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Big Brother Awards
Kodi writes "According to an article on ZDNN, Privacy International is accepting nominations for its Big Brother Awards, designed to recognize the US companies that have done the most to invade our privacy. "
I can think of (intel) a few companies that (intel) could
conceivably (intel) be nominated. Gimme a minute to think
about it.
Intel has put ID in their chips, but still this
is
- a documented feature
- factory set to be disabled
- still you have the choice and can
by an AMD or a Cyrix, or one of
Intel's processors that does not
feature this ID
Microsoft is a much different story :
- it is an undocumented, hidden feature
- data is actually _collected_ by a
private company and used without
your knowledge (which, under the laws
that apply in some countries at least
on this side of the pond could get
Bill Gates to go to jail)
- Many people don't have a choice and
have to by/use M$ products anyway.
So, stop whining about intel (while you carry
cellular phones and scatter your credit card
number everywhere), and be concerned about
the _real_ danger from powerful people who
for some reason believe they have all the rights
I've heard that RedHat has already amassed a large amount of personal information of Gnome users. Apparently the number of IDs they have received has far exceeded the storage capacity that had set aside for this database.
They are asking that everyone switch to KDE until they can increase storage capacity.
let's not forget about that whole M$/WebTV tracking thing, either.
Geez, lay off the Intel-bashing for a second. At least they fricking WARNED people about the CPUID *before* they shipped. Thus, it's your choice whether to buy HW with these "features."
MS, on the other hand, ships first, gets a few million people using their stuff, then owns up. The privacy violations both suck. However, with Intel, at least you had proper warning upfront, making it your *choice* to buy into such problems.
Criticize MS *FIRST*, Intel second.
McNeally's "you don't have any privacy anyway" idiocy deserves at least an honorable mention.
There is an article on CNN about this MS feature (I mean bug - wink wink). It also talks about a book by a former MS programmer which is about a large software company which covertly collects private data about it's users and then uses this data to help the CEO run for president. I wonder if he was inspired at work?
I hadn't thought about Billy Gates running for President before but I suppose if Steve Forbes can afford so can Billy Gates.
AOL is the true devil when it comes to privacy. I mean sure, you've got Intel and Microsoft with their various Identification numbers, but what about AOL with their "Profiling Technology" for ICQ? They plan on pushing ads at users based on the content of the messages they send?
Evil. Evil. Evil.
I totally agree. Intel, unlike Microsoft, has had for the most part, risen to the top of the heap mostly on its own accord. It has been married to Microsoft for the last few years, but lately, with AMD giving it a run for its money, it has been forced to design better to open accomodate competition. Intel also had the decency to tell everyone that they were going to put on the serial numbers. Then, when they realized that the public was going to jump down their throats, they recanted, and pulled it. Sounds like they are keeping themselves accountable to the public. Unlike the set-in-stone monolith of a certain Redmond, WA company. Intel is also helping the Linux community by providing credibility. Even though Intel has almost nothing to lose by releasing its specs, other than the risk of Industrial Sabotage. We still have to buy our chips, open source or not. I would not be so quick to bite the hand that is helping us. I don't think of Intel as Big Brother, simply as a company that made a mistake. And they are admitting it. A little compassion, people?
JoeLinux/JLCarnes@csupomona.edu
Hm....is this so? Based on the _content_ of the messages ?
I haven't read about this. Do you have some pointers/URL's ?
regards,
Tom
ok, I'm a bit confused. I understand the uproar about intel and chipids, but from my perspective it is all really because they made a big marketing deal about it... they certainly are not the first chip manufacturer to do this. anyone remember the motorola 68Ks? most license keys for NeXt software were based on the unique chipid in the motorola chips they ran on. and I believe the motorola/ibm/apple powerpc chips have unique ids as well... not so sure about sparc, mips and alpha; but it wouldn't surprise me.
so, what's the big deal???
Any others?
A week or two ago I read that one of the house of the US Congress (I think it was the Senate) voted down a law that would have made it mandatory for banks to report any "unusual" patterns of transactions to the IRS or DEA. The law would have made virtually all financial transactions open to scrutiny by our civil-rights-friendly "war on drugs" agencies.
