Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 8:32 PM
Subject: Privacy World's May 2014 Newsletter Issue 3May
> Privacy World - The WORLD'S SHREWDEST PRIVACY
NEWSLETTER
>
> 10 Examples Of How "Big Brother" Is
Steadily Creeping Into Our Daily Live
>
> Virtually everything that you do is being watched.
Do you drive a
> car? Do you watch television? Do you use a cell
phone? As you do
> any of those things, information about you is being
recorded and
> tracked. We live at a time when personal privacy is
dying. And it
> is not just governments that are doing this.
>
> In fact, sometimes private companies are the biggest
offenders. It
> turns out that gathering information about all of us
is very, very
> profitable. And both government entities and private
companies are
> going to continue to push the envelope when it comes
to high tech
> surveillance until people start objecting to what
they are trying
> to do. If we continue down the path that we are
currently on, it is
> inevitable that we will end up living in an
extremely restrictive
> "Big Brother" police state where basically
everything that we do is
> very closely watched, monitored, tracked and
controlled. And such a
> day may be much closer than you think. The following
are 10 examples
> of how "Big Brother" is steadily creeping
into our daily lives.
>
> #1 Our cars are rapidly being transformed into high
tech "Big
> Brother" surveillance devices. In fact, a push
is being made to
> require all new vehicles to include very
sophisticated black box
> recorders.
>
> As if the government wasn't already able to track
our movements
> on the nation's highways and byways by way of
satellites, GPS
> devices, and real-time traffic cameras, government
officials are
> now pushing to require that all new vehicles come
installed with
> black box recorders and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)
communications,
> ostensibly to help prevent crashes.
>
> Yet strip away the glib Orwellian doublespeak, and
what you will find
> is that these black boxes and V2V transmitters, which
will not only
> track a variety of data, including speed, direction,
location, the
> number of miles traveled, and seatbelt use, but will
also transmit
> this data to other drivers, including the police,
are little more
> than Trojan Horses, stealth attacks on our last
shreds of privacy,
> sold to us as safety measures for the sake of the
greater good,
> all the while poised to wreak havoc on our lives.
>
> Black boxes and V2V transmitters are just the tip of
the iceberg,
> though. The 2015 Corvette Stingray will be outfitted
with a
> performance data recorder which "uses a camera
mounted on the
> windshield and a global positioning receiver to
record speed,
> gear selection and brake force," but also
provides a recording of
> the driver's point of view as well as recording
noises made inside
> the car. As journalist Jaclyn Trop reports for the
New York Times,
> "Drivers can barely make a left turn, put on
their seatbelts or
> push 80 miles an hour without their actions somehow,
somewhere
> being tracked or recorded." Indeed, as Jim
Farley, Vice President
> of Marketing and Sales for Ford Motor Company all
but admitted,
> corporations and government officials already have a
pretty good
> sense of where you are at all times: "We know
everyone who breaks
> the law, we know when you're doing it. We have GPS
in your car,
> so we know what you're doing."
>
> #2 A new Michigan law will ban thousands of preppers
and small
> farmers from owning farm animals. What are they
going to do next? Ban
> us from growing our own food?
>
> #3 Have you ever collected anything? If so, the FBI
might swoop
> in and grab your collection someday even if you have
not committed
> a crime. If you think that this sounds crazy, you
should consider
> what happened to a man named Don Miller recently.
>
> FBI agents Wednesday seized "thousands" of
cultural artifacts,
> including American Indian items, from the private
collection of a
> 91-year-old man who had acquired them over the past
eight decades.
>
> An FBI command vehicle and several tents were
spotted at the property
> in rural Waldron, about 35 miles southeast of
Indianapolis.
>
> The FBI did not have any evidence that a crime had
been committed
> prior to seizing the collection, and Mr. Miller has
not been arrested
> or charged with any crime. The FBI says that it is
going to catalog
> the collection "to determine whether some of
the items might be
> illegal to possess privately".
>
> The aim of the investigation is to determine what
each artifact
> is, where it came from and how Miller obtained it,
Jones said,
> to determine whether some of the items might be
illegal to possess
> privately.
>
> #4 A father of a 4-year-old girl has been told that
he will no longer
> be allowed to send healthy homemade lunches with his
daughter when
> she attends her pre-kindergarten program because
they conflict with
> federal guidelines.
>
> #5 Do you watch television? Well, if you have a
newer television
> there is a very good chance that your television is
watching you
> as wellâ¦
>
> In November, the British tech blogger Doctorbeet
discovered that
> his new LG Smart TV was snooping on him. Every time
he changed
> the channel, his activity was logged and transmitted
unencrypted
> to LG. Doctorbeet checked the TV's option screen and
found that the
> setting "collection of watching info" was
turned on by default. Being
> a techie, he turned it off, but it didn't matter.
