Hudson Woman Charged With Felony in Alleged Eavesdropping Incident

hudson-wi.patch

A Hudson woman has been charged with a felony in an alleged eavesdropping incident at the St. Croix County Government Center on May 2, 2011.

Patt A. Colten of Hudson was formally charged on Friday, Sept. 30, with intercepting wire/electronic communication, a Class H felony. Her initial appearance was Oct. 27 and she posted a $1,000 signature bond.

The charge stems from a May 2 incident at the St. Croix County Government Center in which two individuals allege that Colten was listening to and recording a conversation they were having with an attorney in one of the building's conference rooms, according to the criminal complaint.

Colten and the two complainants have been involved in a property dispute over their lot boundaries for at least two years, and on May 2, all three of them were in court for a pretrial conference with Judge Edward Vlack. After the conference, the complainants met with an attorney in a conference room just outside the courtroom to discuss the case's developments. That's when Colten allegedly eavesdropped on their conversation, according to the criminal complaint.

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Devices That Can Listen In on Cellphone Traffic, Control Your Phone

wsj.com

Law enforcement and military officials are increasingly using secret devices sometimes called “stingrays” to locate people via their cellphones, even when the phones aren’t in use, the Wall Street Journal reported recently. But finding people isn’t all that this type of gear can do.

These types of machines mimic a cell tower and cause your phone to connect to the machine instead of a real cellular site. Once that happens, there’s a lot that can be done to your phone.

For starters, “they can be set up to do wiretapping of the actual content,” said Matt Blaze, a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a former researcher at AT&T Labs.

Such devices also can jam phones, fake calls and text messages and drain the phone’s battery, according to documents available online for companies such as Advanced German Technology that sell these types of devices.

Other gadgets can listen to calls “passively,” meaning that instead of forcing the phone to connect to a fake base station, they simply grab signals transmitted between the mobile phone and the cellular network, allowing the operator to capture conversations.

One such device, available on the helpfully named spyshops.com, claims to be able to monitor a radius of up to about 3 miles and intercept 100 conversations simultaneously, according to the site. The device is “completely STEALTH – invisible and non-detectable, high performance and upgradeable,” the site says.

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Illinois Wiretapping Law Reaching A Boiling Point

pixiq.com

Illinois police officers have to be the most smug cops in the nation knowing they have the power to arrest citizens on felony charges for recording them in public while they themselves have every right to record citizens.

That smugness is very evident in the latest case to emerge from the Land of Lincoln.

Watch the below video, and read more here...

Which Telecoms Store Your Data the Longest? Secret Memo Tells All

wired

The nation’s major mobile-phone providers are keeping a treasure trove of sensitive data on their customers, according to newly-released Justice Department internal memo that for the first time reveals the data retention policies of America’s largest telecoms.

The single-page Department of Justice document, “Retention Periods of Major Cellular Service Providers,” (.pdf) is a guide for law enforcement agencies looking to get information — like customer IP addresses, call logs, text messages and web surfing habits – out of U.S. telecom companies, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

The document, marked “Law Enforcement Use Only” and dated August 2010, illustrates there are some significant differences in how long carriers retain your data.

Verizon, for example, keeps a list of everyone you’ve exchanged text messages with for the past year, according to the document. But T-Mobile stores the same data up to five years. It’s 18 months for Sprint, and seven years for AT&T.

That makes Verizon appear to have the most privacy-friendly policy. Except that Verizon is alone in retaining the actual contents of text messages. It allegedly stores the messages for five days, while T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint don’t store them at all.

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Appeals Court OKs Challenge to Warrantless Electronic Spying

wired

A legal challenge questioning the constitutionality of a federal law authorizing warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans inched a step closer Wednesday toward resolution.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for the second time, rejected the Obama administration’s contention that it should toss a lawsuit challenging the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act. Among other things, the government said the plaintiffs — Global Fund for Women, Global Rights, Human Rights Watch, International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association, The Nation magazine, PEN American Center, Service Employees International Union and others — don’t have standing to bring a constitutional challenge because they cannot demonstrate that they were subject to the eavesdropping or suffered hardships because of it.

The lawsuit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, was lodged within hours of the FISA Amendments Act (.pdf) being signed into law by President George W. Bush in July 2008. The legislation is being challenged because it allows the National Security Agency to electronically eavesdrop on Americans without a probable-cause warrant if one of the parties to the communication resides outside the United States and is suspected of a link to terrorism.

“It is the glory of our system that even our elected leaders must defend the legality of their conduct when challenged,” (.pdf) Judge Gerard Lynch wrote.

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How 9/11 Completely Changed Surveillance in U.S.

wired

Former AT&T engineer Mark Klein handed a sheaf of papers in January 2006 to lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, providing smoking-gun evidence that the National Security Agency, with the cooperation of AT&T, was illegally sucking up American citizens’ internet usage and funneling it into a database.

The documents became the heart of civil liberties lawsuits against the government and AT&T. But Congress, including then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois), voted in July 2008 to override the rights of American citizens to petition for a redress of grievances.