Whoever sponsored that piece of crap gets my nomination.
Which not only did this user ID thing with Win98, they've tried to pull similar shit in the past, only to shoot it down when people got wind of it and raised a stink.
Why do you think they get so pissed off when you run alternate operating systems? You're slowing down their plans for world domination.
Am I not understanding something or is this paranoia about CPU ID completely clueless?
Isn't it up to your software to pass it to outside world?
And if you mistrust your software, you are robably helpless with or without CPU ID.
Malicious software can find much information identifying you in your computer with or besides CPU ID (e.g., your e-mail address).
Also CPU ID seems useless protection against impersonation, as your software can easily report fake one. When open-source Mozilla will be finished, it should become almost trivial.
(OK, you may use it as random seed for generating public/private key pair and give out public key, but this is only secure if no one knows your ID, and all discussion pointed out that it is easily traceable)
Main use of CPU ID seems to be for anti-piracy
schemes.
Lexis-Nexis has to be one of the worst as far as privacy violations go. The whole Social Security number mess puts them at the top of my list
Microsoft should get the Big Brother of the Decade award, since they have been secretly collecting personal data for most of the decade. Intel should get the Big Brother of the Year Award, since their idiocy has pretty much been confined to their P-III stupidity.
AMD should, of course, just get your business - a reward for NOT putting an ID in their chips.
Sounds like a M$ employee is posting. I wonder how much they get paid?
Sorry, but Who is Shawn McLawran?
Your link gave me an error.
M$ used Office documents and HTML emails to find information on your HD then posted a patch but never let anyone know about it, you had to find it yourself. Now they are doing it more directly. Those who blow this off ask yourself one question. What are your companies NT boxes sending M$. If you don't mind letting M$ know all of your secrets why don't you post it on the net ;)
M$ also gets caught several times blatantly lying in M$ vs Gov. I hope the Gov. sticks it to them.
If we're going to talk about the worst offenders for Big Brother-ism, we can't forget the good folks at Circuit City and their attempt to replace "basic" (open) DVD format with a proprietary (and kinda fascist) DIVX format. For those that don't know, a DIVX player is a DVD player with a modem that dials up a corporate office and bills you for each time you watch your movies. To compensate, the original discs are cheaper. How is this Big Brother-ish? Well, to start with the ad campaign behind DIVX is about as truthful as the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The ads refer to DIVX as "enhancved DVD" when in fact it is a competing format. DVD is an open standard, whereas DIVX is proprietary. The license allows Circuit City (and the other owners of DIVX) to use information about what you watch any way they see fit, including selling it, and they would know what movies you watch, how often, and at one times. They can even tell which parts of the movie you watch the most. There are more reasons not to like DIVX, which most of you probly know (check out www.fightdivx.com for more ammo), but if you like privacy this should be all you need to know.
Hey kid, if I give you a lollipop will you go away?
I'm about to sign up for @Home service...could you expand on that?
Whereby MS vans would drive through business districts using recieving equipment to read peoples monitors. And no, this is not fantasy. The cathode rays in a CRT are controlled by electromagnets which vary in strength to move the beam around as it scans across your screen. This produces characteristic radiation that can be picked up with recieving equipment hundreds of meters away and reconstructed into a very legible version of the original screen.
The Scientific American article is written by some guys who were doing research for Microsoft. In the course of their research, they discovered that some dithering patterns do not reconstruct very well. Their article is about using this as a method to scramble what's on screen so that it can only be read at the original monitor. The interesting part is that their research for Microsoft was about having MS applications always display a serial number so that passing MS surviellance vans could read them (presumeably using OCR, not by hand) from outside the building. This way, MS could plan raids on various evil dens of dangerous software pirates. Don't you just hate those evil, oppressive software pirates with their underhanded schemes?
bleh. let's close this dangling list.
@Home has given themselves the right to do packet monitoring at their switches.
:P
In other words, by signing with them you are saying that they can observe/track anything you do on the net. Fun, eh?
