from the seller's web site...
"Our covert Wireless Spy Cam Pen is ideal for undercover assignments, wear it innocently on your shirt pocket, place it on a desk, attach it to an organizer, or just start writing with it like you would a normal pen — all while transmitting live high-quality color video images. It’s the size of a regular pen, so you can bring it with you anywhere.
The Pen Camera cleverly conceals a quality color video camera inside a working pen. Minimal illumination makes it difficult to detect that you’re using it for anything more than writing.
To start transmitting, simply click the top of the pen, yeah it’s pretty cool. Just attach the receiver to any TV or VCR for easy recording, or even a security monitor.
This little hidden camera in a pen has a transmission range of more than 300 ft." (more)
Why do I mention it?
So you will know what you are up against.
TX - An Ennis dentist accused of videotaping his female employees in their changing room with a hidden camera pleaded guilty...
The employees went to authorities in August after finding a video camera in a room where they changed into and out of medical scrubs at Durbin's dental office. According to an affidavit, the women confronted Durbin, who admitted making video recordings.
Stephen C. Durbin, also a city commissioner in Ennis, got five years of community supervision with deferred adjudication in the plea agreement on a state jail felony charge of improper photography or video recording. (more)
"She said my boy I think someday
You'll find a way
To make your nat-u-ral tendencies pay!
Yooou'llll be a Den-tist!"
CA - Three more victims have come forward in the Jackson spying case that began in October when a woman alerted police she saw a camera lingering above an uncovered opening of a changing room at Holiday Cleaners.Alex Ko, a 35-year-old Pine Grove resident, allegedly recorded digital videos and photographs of women as they undressed in the cleaner's changing room from May to August 2007. Ko runs the business with his parents and siblings. (more) (original story)
According to a new study dug up by Secrecy News, modern-day spies -- at least the ones who get caught -- don't appear to be making much money.
The study (.pdf), conducted for the Defense Personnel Security Research Center based on its Espionage Database, concludes that "Two thirds of American spies since 1990 have volunteered. Since 1990, spying has not paid well: 80% of spies received no payment for espionage, and since 2000 it appears no one was paid.” (more)
PA - A Pennsylvania state police trooper who claimed a phone conversation with a supervisor was illegally recorded without his permission has been awarded more than $500,000 in damages by a federal jury.Mario J. Diana was awarded $262,126 in compensatory damages for invasion of privacy and unlawful seizure, and $238,878 in punitive damages against Carmen Altavilla, former commander of Troop P in Wyoming, and Lt. Willard Oliphant. The jury rendered the verdict late Thursday afternoon following a four-day trial before U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo in Wilkes-Barre.Diana filed suit in 2005, alleging Altavilla ordered Oliphant to tape a phone conversation in which Oliphant advised Diana, who was off on a workers’ compensation claim, that he was being ordered to return to work. (more)
MA - Two staff members in the school superintendent’s office spied on e-mails sent to Cambridge School Committee members over the span of one month. (more)
...administration officials did not tell the School Committee they were receiving committee e-mails from parents and others. A School Committee member only found out the two school officials were copied into School Committee e-mails after they hit “reply all” and found the duo copied in the e-mail. 14 days after it was discovered, School Committee members voted to enter contract negotiations with Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn. (more)
from Pravda..."Most of you work in companies equipped with video surveillance systems. As it turns out, video surveillance affects employee’s work more significantly than other control methods (wiretapping, looking through emails and reading the most frequently visited websites)." (more)
Ixquick.com deletes its users' search data (including IP addresses) within 48 hours... Furthermore Ixquick does not set any uniquely identifying cookies or share your privacy details with 3rd parties.
UPDATE - NEW URL. Startpage.com
Climate change may be predicted by fish who "eavesdrop" their way to healthy food sources using chemical cues given off by ocean organisms. This research, conducted by the University of North Carolina Wilmington assistant professor Sean Lema and collaborators, was published in the March edition of the journal Science in the article "Dimethylsulfoniopropionate as a Foraging Cue for Reef Fishes." (more)
There's something kinky going on in the world of Barbary macaques. Researchers have found the males eavesdrop on their mates having sex in order to make sure they don't miss out on the fun... (more)
"I continue to use the mobile phone with greater freedom, but if there is any news which comes out about my telephone calls being recorded I will leave this country". ~ Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor. Berlusconi said this when he explained that he had a plan to deal with the indiscriminate use of bugs. "We should only allow the bugging for crimes such as terrorism and organized crime". (more)
Supermarket chain Lidl has apologised to staff after being accused of systematically spying on them.
