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QANTAS Wants To Monitor Frequent Flyers' Home Internet
An anonymous reader writes "Australian Airline QANTAS wants to monitor recording frequent flyers' home internet searching and surfing. QANTAS will pass the data to US marketing partner FreeCause who are not subject to Australian privacy laws. Meanwhile the Australian Attorney-General's Department has been secretly drafting new data retention laws to log Australians' web surfing. The government claims it needs these to fight crime, yet is ignoring corruption by its own public service."
The madness must stop.
It's for your safety ofcourse!
Thanks Timothy for posting the most horribly written, inaccurate and misleading summary ever. You should be ashamed for this clickbait trolling. Anybody who reads the fucking article will see your summary has little connection to the truth.
No wonder slashdot is such a toilet bowl now.
Have gnu, will travel.
Just another way the West has fallen into tyranny. But yet, there is comparatively little outrage. The violations of liberty that King George III imposed on the American colonists were minor compared to the crimes that modern presidents have committed. But yet although there will be a posting on websites like /. and will be discussed by liberty-minded bloggers there will be no revolution, there will be no outrage. Isn't it odd how times have changed, when a minor (by today's standard) tax increase sparked a revolution but today's routine violation of individual sovereignty, violation of basic civil liberties and violation of basic economic liberties have created.... a couple of blog posts.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
the more we'll slip through your fingers.
Oh goodie.. another toolbar - I have so much spare screen real estate left to use up, what else could it possibly be used for
1) I'm normally pretty shy, but, umm, if I had a VM, it would be okay with me to install the Airline Privacy-Invading Spyware Toolbar in a VM
2) I would then do nothing on the VM other than search for My Little Pony two or three times a day, probably in the early evening hours.
3) So that it looks like a trend and not just a rarity in the long tail, encourage other members of the Herd to do likewise
4) Smile, smile, smile when some overworked jackapple in the airline's marketing department, confused by this spike in the data, paints a rainbow on a Dash-8 because the data mining algorithm says that'll make it 20% cooler.
The madness must stop.
Over the next several decades - or maybe as soon as a several years, supposed "free" countries will chip away at their citizen's rights little by little always using "safety" and "security" as the excuse. And there will be plenty of dipshits who buy into it and will keep voting those politicians into office. Until one day, we will all be governed by a pseudo representative government.
Armed revolt? Ahahahahahaha! See, this time, that has been dealt with. While all the NRA members and others go and quit their jobs to fight the government with their AR-15s with the M4 conversion kits that they paid through the noses for, the banks will foreclose on their homes, their cash will be gone, and what do you think they are going to do for supplies - like ammo?
Reload? And where the fuck are they going to get the lead? Or the kits to clean their guns? Or the powder?
And, and bunch of yahoos who spend a day or so at the shooting range pinking away at targets will be no match for a trained army - or ATF agents who are putting down a home grown terrorist cell (That's what they'll be called in the news and you bet your asses that the NSA has got the NRAs member list!)
What the current President of the NRA doesn't realize is that in the beginning of the US' Revolutionary War, the English were mopping up the colonists because they were a trained army. If it weren't for the French, we'd be like Canada or Australia.
I like the "sign up, use it once, than uninstall" to get your "free" 200 points option. That is, if you're already on their bonus point system. :-)
but that does not stop corporation from trying to be the first.
Eat Flaming Death, you Nosy Motherfuckers.
As if it was required, this is yet another reason why I will be voting for the WikiLeaks Party in September (for Senate).
The mreo imarnprot qseuotin is, ocne the ierennt is mtnoiored into ulessssnes, waht anviternlae do we hvae taht wlil alolw us to look siht up or tlak to echatheor whttuoit teh NAS lsnnetiig in on wath wee'r syanig or rdeanig ovre oru sulodrehs?
What new technique can we use that won't matter if we're using it, that will assure us we're not being spied upon, and that using won't be deemed illegal? If what they're doing doesn't violate any civil liberties or constitutional guarantees, who's to say they won't demand laws be passed putting a camera in every machine, pointing at the user constantly, and at the keyboard, etc., because otherwise, people will break the law, and they won't know. They've basically come out and said their right to know what we're doing overrides our right to insist they can't know what we're doing. In other words, we're coming dangerously close to the day that the US government stops pretending to give a shit what we think. Enjoy the illusion of liberty while you can, oh sleeping people, your wake-up call draws nigh, and a RUDE awakening it will be.