...tis why I'm going with DSL. Not as fast and a little more expensive, but worth it. Not that I'm doing anything 'illegal' or unethical on the net, but I do like my privacy when I can choose to have it (not often a choice!).
Then again, my old dial-up ISP used to monitor what I did, but I caught them at it. Small little company slave-driving some teenagers to run the place. I guess you have no privacy unless you start your own ISP or something anymore.
Redhat sells support but doesn't deliver. The commercial support they're getting is undeserved - IBM, Intel, et al are just doing their typical knee-jerk reaction to information that is out of date by the time it's hyped by the press.
Redhat: your days are numbered. You've jumped on the $$ bandwagon too fast. You'll be the first linux company everyone loves to hate.
Very interesting article; I wonder how I missed that one. I don't suppose that MS could roll this into ClearType somehow.
Police can ask all suspects for DNA samples,
but you only have to comply if there is a warrant.
Bill Clinton received a warrant for the blue dress.
Dateline did a segment on this.
Sometimes police in the UK will sample an entire neighborhood
without a warrant.
If you submit a sample, but are proven innocent,
do you get to remove your sample from the database?
I believe the military returns samples when you are discharged.
Enough Clinton DNA results were published as a
figure in Starr's report that a third party was
above to decide a false paternity complaint
against him last month.
Scary!
In this world, how can we maintain privacy? Get rid of our credit cards? For some it's not an option. We can't get rid of car insurance, auto registration, internet access (!), but all these things (and hundreds more) require minor to major invasions of privacy. :)
On NPR today a professor was arguing that we give lip service to privacy but overlook community. He's advocating giving up some privacies for the good of the community (at least that what he says on the surface). Scary stuff.
To start protecting our privacy, we could disallow cookies, run scripts to automatically clean our internet caches, stop registering products we bought (or at least put in bogus information), and think a little more before we fill out online registrations.
There are other ways to disappear too
OK, so maybe this sounds a little paranoid. But it's disconcerting to me that a corporate or government entity could track which web pages I browsed, what files I downloaded, etc..
PS -- are these IPs logged?
Understand the significance of Big Brother extends past the realm of computer users. Yes, Microsoft is far worse than Intel because at the very least hardware won't broadcast the cpuid - software will. also think about all of the data that Microsoft gains every time they consume/purchase a smaller startup (VSI, HotMail, MSN) - it's staggering.
The real BigBrothers include the average world citizen. Top three big brothers not in order: ATT (TCI, credit-cards, ISP, phone companies, et al.), TimeWarner (think about it), and Microsoft (nuf said). Unfortunately, they're all american.
Check out Wired for a great article on what privacy really is.
Understand the significance of Big Brother extends past the realm of computer users. Yes, Microsoft is far worse than Intel because at the very least hardware won't broadcast the cpuid - software will. also think about all of the data that Microsoft gains every time they consume/purchase a smaller startup (VSI, HotMail, MSN) - it's staggering. The real BigBrothers include the average world citizen. Top three big brothers not in order: ATT (TCI, credit-cards, ISP, phone companies, et al.), TimeWarner (think about it), and Microsoft (nuf said). Unfortunately, they're all american.
Check out Wired for a great article on what privacy really is.
I dunno about the KGB at your school, but the real KGB (the one at my school) is pretty cool.
Teachers that use social security numbers to distribute exam grades (where you look up your SSN to find your grade, and often your name's on there anyway) just suck, though.
so, what's the big deal???
The big deal is that the Processor Serial Number is accessible by using software. Not only can it be accessed, but it can be sent across the Internet. Combine this with the fact that the PSN can be turned on and off without user intervention, and you run into all sorts of possible abuses. Consider the following scenario.
Lets say that you are Joe User. You go to Best Buy and get the top of the line Packard Bell, the one with the hot new P!!!. It just so happens that you pay cash, removing the possibility of associating you with the PSN. Intel advertises its chip as enhancing the Internet experience so you decide to do a little websurfing. Lets say that websites are interested in using the PSN to track users, and future versions of IE include this capability. So several sites that you visit get your PSN. But who cares? Its a serial number, no big deal. Anyway, they don't have your name, so all they have is the number.