It took out of series of newspaper adverts in Germany saying: "We regret it profoundly and apologise explicitly if co-workers feel discredited and personally hurt by the described procedures."
Earlier German magazine Stern reported that Lidl had hired detectives who installed surveillance cameras to monitor the staff's work performance, and even to find out how often they used the toilets and whether they had affairs with co-workers. (more)
But wait! There's more!
Germany was shocked to learn that Stasi-like techniques were used to spy on employees of supermarket giant Lidl. Now a report has emerged showing that the chains Plus and Edeka may have done the same... (more)
And, more!
BT has admitted that it secretly monitored customers' internet surfing activities in trials of new software in 2006 and 2007. (more)
A spy who infiltrated a direct action anti-aviation group has been exposed after making a series of elementary errors that aroused the suspicions of genuine activists.
Toby Kendall joined Plane Stupid, the group that occupied the roof of the Houses of Parliament last month, after graduating from Oxford last year. He told the activists that his name was “Ken Tobias” and said that he was deeply concerned by the impact of the aviation industry on climate change and that he wanted to help to organise protests.
But his habit of wearing a Palestinian scarf with his Armani jeans and designer shirt made some members question his identity. He was also the only member to turn up early to every meeting but had no friends in the activist community...
Plane Stupid began a mole hunt and, after feeding him false information that found its way within two days to the aviation industry, discovered his real name and employer.
Mr. Kendall, 24, works for C2i International, a counter-intelligence company run by former special forces officers. It claims that its agents are “hand-picked from Special Operations at New Scotland Yard”...
Justin King, C2i’s managing director, claimed to have been unaware of Mr. Kendall’s infiltration of Plane Stupid. He said Mr. Kendall was employed to carry out counter-surveillance such as “debugging company offices”. (D'oh!) (more)
This is a cautionary tale for corporations and protest groups alike.
1. Espionage is multifaceted - eavesdropping, wiretapping, dumpster diving, moles, etc.
2. Failed attempts end up in the newspapers. Successes go unnoticed.
3. Attacks fail when people start looking.
4. Start looking.
In this case, "...a contact at Oxford University recognised a photo we'd taken. Our spy wasn't called 'Ken Tobias', but Toby Kendall - an Oriental Studies student from Wadham College. A quick google search revealed a Bebo page with a photo. Snap! It also took us to Linked In, a high-flying corporate networking site, where 'Ken' claimed to be an analyst at C2i International, working in "Security and Investigations".
Note: Even Austin Powers had a better cover story. Don't expect your mole to be as obvious.
The digitization of information has made wiretapping incredibly easy, while at the same time making legislation around warrants and civil liberties exponentially more complex, said experts during an afternoon panel at RSA yesterday.“Two and a half years ago, me and my partners at the New York Times exposed a national wiretapping program and we still can't tell what it's all about,” said Eric Lichtblau, investigative reporter, who officiated the panel. (more)
by Naomi Grossman, bmighty.com
Caught up in the high profile case of Anthony Pellicano -- the detective on trial for racketeering and wiretapping in a case that involves lots of big names in Hollywood -- is the manager of IT security for Conde Nast publications. How exactly did that guy get his job?...On Gawker, Ryan Tate asks the second most obvious question: "The guy who runs tech security for Condé Nast has admitted lying to the FBI and lending his services to private detective Anthony Pellicano even though he knew Pellicano was tapping people's phones. He's also been accused, in the course of Pellicano's racketeering and wiretap trial, of leaking a pre-publication copy of Vanity Fair that Pellicano mysteriously obtained, and of bragging about bugging the office of his Condé Nast supervisor. So why does he still have a job?"......the lessons here go beyond the need to move decisively in hiring and firing. If Reynolds could do that stuff in a huge company like Conde Nast, imagine the damage your IT guy could do in your smaller business -- where there aren't the same resources to weather a disaster. Put the time and effort into checking your IT guys out. Each one could mean the difference between life and death for your company. (more)
Well said!
You've been warned.
BlackBerry users, beware of the snoops. India's Telecommunications Dept. told telecom carriers, Internet service providers, and officials at Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian company that makes BlackBerrys, that it wants to eavesdrop on transmissions from every BlackBerry phone in the country. To comply, RIM might have to route calls and e-mails through government computer servers based in India. (more)
FutureWatch... Look for other countries to jump on this bandwagon.