The information
> continued to flow to the company anyway.
>
> #6 A plan that is being proposed in Fairfax County,
Virginia would
> ban "frequent and large gatherings at
neighborhood homes". This
> would include parties, scout gatherings and home
Bible studies.
>
> #7 At a public school in Florida, a 12-year-old boy
has been banned
> from reading the Bible during "free reading
time".
>
> A Florida schoolteacher humiliated a 12-year-old boy
in front of
> an entire class after she caught him reading the
Bible during free
> reading time.
>
> The teacher at Park Lakes Elementary School in Fort
Lauderdale
> ordered Giovanni Rubeo to pick up the telephone on
her desk and
> call his parents.
>
> As the other students watched, the teacher left a
terse message on
> the family's answering machine.
>
> "I noticed that he has a book-a religious
book-in the classroom,"
> she said on the recording. "He's not permitted
to read those books
> in my classroom."
>
> #8 In the USSA, a young child cannot even build a
tree fort with
> his friends without the threat of being confronted
by the police
> state. Just consider what happened to one little
fifth-grade boy
> down in Georgia a few weeks ago.
>
> A fifth-grader says he was terrified when a police
officer pointed
> a gun at him and his friends while they built a tree
fort.
>
> Omari Grant, 11, said he and his friends often play
in a wooded area
> behind his home and were building a fort when a
neighbor in the next
> subdivision called police to complain about what the
boys were doing.
>
> But no one anticipated what Omari and his mother say
happened next.
>
> "I guess the release of tension was like,
â~Mom, he had a gun in my
> face, Mommy. Mommy, he had a gun in my face,'"
said Janice Baptiste,
> Omari's mother.
>
> The officer reportedly used very filthy language as
he pointed his
> gun at the boys, and he forced them to get out of
the tree and lay
> down on the ground.
>
> "I was thinking that I don't want to be shot
today, so I just
> listened to what they said," Omari said.
>
> Omari said the officer holding his gun also used
foul language and
> made him and his friends lay down on the ground.
>
> "I learned that they're supposed to help you
not make you feel
> scared to even come outside," Omari said.
>
> #9 People like to joke about "the eye in the
sky", but it is
> no joke. Technology that was originally developed
for "blanket
> surveillance" during the Iraq war is now
returning home.
>
> Persistent Surveillance Systems has developed a
surveillance camera
> on steroids. When attached to small aircraft, the
192-megapixel
> cameras record the patterns of the planetary life
they fly over for
> hours at a time. According to the Washington Post,
this will give the
> police and other customers a "time
machine" they can simply rewind
> when they need it. Placed strategically at the
highest points of
> any town or city, these cameras could provide the
sort of blanket
> surveillance that's hard to avoid. The inventor of
the camera, a
> retired Air Force officer, helped create a similar
system for the
> city of Fallujah, the site of two of the most
violent battles of
> the U.S. occupation of Iraq. It's just one example
of how wartime
> surveillance technologies are returning home for
"civilian use."
>
> #10 Have you ever purchased storable food? If so, you
should know
> that it is now considered to be "suspicious
activity" in some areas
> of the country. Just check out what is happening in
New York
> state.
>
> 1-866 SAFE NYS is part of Safeguard New York, an NY
State
> counterterrorism program that uses promotional
material to
> encourage citizens to report people for engaging in
"suspicious
> activity, which makes them stand out from
others".
>
> An accompanying letter provided by the state trooper
listed such
> "suspicious activity" as the purchase of MREs
(Meals Ready to Eat),
> flashlights, weather proof ammunition, night vision
equipment,
> match containers, or gas masks.
>
> For even more examples like this, please see my
previous article
> entitled "19 Signs That America Is Being
Systematically Transformed
> Into A Giant Surveillance Grid".
>
> Sadly, most Americans are totally oblivious to all
of this.
>
> Most Americans are so addicted to entertainment and
to their
> electronic devices that they have no idea what is
going on in the
> real world.
>
> I came across the following video entitled
"Look Up" -
> think that it does a great job of showing what our
obsession with
> our electronic devices is doing to us. Watch it for
yourself and
> see what you think.
>
> The above article by Michael Snyder, End of the
American Dream
>
> Until our next issue stay cool and remain low
profile!
>
> Privacy World
>
> PS - Require an easy to obtain and use debit card
with a US$10,000
> cash withdrawal ability? Then email us and place
10K-ATM" in your
> subject heading.
> --
> Best regards,
>