This is where the fun begins. Still playing the part of Joe User, you decide to buy a scanner. Instead of going to Best Buy, you decide to buy it online. After all the P!!! has that special feature that helps prevent fraud during online transactions. You look around the web and find that Scanners R Us has the best price. So you whip out your credit card and give the site your billing and shipping information. They take your PSN. And so begins a new database, one that relates your PSN with your name, address and so on. So far this isnt too bad now is it?
One day the Scanners R Us president decides that he needs to put his yacht broker's kid through college. He has two things to sell, more scanners, or his customer lists along with their PSN's. Now someone out there with the foresight to recognize the value of this information is offering him quite a sum for it. So he jumps at the chance to make a quick buck and goes sailing in the Mediterranean. Now your information has found its way into much larger company. A company who buys and sells information about consumers. Here is where it gets a little scary.
Lets say that this information clearinghouse that now has your key info, decides it wants more. Then it goes out and pays various websites for all of the info that they have tied to particular PSN's. The webmasters make a quick buck and sell your info, which then is included in the database. The company that bought your info gets a pretty good idea about your interests. Now, your PSN, address, and web surfing habits all sit on a big disk somewhere. Yet Joe User does more than just surf the web, and there is a whole sea of data to be had.
The good old information clearinghouse is at it again, but now they start collecting data from offline sources. Ever rent a video? Ever use a club card at a grocery store? Do you subscribe to cable, and watch pay per view? Lets not forget companies like Experian who maintain all of the credit records. Money changes hands and data flows like a river. Lets take a look at what they know now...
name
address
phone number (probably)
credit card number
credit rating
interests (Web, movie rentals etc.)
grocery list
acceptance of e-commerce.
After buying and sorting all of this info, they want to make some money from it. So they sell it to anyone who wants it. Here comes the junk mail, the unsolicited phone calls. This info then gets sold to a banner ad provider who makes sure that you see custom targeted ads. All of your information is now scattered so far and wide that it probably never could be deleted. How do you feel about your privacy now?
What the Intel PSN does is provide a way to relate the online life of Joe User with who he is offline. This could be very valuable to a retailer who is looking for very specific demographic information. This may even progress to the point where ads are custom targeted to individuals. Wonder why so many of the banner ads you are seeing have blue backgrounds? You put that as your favorite color into a form on a website. Curious about why your mailbox is stuffed with invitations to the zoophilia convention? Hmmmm... Try explaining that one to your spouse or your parents. The list could go on and on. Welcome to the new era of direct marketing.
Granted that this is only a scenario, but I do believe that the situation is not too far fetched. Even if it does go overboard it serves as an illustration of the abuses that could happen. In the past, chipids were not in widespread use. Furthermore they were not intended to be blasted across the web to whoever wanted them. The difference between the Intel PSN and other ID methods is what makes the Intel design so easy to misue.
"DVD is an open standard"...
...and that's why there are so many Linux and *BSD DVD players, right? They don't collect user info, but DVD's about as open a standard as MS Word files.
Listen Up,
The Reveren Rodent is abou to adres youz.
A few years ago when I was trying to become a shareware company I thought long and hard and every which way about how I could stop piracy. And the only idea that really worked was if each computer had a id number in it. And every CD-ROM or download of software also had a unique serial number in it.
Course that solution was no good because computers didn't have individual ids in them. And I cursed IBM and Microsoft and the lot of them for not thinking of this and thus causing so much havok.
Think about it-:
------> !!!!! NO MORE PIRACY !!!!! --------
you install, the program links to your web browser calls up the distributor it issues a secret code to the software which is embedded into the executables in a nontraceable way and Viola!!!!
------> !!!!! NO MORE PIRACY !!!!!
sO, Why isn't Intel talking about this aspect of their little chippi? Hm? Don't care about piracy? And all those shareware authors out there. Just don't give a damn?
