Thread: Protect Personal Data...Join PRIVACYARMY.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2006


CONSUMER WATCHDOGS DEMAND RECALL OF SPYCHIPPED CREDIT CARDS

CASPIAN Advises Consumers to Immediately Remove Cards from Wallets


Consumer watchdog group CASPIAN is demanding a recall of millions of RFID-equipped contactless credit cards in light of serious security flaws reported today in the New York Times. The paper reports that a team of security researchers has found that virtually every one of these cards tested is vulnerable to unauthorized charges and puts consumers at risk for identity theft.


Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a controversial technology that uses tiny microchips to transmit information at a distance. These RFID microchips have earned the nickname "spychips" because the data they contain can be read silently and invisibly by radio waves without an individual's knowledge or consent. The technology has long been the target of criticism by privacy and civil liberties groups.


"For these financial institutions to put RFID in credit cards, one of the most sensitive items we carry, is absolute lunacy," said Dr. Katherine Albrecht, founder and director of CASPIAN, a consumer group with over 12,000 members in 30 countries worldwide.


Researchers are showing how a thief could skim information from the cards right through purses, backpacks and wallets. This information includes the cardholder's name, credit card number, expiration date and other data that would be sufficient to make unauthorized purchases. They say the information could even be used to identify and track people, a scenario Albrecht and co-author Liz McIntyre lay out in their book, "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move."


Despite earlier assurances by the issuing companies that the data contained in the credit cards would be secure, researchers found that the majority of cards they tested did not use encryption or protect the data in any way. The information on them was readily available to unauthorized parties using equipment that could be assembled for as little as $50, the researchers said.

"We cautioned companies against using item-level RFID, and they didn't heed us. Now the credit card industry is facing an unprecedented PR and financial disaster," says McIntyre, who is also a former bank examiner. She points to the astronomical cost to replace the cards, not to mention the potential financial losses, litigation expenses, and erosion of consumer trust.


Albrecht and McIntyre are calling on the industry to issue a public alert detailing the dangers of the cards they've issued, institute an active recall, and make safe versions without RFID available to concerned consumers.

"This recall has to be very clear and very directed since consumers may not know their cards contain RFID tags," says Albrecht. "The industry has repeatedly resisted calls to clearly label the cards. Rather, they've given the cards innocent-sounding names like 'Blink.'"


CASPIAN is advising consumers to immediately remove the credit cards from their wallets and call the 800 number on the back to insist on an RFID-free replacement card. The group is cautioning consumers not to mail the cards back or simply throw them away due to the risk of their personal information being skimmed.


Today's New York Times article by John Schwartz can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/business/23card.html?ref=business
A research report detailing the findings can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/20061023_CARD/techreport.pdf

TONIGHT at 9:00 and 12:00 PM EST watch CNBC for the most scary information disclosures you will ever learn. If you think your data is
safe, think again, every person has all their personal private data on
computer files and it is being sold without your permission or knowledge.

There is only one way to take you and your families information back, so what are you waiting for? This is a serious issue, so get educated, then
FIGHT BACK and join us at PrivacyArmy.

Originally Posted by Offshore-Wealth.com

TONIGHT at 9:00 and 12:00 PM EST watch CNBC for the most scary information disclosures you will ever learn. If you think your data is
safe, think again, every person has all their personal private data on
computer files and it is being sold without your permission or knowledge.

There is only one way to take you and your families information back, so what are you waiting for? This is a serious issue, so get educated, then
FIGHT BACK and join us at PrivacyArmy.

Media Privacy Alerts this week!
Privacy problems posed by media for which
Privacy Army has a patent-pending solution
November 4, 2006

CNBC
Big Business, Big Brother documentary
http://www.cnbcbigbrother.com/index.html

United Press International
U.S. gets low ranking on privacy
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20061103-040543-5195r

ABC Online
UK Privacy Commissioner issues dire security warning
http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2006/s1781232.htm

Reader's Digest, Nov '06
ID THIEVES' NEW TARGET: Your Medical Records
http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=30232

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++
Privacy Army White Paper…


From our Chairman & CEO, George Blake:

The Privacy Army is an amazing enterprise! We believe it will solve one of the greatest problems faced by individuals, which is the erosion and misuse of our privacy rights. We are going to change the nation's economy! Right now there are two basic economies… the business-to-consumer economy and the business-to-business economy, but we are going to create the consumer-to-business economy and everyone reading this can be at the forefront.