In the true manner of /. of course I did not RTFA but I can add that if any company needs my home surfing habits then why not, shirley they are entitled to it. I also think that starbucks should have full access to my webcam, McDonalds need to see the inside of my shed and Microsoft (notice I did not use a $ there) really need to know how much toilet tissue I get through every week. Next thing you will be telling me is that the tin foil manufacturers are keeping tabs on just how much I have wrapped around my noggin. (think its time for bed) NN NSA
Well if you have a lot of data on politicians, you know their dirty secrets, you also know their opponents dirty secrets. There's a deal to be made there, and the law doesn't stop NSA/CIA from using that leverage for political ends [not that a law would stop General Alexander].
We've lost out democracies. We went to sleep woke up the next day and democracy has gone.
Look at this:
http://boingboing.net/2013/06/20/nsa-boss-wants-companies-to-be.html
"NSA boss wants companies to be immunized from liability if they follow illegal orders from the NSA"
He wants US Corps to follow the military orders and ignore Congressional Laws, cutting out the Judicial and Legislative branches of government. Not only that *HE*, General Alexander is asking for that, not Obama. Obama is really out of the loop here, he still quotes what the law says the NSA should be doing, not what the General has ordered it to do.
You have this already with the telco's. They obey the military, not the law. The law says interception can't target Americans, the military says targetting *everyone* is not targetting Americans. The telcos would normally challenge this BS, but they have immunity in exchange for competitive intelligence, so they don't.
*preface: I know you can't send data using entanglement. That isn't what this does. Coments along that bent aren't welcome.
Recently, experiments have shown that distance isn't a factor for entangled photons, nor is linear time. This means that a small device for entangling a few photons with a similar device at a remote host, can permit immdiate knowledge of man in the middle attempts, if the entangled samples are used as a cryptographic feature.
Basically, it's just another IC that you add to the NIC. When two hosts wish to enter a secure communication, they begin asynchronous entanglement attempts to create a correlated, random data set on which to encode the data portion of their messages to and from each other. It may take several attempts to arrive at a handshake. Once the correlated random sample is generated, the entanglement is propogated locally in the chip(s) with additional quantum bits, which is how the encode/decode pad changes and stays synchronized with each datagram. A man in the middle will hear only noise.
In light of the NSA bullshit, and other insanity lately, there is a real and present need for a technology like this.
It won't fix the "I'm with stupid!" Problem of installing the quantas toolbar, but it would go a long way on curtailing omnipresent goverment espionage.
Qantas uses a team of idiot savants do the actual statistical analysis. The team has shifts working around the clock, only stopping when "The People's Court" is on television. They definitely do things differently in Australia.
Why did this make me think of Israeli after hearing this?
I haven't the foggiest idea.
And it's not for lack of trying, mind you. I did my level best to look at this through every possible angle for the minute and a half it held my attention, but came up empty. Sorry, but I'm just not getting it. I even made a half-hearted attempt at coming up with a wordplay joke using "hava nagila", but couldn't think of anything one could "have" that would rhyme with "nagila" and relate to the story in the slightest.
It's just not my night.
If a one of you had any balls they could turn your country into a charnel house...
If you think that phrase has positive connotations, you are mistaken.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The only reason I can think of is that you are totally obsessed with an Israeli- and not just any Israeli, I'm guessing. No, a person of your obviously discriminating taste (I can tell because you have the word 'Dragon' in your name, and, I'm guessing, more than one dragon poorly tattooed somewhere, maybe near your barbed wire tattoo- but I digress) would only obsess over one of the top Israelis- none other than Netanyahu himself! Oh, it seems everything makes you think of him these days, as you playfully doodle his name in your thick-lined notebook and wistfully dream of the things you and him could do together...
Anyway, that is why this made you think of an Israeli. I hope this cleared a few things up for you, and resolves that lingering, questioning, yearning feeling that has been nagging you lately.
US marketing partner FreeCause is sending the data it mines to NSA for $$$$$$.
Set up a sight with "death to <insert person in power here>" and write a worm that makes that everyone's home page. Once they realize everyone in Canada wants them dead they'll move. On second thought, they might move to the US. We don't need any more of those guys.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
When tyranny comes to America, the NRA members will not be fighting the government. They will be at the rallies, waving flags and chanting slogans between the Sousa marches.
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
Anyone know the destination IPs or host names for these parasites?
Aussies do not have free speech ""Some of us may presume that because we live in a liberal democracy like Australia, certain personal freedoms are a given "like free speech" Additionally, we presume that many Australians would be familiar with the US Constitution and specifically the First Amendment which states; "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press", and we’re going to also guess (again for efficacy) that some people may believe that we here in Australia also enjoy a similar type of Constitutional protection: But do we? Well it must be said that Australia’s free speech laws are interesting to say the least...""