For some reason they don't want people to think of it right away? I don't know why. It's totally obvious and that is why nobody has mentioned it? The newspapers and general news media are targetting kocker spaniels who are in the 7th grade and so all their news reports come out like-: bark bark bark car crash bark bark bark monica bark bark bark chasing cars bark bark bark.
Now it seems to me I remember the software authors of the world banding together some years ago to complain to the government about piracy. Is this Intel's back handed way of giving them their wish?
And about privacy, heckba!!!! Get over it. A cpu id is not going to make a damned bit of difference. They have got you pegged already. But they don't pass the info back and forth amongst each other because of the privacy policies SO WHAT@!!! ? You're just a bunch of fickle mush heads trying to put air back into a bottle with your hands. The war was lost about 20 years ago when the first main frame was hooked up to a mailing list with the word VISA at the top.
And if you don't like having your buns hanging out in the wind all the time, well then here's an idea for a company you can start-: It acts as a proxy between it's clients and the world. When you are a client of this new company called AgentX, you surf the net and buy things and chat and e-mail and as far as the world is concerned it's all just AgentX calling. You ARE AgentX for crying out loud. You and about 40 million other people who don't want their buns hanging out in the breaze. You are AgentX number 775300735077. And that's all you are.
So get out there and get some backers and get AgentX Corp. up and running. Right now.
And quit your whining.
For cryminies sakes.
And WHY don't I EVER hear these privacy nimnulls yanking about FinCEN the Financial Crime Enforcement Network!!! Never hear them talk about it.
Why?
Because all these privacy stuck pigs squealers are just highly emotional nimnulls who are only responding to call and response stimulations centered just a few inches below the bbutton.? AntiMarketing messages.:? Reverse PR.? side effect images that instead of getting him to buy a car it gets him to grouse about some perceived but nonexistent privacy.? And so he wants to get back this imaginary privacy that he always thought he had,? but he never did.? We never did.?
And What About The FinCEN???? Nobody ever talks about the FinCEN!!!! its always encryption this and NSA
that and
WHO CARES !!!!!
PGP case closed. For all who don't want their totally uninteresting secret converstations to show up on any governmental drug scanners. We should prescriptionize all illegal drugs and have the government distribute it for free but in return you've got to go through Madison Avenue reprogramming on your way to and from and during. And people follow you home trying to get you to mend your ways and get strewn on on the 12 steps.
CASE CLOSED.
But FinCEN, is everywhere. Don't think you can elude them just by sending all your secret messages encrypted by totally unbreakable pure random encryption. Fah. They've got you and you ain't goin nowheres unless you want to take up the fine art of barter from here on out. And LISTEN FRIEND. Your records are all public ANYWAY!!! and have been since 1776 for crying OUT LOUD!!! All your RECORDS. Have been PUBLIC PROPERTY since TIME BEGAN. BY LAW. for jissaCreal Shmakes.
Rassa Frassin RissaFrassin rika brika brak
!$%*&(@%^%^@#%&*
It's just been locked away in dusty shoe boxes and lost in dingy dungeons in government backwaters. And so we all got the false sense that all of this stuff was hidden away under lock and key. What a bunch of MUSH HEADS WE. How do you think private eyes ever get anything done huh? By magic?
So now that our false sense of privacy has been shown up for what it is. A ROYAL FLUSHING SHAM. We bleat like stuck pigs.
Well, all I've got to say, is it's a sorry sight for sore eyes.
i listen to ppl's cell phone and cordless phone convo's cuz i can. not becuz i'm nosey- but for entertainment and in protest of insecure channels. i spit on the U.S. government for being run by un-informed/irrational fukwits. i think it's a real goddamn shame ppl can listen to phone convo's and soon to come cable modem bandwidth. it's possible to construct a box which can be used to eavesdrop on all cable bandwidth. what it is: everytime some asshole blows up a trade center or federal building, they make sure the media covers it extensively -- they want america to see the dead bodies, the destruction, the gore, so that when they pass the new anti-gun and anti-encryption bills, you THANK them!!! they want you to come cowering to them with your peckers jammed up your ass and your hands out. "PLEASE PLEASE PROTECT ME UNCLE SAM!!!!!"
