The Surveillance State - A New Era

Spooky Business: Corporate Espionage Against Nonprofit Organizations
By Gary Ruskin

“The problem is that you do things in the service of your country that are just not appropriate to do in the private sector.”
- John Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency

Executive Summary
This report is an effort to document something we know little about: corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations. The entire subject is veiled in secrecy. In recent years, there have been few serious journalistic efforts – and no serious government efforts to come to terms with the reality of corporate spying against nonprofits.

Much of what we do know about this subject has been uncovered by accident. So the picture we have is fragmentary at best: just a few snapshots, taken mostly at random, arising from brilliant strokes of luck, giving a mere inkling of the full range of espionage activity against nonprofits.

There are, however, a few things we can say for certain.

The corporate capacity for espionage has skyrocketed in recent years. Most major companies now have a chief corporate security officer tasked with assessing and mitigating “threats” of all sorts – including from nonprofit organizations. And there is now a surfeit of private investigations firms willing and able to conduct sophisticated spying operations against nonprofits.

The use of former intelligence, military and law enforcement officers for corporate espionage appears to be commonplace. Especially prevalent is the use of former Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and Secret Service agents, as well as current or former police officers, and other former military, intelligence and law enforcement officials. These current and former government employees, and current government contractors, do their spying against nonprofits with little regulation or oversight, and apparently with near impunity.

Many of the world’s largest corporations and their trade associations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Walmart, Monsanto, Bank of America, Dow Chemical, Kraft, Coca Cola, Chevron, Burger King, McDonald’s, Shell, BP, BAE, Sasol, Brown & Williamson and E.ON have been linked to espionage or planned espionage against nonprofit organizations, activist s and whistleblowers.

CONTINUE: http://www.corporatepolicy.org/spookybusiness.pdf

You are sitting in bed in your pyjamas, drinking a cup of cocoa. A loved one lies next to you, watching late-night television. Pillow talk is exchanged. An alarm clock is set. Eventually the lights are turned out.
Earlier, you sat on the living-room sofa eating supper, before loading the dishwasher and heading upstairs.
You have, in other words, just enjoyed a perfectly normal night, in a perfectly normal home. The curtains are drawn, the central heating turned up. It’s cosy, relaxing and, above all, completely private. Or so you thought.
The truth turns out to be quite the opposite. For on the other side of the world, people you didn’t know existed are keeping a beady eye on your every move.
On the other side of the world, people you didn't know existed are keeping a beady eye on your every move
On the other side of the world, people you didn't know existed are keeping a beady eye on your every move
These characters can see what clothes you have been wearing and what food you’ve eaten. They heard every word you said, and logged every TV show you watched. Some are criminals, others work for major corporations. And now they know your most intimate secrets.
It may sound like a plot summary for a futuristic science-fiction movie. But real-life versions of this Orwellian scenario are being played out every day in towns and cities across the globe — and in most cases the victims have no idea.
At fault is a common electronic device invented nearly a century ago and found in almost every modern household: the domestic television set.
Put simply, our TVs have started spying on us.

More...
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Cut off nuisance calls! Cold-calls are still getting through despite regulations designed to stop them
Last week, there was a high-profile case in point. An IT consultant called Jason Huntley, who lives in a village near Hull, uncovered evidence that a flat-screen television, which had been sitting in his living room since the summer, was secretly invading his family’s privacy.
He began investigating the £400 LG device after noticing that its home screen appeared to be showing him ‘targeted’ adverts — for cars, and Knorr stock cubes — based on programmes he’d just been watching.
Huntley decided to monitor information that the so-called smart TV — which connects to the internet — was sending and receiving. He did this by using his laptop effectively as a bridge between his television and the internet receiver, so the laptop was able to show all the data being sucked out of his set.
He soon discovered that details of not just every show he watched but every button he pressed on his remote control were being sent back to LG’s corporate headquarters in South Korea.
Smart televisions, which connect to the internet, could be invading ordinary families' privacy (stock picture)
Smart televisions, which connect to the internet, could be invading ordinary families' privacy (stock picture)
There, the electronics company appeared to be using its customers’ data to make money. A promotional video shown to commercial clients suggested that data was being used to provide ‘the ad experience you have always dreamed of’.
The information Huntley’s TV had sent — without his knowledge — included the contents of his private digital video collection, which he’d watched on the television. This included camcorder footage of family celebrations containing images of his wife and two young children.
Most worrying of all, the device continued sending such information to Korea even after Huntley had adjusted the television’s default settings to ‘opt out’ of data sharing.
Huntley wrote about the findings on his blog. After his case was picked up by mainstream news outlets, LG announced an investigation. ‘Customer privacy is a top priority,’ the firm said. ‘We are looking into reports that certain viewing information on LG smart TVs was shared without consent.’
LG has also removed its promotional video about targeted advertising from its website.
The Information Commissioner’s Office says it is now investigating the firm for a ‘possible breach’ of the Data Protection Act. Jason Huntley, meanwhile, tells me he is ‘very suspicious and also a little worried’ by the affair.
‘I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this. Who knows what else these televisions are doing that we don’t know about?’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2513592/Is-TV-spying-YOU.html#ixzz2lq5kgixl


