Surreptitous Workplace Recording: 2-Party Law Drops Cop

MD - A Baltimore City police officer has agreed to resign his post so charges against him in an illegal phone recording case will be dropped. 

Sgt. Carlos Vila was indicted in August 2012 under the state's wiretapping law after he was accused of illegally recording Baltimore Judge Joan Gordon, who sits in the city's Eastside District Court. Officials said in April 2012, Vila used his cellphone to record an argument he had with Gordon about a warrant.

Aside from the wiretapping charge, Vila was also charged with playing the recordings for his colleagues. Both charges are felonies. (more)

Maryland law requires all parties consent to being recorded. Federal law, which is followed by most states, only requires one party to consent. 

Had this happened in a workplace, in a one-party consent state, the outcome would have been much different.

Corporate Security Directors: If you still don't have a written Covert Recording in the Workplace Policy, call me. You need one. I will help you get started. No charge. No obligation. Not having one leaves you open to a multitude of problems.

State Dept. caught on tape saying ‘F*** the E.U.’; Russian bugging suspected

Two senior American diplomats, thinking their conversation about the Ukraine was secure and private, were caught disparaging the European Union in a phone call that was apparently bugged, and U.S. officials say they strongly suspect Russia of leaking the conversation.

The suspicions were aired Thursday after audio of the call was posted to the Internet...

The White House and State Department stopped just short of directly accusing Russia of surreptitiously recording the call between the top US diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. But both took pains to point out that a Russian government official was the first or among the first to call attention to the audio of the conversation that was posted on YouTube. (more)

...in other not so surprising news...

A Russian government aide who was among the first to post a video online containing a bugged phone call between two U.S. diplomats denied Friday that he or the government played a role in leaking the recording.

Dmitry Loskutov said he was surfing a social networking website on Thursday when he came across the video, in which the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, disparages the European Union. (more)

UPDATE: Ukraine's state security service on Saturday said it was not investigating the bugging of a phone call between U.S. diplomats... (no more)

So ya think your nanny cam is spying on you, ma'am? Here's what ya do...

WA - A Lake City couple believes a burglar hacked into their cloud-based nanny cam and has been using it to monitor when they are and aren't home and possibly record their "private bedroom activities," according to the Seattle Police Department.
For the past two months, the victims have been arriving home to find items disturbed and missing in their apartment...

The victims told officers the system is easily hacked, and they believe someone has been monitoring their camera and knows when they leave the apartment...
 
Officers encouraged the couple to stop using the nanny cam and to contact building management with their concerns. (more)

Olympic Sized Gaffe - We have surveillance video of hotel showers...

Responding to the western campaign of "deliberate sabotage" in the media, Paul Sonne of WSJ reports, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak said, "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day."

(Say What?!?!?!) 

Then an aide whisked Kozak away before he could answer any follow-up questions...

...former NSA operative John Schindler has some counter-surveillance advice for Sochi's shower users...  Shut door and run shower hot for 10 minutes. Clear spot on mirror is the cam. (more)

Click to enlarge.

Totally Invasive Video Surveillance Can Be Good For You

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now approved a device for use after an incomplete procedure (colonoscopy) that is minimally invasive and can achieve similar imaging results to a colonoscopy. PillCam Colon is a pill-sized camera that is swallowed and passes through a patient's gastrointestinal tract.

The device itself is a pill-sized video camera measuring 12 x 33 mm (0.47 x 1.3 in) that captures color video from both of its ends at 4 or 35 frames per second. An LED provides the necessary illumination for image capture and, once swallowed by the patient, it wirelessly relays footage to a recording device worn by the patient for approximately 10 hours. (more)

Quote of the Day - On retaining privacy...

"It is amazing how lame people are. In today’s world, it is easy to hide. Just unplug." ~MW

The K5 Security Robot - aka Robopanopticop, or R-2 D-brief

Knightscope officials envision its K5 system playing a role in community policing...

“Knightscope’s autonomous technology platform is a fusion of robotics, predictive analytics and collaborative social engagement utilized to predict and prevent crime,” the company states on its website. That means that in addition to sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the K5 is equipped with analytics enabling it to detect threats to people or property and summon police.

• Able to scan an area in 270-degree sweeps to photographically map it. 
• Four mid-mounted cameras can scan up to 1,500 license plates per minute
• 5-foot high, 300-lb.
• Equipped with optical character recognition, omnidirectional imaging, thermal imaging, microphones, air quality sensors, ultrasonic and infrared sensors, radar for determining the range, altitude, direction or speed of objects and lidar technology for measuring distance to an object. (more)

Athletes, Beware the Sochi Spy Games

The telecommunications, e-mail and social network presence of athletes and others attending the Olympics will be under intense scrutiny before, during and after the events. These communications will be exploited for competitive advantage, political-economic intelligence, hints of sedition, identity theft and manufacturing future access...

Obfuscation idea.