We are going to assert our privacy rights, we are going to opt out of the lists that are offering our names, our addresses, phone numbers, Internet clicks, credit card purchases, and much more to the highest bidder, and we're going to do that because we in The Privacy Army believe that's our money and we want it back!

We will use the laws that Congress has already passed, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Privacy Act, HIPPA, RICO, The Economic Espionage Act, and more to show Congress that it has already agreed to your privacy rights… so the next steps are inevitable. We will use the first, third, fourth, fifth, ninth, and tenth amendments to the Constitution to show that the right to privacy has existed since the founding fathers…and we are going to take the fight to the thirty thousand businesses that are already selling our private information. We believe it is our private information, so we will take the fight to the media! No institution holds more power to get Congress to act. No legislature fears anything more than losing an election! Any legislator who opposes individual privacy rights risks just that, and we are going to make sure that that risk is mighty. I will be at the forefront of our drive for media support. I have been the editor of three newspapers, I have also been president of The Ohio News Paper Association, Vice President of the Florida Editors, national chairman of a joint editor-publisher action group and I have lots of highly placed friends in the media and plan to use my influence with these people to obtain exposure for our cause once we have a reasonably large group in place.

We all have a story to tell and lots of money to be made for telling our story as we move forward with The Privacy Army mission. We have elected not to use conventional advertising or expensive paid media campaigns to get the word out to every person in the U.S. Instead we will be using person-to-person contact to tell our story. Our founder and idea creator is Larry Napier. It was his vision that we will be implementing in the next few years. Our goal is to become a household name within the next 5 years and we need your assistance to achieve that goal. Below you will find an explanation of our business model and our unique compensation plan by our founder, Larry Napier.



From the founder: Larry Napier

I would like to discuss the greatest opportunity ever in person-to-person marketing. The key to extraordinary success is doing what's never been done before, but in a proven way. With the impending retirement crisis, most of us do not have time for untested theories or another lap around Mount Sinai or video replays of one failed business model after another. We are here to implement the most successful business philosophy in the modern era. Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who is described by Newsweek magazine as responsible for one of the nine major turning points in history, is the famous mathematician, statistician, who changed the word from Japan because America would not listen. The lack of implementation of his philosophy is one of the reasons why Ford and General Motors are laying off people and closing plants all over this country!

Deming's philosophy makes a very clear declaration… Get this! "The structure of the way the world does business is wrong and the worker is not to blame! What an incredibly powerful concept! We believe that it applies in a very specific way to the world of person-to-person marketing so we are here to declare that the structure of the way marketing companies have operated for the past sixty years is wrong and a 97% failure rate can't be debated!

We are here to change that structure. The Deming method requires a complete change in our most fundamental beliefs and practices with a single goal… that's restoring the power of the individuals who have been crushed by structures, in fact, Deming would say "in the morning when you awake if you are not excited about being awake, you have been crushed by a structure", and so many of us can say that's true of me!

Deming uses profound knowledge to release the dormant power that's in the heart of every single person. His influence over Japanese business practices gave them a completely different view and the average Japanese worker had the power to shut down the entire assembly line if something was not right… completely different than the view in America. Think about it this way… we are simply saying that the structure of compensation and the structural issues that determine a 97% failure rate in a 60-year-old industry is wrong and we need to change it!

I would like to ask this question… If you were to design a company with profound knowledge, that's Deming's key phrase, you would be forced to ask some hard questions and accept some hard answers. So here are some examples of the questions we had to face:

• <LI style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Is your product totally unique… and is it protected? <LI style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Is your product or service overpriced or is it priced as low as possible for easy sales by non-professional marketers? <LI style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">How big is your real market… do you really have hundreds of millions of potential customers or is it just rhetoric? <LI style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Does the lion's share of the money go to the marketing force or does the majority go to the company? <LI style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Does your offer meet deeply felt needs that will enflame the hearts of marketers and customers alike?
• Does your compensation structure solve the flaws in compensation that have plagued the person-to-person marketing world for 60 years?

We are here to address those issues and as George Blake stated above, how much help are you going to get educating and selling your product or service from the national and daily news media? Is your service or product something that is in the news every day or is it dying out? Is the news about our product or service dying out or is it just about to burst on the scene? Now, I am here to declare that the next singular issue over the next several years is going to be "Privacy." It's huge and once you become aware of the many privacy issues that are in the news daily you will become aware that it is just starting to come forth and we will play a dominate role in making sure that the news about privacy issues are highlighted to get the position we want … we won't utilize our clout for a little while because we want to have a sizeable army in place so we can explode once George Blake taps his many media sources.