Just a comment . Today we have a lot of PC , Tablet, and phone that have a camera in built . To avoid the possibility of the camera being switched by hackers or spies , do this .
Identify where the camera is and put on it same stick-on tape used to cover wounds . The same principle applies to smart TV

NSA Infects 50,000 Computer Systems Worldwide
By Stephen Lendman
November 26, 2013

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported it, headlining “NSA infected 50,000 computer networks with malicious software.”

It cited leaked Edward Snowden information. His revelations are the gift that keeps on giving. Activists representing him keep important information coming.

It’s vital. Everyone needs to know. Unchecked NSA spying threatens fundamental freedoms. They’re fast disappearing.

Their on the chopping block for elimination. Police state lawlessness runs America. It’s too great a threat to ignore.

According to NRC, NSA hacked over 50,000 computer networks. It installed malware. It facilitates surveillance.

It’s “designed to steal sensitive information.” Snowden provided documents prove it. A 2012 management presentation showed NSA uses “Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) in more than 50,000 locations.”

It secretly infiltrates computer systems through malware. Belgian telecom provider Belgacom was hacked.

Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) installed malware in its network. It did so to gain access to its customers’ telephone and data traffic.

It did it through a false Linkedin page. It was done through unwitting company employees.

NSA has a “special department.” It has over 1,000 military and civilian hackers, intelligence analysts, targeting specialists, computer hardware and software designers, and electrical engineers.

It’s top secret. It’s called the Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO). It identifies computer systems and supporting telecommunications networks to attack.

It successfully penetrated Chinese computer and telecom systems for around 15 years. It does the same thing globally.

Most NSA employees and officials know little or nothing about TAO. Its operations are extraordinarily sensitive. Only those needing to know are kept informed.

Special security clearances are required to gain access to its top secret work spaces. Armed guards keep others out.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-infects-50000-computer-systems-worldwide/5359470

NSA Tracks Porn to Discredit Activists … and to Blackmail Critics?
By Washington's Blog
November 28, 2013
Washington's Blog 27 November 2013

Huffington Post reports: The National Security Agency has been gathering records of online sexual activity and evidence of visits to pornographic websites as part of a proposed plan to harm the reputations of those whom the agency believes are radicalizing others through incendiary speeches, according to a top-secret NSA document. The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, identifies six targets, all Muslims, as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” can be learned through electronic surveillance, and then exploited to undermine a target’s credibility, reputation and authority.

Among the vulnerabilities listed by the NSA that can be effectively exploited are “viewing sexually explicit material online” and “using sexually explicit persuasive language when communicating with inexperienced young girls.”

None of the six individuals targeted by the NSA is accused in the document of being involved in terror plots. The agency believes they all currently reside outside the United States. It identifies one of them, however, as a “U.S. person,” which means he is either a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident.

The NSA believes the targeted individuals radicalize people through the expression of controversial ideas via YouTube, Facebook and other social media websites.

According to the document, the NSA believes that exploiting electronic surveillance to publicly reveal online sexual activities can make it harder for these “radicalizers” to maintain their credibility.

