Topic: Terrorism, web sites, games and privacy (anonymity)

[ratty redemption]

well that's all very reassuring.

[kat]

Oops. Looks like Kinect can ascertain a bit more than was being initially admitted when you stand in front of it (for good and bad).

[EDIT 18th Nov] after watching the video in full, it doesn't do what is being suggested by the Daily Mail and other outlets; it turns out to be an unfortunately combination of circumstance - the video author possibly going 'commando' and the way the Kinect devices is interpreting the play of light and shadow as that cloth attributed to that particular area folds and changes shape. Had Kinect actually been able to "see through clothing" the same effect would be seen in other areas, the knees and thighs for example, which are typically equally close to clothing's surface.

It's wise then not to get to caught up in the sensationalist aspects presented by these types of headlines, certainly not for the sake of completely dismissing the broader issues presented - that is the accuracy with which 'he' (the author), and the environment within which he conducted the test, is represented by the system. It's so well defined in fact that, yes indeed, Kinect (and ergo anyone with access to it or the data it's collecting) can discern the difference between anyone within range of one. And quite easily it would appear.

Original Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaOlUa57BWs

[ratty redemption]

he he, and the tech is impressive, i'll give them that.

[kat]

Wired has an interesting article on how the Internet has now "weaponised" by the might of the Military Industrial Complex. What this means is that due to the way the NSA, GCHQ and other Government spy agencies around the world have access, they can 'inject' and/or 'intercept' standard http requests with relative ease. This is generally because the Internet to a large extent is based on 'trust' so barring the use of channels that are actually encrypted (https for example), much of the data used to deliver the content of a website to you sits out in the open for anyone with an appropriate level of access to see, a problem exacerbated by the legal terms we sign up to when using Social media or any new 'Cloud' based service (as users we contractually agree to allow our material to be stored and retained without question, and that it can be used however the other party sees fit - this is one of the reasons news media outlets can grab an image from Facebook and plaster it all over the web; users specifically agree to allow that). When reading articles and news concerning the "NSA Spygrid", the sad fact is, the Internet is its backbone.

[kat]

It's a shame that information like this isn't news unless it's reported by the New York Times or Washington post. In the meantime anyone that's ever raised the concerns has been summarily dismissed as "conspiracy nuts" by the very same papers. And they wonder why people are starting to regard them as simply reinforcing their self-imposed status as information and 'news' gatekeepers (incidentally they won't be apologising any time soon to those 'nuts' that have been reporting on things like this for years).

• FBI can secretly turn on laptop cameras without the indicator light
• FBI’s search for ‘Mo,’ suspect in bomb threats, highlights use of malware for surveillance

If the guy being tracked in the above was computer illiterate enough not to recognise malware delivered directly by mail then one has to question the necessity of sending the package in the first place when cross-referencing IP data would do the job just as well (given how illiterate the chap may have been)... which then gets into the realms of 'enabling', just how far are the security services willing to go in order to catch a suspect?

[ratty redemption]

very interesting and agreed, we're usually dismissed it seems until something either directly affects the broadsheets or they can sell more issues with their breaking stories, he he.

[kat]

You could not make this up - NSA and GCHQ spies 'operated in games including World of Warcraft and Second Life' [Telegraph]. It's things like this that are behind SOPA, ACTA and the PPP, all of which are attempts to clamp down on the Internet under the guise of (laughable) preventing stuff like this from happening.

[kat]

A group of artists and authors have penned an open letter concerning 'privacy'. Sadly, the irony displayed, given the articles authors, is astounding - International bill of digital rights [The Guardian]. Appeals to the UN, and the individuals status within a 'democracy', no longer means what they used to (some would argue it's always been an illusion any way), and plays into the hands of power-brokers because an individuals rights are then determined by those said same institutions to which appeal is made. And for their edification.. we most certain DID give the state the authority it now has to surveil.. or have they not been paying attention to the news? We all, as a democratic society, collectively voted to be [sic]"kept safe". One could argue quite easily that is an example of democracy at its finest

[ratty redemption]

i just read your previous post and he he, i love this quote:

Intelligence operatives feared that games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft could be used to secretly communicate, move money or plot terrorist attacks, all under the radar of existing snooping ability. The security agencies were already able to intercept emails and phone calls, but many online games were considered possible safe havens for illegal activity.

[kat]

GCHQ identified Kinect as possible snooping tool; Microsoft denies all knowledge [Develop].

Nothing to hide right?

If you have nothing to hide, there is no reason for anyone to be looking.

Based on the comments posted to accompany the linked article, people either 'get it', or they don't (very few comments sitting on the fence). Sadly, the issue is not about 'humans' watching 'humans', someone watching CCTV or the output from Kinect as in this instance. It's about 'machines' gathering 'data' - "data" being the catch-all redefinition of the effects attributed to an individuals actions. This redefinition and machine abstraction is why Government's can 'spy' and not appear to be breaking the well established Law, it's being done by 'objects' and 'entities' that have no individual agency or accountability.

What can be done with all this 'data'? It's a doorway into an individuals personalised routines that can be, at the very least, monetised, or perhaps used a means to enact individual prohibitions.

[ratty redemption]

interesting tech but scary for our future lives.

[kat]

The DailyMail isn't exactly a fountain of facts and responsible journalism but this article - "Drones, satellites and lasers: Mark Zuckerberg reveals Facebook's sci-fi vision for the future of the internet" - raises some interesting questions and concerns about why there is this need and apparent rush for giant Internet corporations like Facebook and Google to be wanting to "bring the Internet to everyone". What does that even mean in this day an age of NSA spying, traffic and data harvesting, heavy commercialisation of 'information' through advertising, political, religious and economic censorship, 'hacking', and on, and on, and on.

The long and short of it is that there's nothing egalitarian about bringing the Internet to everyone, the West isn't saving the digitally poor Countries of the often Third or Developing World, it's simply about expanding, exploiting and controlling new markets, a bit like oil, gas and other 'natural' resources... we're resources you see.. what we do can be harvested, collected, and commoditised. Perhaps we can add a new euphemism to "BigAgra", "BigOil", "BigPharma"... "BigData".

[kat]

So it turns out the "HeartBleed" security flaw, which affects specific versions of OpenSSL and potentially allows inadvertent access to server memory (KatsBits isn't affected by this issue by the way), is being reported by Bloomberg and other news outlets to have been exploited by the NSA since the flaws discovery some two or so years ago to grab data, without informing the public, under the catch-all guise of "National Security". Notwithstanding issues of Government Agencies exploiting flaws and gaps in the system instead of 'fixing' them, this whole situation raises far more questions that it does answers... If you want to know what you can do as a 'user' have a read of this article by ZDNet on ways you can check or mitigate fallout from HeartBleed.

[ratty redemption]

wow, it's comforting to know our governments were there to protect us all as soon as they knew about this bug.

seriously though, is it just luck that katsbits didn't use the vulnerable versions of openssl?

[kat]

Without revealing too much about what is *not* used (which is just as 'valuable' as knowing what is)? Pretty much "yes"

Isn't it wholly ironic that the largest, actual and very real, threat and imminent danger to our "safety" and "security", certainly where the Internet and technology is concerned, is from Government Agencies around the World. And there we are thinking there's no harm in sending cat pictures to each other!