What Could be the Penalty for Posting a Spycam Video to the Net?

WV - A former Logan County resident pleaded guilty today to a federal wiretapping charge. According to court documents and statements made in court, Randall Dwight Holden II, 33, admitted to secretly recording a video of a woman engaged in sexually explicit conduct in her Logan County home on November 25, 2017. The video was later uploaded to the internet without the victim’s knowledge. The video was one of several secretly recorded videos that Holden had created and posted online depicting the victim. Holden is scheduled to be sentenced on June 2, 2022 and he faces up to five years in prison. more

PimEyes: Cool New PI Tool or Privacy Alert - You Decide

You probably haven't seen PimEyes, a mysterious facial-recognition search engine, but it may have spotted you... Anyone can use this powerful facial-recognition tool — and that's a problem.

If you upload a picture of your face to PimEyes' website, it will immediately show you any pictures of yourself that the company has found around the internet. You might recognize all of them, or be surprised (or, perhaps, even horrified) by some; these images may include anything from wedding or vacation snapshots to pornographic images.

PimEyes is open to anyone with internet access. more

Spycam Detection Training - Now with English, Spanish & Korean Closed Captions

On-line, entertaining, self-paced, video training with Certificate of Completion...

Click to enlarge.

SPYCAM DETECTION TRAINING

teaches the basic investigative skills necessary to identify and detect covert spy cameras. 

 

It also provides a complete due diligence strategy to help organizations protect their employees, customers and visitors against this privacy invasion. 

 

By taking a pro-active approach to “the video voyeur in the workplace problem" the organization also mitigates the risk of expensive lawsuits, damaging publicity and loss of good will.

In addition to the forensic training, the student receives a 25-page course text which includes a strong Recording in the Workplace policy template, a simple Inspection Log form and links to additional information.

Upon completing the course, the student will be able to conduct a professional inspection without the need for expensive instrumentation. Should an organization want to invest in instrumentation (useful for large scale inspections) links to these items are provided in the course text.

SPYCAM DETECTION TRAINING is primarily useful for:

• security managers,
• facilities managers,
• store managers,
• security officers,
• private investigators,
• landlords,
• real estate management companies,
• targets of activist groups,
• and businesses which invite the public into their locations.

Recognizing and detecting spy cameras is also a valuable skill for:

• law enforcement personnel,
• security management students,
• and the general public wishing to protect themselves against video voyeurism.

The course is structured to give the student:

• a full understanding of the video voyeur problem,
• a written policy which provides deterrence, leverage, and shows due diligence in court,
• an understanding of the different types of spy cameras and how to identify them,
• instruction on how to plan and execute a proper inspection,
• and instruction on what to do if a camera is found and how to handle the evidence.

The course takes about an hour to complete.

Spy cameras are inexpensive and readily available via the Internet and local spy shops. Every child and adult is a potential target. Business especially have a duty to protect the people using their expectation of privacy areas.

Although SPYCAM DETECTION TRAINING focuses heavily on protecting workplace environments, there is a greater good. By taking this course you will be able to use what you have learned to protect yourself and your family during your everyday travels. The effect is cumulative. As more people take this course, opportunities for video voyeurs decreases. 

Preview SPYCAM DETECTION TRAINING for FREE.

If there's something strange In your neighborhood, who you gonna call?

For 18 months, residents of a village in Wales have been mystified as to why their broadband internet crashed every morning... Then local engineer Michael Jones called in assistance...

 (Note: For a faster tracker, call a TSCM'er.)

Engineers used a device called a spectrum analyzer and walked up and down the village "in the torrential rain" at 6 a.m. to see if they could locate an electrical noise, Jones said in a statement. 

"The source of the 'electrical noise' was traced to a property in the village. It turned out that at 7 a.m. every morning the occupant would switch on their old TV which would in-turn knock out broadband for the entire village." more | sing-a-long | TSCM'er

Report: U.S. Could Counter Un-Democratic Uses of Surveillance Tech

The U.S. government should take a more active role in responding to the use of surveillance technology by authoritarian and repressive nations such as China, according to a new report.

The Center for New American Security published a report Thursday outlining steps the U.S. government should take to ensure surveillance technologies do not become abusive. The report suggests federal agencies, including the State Department and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, should research and fund the development of technology solutions that would preserve users’ data privacy. more

Google to Restrict Ads for Spycams and More

Google is set to announce a major overhaul of its ad policy starting next month.

In a blog post, Google has said that the changes specifically framed to put restrictions on advertisements promoting surveillance technologies that let people secretly spy on their intimate partners will be made into the Enabling Dishonest Behavior policy on August 11.

“The updated policy will prohibit the promotion of products or services that are marketed or targeted with the express purpose of tracking or monitoring another person or their activities without their authorization.”, the Alphabet-owned company said in its blog. Google said the updated policies will be applicable globally as soon as it will be brought into effect starting August 11. more

German Intelligence Gets Wiener Schnitzel'ed

In the world of online spying, great power lies with those who can get their hands on the data flowing through the world’s Internet infrastructure.