Huff Post notes that the NSA is also sharing the information with other agencies: The Director of the National Security Agency — described as “DIRNSA” — is listed as the “originator” of the document. Beyond the NSA itself, the listed recipients include officials with the Departments of Justice and Commerce and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

This is nothing new. We’ve previously reported that information gained by the NSA through spying isshared with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/nsa-tracks-porn-to-discredit-activists-and-to-blackmail-critics/5359654

32 Privacy Destroying Technologies That Are Systematically Transforming America Into A Giant Prison
Michael Snyder
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Activist Post

If you live in the United States, you live in a high tech surveillance grid that is becoming more oppressive with each passing day. In America today, the control freaks that run things are completely obsessed with watching, tracking, monitoring and recording virtually everything that we do. If we continue on the path that we are currently on, we will be heading into a future where there will be absolutely no privacy of any kind. In fact, many would argue that we are essentially there already.

Many people speak of this as being the "Information Age", but most Americans don’t really stop and think about what that really means. Most of the information that is considered to be so “valuable” is actually about all of us. Businesses want to know as much about all of us as possible so that they can sell us stuff. Government officials want to know as much about all of us as possible so that they can make sure that we are not doing anything that they don’t like. There is a constant hunger for even more information, and so the surveillance technologies just continue to become even more advanced and the Big Brother control grid being constructed all around us just continues to become even more pervasive. Even though you may not be consciously aware of it, the truth is that it is surrounding you right now even as you read this. We live in a society where liberty and freedom are literally being strangled to death, but most Americans don’t seem to care.

Do you know who else gets watched, tracked and monitored 24 hours a day?

Prisoners do.

Surveillance is a form of control, and at this point we are little more than inmates inside a gigantic Big Brother surveillance grid.

Posted below is a list of 32 privacy destroying technologies that are systematically transforming America into a giant prison.

CONTINUE: http://www.activistpost.com/2013/11/32-privacy-destroying-technologies-that.html

YouTube hilariously impotent against ASCII comment pornographers
by Casey Johnston
Nov 26 2013

Google+ did little to fix YouTube's comments. Now they're just bad in a new way.
A post at the YouTube Creators’ blog late Monday has acknowledged that YouTube commenters, never ones for productive discussion, have turned the site’s Google+ integration changeover to their advantage. There are now new and worse ways to propagate spam and immaterial content below videos, which has created an avalanche of complaints and outcries from both viewers and content creators. It seems as if Google can’t move fast enough to give its users tools to manage the triumphantly abusive and off-topic trolls of YouTube.

YouTube started to require that its users log in to Google+, allegedly to help fix the cesspool that was the YouTube comments section. The strategy was two-pronged: One, Google+ would require users to tie their comments to a real name and persona for accountability purposes. Two, the integration would use Google+ profiles to tailor comments to each user so that they would only see a few types of comments below videos: comments from Google+ friends, comments from “YouTube personalities,” and “engaged conversations.”

But along with those changes, Google also thought it would be safe to turn off certain comment restrictions. Previously, YouTube comments had a character limit and couldn’t contain hyperlinks in order to prevent some of the worst spam. Now those restrictions are off, leading to people posting links to porn or screamer videos, or just dropping ASCII porn art below videos.

CONTINUE: http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/youtube-tries-to-stem-the-flow-of-a-new-kind-of-terrible-comments/

The National Security Agency (NSA): The Only Part of the Government that Really Listens to What You Have to Say
By William Blum
November 29, 2013

The New York Times (November 2) ran a long article based on NSA documents released by Edward Snowden. One of the lines that most caught my attention concerned “Sigint” – Signals intelligence, the term used for electronic intercepts. The document stated: “Sigint professionals must hold the moral high ground, even as terrorists or dictators seek to exploit our freedoms. Some of our adversaries will say or do anything to advance their cause; we will not.”

What, I wondered, might that mean? What would the National Security Agency – on moral principle – refuse to say or do?

I have on occasion asked people who reject or rationalize any and all criticism of US foreign policy: “What would the United States have to do in its foreign policy to lose your support? What, for you, would be too much?” I’ve yet to get a suitable answer to that question. I suspect it’s because the person is afraid that whatever they say I’ll point out that the United States has already done it.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/national-security-agency-the-only-part-of-the-government-that-really-listens-to-what-you-have-to-say/5358869

Snowden Leaks Spark UN Probe into NSA Mass Surveillance
by grtv
Dec. 3, 2013

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Corbett, the editor of the corbettreport.com, about the United Nations launching an investigation into the massive surveillance programs of American and British intelligence agencies following revelations from US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: This inquiry will not have much power but it can make recommendations to the UN General Assembly. What kind of recommendations do you think it is going to be making?