Athletes can expect to have been profiled from the moment they are named to a team... There may be attempts to entrap or break into a circle of trusted friends or groups. Athlete and their electronics will have already been exposed... Simply visiting Sochi-related websites may be enough to infect a computer with spyware.
During the Games, it is reasonable to assume that all phone calls, e-mail, texts, web browsing, online banking and access to voice mail will be intercepted and exploited. Athletes who hope to take home medals may be taking home something else on their laptop instead...

Strategy discussed in team dressing rooms or over the airwaves will be subject to eavesdropping, whereas team radio communications are also vulnerable to electronic warfare tactics: deception, spoofing, interference or jamming at critical moments during play...

Consider that Russian security services share a cozy relationship with organized crime, who stand to benefit from information collected from the state espionage infrastructure. Consequently, banking and identification information are at also at risk. (more)

Data Spying: Feb. 11 To Become “The Day We Fight Back”

The ACLU, Greenpeace, Reddit, Mozilla and a number of other organizations have banded together to fight back against data spying.

Data spying has become a hot topic in the U.S., ever since Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the National Security Agency’s data mining programs... Now a group of organizations and businesses are uniting in an effort to raise awareness about data spying. 

The ACLU, Greenpeace and other organizations have put together the website TheDayWeFightBack.org, letting everyone know that they’re planning to make a big statement on Feb. 11. That’s the date when we will see a bunch of Internet ads protesting the U.S. government’s data spying programs...

According to the site, U.S. Internet users will see banners which urge them to call or email Congress about the data spying issue. (more)

Bugging Lawyer Sentenced to Two Years

A former California divorce lawyer who admitted bugging a car was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison for illegal eavesdropping and tax evasion.

Mary Nolan, 62, of Oakland pleaded guilty to charges of evading more than $400,000 in federal taxes and causing her staff to plant a listening device in the vehicle of “N.F.,” identified as a client’s estranged spouse... Nolan gave up her law license and agreed to repay $469,000 in back taxes, according to an FBI press release.

Nolan was among the defendants caught up in the so-called “dirty DUI” scandal in which a private investigator hired alluring women to drink with the husbands of divorce clients at bars. The women would then invite the men to follow them in their cars, and police would be called to investigate a DUI. (more)

Spy History: Business Espionage in the 18th Century

UK - Derby and Derbyshire have been known for cutting-edge technology since the early 18th century.

ESPIONAGE was the murky business that kick-started Britain's industrial revolution and made Derby the world's first industrial town.

In the 17th and the first couple of decades of the 18th century, silk woven in Derby could not compete with Italian rivals.

John Lombe traveled to Piedmont (Italy) to find out how the fine-quality silk there was spun.
He made drawings of Italian machinery and smuggled them back to the UK to patent kit that would wind, spin and twist silk.

On his return to England, he arranged for engineer George Sorocold to construct a five-story factory to be powered by water from the Derwent.

Lombe's Mill, viewed across the River Derwent, 18th century.

It was the first operation of its kind in the country and has a strong claim to be the world's first successful use of the factory system. (more)

...and then...

Samuel Slater, an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution", the "Father of the American Factory System" and "Slater the Traitor" (in the UK) ...because he brought British textile technology to America with a few modifications fit for America. 

He learned textile machinery as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry.

He brought the knowledge to America where he designed the first textile mills, went into business for himself and grew wealthy.

By the end of Slater's life he owned thirteen spinning mills and had established tenant farms and towns around his textile mills such as Slatersville, Rhode Island.
 
Guess where Sam was born...

Derbyshire, England June 9, 1768. (more)

Bergen University Admits Spying on Students

Norway - Every student has their own access card to make use of everything from the schools library to the toilets. When the students swipe their card, person, time and place gets registered and saved for 90 days...

With this system, the University can track all of the students´ movements... 

Law student Peter Haraldsen believes that this type of spying is illegal. He demands the University to stop logging their students´ movements... 

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority says that Bergen University might have crossed an illegal path, because the cards registers movements without asking the student to verify it with a pin code. (more)

Fox News Report on High-tech ‘Peeping Toms’

If there is one place in the world you expect to have privacy, it’s the bathroom. But a FOX 6 Investigation finds more and more women are finding their sense of security shattered by hidden cameras in the most private places.

Local prosecutors say the problem is getting worse as technology makes the cameras smaller and more affordable for the average consumer. In other words, you don’t have to be a secret agent or private investigators to own a hidden camera anymore. You can buy a high resolution video camera and self-contained recorder disguised as a ball point pen for less than it costs to fill your car up with gas.

In fact, hidden cameras are easy to find for sale on websites like Amazon, eBay, Craiglist and a host of websites that cater to private investigators and law enforcement, and specialize in sales of covert video gear. (more)

Spying Landlord Hit with $1M Verdict

MD - A Montgomery County Circuit Court jury has found a Chevy Chase man liable for more than $1 million in damages for using a hidden camera to spy on a former tenant and her then-boyfriend. (more)

When and Where Do Security Breach Laws Apply?

via Robert Ellis Smith...
"Each state law on security-breach notification is significantly different. What are those differences? Go here and find out. ...Of course subscribers to PRIVACY JOURNAL knew this nine months ago."