The Privacy Army is addressing these critical privacy issues. Other companies are making billions of dollars from the sale of our private information… companies like, ChoicePoint, Experian, Acxiom, and Equifax, just to name a few. We believe that's our money and we want it back! One hundred seven million Americans have signed the "Do not call list" that's an overwhelming vote against the unconstitutional invasion of our privacy rights!

We need to get our hands together with those one hundred million people and say to Congress "We want this changed, we want these assaults on our private property stopped, and we want the money, not everybody else making money off of our private property!

Now, The-Privacy-Army.com is being assembled to assert our individual ownership rights and give us the legal precedent to prove those rights against everybody that has been illegally selling our personal private data. Alone, we are powerless in this legal battle! We have no clout individually, but we can take the weapons of the law and the Internet and our collective voice to defend our Constitutional Rights on three different fronts.

The first is economic. Thousands of companies are earning billions of dollars selling our personal private property and we are not being compensated for it! The Bill of Rights says you cannot take our private property, you cannot take it without my consent and permission, you cannot take it without us being compensated. The Bill of Rights was written to protect individual citizens, not corporations. Simply put, those billions of dollars are our money, and we want it back, and we have developed a legal strategy to get it back and secure it forever. Anyone who violates our Privacy Rights will be sued, plain and simple, and when we win, which we will, we will all share in this class action pool fund. Anyone familiar with the tobacco and drug company class actions will realize this could involve hundreds of millions in awards for Privacy Army and our members.

The second front in our identity rights battle is focused on our credit reports, new threats to our medical data, our tax records, and what about your car… that BLACK BOX in your car, the one that records over 300 data points, that can replay the last minutes from the last time you drove your car…what about that new tracking device in your cell phones over the past several years?

Last but not least, what about the new fast advancing RFID technology? RFID technology has the capacity to track our every move and to totally destroy our privacy without our knowledge. Try an Internet search on RFID technology and see what you find. Privacy issues are being dismissed with disinformation on tracking capabilities of only 30 feet, but this is not true, the technology will allow tracking through repeaters, similar to how cell phones and the new WI-FI operates, so don't be fooled, this technology has advanced far more than we are being told.

Now, that is an overview of what we are all about, however if you are a retiree who would like to increase your income, or if you would just like to develop a second source of additional income let me tell you about how you can substantially increase your income by joining with us at The-Privacy-Army.com and helping us get the word out to everyone in the US within the next 5 years who is fed up with the loss of privacy and power to stop this illegal violation of our rights. Do you think a few people you know would be interested?

If you look at The-Privacy-Army.com compensation plan, here is what you are going to discover. First, you can join our cause for Free. We have a $195.00 one-time license fee and Legal Strategy Kit that addresses ownership rights for you and your entire immediate family. We pay out $155.00 of the $195.00 that is 79% to the marketing group. There are no monthly costs for all of our marketing tools, which include your very own secure web site, plus one-on-one mentoring from the person who sponsors you as a member of The Privacy Army. Just like Deming said, "Give more, keep less and the world will beat a path to your door." If you want to have a personalized link to the marketing video's you will need to open an account with FlashTalk. The FlashTalk account is FREE for the first 30 days and you can extend it for $3.95 per month or $29.95 annually.

Click Here to sign up for FlashTalk FREE for 30 days. No credit card needed!

If you would like more information about our income opportunity and how our hybrid
3-D compensation plan works, please visit our web site to learn more. You may reach me by email at the address listed below. If you will email the time most convenient for you I will be happy to answer all your questions. I have been working with the founders for a year and I'm excited about our upcoming official launch of this powerful brand new and exclusive business model. Now is the time to register for FREE.

Big Blue could monitor borders, shoplifters, moose

High-tech digital-surveillance system from IBM Research has far-reaching possibilities.

By Candace Lombardi
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: November 6, 2006, 9:01 PM PST





A new surveillance system that analyzes video for intruders, or even a specific license plate number, is now ready for the mainstream market, IBM announced Tuesday.
The Smart Surveillance System (S3), available in conjunction with IBM's digital-video surveillance services, can analyze real-time video while it is being digitally recorded and stored over an Internet Protocol network. Video stored both online and offline can also be retroactively searched for certain characteristics.
"This is not the HAL 9000. There are also much less evil reasons for using this.

