Big Brother is Watching -- Do You Care? (Facebook)

[Buster's Uncle]

How to Keep Border Guards From Reading Your Laptop
LiveScience.com
By Jillian Scharr, Tom's Guide  19 hours ago


     
Did you know that U.S. immigration agents can seize your laptop, cellphone, digital camera and any other electronic devices at the U.S. border, no justification required?

The U.S. government's ability to search citizens at the border without a warrant is nothing new -- it dates back to the 1977 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Ramsey. But as digital technologies become more prevalent, this so-called "exception to the Fourth Amendment" has come under renewed scrutiny.

"The problem is, now people bring with them a lot more stuff — not physically, but digitally," said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group based in San Francisco.

"Computers, cellphones, tablets have lots of information," Fakhoury said. "The issue becomes: Do the prior justifications of a broad searching authority still extend to [the contents of] digital devices?"

MORE: 7 Computer-Security Fixes to Make Right Now

The answer to that question remains unclear. For now, there's no way you can prevent the feds from getting the gadgets if they want them — but you can make sure none of your sensitive data can be read.

Of course, the No. 1 way to safeguard your digital privacy is to not bring any digital devices with you to the border. But for many people, going without laptops and mobile phones is just not an option.

Here are some suggestions for what you can do to keep your sensitive data close to hand, but safe from prying eyes.

Bring a clean computer to the border

If you have the cash to burn, you can buy a cheap laptop or tablet to bring with you across the border. Then, before you leave on your trip, put all the documents and accounts you'll need in a secure cloud storage system.

Google Docs works, but you can also consider more secure cloud storage options such as SpiderOak, as well as the cloud-encryption software BoxCryptor.

So long as you're careful not to store any documents from the cloud onto your computer, you're not technically bringing any data to the border.

MORE: 13 Security and Privacy Tips for the Truly Paranoid

There's another way to bring a clean computer to the border: Wipe your own. But before you do, purchase an external hard drive and use it to create an image backup of your computer.

After that, you'll need to securely wipe everything on your laptop. You can do this by going into your computer's control panel and doing a factory reset, or you can install a whole new operating system on your computer, which will overwrite all of your computer's contents.

Leave the external hard drive at home, and take your newly blank laptop with you to the border.  Once you get home, you can copy your hard drive's contents back onto your laptop and get back to work.

These methods are expensive, as they require spending at least a hundred dollars for a good external hard drive, or even more for a laptop that you'll rarely use.

The advantage is that if a border agent requests to view your device, you can comply without worrying about your privacy. This might also be the way to go if you're particularly eager to avoid a confrontation at the border.

The Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination does protect you from having to hand over your password, even at the border. Yet many people feel uncomfortable saying "no" to a federal official. If the only devices you bring to the border are clean, even handing over your password won't compromise your data.

Encrypt your data

Another option is to encrypt the data on your devices. This will take more time than purchasing a whole new device, especially if you're new to encryption. But it's not too difficult once you've gotten the hang of it, and you can encrypt your data with the same secure algorithms used by the military without spending a dollar.

On your computer, programs such as the free open-source program TrueCrypt can encrypt a few of your documents, or even your entire hard drive. The only way to see your data is to enter a password.

MORE: 13 Free Software That Encrypt Your Data

TrueCrypt also has a feature that lets you create a decoy password, so that you cannot only lock your data up, but also hide it away in what's called a "hidden volume."

Think of it as a box within a box — the only difference is that anyone looking in the outer box won't be able to tell that the inner box is there.

If someone demands access to your encrypted files, you can give them the password to the outer box, or volume, and they'll be able to see any documents you chose to store in that area.

However, they won't even know that your truly sensitive data is stored in a second layer of encryption.

For your part, you can access the hidden volume by entering the hidden volume's password instead of the outer volume's. In this way, the outer volume, and the outer volume password, are merely dummies you can surrender to others so that it seems like you're complying.

Just remember to choose a secure password, preferably more than 10 random characters in length. You can also use a passphrase, such as a sentence or verse, so long as it's more than 50 characters in length.

You may be wondering: Does encryption make you look more suspicious to border agents and other security personnel?

The official answer is no. According to the Supreme Court case United States v. Cotterman, which ruled that border inspectors need to prove "reasonable suspicion" before conducting a forensic test on a seized device, encryption alone is not to be considered suspicious.

Unofficially, however, Fakhoury says that "the government takes the position that [encryption] is a sign of someone trying to hide something."

Some of the documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, for example, suggest that intelligence agencies pay extra attention to encrypted communications, and that a legal loophole allows the agencies to store these encrypted communications for a longer period of time. 

So if you take a computer with encrypted documents across the border, you should prepare to spend some extra time in customs, as you might find yourself being detained.

You don't have to give up your password or passphrase, but if you'd like to avoid the stress and hassle entirely, extensive encryption might not be your best option.

Computers aren't the only data storage devices you have to worry about at the border. Nowadays, it's possible to go without your laptop for a few days. But your mobile phone? Not so much.

Most phones contain contacts, emails, banking and credit card info from shopping apps, location-based data and tracking information, photos and more.