Corbett: Well it is difficult to say what recommendations it will be able to make especially because the UN General Assembly is a body without any teeth as it has been demonstrated over the previous decades.

And again I am not sure what this new inquiry is going to uncover because I think only the most naïve in international relations have not understood already that they were being spied on by the US and Britain and other intelligence agencies. Besides, it is really just the Edward Snowden’s leaks [that] are bringing this to the forefront.

So I am not sure that this inquiry will really have really much effect other than a symbolic one and I do not think any recommendations other than the recommendations not to spy on allies will be the result of this type of inquiry.

Press TV: But does the symbolism of this go very far in putting pressure on governments like that of the UK and the US who have been pressuring the media like The Guardian newspaper to not publish these revelations?

Corbett: Well certainly the pressure is mounting not only from the political classes but perhaps more importantly from the average public which is now increasingly aware that these practices go on.

CONTINUE: http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2013/12/snowden-leaks-spark-un-probe-nsa-mass-surveillance


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQe1-RYXsdo

Under the Global Shadow of Big Brother, Journalism Must Light Up the Political Sky
By Norman Solomon
Global Research, December 05, 2013

Every new revelation about the global reach of the National Security Agency underscores that the extremism of the surveillance state has reached gargantuan proportions. The Washington Post just reported that the NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.” Documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden have forced top officials in Washington to admit the indefensible while defending it. One of the main obstacles to further expansion of their Orwellian empire is real journalism.

Real journalism is “subversive” of deception that can’t stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government storylines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.

In motion now, on both sides of the Atlantic, are top-down efforts to quash real journalism when and how it matters most. In the two English-speaking countries that have done the most preaching to the world about “Western values” like freedom of the press, the governments led by President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron are overseeing assaults on real journalism.

They’re striving to further normalize fake journalism — largely confined to stenographic services for corporate power, war industries and surveillance agencies. A parallel goal is to harass, intimidate and destroy real journalism. The quest is to maximize the uninformed consent of the governed.

In direct contrast, those willing to fight for truly independent journalism — including whistleblowers, political activists and journalists themselves — are struggling to provide our world with vital light, fueled by comprehension that real journalism must be willing to challenge entrenched power.

From incessant war and arming the world, to climate change and coddling fossil fuel industries, to anti-democratic governance and enabling vast NSA surveillance, the U.S. power structure — with epicenters along Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue — continues to dominate. That power structure is a clear, present and horrendous threat to human survival, the natural world of this planet and the possibilities for authentic democracy.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/under-the-global-shadow-of-big-brother-journalism-must-light-up-the-political-sky/5360323

Media, Democracy and the Power to Misinform
By Greg Guma
Global Research, December 05, 2013

Since 1976 Project Censored, the California-based media monitoring group that honors independent journalism, has been tracking important stories that are downplayed. In 2000, for example, some of the underreported news that made their Top Ten list included: how pharmaceutical companies put profits before health needs (still true), the destruction of Kurdish villages with US weapons (the targets then were in Afghanistan and Pakistan), environmental racism in Louisiana (five years before Katrina), and US plans to militarize space in defiance of international law (ignored for decades).

Despite the success of “alternative” outlets in breaking news that “mainstream” media ignore, nagging questions remain. Peter Arnett, a former CNN reporter honored that year for an article on reduced foreign media coverage, put it this way: “We’ve had what might constitute new revelations today. But even if the alternative press as a whole took on these stories, would it be enough?”

It is a disquieting question that could be extended to progressive movements in general. If various coalitions and alliances joined forces to challenge corporate capitalism, would it be enough to usher in “real change?”

In the past, modern attempts to control concentrated wealth and widen democratic participation have met with limited success. During the early 20th Century, reforms addressed workers’ rights, monopoly excesses, political corruption, uncontrolled development, and the devastating impacts of the early industrial era. But most of those efforts also quelled popular discontent rather than producing fundamental change, and the reforms were often co-opted or diluted by business interests to serve their long-range needs. Rather than leading the country toward some type of social transformation, progressive reform may have helped head it off.