""First, let's get the easy part out of the way: Australia does not have an explicit First Amendment equivalent enshrining the protection of freedom of speech in our Constitution." http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/4529/do-we-have-the-right-to-freedom-of-speech-in-austr.aspx
Talk to Aussies and you find they hate their government and think politicians are lying cheating scumbags with their snouts in the trough, but if you criticize them you can be charged by sedition laws by John Howard: "Sedition: An intention to effect any of the following purposes: (a) to bring the Sovereign into hatred or contempt; (b) to urge disaffection against the following: (i) the Constitution; (ii) the Government of the Commonwealth; (iii) either House of the Parliament;" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_sedition_law
Not like these kind of laws are passed but not used. Albert Langer told the public how to vote on election day for a local candidate without having to give their vote to Labour or Liberal candidate in the end. The government jailed him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country#Australia
Instead of whining like a bitch RTFA. Frequent flyers can of course elect NOT to install the toolbar, but do you think QANTAS will tell people "BTW You don't have to install this" or have a big banner saying "we are sending your data to the US where we can raep it without being subject to Australian privacy laws?" If you read the fine print further you read you have to do 150 searches per month to get the full benefits. How many people do 150 searches a month anyway? Maybe slashdotters but not Grandma or Uncle Phil. Most people won't know and will install it without thinking about privacy implications which QANTAS circumvented anyway. That's hidden too. RTFA. LifeHacker said the scheme was a ripoff.
``A customer who uses the toolbar and never flies with Qantas would take 35 years to earn the 64,000 points required to fly from Sydney to London's Heathrow Airport."
And they *STILL* have to pay a COUGH COUGH $1000 fuel surcharge. Qantas is partnering with Emirates anyway. In 35 years QANTAS probably won't exist. http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/frequent-fly-in-qantas-ointment/2008/02/03/1201973735201.html
ar matey in australia they can take you without a warrant and they don't have to tell family or let you speak to a lawyer. police even have shoot to kill rights when they pick you up. all legit & no shit. how often has it happened? no one knows because the law say newspapers and tv cant report it when it does. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/action-on-inept-antiterror-laws-must-get-priority-20130520-2jwuk.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Terrorism_Act_2005 http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4691190.html
Qantas has had a form of spyware for years. Over 7 years ago I saw it's first version. It was a horrible crash prone mess. It was a flight search bar with other value add addons. And yes it reported to the mother ship.
A lot of airlines did the same. So did package delivery companies.
I work rather closely with large companies that are deploying or have deployed improved analytics tools to track your every click. Big brother exists. An issue is it's not just one big brother.
Face book for example. Almost every single app is mining your account for information. Very use any of the facebook apps if you must use facebook. Only ever give the minimal amount of information. Remember you are the product.
If you are dumb enough to ever install a "toolbar" then you get what you asked for. There is no such thing as a free value addon. They will all cost you dearly.
Browsers need to remove support for toolbars and other features that cater to malware extensions, like they should have done 10 years ago.
'horribly written, inaccurate, misleading'. Oh grow the fuck up. I said they want to. I didn't say you have to give it to them. Of course you can fucking opt-out. That's the whole point of posting the story. QANTAS is a company. Companies can't make you do anything you don't want to, but they can foist sneaky schemes on unsuspecting customers who don't realize they are being taken for a ride. Whole point of posting the the story on /. is to warn other customers SO THEY CAN OPT-OUT. In your hysteria you missed it. Suggest you stop taking your mom's hormone replacement tablets and calm the fuck down.
We have to get beyond the Left vs Right myth. Nearly every country has two parties like this and both now answer to corporate lobbyists. Let's drop the left vs right moniker in debates and listen to the issues instead: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jesse_ventura.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/06/13/jesse-ventura-explains-why-governments-are-like-gangs/
Shush bitch......the last lot who tried that (Japs) got their asses handed to them.
Anyway, without the French and Spanish to back you up, you're nothing.
Even third world part timers kick your candy little assess all over Vietnam and Iraq.
they can monitor my home traffic the day they'll come once a week to vacuum and clean up my place (oh and do dishes after i eat at my place) , until then they can kiss my hairy ass , i'm not going to fly on such an arrogant company , WTF , are they planning to make their company private information public to me too ? all these "trade secrets" and "competitive private inteligence" that companies keep behind lawyers garded legal firewalls is in my eyes very much equivalent to my private traffic / information. i will have no pity the day their CRM database or other "business strategic information" is leaked on the very public internet
Great story by H. G. Wells: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Country_of_the_Blind ..."