;>}
bunch of subhuman trash in this country.. i dont know who i hate worse, the fukwit representatives or the shitheads who voted them in. fuk it..
- blaufukt {kill'em all... let ME sort'em out.
I think that you are being Paranoid. People alwasy ask for this information, and most people readily give it out. Who is Big Brother? Read 1984 by George Orwell to figure it out. "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER!!!" Scott torrsco@edgewood.k12.wi.us
Ban sale, purchase and use of receiving equipment?
Hey, that's great! My TV alone picks up the local signals - what are they going to do, come and take it away?
Time Warner Roadrunner cable modem service has a
policy like this as well. Their privacy policy and acceptable use policy both state that they can
sell your name and adress, etc. to whomever they want. I have reason to suspect, but cannot prove, that they have sold my name to a phone sex company that markets through direct mail.
you wanna see privacy infringement?
look at the new *goverment* standards for obdIII. I read an article in vw trends that says that if this goes throught the goverment and gets approved, this system will transmit to any nearby cop if you are:
speeding
not buckling your seatbelt
needing egr/pollution control cleaned
the list goes on and on.....
if a cop sees this he can actually tell your car to stop via remote control and drop off a ticket just to agitate you...
it is would also be illegal to clip the antenna or smash the ********* box to pieces
Actually, If your mad about Intel serial #'s, your a little behind, because the Apple Lisa had serial #'s built into the hardware as well.
Actually, I recall an old Wired article, in which, it said that Microsoft's online store was going to sell customer information to the highest bidder, I don't know if they actually did that, though.
Well, here's a Scientific American article on some of Microsoft's plans that you guys probobly either forgot about or never heard of.
"PI is also bestowing awards to recognise the work of individuals who are active in the protection of privacy."
Ron Paul should get that one, he's been pushing through alot of pro-privacy bills in the house, and is often the only republican who votes against anti-drug legislation as well.
I bet most of the SPAM I get now may be due to AhOLe sniffing out TO:/From: addresses of members corresponding with the outside ... farging bastages.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
Junkbuster is one of the most useful Internet tool I have ever installed on my machine!
Jon
All private universities should get an award. You give up all your rights when you go to one of those. Compared to the KGB, CIA, FBI, and IRS of the average private school, Intel looks like Mickey mouse.
Protect privacy, boycott Intel: http://www.bigbrotherinside.org
Linux is only free if your time has no value. Windows is only free if you threaten to use Linux.
Is Sean McLawran in the running?
--
As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Here's a classic usenet post where Mr. Gates states his company could have the responsibility of being big brother and turn people in when they were caught doing bad things, say, pirating software!
Just who is Big Brother?
Mike
derGott
Don't SPARCs have serial numbers in them?
I think its great personally. Being able to track
what people are doing in a corporate setting is a
good thing. It makes administration a lot easier,
and can save lots of dollars.
Casca
I nominate the entire cellular phone industry for not providing any encryption of their traffic whatsoever. Now they are pushing for legislation to ban the sale, purchase and use of any equipment that could possibly intercept their signal.
Losers! They broadcast unencrypted voice signal across my front yard but want it to be illegal for me to detect it?
BIG BROTHER AWARD
Hear-hear!
I second this nomination!
-k
remember that starcraft registry incident blizzard had a few months ago?
that should help them up onto the charts
Its spelt "L-I-N-U-X", but pronunced as "Free Beer"
given what we know now about Microsoft...he's right and the only idiots are those who use MS stuff
---
Crow's first line was going to be mine but I got beat to it, however, as I mentioned (if my post made it in spite of the recent troubles) in the MS thread the specs for their latest outrage include a way around the lack of a NIC card that requires a random number generator and it seems (Intel) like I've recently seen (Intel) something about a CPU (Intel) that does that very thing (Intel).