One of the underlying conundrums is how to make powerful institutions accountable – and to whom. The prevailing logic is that fundamental change involves, at the very least, stronger government intervention. But if the goal is to control mega-corporations that transcend national boundaries, competing with some national governments and dominating others, even national level reform won’t do the job. We obviously don’t want corporate-dominated institutions running the world.

But what’s the alternative? Will job creation, stronger enforcement and more accountability be sufficient, or does the current international order need to be completely overhauled and replaced? And if so, replaced with what?

The United Nations could be stronger, but this Cold War creation was flawed from the start, and has been marginalized and manipulated for more than half a century. The times cry out for radical ideas, something like a global parliament, which is somehow linked to communities. This sounds utopian – or frightening, depending on your level of paranoia. But if the Corporate World Order inflicts much more damage it may begin to look attractive. And if social and economic justice is the driving force of progressive politics, how far is it to an agenda that directly challenges market control and links the global with the local? After all, we already have a slogan – “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/media-democracy-and-the-power-to-misinform/5360416

Someone’s Been Siphoning Data Through a Huge Security Hole in the Internet
By Kim Zetter
12.05.13

In 2008, two security researchers at the DefCon hacker conference demonstrated a massive security vulnerability in the worldwide internet traffic-routing system — a vulnerability so severe that it could allow intelligence agencies, corporate spies or criminals to intercept massive amounts of data, or even tamper with it on the fly.

The traffic hijack, they showed, could be done in such a way that no one would notice because the attackers could simply re-route the traffic to a router they controlled, then forward it to its intended destination once they were done with it, leaving no one the wiser about what had occurred.

Now, five years later, this is exactly what has happened. Earlier this year, researchers say, someone mysteriously hijacked internet traffic headed to government agencies, corporate offices and other recipients in the U.S. and elsewhere and redirected it to Belarus and Iceland, before sending it on its way to its legitimate destinations. They did so repeatedly over several months. But luckily someone did notice.

And this may not be the first time it has occurred — just the first time it got caught.

Analysts at Renesys, a network monitoring firm, said that over several months earlier this year someone diverted the traffic using the same vulnerability in the so-called Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP, that the two security researchers demonstrated in 2008. The BGP attack, a version of the classic man-in-the-middle exploit, allows hijackers to fool other routers into re-directing data to a system they control. When they finally send it to its correct destination, neither the sender nor recipient is aware that their data has made an unscheduled stop.

The stakes are potentially enormous, since once data is hijacked, the perpetrator can copy and then comb through any unencrypted data freely — reading email and spreadsheets, extracting credit card numbers, and capturing vast amounts of sensitive information.

The attackers initiated the hijacks at least 38 times, grabbing traffic from about 1,500 individual IP blocks — sometimes for minutes, other times for days — and they did it in such a way that, researchers say, it couldn’t have been a mistake.

CONTINUE: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/12/bgp-hijacking-belarus-iceland/

BEAST TECH
Regina E. Dugan - former Director of DARPA and current executive at Google - describes with excitement the coming BEAST TECH smart tattoos and indigestible biochips that are ALREADY FDA APPROVED and that people will want to receive (and then be REQUIRED to receive) by 2017.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ijwhSqrcD4


IBM's RFID commercial


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob532iEpqk


More at: http://www.beast-technology.com/

  

‘NSAssociate Google’ censors CLG on Fukushima radiation
Rady Ananda
Monday, December 9, 2013
Activist Post

Google has been censoring news link emails from Citizens for Legitimate Government, despite repeated attempts by Gmail users to declare those emails “not spam.” The latest email to be censored was sent on Dec. 7, and links to mainstream news sources warning of Fukushima radiation.

Earlier this month, CLG emailed its list seeking legal counsel for the censorship.