So the fact that Germany is home to one of the world’s biggest Internet exchange points—where data crosses between the networks that make up the Internet—has given a lot of power to the country’s equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency.

The Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND, gets to freely sift through all the foreign traffic passing through that exchange junction in search of nuggets that can be shared with overseas partners such as the NSA. But now that power is in jeopardy, thanks to a Tuesday ruling from Germany’s constitutional court...

“With its decision, the Federal Constitutional Court has clarified for the first time that the protection afforded by fundamental rights vis-à-vis German state authority is not restricted to the German territory,” the court said in a statement.

The German chapter of Reporters Without Borders, which brought the case in partnership with the Berlin-based Society for Civil Rights (GFF) and a few other journalists’ associations, is overjoyed. more

How to Delete Your Personal Information From People-Finder Sites

While some sites might have a link for removing personal information, the actual process could be convoluted.

Spokeo is, perhaps, the simplest. You just find your profile page on the site, go to spokeo.com/optout, and then type (or paste) the link along with your email address so you can confirm.

Others are not as straightforward. At Whitepages, you have to paste the URL to your profile at whitepages.com/suppression_requests, and then type the reason you want to opt-out. After that, you have to provide your phone number—yes, you have to give a data broker your phone number. You then receive a call from a robot, which gives you a verification code you have to type on the website to complete the process.

The ultimate indignity? 411.info actually charges a fee if you want it to remove your info. more

Women Snooping on Boyfriends Help Topple Dictator Instead

It all started in 2015 with a frantic message from a woman in Sudan who was having cold feet ten days before her wedding. The woman had a nagging feeling her husband-to-be was cheating on her, and she was desperate to find out the truth before she went through with the marriage.

She decided to reach out to her friend Rania Omer, who had won a lottery visa to become a U.S. citizen five years earlier.

Now Omer was 24 and studying at a college in Nebraska, but she still fancied herself an anti-matchmaker among her close-knit community back home in Khartoum. The friend wanted Omer’s help. Would she mind posting a photo of the potential husband to Facebook to see if other women could dig up information on him?

A few hours later, Omer had her answer: one commenter posted to say she was his wife. more

Who Are You...Online - Become an OSINT Awesome and Find Out

We are going to show you how to research yourself and discover what information is publicly known about you...

You will not find all the information on a single website. Instead you start with one website, learn some details, then use those details to search on and learn from other sites. Then you combine and compare results to create a profile or dossier of your subject. 

A good place to start is with search engines such as Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. Each of these have indexed different information about you...

Start by typing your name in quotes, but after that expand your search...

Examples include:
“FirstName LastName” > What information can I find online about this person
“Firstname Lastname@” > Find possible email addresses associated with this person
“Firstname lastname” filetype:doc > Any word documents that contain this person’s name
more
sing-a-long

"So, uh, what's your Social Security number, kid?"

It's the cute toy tipped to be a Christmas hit, but there are fears ‘Dino’ the dinosaur may be vulnerable to hackers who could steal information about its young owners.

The ‘smart toy’, which is able to ‘learn’, answer questions and read bedtime stories, is among a series of technology gifts that have failed to win approval from the Mozilla Foundation...said it had been unable to determine if Dino – an internet-connected toy...uses sufficient encryption to guard against hackers.

It was also critical of the complexity of its privacy policy which includes an admission in the small print that, when a child plays with Dino, it automatically collects information about a child’s ‘likes and dislikes, interests, and other educational metrics’. more

Downer of the Day – Paranoia Is Now a Best Practice

Bust out the tinfoil—the data security crisis is worse than you ever imagined...

he 2010s will be remembered as the first decade in which we, the people, paid for the pleasure of welcoming Big Brother into our lives.

When George Orwell depicted an inescapable surveillance state — telescreens in every room monitoring every move, recording every sound, and reporting it all to the authoritarian leader — in his classic novel 1984, he probably never imagined that in 2018, folks would pay $600 (plus a recurring monthly fee) for the privilege of carrying a telescreen in their pockets. more

Buy yours now.

The Search Engine That Didn't Snitch... and other disasters

Hey gang, it's almost Independence Day here in America. Yup, July 4th is just around the corner.

Fireworks are in America's bloodstream... but, did you know your on-line curiosity could get you in trouble with the terrorist chasers? Your fireworks search engine inquires might start popping red flags...

"Ludlow Kissel and the Dago Bomb That Struck Back"
"What is a Dago Bomb?"
"How can I build a Dago Bomb?"
"Dago Bomb ingredients"
"What was blown up by the Dago Bomb?"

(Knock, Knock)
"We're from Homeland Security..."

"Excelsior, you fathead!" Next time, don't use a search engine that captures your IP address. Search privately. Go to https://www.ixquick.com
ixquick is the only search engine which gives you anonymity.