BTW In his appearance this morning on C-SPAN Katz mentioned that his next book is going to be about the rise of the geeks. I'm sure you're all as shocked and surprised as I am.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Furthermore, it's just a stupid idea anyways. Considering how many PCs out there are "Family PCs" or "Company PCs", which can have many possible users. You have a PSN for the machine, but you have no sure way of knowing which USER is on it at a given time.
The other side of the coin is users who use multiple machines (ie, one at home, one at work). Now, thanks to the "added security of the P3 PSN", it's entirely concievable that you can only access a PSN-enabled site from one of those locations...and heaven help you if you sell your computer.
So, you've bought a not-so-new P3 box...and within months, you start receiving email/snail mail from Necrophiles R Us and the Transylvanian Home Renovation Network, all because the person you bought the machine (and it's PSN) from was a sick freak and your data got mashed together in the wash.
I'm not against the PSN because it's a violation of my privacy, I'm against it because advertising it as a Web-tool is a REALLY DUMB IDEA!!!
"What do you mean, invalid parameters? 9000Gigs of RAM and it can't answer a simple question!" -- Earthworm Jim
Nah. Taken it the context in which he made the remark, he's right.
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
It's already happening, around here the local schools will finger print your kid for you "in case they are ever kidnapped". Look I understand the pain of people who have had their kids taken, but to have schools finger print your kids and keep the records, or as happened a few weeks ago, haveing the local sherifs deparment call up soliciting to figerprint your kid for "thier safety and protection". It is just so frigtening.
Yeah, lets get every body in the NCIC database as soon as they enter kindergarden or head start.
Man... if their so-called "bug" doesn't lead to a class-action lawsuit...
I get steamed just thinking about it. Yeah, ok, the bug some years back about Word files including random data, that could have been a legitimate bug I GUESS. But associating a unique ID # with a user's personal info AND building a database of that information is no "bug." And the justifications I've been reading (tech support, etc) are totally bogus.
I mean, even if they say that it was supposed to be a "checkbox" or whatever that toggled sending that info, they should have been clued in when 100% of their users were "choosing" to send their unique ID, right?
Where's the outrage in the mainstream press?! This is scary stuff!
W
-------------------
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Our "privacy" is "violated" in many ways that have nothing to do with what OS we're running or on what hardware we're running it.
Anyone been to their ATM machine for cash lately? Notice that little surveillance camera? Been to the local convenience store? Another surveillance camera. The grocery store? Another camera. Did you pay for your groceries with a check? Probably had to show ID which included or was tied to your SSN, phone number, address, and other "personal" information. Did you use your ATM card with the Visa logo to pay for *anything* lately? What about your library card? Have you noticed surveillance cameras in the shopping mall? In some cities they're at intersections watching for cars that run red lights. In England I understand they're using surveillance cameras in heavily trafficked downtown areas. Have you used your health insurance or car insurance lately?
And the list goes on and on. It's not just about MAC addresses and CPU IDs. We're under surveillance "for our safety" many hours of the day. At least here in the good old US of A
but perhaps you get my meaning?
Not only do they not tell you they are collecting info, they specifically say they aren't. The upgrade wizard says that they don't send any information about your system to microsoft.
-matt
Sorry for the spelling.....
From what i understand, they are doing it to all convicted murderers and sex offenders. They were going to add burglers to that list because they some times end up killing people while robbing them. I do not think that is to bad. If i get killed or what not it would like to have the persons dna on file so if i cut him and he leaves blood or stuff they can find him.
ps. Once you are in jail or the army you are owned by the goverment.
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Joshua Curtis
Lancaster Co. Linux Users Group
Why does it seem that once you become popular, you automatically become a target here? With Intel and Microsoft, it's one thing as they've got enough reasons to object too. However, now that RedHat and VA are getting larger, they're now on many hitlists. Linus is getting up there? Well, hell he sucks too.
Is this just a side effect of people who don't care if they're right or wrong, as long as they're in the minority (and therefore "elite")?
How much longer till we see a large movement away from Linux because it's too popular?
Yep ... in fact, most of us take it for granted that any kind of "authority" has access to information about us ... We are used to Big Brother watching over our daily lives, we don't think about it much in terms of credit card use, etc!
