A while back, I posted about CarrierIQ and its ‘rootkit of all evil’.
In it are links which demonstrate how CarrierIQ has embedded code into smart phones which runs in the background and is not easily accessible to the phone’s user (with no notification to the user that it is running, much less choices to ‘opt out’). This code records everything the phone is used for and reports this information back to CarrierIQ – even if the user is not in any contract with the company, or has indeed ever heard of its existence. This information contains:
- GPS information
- incoming and outgoing phone calls
- details of internet access and use, including encrypted data (like passwords)
- all keystroke information
In another post, I have written about INDECT: the EU’s proposed regime of continuous surveillance of member states’ citizenry for the purpose of identifying ‘unusual behaviour’, which would then be brought to the attention of police for ‘follow up’. ‘Unusual behaviour’ would include (but not be limited to):
- lingering too long in public areas
- abnormal transit system use
- internet habits that include visiting potentially ‘antisocial websites’
- associating with ‘antisocial elements’
- abnormal shopping habits
(In that post, I also provide a link to an article about CarrierIQ’s attempt to silence the researcher who first published information about its surveillance practices.)
The potential for abuse is so strong, it is difficult to overstate it…it seems that, increasingly, legislation is being drafted and passed all around the world not to safeguard against it, but to take advantage of it.
Here is an analysis (by a lawyer) of SOPA, just one such proposed pieces of legislation (in the USA) and the ways in which it breaches the constitution.
But if you are still not convinced that police agencies are warrantlessly accessing vast amounts of private data collected about citizens without their permission or knowledge, here is another piece of information you should consider:
‘A recent FOIA request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for “manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ” was met with a telling denial. In it, the FBI stated it did have responsive documents – but they were exempt under a provision that covers materials that, if disclosed, might reasonably interfere with an ongoing investigation.’
Indeed.
Our constitutions were written with the specific purpose of protecting the civil rights of citizens from their governments. Most of us have forgotten this: and our governments are increasingly passing laws which circumvent (if not directly breech) our unalienable rights which all written constitutions (starting with the Magna Carta) are but imperfect expressions of.
We need to wake up and oppose this passive tolerance of the increasingly corrupt and oppressive surveillance society – before it is too late!
H/T: Tyr
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 