Despite this wealth of sensitive data, there are some challenges to secure storage on a mobile phone, challenges that don't exist with computers. For one, it's more difficult to truly delete files on a mobile phone.

If you're a customer of T-Mobile or AT&T, or any other carrier that uses the international Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, you can buy a cheap phone and move your SIM card into it.

That way, you can leave your data-rich phone at home and people will still be able to contact you using your existing number.

If you put a passcode on an iPhone, the device will also encrypt its data using that passcode as the key, thus adding another layer of security.

If you have an Android smartphone you can use the "Encrypt Phone" feature to secure your data. There are also several apps that provide strong additional encryption, such as "SSE-Universal Encryption App" and "WhisperCore."

You can also use encrypted messaging services like Wickr and Silent Text that can securely delete messages soon after they're sent.

For an excellent comprehensive guide to the legal and practical considerations of crossing the U.S. border, check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation's PDF "Defending Privacy at the U.S. Border: A Guide for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices."

http://news.yahoo.com/keep-border-guards-reading-laptop-215203560.html

[Geo]

Heh. Small wonder US border guards look so down. Having to check every possible item that could contain information. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Big Brother is Watching -- Do You Care?
Liz Wainger   Posted:  03/05/2014 4:21 pm EST    Updated:  03/05/2014 4:59 pm EST



Many years ago, a comedian quipped that people will tell everything for a set of Samsonite luggage. Today that wit might amend his comment to say, people will gladly give away their most intimate data for an Internet coupon for a discounted latte.

Being an educated consumer today isn't just about knowing as much as we can about what we buy. It's also understanding what information is being collected about us, how it will might be aggregated with other information that different companies collect, and what ramifications might lurk down the road.

The idea that we provide information to marketers so they can incentivize use of their products and services is nothing new. What is new is the technology that makes it possible to better understand would-be and existing customers and tailor not only the offers, but the ways in which they are delivered. And while receiving offers I really want and filtering out what I don't sounds good, there is a cost.

At the very stimulating XPotomac2014 Conference in Washington last week, technology writer and former blogger-in-chief for Microsoft, Robert Scoble, talked about five forces -- mobile, social media, data, sensors, and location -- that let companies create more personalized and customized experiences based on observations of your behavior patterns.

Scoble says that along with Facebook and Google, enterprises from Wal-Mart to NFL teams are collecting all kinds of data about you with the promise of VIP-style treatment. Give us your info, they say, and we can return the favor by giving you exactly what you want. Technology is evolving rapidly to include sensors everywhere to better understand us all; wearable technologies promise even greater potential with many exciting possibilities.

The flip side, however, is that we are constantly under surveillance. We know about the cameras on mass transit, in stores, at the ATM, and at busy intersections. But are we fully conscious of the impact of location devices? Electronics from smart phones to tollgate transponders can pinpoint where we are at all times. Fitness trackers like FitBits measure -- and store -- our exercise, food intake, heart rate, and calorie expenditures. But if you wear them 24/7, wouldn't an observer be able to note every time you have marital relations (that accelerated heart rate at 1 am)? Onboard computers in our cars give us great feedback about that traffic jam dead ahead, but aren't they also picking up info about the huge segments of our lives that are spent in cars? And does no one have any concerns about advances like Google Glass, that don't just look outward, but track retina movements to determine even our innermost patterns of brain activity?

Scoble says giving away his information helps him win in the game of life. He cites being on a plane that encountered mechanical trouble. Because of TripIt, which he says monitors his emails, he learned before any other passenger that the plane would not take of and he had first crack at links to other flights for booking. Letting TripIt into his emails enabled him to get home that night, while some 200 other passengers did not. True, it's a short-term victory. But is giving up so much information a good thing over the long haul?

In the late 1970s as a student of Russian language and literature, I lived in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. Before we left, organizers of the semester abroad program warned us that our dorm rooms were likely bugged and that our Soviet roommates were there not just for language practice, but to keep tabs on us. We had to watch our words and actions carefully to make sure that Russian friends wouldn't be harmed by their association with foreigners. The constant eyes on us were exhausting and oppressive.

In 2014 in America, we are under even more intrusive surveillance -- for which we volunteered. There are, as Scoble notes, great benefits. But there is a dark side to big corporations, the government and other big data collectors knowing who our friends are, where and when we hang out with them, the books we read, the games we play, the jobs we want, the medical conditions we fear, and so on.

As a mentor of mine says, technology by itself is amoral. It's what we do with it and how it is used that reflects the human intent. We aren't going to put the genie back in the bottle, but as consumers of technology, we need to be informed and understand all the ramifications, positive and negative, of data sharing. Do we trust those who now possess this data to always act in our best interests? And if we don't, what do we do about it?

Before you click "yes" to accept the terms and get your coupon, make sure you understand just what you are giving away.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-wainger/big-brother-is-watchingdo_b_4905330.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

[Valka]

It's a good thing I'm still used to paper notebooks and pens, and don't own a smart phone (actually my landline is pretty dumb - not even any way for callers to leave a message if I'm not available).