Oh, and Ludlow... he had his 15 minutes of fame... about 2:17 into this Great American Fourth of July video. ~Kevin

UPDATE - NEW URL. Startpage.com in

Thumbs Down, or How to Delete Your Facebook Account Permanently

Presented as a service to our privacy conscious readers and clients...

If you are looking for how to delete your Facebook account permanently or deleting anything from your Facebook account here is a 2018 guide.

Facebook has remained the primary and most commonly used social networking platform for users across the world. At the same time, the social network giant has been in the news lately amid Cambridge Analytica scandal and for archiving personal data of users including call and text logs of its Android app users.

But, the fact is that unauthorized use of user content like posts, messages, pictures, and videos by Facebook is nothing new. However, it is a relatively new revelation that even the content that we believe is removed is actually not permanently deleted. So, what can be done in this situation? more

Is Facebook Eavesdropping? A "Scientific" Test & A Possible Explanation

(no spoilers, just teasers)
 
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Testing the long-held belief that Facebook listens to your conversations to advertise stuff...

For years, people have speculated that Facebook and Facebook Messenger use your phone’s microphone to listen to your conversations and send you targeted adverts based on your IRL chats...

To put the rumor to rest, we at the New Statesman engaged in a very scientific test. Each employee had a scripted conversation in front of their phone with Facebook or Messenger open (after changing their settings to ensure that Facebook and Facebook Messenger had access to their microphones)...

Here's what went down... more

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Facebook Really Is Spying on You...

A conspiracy theory has spread among Facebook and Instagram users: The company is tapping our microphones to target ads...

“Facebook does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed,” says Facebook.

Yeah, sure, and the government swears it isn’t keeping any pet aliens at Area 51. So I contacted former Facebook employees and various advertising technology experts, who all cited technical and legal reasons audio snooping isn’t possible... more

Has Your Information Been Compromised? Check Here to See

via peerlyst.com
"We build NoSecrets to inform the public that their information is being traded and sold not just on the dark web, but between data brokering companies."

Do data brokers hold information about you that they should not hold, thus putting you at risk?

You can check here.

Email Bugs Are Tracking You

Do you want to know exactly when a friend or colleague opens your email? How about where they are when they do?

Free services now allow us to do a little spying through the email we send. But it's raising some questions about privacy.

A growing number of people are using this technology. One More Company OMC, a company that makes software to detect this kind of email bugging, released a report last year. It says marketers put bugs in virtually all of the email they send.

But surprisingly, last year 16 percent of all conversational email-- the messages you send to friends, family and colleagues-- was also tracked. And that's up from 10 percent the year before. video more

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Counter Measures for Users
Possible measures to restrict the functioning of tracking pixels:

• Set browser and email settings to be as restrictive as possible such that external graphics are only supported after permission, and HTML emails are not supported. Appropriate firewall settings can also be used to do this.
• Some browser extensions can be used to make tracking pixels visible.
• Anonymous surfing with the Tor Browser or use of proxy servers to prevent the download of tracking pixels.
• In order to prevent the collection of additional user data such as browser type or operating system, the support of scripts in the browser can be deactivated. This can however restrict other functions on the Internet under certain circumstances. more

For One Family - A New Christmas Gift Rule

Op-ed, NYT opinion By Ashley Boyd

Click to enlarge.

During the holiday season, my husband and I tend to offer suggestions to those who are generous enough to insist on buying presents for our kids.

Things like “Don’t spend more than $50” and “No guns.” Or, for those with whom we can be comfortably blunt, “Just cash, please....

This year we’re adding a new rule to our list: No toys that can spy. The idea: to keep seemingly innocuous internet-connected devices that may compromise our privacy and security out of our home and especially out of our children’s hands. more

• CBS video report on holiday toys that can spy.

• All the cool gifts are made for spying on you.

Corporate Espionage: Beware the Cupid Spy

Between oversharing about their job and workplace with dating matches and divulging trade secrets, 25% of business leaders using dating apps may be accidentally threatening their workplace's security, according to new research from Kaspersky Lab...

Of those using dating apps, 19% of business leaders have had their device infected via a dating app, including malware, spyware, or ransomware...

The work-related bragging can lead to infected devices and corporate espionage if trade secrets fall into the wrong hands, the report said. If malware allows a match access to a work device, the attacker may have access to work documents stored on that device. more sing-a-long

Privacy Tips for the New Post-Privacy Internet

10 practical privacy tips for the post-privacy Internet.

1. Educate yourself about cookies and clean them out regularly.
2. Use two, or even three, browsers.
3. Disable Flash or option it.
4. Change your DNS serve.
5. Lose search engines that track you. Now.
6. Use the Tor browser(s).
7. Remove your information on websites.
8. If you have the luxury, change ISPs.
9. Use virtual machines.
10. Modify your browser as little as possible. more