--Charles Palmer, manager, IBM Research

While IBM does not name specific security customers, the surveillance system has been in use by several governments, law enforcement agencies, airports and some businesses, according to Charles Palmer, director of IBM's Privacy Research Institute.

"This is not the HAL 9000. This is not able to do full face recognition or car type, unless they are different-color cars," Palmer said. "There are also much less evil reasons for using this. One retailer, for example, wanted to know where empty parking spots were."

In another field test, S3 was used in the self-checkout line of a grocery store to identify different types of fruit and their corresponding prices.
But IBM has also been in talks to possibly manage an S3 system in spots along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Clearly, those folks have been up here several times to look at it, and every time they do backflips down the hall. It's a long border. It's really hard to get that data back and forth because it has to be wireless, or the critters will eat it, and you also have large birds of prey perching on things like cameras," Palmer said.

IBM's system connects surveillance video with smart software that can detect and index what you tell it to in real time. The system performs attribute-based searches on stored video clips for specific objects or actions, or can be set to sound alarms when those things come across the screen.
S3 is similar to surveillance software developed by San Francisco-based 3VR, but it adds the ability to integrate with other recognition software, such as plug-ins that identify license plates.

In one instance, S3 was used to identify customers who walked into a store entrance without a package but then approached the returns desk with a package.

S3 can also backtrack the path of an object entering a particular area. In a video feed of an airport tarmac, for example, S3 can electronically draw a line around a particular area of the screen, then backtrack the path of anyone entering that secure area of interest. A rule can be set so that alarms go off if the person walking into that secure area did not enter from a predetermined point of entry, Palmer said.


To address privacy concerns, S3 can redact things like people's faces and license plates with a black box or blur, Palmer said. The redaction takes place when the video goes to an IP network to be stored, though the entity doing the surveillance has to request that that feature be in place. The video can then only be unredacted by an authorized person if, for example, an incident occurs, and the video needs to be searched for a particular time span, Palmer said. #textCarousel {/* width: 140px; */width: 230px;border-color: #630;border-width: 2px;border-style: solid;padding: 10px;float: right;margin: 15px 0 15px 15px;background-image: url(/i/ne05/fmwk/greyfadeback.jpg);background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: -150px top;}#textCarousel li {font-size: 95%;line-height: 1em;margin-bottom: 10px;}#textCarousel h4 {margin: 0 0 5px 0;font-size: 110%;}

If the data is being stored offline, however, then the redaction feature is most likely not being used, Palmer said.

But S3 doesn't keep tabs on just humans; it can track animals too. During its field testing, IBM Research was asked by one group to create an S3 system for detecting when moose migrated into a particular area.
"It's not a big area, but (it's) one we can do. We can certainly tell the difference between a moose and a deer. People can too, but you need to keep them awake," Palmer said.

The S3 could also potentially be programmed to identify things as specific as skin color in humans.

"I can imagine they could do it for people. I suppose it's possible, but it's never been something we'd been asked to do. The only color-based things have been cars and airplanes," Palmer said.

Senate approves electronic ID card bill



By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/Senate+approves+electronic+ID+card+bill/2100-1028_3-5702505.html

Story last modified Wed May 11 04:18:59 PDT 2005


Last-minute attempts by online activists to halt an electronic ID card failed Tuesday when the U.S. Senate unanimously voted to impose a sweeping set of identification requirements on Americans. The so-called Real ID Act now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill into law this month. Its backers, including the Bush administration, say it's needed to stop illegal immigrants from obtaining drivers' licenses.

Nike+iPod raises RFID privacy concerns

Security expert Bruce Schneier calls the risk of tracking someone via the RFID chip in the shoe-iPod technology "very scary."

Special to CNET News.com

Published: December 13, 2006, 4:40 PM PST




Security expert Bruce Schneier has highlighted privacy concerns around the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, a technology that lets people track time and other statistics while running.
He drew attention to a demonstration by researchers at the University of Washington of a surveillance system that automatically tracks people through the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, which consists of a wireless sensor that fits into Nike+ Air Zoom Moire sneakers and a small white receiver that plugs in to an iPod Nano.

"Basically, the kit contains a transmitter that you stick in your sneakers and a receiver you attach to your iPod. This allows you to track things like time, distance, pace and calories burned. Pretty clever," Schneier wrote on a blog post titled "Tracking People by their Sneakers," published Tuesday. "However, it turns out that the transmitter in your sneaker can be read up to 60 feet away."