CLG’s Breaking News page is updated daily: http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news

Below are CLG’s summaries of recent articles relating to the nuclear contamination of our planet, thanks to Truman, Oppenheimer and Ike, who pursued development of this planet killer:

Record outdoor radiation level that ‘can kill in 20 min’ detected at Fukushima
08 Dec 2013

Still no mainstream media coverage, and this is why NSAssociate Google will not allow the delivery of the CLG Newsetter: Outdoor radiation levels have reached their highest at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, warns the operator company. Radiation found in an area near a steel pipe that connects reactor buildings could kill an exposed person in 20 minutes, local media reported. The plant’s operator and the utility responsible for the ‘clean-up,’ Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), detected record radiation levels on a duct which connects reactor buildings and the 120 meter tall ventilation pipe located outside on Friday. TEPCO measured radiation at eight locations around the pipe with the highest estimated at two locations – 25 Sieverts per hour and about 15 Sieverts per hour, the company said. This is the highest level ever detected outside the reactor buildings, according to local broadcaster NHK.

CONTINUE: http://www.activistpost.com/2013/12/nsassociate-google-censors-clg-on.html

Canadian Conservatives’ Cyber-Bullying Bill — A Pretext for Expanding Police Surveillance
By Dylan Lubao
December 10, 2013

Under legislation now before parliament, Canada’s Conservative government is seeking to greatly expand the state’s power to spy on Canadians’ use of the Internet, including authorizing warrantless investigations of Internet activity.

Entitled the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, Bill C-13 was presented by Justice Minister Peter Mackay as a measure to combat online harassment, so-called cyberbullying, when he tabled it in the House of Commons in late November. The issue of cyberbullying has received widespread coverage in Canada’s corporate media in the wake of the tragic suicides of teenagers Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd, both of whom were victims of cruel Internet harassment. The sustained media furor surrounding the girls’ deaths has fed directly into the push by the ruling class to increase the surveillance powers of the state.

Exploiting the public grief and anger over these tragedies, the Conservatives have crafted an omnibus bill that under the cover of fighting cyberbullying greatly expands police powers to search and seize personal Internet data. Measures that sanction warrantless searches and water-down the criteria for obtaining warrants are wedged between clauses that impose severe penalties for sharing “intimate” images of an individual over the Internet without that person’s consent, including prison terms of up to five years.

The Conservatives have repeatedly used omnibus bills to impose regressive measures, burying cuts to unemployment benefits, the gutting of environmental regulations, and sweeping attacks on federal workers’ pensions and rights to bargain and strike within massive budget bills.

The duplicitous manner in which the Conservatives are proceeding with their ostensible anti-cyberbullying legislation is entirely in keeping with its anti-democratic content.

Bill C-13 expands police powers in two distinct ways.

First, it introduces a lower threshold for the issuing of warrants authorizing the police to force telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to hand over personal information and data or force them to be retained for future police perusal.

Law enforcement agencies will only have to vow to the courts that they have a “reasonable suspicion” someone is complicit in a crime or intent on committing one to obtain a warrant. Traditionally, police have been held to a much more demanding standard than mere “suspicion” — the standard of “reasonable and probable grounds.”

In lowering the threshold for police searches of Internet use, the Conservative government is flouting a recent Supreme Court decision that argued that to empower the police to conduct searches on the basis of “suspicion” would imperil citizens’ privacy rights: “In most cases, the state’s interest in detecting and preventing crime begins to prevail over the individual’s interest in being left alone at the point where credibly-based probability replaces suspicion.”

Second and even more sinisterly, Bill C-13 will allow police and other law enforcement agencies to request telecom companies and ISPs to voluntarily disclose Canadians’ online information and communications. And to do so even outside the scope of a criminal investigation. The Canadian Criminal Code currently forbids such requests.

Moreover, Bill C-13 will provide companies that fulfill such voluntary police requests with full immunity from criminal or civil penalties for complying. In other words, they are to be granted protection for participating in police fishing expeditions and spying.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-conservatives-cyber-bullying-bill-a-pretext-for-expanding-police-surveillance/5361042

The Government Is Spying On Us Through Our Computers, Phones, Cars, Buses, Streetlights, At Airports And On The Street, Via Mobile Scanners And Drones, Through Our Smart Meters, And In Many Other Ways
by WashingtonsBlog
September 23, 2013

Even now – after all of the revelations by Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers – spying apologists say that the reports are “exaggerated” or “overblown”, and that the government only spies on potential bad guys.

In reality, the government is spying on everyone’s digital and old-fashioned communications.

For example, the government is photographing the outside information on every piece of snail mail.

