Woodbridge and Kevin Chetty, researchers at University College London, designed their detector to use these ubiquitous signals. When a radio wave reflects off a moving object, its frequency changes—a phenomenon called the Doppler effect. Their radar prototype identifies frequency changes to detect moving objects. It’s about the size of a suitcase and contains a radio receiver composed of two antennas ­and a signal-processing unit. In tests, they have used it to determine a person’s location, speed and direction—even through a one-foot-thick brick wall. Because the device itself doesn’t emit any radio waves, it can’t be detected.

Wi-Fi radar could have domestic applications ranging from spotting intruders to unobtrusively monitoring children or the elderly. It could also have military uses: The U.K. Ministry of Defence has funded a study to determine whether it could be used to scan buildings during urban warfare. With improvements, Woodbridge says, the device could become sensitive enough to pick up on subtle motions the ribcage makes during breathing, which would allow the radar to detect people who are standing or sitting still.

1. MOVING SUBJECT
When Wi-Fi radio waves bounce off a moving object, their frequency changes. If, for example, a person is moving toward the Wi-Fi source, the reflected waves’ frequency increases. If a person is moving away from the source, the frequency decreases.

2. REGULAR OL' ROUTER
A Wi-Fi Internet router already in the room fills the area with radio waves of a specific frequency, usually 2.4 or 5 gigahertz.

3. BASELINE SIGNAL
One antenna of the radar system tracks the baseline radio signal in the room.

4. SHIFTED SIGNAL
A second antenna detects radio waves that have reflected off of moving objects, which changes their frequency.

5. PERP, SPOTTED
By comparing the two antennas’ signals, the computer calculates the object’s location to within a few feet as well as its speed and direction..."

full article: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/seeing-through-wal...

Americans Are The Most Spied On People In World History


More Spying On Citizens than in Stasi East Germany

 

Indeed, the American government has more information on the average American than Stalin had on Russians, Hitler had on German citizens, or any other government has ever had on its people.

The American government is collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email,  text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information,  employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American.

Some also claim that the government is also using facial recognition software and surveillance cameras to track where everyone is going.  Moreover, cell towers track where your phone is at any moment, and the major cell carriers, including Verizon and AT&T, responded to at least 1.3 million law enforcement requests for cell phone locations and other data in 2011. And – given that your smartphone routinely sends your location information back to Apple or Google – it would be child’s play for the government to track your location that way.

As the top spy chief at the U.S. National Security Agency explained this week, the American government is collecting some 100 billion 1,000-character emails per day, and 20 trillion communications of all types per year.

He says that the government has collected all of the communications of congressional leaders, generals and everyone else in the U.S. for the last 10 years.

He further explains that he set up the NSA’s system so that all of the information would automatically be encrypted, so that the government had to obtain a search warrant based upon probably cause before a particular suspect’s communications could be decrypted.  But the NSA now collects all data in an unencrypted form, so that no probable cause is needed to view any citizen’s information.  He says that it is actually cheaper and easier to store the data in an encrypted format: so the government’s current system is being done for political – not practical – purposes.

He says that if anyone gets on the government’s “enemies list”, then the stored information will be used to target them. Specifically, he notes that if the government decides it doesn’t like someone, it analyzes all of the data it has collected on that person and his or her associates over the last 10 years to build a case against him.

For more on this Article ::: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/americans-the-most-spied-on-...

 Verizon's Creepy Idea to Spy on TV Viewers

"A couple snuggling in front of the TV could end up getting bombarded by commercials for romantic vacations, flowers or even condoms and birth control pills. That creepy invasion-of-privacy scenario comes from a Verizon patent idea that envisions spying on TV viewers for the sake of serving up related ads.

Verizon aims to track the behavior of TV watchers as they sing happy songs, play with a pet dog, or enjoy some supposedly private time with a loved one on the couch. The tracking system would then search terms related to the behaviors it sees — such as "cuddling" or "romance" — and present viewers with TV ads related to that topic during commercial breaks, according to the patent filing first discovered by FierceCable.

The romance scenario is just one example detailed in the patent filing. But Verizon also describes the capability to detect a person's mood from whether he or she is singing or humming a "happy" song, so that it can select ads geared for happy people.

Similar patent filing examples include fighting, wrestling, playing a game or somehow competing with another person. The system could also identify objects such as pets, soft drink cans or a bag of chips in a person's hand, and room decorations or furniture.

The patent filing even suggests the tracking system communicating with whatever smartphone or tablet a TV viewer might happen to have in his or her hands. That would allow Verizon to sneak a look at the websites a person is browsing, read email drafts or see what e-book he or she is reading. [Spy App Can Turn Smartphones Against You]

Such a patent idea would turn TV set-top boxes into spy boxes with sensors for both seeing and hearing the activity in front of the TV. Many TV viewers already own such set-top boxes to access pay-per-view services, digital video recordings and Internet streaming.

The patent was filed back on May 26, 2011. But it only appeared on the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office's website on Nov. 29, 2012, because all patent applications are published after 18 months, according to Ars Technica..."