Because the radio frequency identification, or RFID, transmitter broadcasts a unique identifier, people can be tracked by it, the University of Washington researchers said in their paper on Nike+iPod Sport Kit (click for PDF). The team said they built a surveillance device, which cost about $250, and integrated the surveillance system with Google Maps.

"Details are in the paper," Schneier wrote. "Very scary."
A Nike representative said the sports apparel company had no immediate comment. Apple Computer, which makes the iPod, said it had no comment on the matter.
#textCarousel { width: 140px; border-color: #360; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; padding: 10px; float: right; margin: 15px 0 15px 15px; background-image: url(/i/ne05/fmwk/greyfadeback.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: -150px top; } #textCarousel li { font-size: 95%; line-height: 1em; margin-bottom: 10px; } #textCarousel h4 { margin: 0 0 5px 0; font-size: 110%; }
The chips have no personal identifying information, yet can still be used to track people, Schneier said. He argues that as long as the RFID chip has a unique identifier, it can be used for surveillance. It can be scanned and linked to a user's physical identity, he said.

"To me, the real significance of this work is how easy it was," Schneier said. "Unless we enact some sort of broad law requiring companies to add security into these sorts of systems, companies will continue to produce devices that erode our privacy through new technologies. Not on purpose, not because they're evil--just because it's easier to ignore the externality than to worry about it."

RFID tags are increasingly popular in the retail sector, where companies such as Wal-Mart Stores use them to track shipments and keep a close check on stock levels. But campaigners have warned that the privacy of consumers could be compromised if they don't destroy these tags after they buy the item.

WAKE UP PEOPLE...............OUR PRIVACY IS UNDER ATTACK

Nike+iPod raises RFID privacy concerns

Security expert Bruce Schneier calls the risk of tracking someone via the RFID chip in the shoe-iPod technology "very scary."
By Tom Espiner

Special to CNET News.com

Published: December 13, 2006, 4:40 PM PST


Security expert Bruce Schneier has highlighted privacy concerns around the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, a technology that lets people track time and other statistics while running.

He drew attention to a demonstration by researchers at the University of Washington of a surveillance system that automatically tracks people through the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, which consists of a wireless sensor that fits into Nike+ Air Zoom Moire sneakers and a small white receiver that plugs in to an iPod Nano.

"Basically, the kit contains a transmitter that you stick in your sneakers and a receiver you attach to your iPod. This allows you to track things like time, distance, pace and calories burned. Pretty clever," Schneier wrote on a blog post titled "Tracking People by their Sneakers," published Tuesday. "However, it turns out that the transmitter in your sneaker can be read up to 60 feet away."

Because the radio frequency identification, or RFID, transmitter broadcasts a unique identifier, people can be tracked by it, the University of Washington researchers said in their paper on Nike+iPod Sport Kit (click for PDF). The team said they built a surveillance device, which cost about $250, and integrated the surveillance system with Google Maps.
"Details are in the paper," Schneier wrote. "Very scary."

A Nike representative said the sports apparel company had no immediate comment. Apple Computer, which makes the iPod, said it had no comment on the matter.

The chips have no personal identifying information, yet can still be used to track people, Schneier said. He argues that as long as the RFID chip has a unique identifier, it can be used for surveillance. It can be scanned and linked to a user's physical identity, he said.

"To me, the real significance of this work is how easy it was," Schneier said. "Unless we enact some sort of broad law requiring companies to add security into these sorts of systems, companies will continue to produce devices that erode our privacy through new technologies. Not on purpose, not because they're evil--just because it's easier to ignore the externality than to worry about it."

RFID tags are increasingly popular in the retail sector, where companies such as Wal-Mart Stores use them to track shipments and keep a close check on stock levels. But campaigners have warned that the privacy of consumers could be compromised if they don't destroy these tags after they buy the item.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

WAKE UP PEOPLE...............YOUR PRIVACY IS BEING STOLEN FROM YOU

Hello
I guess we might be interested please PM me, with more information about it.

Regards!
MauricE

Originally Posted by Securedhyips

Hello
I guess we might be interested please PM me, with more information about it.

Regards!
MauricE

Greetings,

We are just rolling The Privacy Army out, and we have started with U.S. and CAN, and once we are 100K strong we will enter other countries. Privacy is an issue in all countries that we value and want to protect, so this will be international in time. Everyone is concerned with our privacy being stolen and sold for billions, yet no one has been doing anything about it until now. Stay tuned as we roll out nationwide to start.

Happy Holiday Season to all, Mike