... well, other than to sell this info to spammers!
On another note, I've often wondered why so many websites need so much information about me
"Arrr! The laws of science be a harsh mistress." -- Bender
I can think of (Microsoft) a few companies that (Microsoft) could conceivably (Microsoft) be nominated. Gimme a minute to think about it.
I think the thing with includeing MAC addresses in documents without telling people is much worse.
It really depends on whether you were informed or had access to such information when you applied, didn't you? It's very much available information at Caltech at least, and if you don't read it is your fault, not theirs. It is a tradeoff for a world-class education vs privacy concerns. I accepted the tradeoff; I'm not sure if anyone who is good enough to get into a private school will refuse that kind of tradeoff.
AS
AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
I'm surprised you haven't gotten a lot of flak from the Dilberts of the world railing against an oppressive/authoritative upper management...
There is a difference between making people accountable for their actions and actually scrutinizing their actions. I would assume that making people accountable be of much much higher importance than just being able to see and regulate. Self regulation, self motivation, self autmonomy seems to be more effective and efficient than having cops at every intersection preventing jay walking and running red lights.
IANAM
But I am not a manager, so I may be wrong on this angle.
AS
AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
RH is not going to be the distribution people hate, why is it that RH popularity pisses people off.
If you do not like the product OK, your choice but what drives you to dislike the company. Granted it is an extremely popular distro, and seems to be every where but they have not done anything injurious to anyone. All they are trying to do is make money, and not a lot I might add.
Woe be on to them, all who rise against poor people, shall perish in a the end. Buju Banton
Don't register your software. I don't register my software with the company which created it.
DES Khaddafi KGB genetic jihad Uzi Rule Psix Qaddafi cryptographic Peking Mossad Legion of Doom Albanian Serbian Saddam
So Intel puts serial numbers in the processor. Your computer probably already has a unique serial number in it, in your hard disk drive. Why are people not outraged at this?
What could possibly make a serial number accessable to the outside world?
Software!
Don't be outraged at the hardware vendors, be outraged at the browser makers, operating system makers and other software makers who read your serial number(s) and send them out to the world without your knowledge.
Personally, I'm in favor of serializing CPUs. For the same reason I'm glad my automobile, VCR, etc. have serial numbers. As a record of ownership, and to help track down thieves.
The United States Department of Defense probably deserves the award for collecting DNA signatures from all active duty service members. What could possibly be more personal? From my understanding, federal law enforcement agencies have access to these DNA signatures and can use them in their investigations. Furthermore, I don't think that service members can have their DNA records expunged when they exit the military.
It doesn't seem like it would be that much of a stretch for public schools and hospitals to start doing the same thing.
are slime, too. I don't think Microsoft has sold the data to others.
I certainly think that this whole ID thing built into the new P III's is not the greatest idea, after all, what kind of real applications will be implemented anytime really soon. However, I don't really see why people are getting so bent out of shape about it. I could really care less. The only way that anyone could really do anything with the ID is if you (the buyer) are FORCED to register it. As many of you probably know, just because they try to force you to register doesn't mean that it has to be registered legally, or sometimes at all. The other thing is, what could someone really do with this ID number? Wow, they may be able to tell when you are connected to the internet, but what real advantage would somone get from that? I don't think this is such a problem. If you don't want to have the stupid ID on your chip, then get a different chip that does not have it. Anyhow, my point is that this has gotten WAY too much attention from the nation. I am done ranting now...
Or have they stopped collecting the information on what you're looking for when you search altavista?
Seems to me that when an advertiser gets the list of search words you're wanting, and pops a cookie on your system (you *DO* reject cookies from other than the site you're connected to, right?) for later recall (you *DO* edit you cookie lists, don't you?), they're going too far.
(Update - I just popped over to altavista, and it looks like they're not doing ads with doubleclick any longer - at least this time. But I'll still nominate them for historical reasons.)
Or maybe I'm just paranoid.
Put your monitor in a Faraday cage or some other grounded metal enclosure if you're really worried about this.
Void the Warranty