The government is spying on you through your phone … and may even remotely turn on your camera and microphone when your phone is off.

As one example, the NSA has inserted its code into Android’s operating system … bugging three-quarters of the world’s smartphones. Google – or the NSA – can remotely turn on your phone’s camera and recorder at any time.

Moreover, Google knows just about every WiFi password in the world … and so the NSA does as well, since it spies so widely on Google.

But it’s not just the Android. In reality, the NSA can spy on just about everyone’s smart phone.

CONTINUE: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/09/the-government-is-spying-on-us-through-our-computers-phones-cars-buses-streetlights-at-airports-and-on-the-street-via-mobile-scanners-and-drones-through-our-smart-meters-and-in-many-other-ways.html

Report: NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint users for surveillance, hacking
Madison Ruppert
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Activist Post

A new report by The Washington Post reveals that the National Security Agency (NSA) uses Google cookies to pinpoint people for “remote exploitation” and surveillance, citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

This comes after it was revealed on Monday that the NSA and GCHQ spy on online games. Last month, it was reported that a secret deal allows the NSA to spy on UK citizens who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

The latest revelations came in the form of an internal NSA presentation, which shows that “when companies follow consumers on the Internet to better serve them advertising, the technique opens the door for similar tracking by the government,” according to The Washington Post.

The Post notes that this information could very well shift the debate over consumer privacy and Internet cookies, which continues to rage as technology becomes increasingly advanced.

The NSA and GCHQ are both reportedly using cookies that enable websites to identify a person’s browser and allow the user to be tracked across the Web.

CONTINUE: http://www.activistpost.com/2013/12/report-nsa-uses-google-cookies-to.html

Canadian Spy Agency Establishes Covert Surveillance Operations Worldwide as Part of NSA Global Spying Apparatus
By Dylan Lubao and Keith Jones
December 14, 2013

A leaked top-secret US National Security Agency (NSA) memo has provided evidence, straight from the horse’s mouth, of the extent to which the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) functions as an intimate partner, even arm, of the NSA.

Leaked by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the memo states that CSEC “has opened covert sites at the request of the NSA” to conduct spying operations “targeting approximately 20 high-priority countries.”

Precisely which countries remains secret. This is because the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) — which partnered with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who has worked closely with Snowden, to publish a report on the memo — chose to keep portions of it secret, on the grounds that they contained “hyper-sensitive operational” content and it did not want to damage national security.

In suppressing this information, Canada’s public broadcaster is helping the Conservative government and ruling elite perpetuate the lie that CSEC exists to protect ordinary Canadians from al-Qaeda terrorists and similar “foreign threats.”

The NSA memo confirms numerous statements made by those close to Canadian and American intelligence circles that CSEC and the NSA are closely integrated. During a CBC radio show interview in early November, Greenwald remarked that there would be “many more significant documents about Canadian surveillance and (its) partnership with the NSA that will be reported.”

What has already been released about CSEC’s clandestine operations would suggest that the word “partnership” is grossly inadequate. In the NSA’s vast global spying apparatus, CSEC figures as an enthusiastic subcontractor, carrying out surveillance operations in regions that would otherwise be inaccessible or “unavailable” to the NSA. It also assists in it in some of its most sensitive operations, such as spying on the London 2009 G-20 meeting and the succeeding 2010 G-20 summit in Toronto.

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-spy-agency-establishes-covert-surveillance-operations-worldwide-as-part-of-nsa-global-spying-apparatus/5361566

Precisely which countries remains secret. This is because the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) — which partnered with Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who has worked closely with Snowden, to publish a report on the memo — chose to keep portions of it secret, on the grounds that they contained “hyper-sensitive operational” content and it did not want to damage national security.

In suppressing this information, Canada’s public broadcaster is helping the Conservative government and ruling elite perpetuate the lie that CSEC exists to protect ordinary Canadians from al-Qaeda terrorists and similar “foreign threats.”

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-spy-agency-establishes-covert-surveillance-operations-worldwide-as-part-of-nsa-global-spying-apparatus/5361566[/quote]
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Actually Trancoso, Canada's public broadcaster doesn't have a lot of choice in the matter regarding the suppression of this information...it's Board of Directors (a change made by Harper's government) courtesy of the Conservative government, is mostly made up of Conservative lobbyists who dictate what CBC can say or not say.  Otherwise the ax falls in Federal funding.
CSEC has recently moved into new headquarters.  Take a look.  $1.2 billion funnelled into this travesty when such monies could have been allotted elsewhere for Canadian's benefits.