If Wal-mart was determined to give me what I want, they'd still sell that nifty bookcase I was looking at last summer.

And if the media companies wanted to make me happy based on my YouTube activities, they'd have DVDs of every single episode and concert the Irish Rovers ever did, from the '70s to when Will Millar quit. Oh, and OLTL would be on DVD from about 1985 on, and General Hospital from about 1990 on.

[Buster's Uncle]

And I'd be able to find Beneath the Planet of the Apes...

[Valka]

Have you tried Amazon? 

[JarlWolf]

All I get in email is ads for viagra... is the internet telling me something 

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Snowden at SXSW: The NSA is 'setting fire to the future of the Internet'
By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News  1 hour ago



Edward Snowden appears via teleconference at South By Southwest, March 10, 2014. (Yahoo News)



National Security Agency contractor-turned-leaker Edward Snowden told attendees at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, on Monday that they are "firefighters" against mass surveillance.

"The NSA ... they're setting fire to the future of the Internet," Snowden said. "The result has been an adversarial Internet."

Snowden spoke via teleconference from Russia — where he was granted asylum from U.S. espionage charges — through seven proxies, organizers said. A green screen behind Snowden projected an image of the U.S. Constitution.

"It's nothing we asked for," Snowden said of the NSA's mass surveillance. "It's not something we wanted."

Snowden dismissed U.S. lawmakers who say his leaks have threatened national security.

"These things are improving national security," Snowden said. "We rely on the ability to trust our communications."



Live at 12PM ET: Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW


People should be able to open emails without fear of spying, "whether they be journalists or activists," Snowden said.

"We've actually had tremendous intelligence failures because we've been monitoring everybody's communications rather than suspects," Snowden said.

He said tips that could have alerted authorities to accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, were missed as a result.

"What did we get from bulk collections?" Snowden said. "We got nothing."

Snowden also criticized U.S. intelligence officials like James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, for "cheering" the NSA rather than holding it accountable.





"We have an oversight that could work," Snowden said. "The overseers aren't interested in oversight."

The session — billed as “A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden” — was moderated by Ben Wizner, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project and Snowden’s legal advisor.

"If he were here in the United States he would be in a solitary cell," Wizner said.

Snowden's appearance at SXSW comes two days after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave a similar speech to the conference from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he has been living in asylum.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., wrote a letter calling on SXSW conference organizers to cancel Snowden's appearance.

"I am deeply troubled to learn that you have invited Edward Snowden to address SXSW on privacy, surveillance, and online monitoring in the United States," Pompeo wrote. "Certainly an organization of your caliber can attract experts on these topics with knowledge superior to a man who was hired as a systems administrator and whose only apparent qualification is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin."

Snowden, though, said he did what he did to protect the First Amendment.

"Would I do this again? The answer is yes," Snowden said. "I took an oath to support the Constitution and I saw that the Constitution was violated on a massive scale."

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-sxsw-interview-141843045.html

[Buster's Uncle]

So speaking of Big Brother Facebook - last night I had a friend request from a name I didn't recognize - and what the heck, I said yes.

It turned out to be Rusty Edge, and he didn't initiate it.

 

I like Rusty a lot - I just hate Facebook for exactly crap like that, which makes me deeply upset and nervous and freakin' paranoid.

[vonbach]

Matthew 10:16

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

This comes to mind when I think of this subject.

[Rusty Edge]

So speaking of Big Brother Facebook - last night I had a friend request from a name I didn't recognize - and what the heck, I said yes.

It turned out to be Rusty Edge, and he didn't initiate it.

 

I like Rusty a lot - I just hate Facebook for exactly crap like that, which makes me deeply upset and nervous and freakin' paranoid.

Well, I forget the particulars, but I saw your facebook page before when I was promoting your chain mail tutorial, so I recognized the name. There is a facebook history there. I rarely link anybody's facebook.

[Buster's Uncle]

So we figure we know how Big Brother knew to pull that one - but the stunt was still presumptuous and why I don't trust Big Brother knowing too much...

[Rusty Edge]

I got involved because my sister said it's a nice way to share family photos. It is.

Well, I have re-connected with my cousins, and one is particularly funny.  Sadly there are flash points among them, such as politics, and crap that's been debunked on Snopes.  We've learned to try and play nice.

When we did a family vacation on my wife's side, it was nice to use the chat feature to notify/coordinate.

While it's nice to know what's going on in the lives of the nieces and nephews, more often than not they are complaining about being bored, or posting "hilarious" stuff that I find boring and immature.

So, I use it, but don't expect or contribute very much.

[Buster's Uncle]

I should mention that I woke up Tuesday to a notice in my Big Brother Facebook account that it was primary day in my home state.  My account is a sock, full of misinformation, like that I'm in California...

I'd voted early last Friday and this was just rubbing my nose in Big Brother Watching...

[Geo]

Facebook placed my sister-in-law in the list of possible friends since roughly last month. Must have viewed other family members facebook pages a bit too much lately.
Thing is my facebook account is also full of false info, and not even remotely linked with my real-life name and such.