"At the end of his descent, down a snow-slope in the mountain's shadow, he finds a valley, cut off from the rest of the world on all sides by steep precipices. Unbeknownst to Nunez, he has discovered the fabled Country of the Blind.
It does not go as he or the reader might expect. Spoilers at Wikipedia, but here it it is online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11870
As a possible example, people who would share publicly-funded information freely in violation of copyright are persecuted (Aaron Swartz)...
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
The late (sadly, unless he is on to better post-human things) Ian Banks wrote in passing in the Cture Novels about humans in non-human form.
http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/cultnote.htm
"One idea behind the Culture as it is depicted in the stories is that it has gone through cyclical stages during which there has been extensive human-machine interfacing, and other stages (sometimes coinciding with the human-machine eras) when extensive genetic alteration has been the norm. The era of the stories written so far - dating from about 1300 AD to 2100 AD - is one in which the people of the Culture have returned, probably temporarily, to something more 'classical' in terms of their relations with the machines and the potential of their own genes.
The Culture recognises, expects and incorporates fashions - albeit long-term fashions - in such matters. It can look back to times when people lived much of their lives in what we would now call cyberspace, and to eras when people chose to alter themselves or their children through genetic manipulation, producing a variety of morphological sub-species. Remnants of the various waves of such civilisational fashions can be found scattered throughout the Culture, and virtually everyone in the Culture carries the results of genetic manipulation in every cell of their body; it is arguably the most reliable signifier of Culture status.
Thanks to that genetic manipulation, the average Culture human will be born whole and healthy and of significantly (though not immensely) greater intelligence than their basic human genetic inheritance might imply. There are thousands of alterations to that human-basic inheritance - blister-free callusing and a clot-filter protecting the brain are two of the less important ones mentioned in the stories - but the major changes the standard Culture person would expect to be born with would include an optimized immune system and enhanced senses, freedom from inheritable diseases or defects, the ability to control their autonomic processes and nervous system (pain can, in effect, be switched off), and to survive and fully recover from wounds which would either kill or permanently mutilate without such genetic tinkering."
Sci-fi has been exploring this for decades.
Geordi La Forge's Visor in 1990s Star Trek is one answer. As is Data. As is Reginald Barclay's forays into becoming superhuman on the holodeck. As is Q.
From the 1950s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Than_Human
Or from Sturgeon also in the 1950s (The Skills of Xanadu, which presaged an motivated the internet and mobile computing in some ways):
http://books.google.com/books?id=wpuJQrxHZXAC&pg=PA51&lpg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
From JD Bernal in the 1920s: http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Bernal/flesh/
"Starting, as Mr. J. B. S. Haldane so convincingly predicts, in an ectogenetic factory, man will have anything from sixty to a hundred and twenty years of larval, unspecialized existence - surely enough to satisfy the advocates of a natural life. In this stage he need not be cursed by the age of science and mechanism, but can occupy his time (without the conscience of wasting it) in dancing, poetry and love-making, and perhaps incidentally take part in the reproductive activity. Then he will leave the body whose potentialities he should have sufficiently explored.
The next stage might be compared to that of a chrysalis, a complicated and rather unpleasant process of transforming the already existing organs and grafting on all the new sensory and motor mechanisms. There would follow a period of re-education in which he would grow to understand the functioning of his new se
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Just wanted to connect the point on people deciding what senses or body shapes/capacities to have to what we were discussed a couple days ago on: "Do-It-Yourself Brain Stimulation Has Scientists Worried"
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3862853&threshold=0&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=44012505
Related themes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html
http://xkcd.com/597/
Here is a fable I wrote about thirty years ago about a knight who becomes whatever he wrote in a book -- sort of like many self-defined Transhumanists aspire to:
"The Problems of Being Self Determining"
http://www.pdfernhout.net/the-problems-of-being-self-determining.html
I'm since thinking that the human mind/body/brain/spirit seems to act as if it has a bunch of layers, where there seem to be safeguards built-in to the lower layers (shaped by evolution?) which may limit the ease of radical changes which are sometimes (but not always) in practice self-destructive acts. Those lower layers may also be related to communications links with other humans, to maintain the functioning of the group (stuff like a sense of fairness, compassion, etc. as well as probably status issues too from another direction).
Which connects to this story on simulated universes, math and infinite convergences:
"I don't know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility. Short story, Sam Hughes (2007)."
http://qntm.org/responsibility
I made artificial life simulations myself in the 1980s, and started thinking about the moral implications....
James P. Hogan has some related books too, like Entoverse, and Realtime Interrupt.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Then fill up their searches with VirginAustralia.com reservations.