Exclusive
Inside Canada's top-secret billion-dollar spy palace

New intelligence headquarters has soaring atriums, grand staircases and filtered drinking fountains

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/inside-canada-s-top-secret-billion-dollar-spy-palace-1.1930322

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As it is below; so it is above

The NSA is Coming to Town with Spy Santas
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Activist Post

The ACLU's holiday parody video is making the rounds. Though it's lighthearted, it concludes with a definitive call to action to end the NSA's illegal spying activities.

Every week brings new revelations about the depth of the dragnet digital surveillance under which most of the planet currently lives. It has been one of the defining stories of 2013. Let's do our best to make 2014 the year that this rogue agency is brought under control.

Since we can't expect the NSA to relinquish power willingly, nor can we fully expect federal legislation to be forthcoming, one initiative gaining momentum is a plan to literally shut down their power. You can learn more about the NSA's Achilles Heel here, or you can visit OffNow.org, and #NullifyNSA. You can also click the banner beneath the video to learn strategies for how to protect your online communications in the best ways possible.

CONTINUE: http://www.activistpost.com/2013/12/the-nsa-is-coming-to-town-with-spy.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pcWlyUu8U4

The NSA: The One Trillion Dollar scam
What is the real purpose of the the secret government called the National Security Agency? Is it protecting the American public, or is it insiders feeding from the endless flow of taxpayer money while hiding behind an impenetrable curtain of classified secrecy? Why is it called 'national security' when these privately owned corporations are selling this same surveillance technology globally to friend as well as foe? Supposedly ended several times by Congress but reborn again, and again, under new project names. Several people have had their lives ruined while trying to warn you of this, while other have been mysteriously killed. Billions of dollars are at stake and the profits of some of the largest corporations.

Welcome to the biggest scam every perpetrated on the American people.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBQ0DR28Tgk

Former Top NSA Official: “We Are Now In A Police State”
By Washington's Blog
December 18, 2013

Bill Binney, the 32-year NSA veteran who created Mass Surveillance System says government use of data gathered through spying “is a Totalitarian Process”

Bill Binney is the high-level NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information. A 32-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency, Binney was the senior technical director within the agency and managed thousands of NSA employees.

Binney has been interviewed by virtually all of the mainstream media, including CBS, ABC, CNN, New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, PBS and many others.

Last year, Binney held his thumb and forefinger close together, and said: We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.

But today, Binney told Washington’s Blog that the U.S. has already become a police state.

By way of background, the government is spying on virtually everything we do.

All of the information gained by the NSA through spying is then shared with federal, state and local agencies, and they are using that information to prosecute petty crimes such as drugs and taxes. The agencies are instructed to intentionally “launder” the information gained through spying, i.e. to pretend that they got the information in a more legitimate way … and to hide that from defense attorneys and judges.

This is a bigger deal than you may realize, as legal experts say that there are so many federal and state laws in the United States, that no one can keep track of them all … and everyone violates laws every day without even knowing it.

The NSA also ships Americans’ most confidential, sensitive information to foreign countries like Israel(and here), the UK and other countries … so they can “unmask” the information and give it back to the NSA … or use it for their own purposes.

Binney told us today: The main use of the collection from these [NSA spying] programs [is] for law enforcement. [See the 2 slides].

These slides give the policy of the DOJ/FBI/DEA etc. on how to use the NSA data. In fact, they instruct that none of the NSA data is referred to in courts – cause it has been acquired without a warrant.

So, they have to do a “Parallel Construction” and not tell the courts or prosecution or defense the original data used to arrest people. This I call: a “planned programed perjury policy” directed by US law enforcement.

And, as the last line on one slide says, this also applies to “Foreign Counterparts.”

This is a total corruption of the justice system not only in our country but around the world. The source of the info is at the bottom of each slide. This is a totalitarian process – means we are now in a police state.

Here are the two slides which Binney pointed us to:

CONTINUE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/former-top-nsa-official-we-are-now-in-a-police-state/5362080