Full Article: http://news.yahoo.com/verizons-creepy-idea-spy-tv-viewers-144322175...

Major Defense Company Develops Software for Government to Track ‘Trillions of Entities’ for National Security

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/12/major-defense-company-de...

Feb. 12, 2013 5:46pm Liz Klimas

A top government defense contractor revealed it created software that can sift through social media sites to collect information from “trillions of entities” in order to reasonably predict a person’s next move.

The spokesperson for the Massachusetts-based company Raytheon, Jared Adams, told The Guardian in an email that it developed RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology), which is “a big data analytics system design we are working on with industry, national labs and commercial partners to help turn massive amounts of data into usable information to help meet our nation’s rapidly changing security needs.”

The Guardian obtained a video showing Raytheon’s Brian Urch explaining the RIOT software and how it uses photographs that are embedded with location data (generally they’re taken by smartphones) to conduct analysis about where the person was and where they might be going next.

Raytheon RIOT Software Predicts Peoples Movements Based on Social Media Information

This image shows where a Raytheon employee had checked in with his smartphone. (Image: The Guardian video screenshot)

Urch explains in the video that the software uses Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. He tracks one of Raytheon’s own employees as an example. He shows all the places the employee — Nick — checked in with his smartphone. Then Urch goes to look for photos.

Raytheon RIOT Software Predicts Peoples Movements Based on Social Media Information

Now they can see what Nick looks like. (Image: The Guardian video screenshot)

“One of the things we’ve noticed is that when people take pictures and post them on the Internet using their smartphones that the phone will actually embed the latitude and longitude using the exif header data,” Urch said. “Now we know where Nick’s going, what he looks like, now we want to predict where he may be in the future.”

By using a “very basic analytic” called “get top places,” Urch shows a pie chart that breaks down the top 10 places where Nick checks in. He is able to analyze check ins at a specific place by month and day. For example, Nick checks in the most at the gym. June was found to hold his highest gym attendance, and he seems to go more frequently on Mondays and Wednesdays. And the “most interesting” bit of info is that Urch is able to show the time when Nick most likely would be there — 6 a.m.

Raytheon RIOT Software Predicts Peoples Movements Based on Social Media Information

A look into the specifics of Nick’s daily schedule based on check-in trends. (Image: The Guardian video screenshot)

“If you ever did want to try to get a hold of Nick or maybe get a hold of his laptop, you might want to visit the gym at 6 a.m. on Monday,” Urch said.

The software also shows the people with whom Nick has some sort of connection, whether they be tagged in checkins or shout outs on Twitter.

Raytheon RIOT Software Predicts Peoples Movements Based on Social Media Information

A web of Nick’s connections with other people. Some phone numbers were included too. (Image: The Guardian video screenshot)

[Go to the article and view the video, or view it (and an ad, sorry) here:]

The Guardian reports that this software has not been sold, but it was shared with the U.S. government as it was part of a join research effort that took place in 2010 to develop a system that could analyze “trillions of entities” on the Web.

The Guardian dubs the software a “Google for spies” given that it has a similar look and search function. The company filed for a patent for RIOT in December and is expected to feature the program at an industry conference in April, according to The Guardian.

If you haven’t come up with your own concerns over the use of such technology, here is what The Guardian reported the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s attorney Ginger McCall saying:

“Social networking sites are often not transparent about what information is shared and how it is shared,” McCall said. “Users may be posting information that they believe will be viewed only by their friends, but instead, it is being viewed by government officials or pulled in by data collection services like the Riot search.”

While some have called it “stalking software,” ZDNet’s Steven Vaughan-Nichols pointed out it’s “business as usual”:

Here’s the simple truth: If you put your personal details on the Internet, especially on the social networks, it doesn’t require any fancy defense contractor software to track your every move. The social networks themselves can do it. Advertisers can do it. Anyone with a lick of computer sense can do it.

If you want to keep your private life private, you have to keep it off the Internet. It’s really that easy.

This also isn’t the first time that the government has had an interest in monitoring social media for national security measures. For several years the government has been monitoring Twitter and even has a media monitoring component that can tracks journalists who post publicly on traditional and social media.

(H/T: Sydney Morning Herald)

Can you hear me now? Feds admit FBI warrantless cellphone tracking ‘very common’

FBI investigators for at least five years have routinely used a sophisticated cellphone tracking tool that can pinpoint callers’ locations and listen to their conversations — all without getting a warrant for it, a federal court was told this week.

The use of the “Stingray,” as the tool is called, “is a very common practice” by federal investigators, Justice Department attorneys told the U.S. District Court for Arizona Thursday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Installed in an unmarked van, Stingray mimics a cellphone tower, so it can pinpoint the precise location of any mobile device in range and intercept conversations and data, said Linda Lye, staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California in a blog post about the case.

In a rare public discussion of federal electronic surveillance capabilities and authorities, Justice Department lawyers told the court hearing that, instead of a warrant, the FBI operates Stingray and other cellphone-mimicking technology under the authority of “pen register” orders. These court orders, also known as “tap and trace” orders, are generally issued to allow investigators to collect only so-called “metadata” — like all phone numbers calling to or called from a particular number.

But Stingray collects much more than just phone numbers and also “sweep[s] up the data of innocent people who happen to be nearby,” according to the ACLU filing.

Given the broad nature of the information Stingray collects and its ability to eavesdrop on conversations, many federal judges insisted that they should be told when its use was envisaged under a tap and trace order, the ACLU filing says.

Tap and trace orders are generally more easily granted than a warrant, which requires “probable cause” under the Fourth Amendment.

But Justice Department emails that the group obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and filed with their brief show that government lawyers were concerned some FBI agents were not properly disclosing their use of Stingray.

“It has recently come to my attention that many agents are still using [Stingray] technology in the field although the pen register application does not make that explicit,” reads one May 2011 email from a Justice Department attorney.

“It is important that we are consistent and forthright in our pen register requests to the magistrates,” the attorney concludes.

The ACLU has filed an amicus brief in the case U.S. vs. Rigmaiden. An amicus brief is filed not by the defendant or anyone on his behalf, but by another interested party.

In the case, first brought in 2008, Mr. Rigmaiden, charged with identity theft, is seeking to suppress evidence obtained by Stingray on the basis that using it constitutes a search and requires a probable cause warrant.

The Department of Justice declined a request for comment, as neither they nor the FBI generally speak about ongoing litigation.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/29/feds-fbi-warrantles...

Tabitha, the people can't change the system... Yahushua changes people, and that is the only real victory we can have in this flesh life.. Anything, like government of man, which was evil from the start, cannot be 'changed into good'.. check out this article and learn how America has never been a democracy, never claimed to be one, and never will be, thus working from within to attempt to change it will only be a losing battle.  The only real victory is in Yahushua.

http://timenolonger.ning.com/forum/topics/why-you-cant-take-back-am...

EmotionSense App Measures Smartphone Users' Happiness

"Scientists researching the effect of mobile devices on a person's well-being have created an app that uses a smartphone's sensors to gauge a user's happiness. EmotionSense is the creation of a group of researchers from Cambridge University, and it combines data collected automatically by the phone as well as mood reports from the phone's user to pinpoint what triggers certain moods.

The app, described as a "journey of discovery," as the whole process takes about two months, can measure an environment's noise level, a user's movement, and who they are communicating with. It can be used either by individuals as a way of finding out what exactly makes them happy, or it can be used by therapists, who can configure the data they'd like to collect.

Information from the phone, such as what time it is unlocked each morning, how many texts and calls are made and received, movements, location, and external noise, can be used to gauge just how social the individual is being. And then there's the human layer, which asks the phone's owner to determine their mood--these have been devised by psychologists..."

Full Article: http://www.fastcompany.com/3009456/tech-forecast/emotionsense-app-m...

Euclid Analytics And Retailers: How Stores Like Nordstrom Track You Via Your Smartphone's Wi-Fi Signal

Privacy advocates have an entirely new worry to keep them awake at night.

National retailers like Nordstrom and Home Depot, working with a company called Euclid Analytics, have devised a method for tracking shoppers in their stores. The service identifies shoppers' smartphones by requests the devices make for Wi-Fi, even if they aren't connecting to the store's network.

UPDATE: Thursday, 4:30 p.m. -- According to spokeswoman Tara Darrow, as of May 8, Nordstrom is no longer using Euclid for data collection in their stores. Said Darrow in an email to The Huffington Post, "We've said all along that Euclid was a test for us. We had it in select stores since September. We felt like we learned a lot and got great feedback from our customers."

Previously:

According to Euclid, 40 to 70 percent of all shoppers are equipped with a smartphone that can be used to determine specific departments a shopper visits and how long a shopper may spend there. Thus, any person with a Wi-Fi-enabled phone is automatically tracked as he moves through the store. Shoppers looking to go un-tracked have to turn off their Wi-Fi or power down their handsets, a point that has some critics livid.

"I think it's outrageous," John Soma, executive director of the University of Denver Privacy Foundation, told Denver's ABC7. "What are they going to do with that data? Are they going to keep it forever? Are they going to aggregate it? Are they going to sell it to 'affiliates?' We just don't know. That's what's so troubling to me.".."

Full Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/euclid-analytics-nordstrom...|maing5|dl31|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D310185

"NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others

• Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook
• Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.

The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers..."

Full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

"Obama Defends NSA Programs, Says Congress Knew About Surveillance

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Friday forcefully defended revelations that the National Security Agency is collecting phone records and electronic communications, saying that Congress was fully briefed and the programs are limited in scope..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/obama-nsa_n_3403389.html?1...|main5|dl5|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D325206



Now mainstream media "breaks" news that isn't news to us. We have been aware for years that there is government surveillance of email and phone conversations and the public should have been aware of it as well. This so-called declassified information has been public since the Patriot Act, yet suddenly it's mainstream "news" and terms like "outrage" are used to describe public reaction. They should be outraged, but they should have been outraged long ago when forums similar to this one first began alerting them.

Another example of a "conspiracy theory" which has actually existed as a publically accessible fact for some time becoming mainstream knowledge. Beware of how those mainstream sources will spin this.

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