Congress passed a law that absolved AT&T of any legal liability for cooperating with the warrantless spying. The bill, signed quickly into law by President George W. Bush, also largely legalized the government’s secret domestic-wiretapping program.

Obama pledged to revisit and roll back those increased powers if he became president. But, he did not.

Mark Klein faded into history without a single congressional committee asking him to testify. And with that, the government won the battle to turn the net into a permanent spying apparatus immune to oversight from the nation’s courts.

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Court Affirms Legality Of Recording Police Officers

wbur.org

Last Friday, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that affirmed, stronger than ever, the rights of individuals to openly record the actions of police officers.

In 2007, a young lawyer named Simon Glik was walking through Boston Common when he saw three police officers arresting a teenager. Glik thought the officers were getting a little rough, so he flipped open his cellphone camera and started shooting video.

The officers arrested Glik for, in their minds, violating the state’s wire-tapping law, even though the whole incident happened out in public and Glik didn’t try to conceal the fact that he was recording.

The ACLU took up Glik’s cause and the courts threw out the charges against him. Since then, the Boston Police Department has been instructing personnel that the state’s wiretapping law does not apply to people making unconcealed audio or video recordings in public. But Glik and the ACLU have pressed on, suing the BPD and the individual officers for violating his First Amendment rights.

The officers moved to have the suit dismissed, saying they were just enforcing an interpretation of the law that was handed down to them by their superiors. But on Friday, the federal court disagreed.

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US cannot say how many had communications watched

(AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like its predecessor, the Obama administration says it cannot count how many people in the U.S. have had their telephone calls and emails monitored by government agents in national security investigations under federal surveillance law.

The national intelligence office said in a letter this week to two Senate Democrats that it was "not reasonably possible to identify the number."

The senators, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, worry that the government may be monitoring communications of law-abiding citizens with inadequate justification.

"We're not asking these questions to embarrass the administration or make the intelligence community's job more difficult," Wyden said in a statement Thursday. "Congress needs to know if the laws it writes are being interpreted and implemented as intended before it is asked to extend them, and failing to assure the public that government agencies aren't violating the rights of law-abiding Americans erodes public confidence and makes it harder for intelligence agencies to do their jobs."

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House Fails to Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers

wired.com

The House failed to extend three key expiring provisions of the Patriot Act on Tuesday, elements granting the government broad and nearly unchecked surveillance power on its own public.

The act was hastily adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks. Three measures of the act are set to expire at month’s end, and the House’s lack of a two-thirds vote on Tuesday failed to move the sunsetting deadline to Dec. 8, as proposed. The vote was 277-148.

The failure of the bill, sponsored by Rep. James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wisconsin), for the time being is likely to give airtime to competing measures in the Senate that would place limited checks on the act’s broad surveillance powers. The White House, meanwhile, said it wanted the expiring measures extended through 2013.

The three expiring Patriot Act provisions are: More...

Your Boss is Likely Spying on You

nbcchicago.com

For many, it's become second nature to head straight to Facebook or Twitter to complain or gloat about daily life or current events. But with more employers using software to keep tabs on employees, your harmless rant or online search could cost you your job.

"I don't post anything stupid. I'm always aware," said Chicagoan Glen Busch.

He never thought any of his random thoughts on the Internet would cause him any trouble. But that's exactly what he got when he took to Facebook and commented on the shooting in Tucson:

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RIM lets India snoop on BBM, corporate e-mail still safe

electronista.com

In its long-standing security debacle with the Indian government, Research In Motion on Thursday said it has found a way to grant security agencies access to the BlackBerry Messenger service and public e-mail.

Corporate e-mail services are still secure from prying eyes, however. Whether this solution is satisfactory and meets the target date of January 31 remains to be seen.

RIM is confident the standard meets the government's requirements, though corporate e-mail access is one that hasn't been met. RIM continues to stand by its statement that neither it nor its carriers can decipher the encryptions of these ultra-secure services.

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AeroScout Announces Wi-Fi RFID Tag That Withstands Surgical-Equipment Sterilization Processes

rfidjournal.com

AeroScout, a provider of Wi-Fi based real-time location systems (RTLS), has announced a Wi-Fi RFID tag for tracking surgical equipment through its entire lifecycle—from sterilization to the operating room. The AeroScout Autoclave tag is designed to withstand rigorous sterilization processes, the company reports, including ultrasonic cleaning, high-pressure liquid sterilization and steam autoclaving. According to AeroScout, the combination of these new tags with AeroScout's health-care RTLS solution is aimed at helping hospitals improve staff efficiency, automate inventory management and optimize operating-room workflow. The new tag is designed for attachment to surgical instrument trays and other equipment, so that they may be automatically tracked while progressing through the numerous stages of preparation for surgical procedures, and then through the perioperative process. After every use, surgical equipment requires thorough sterilization, often including an autoclave. The AeroScout Autoclave Tag handles temperatures of 135 degrees Celsius (275 degrees Fahrenheit) and changes in pressure experienced during cleaning and sterilization, ranging from negative pressure (a vacuum) to 35 pounds per square inch. In addition, the tag is designed to deliver a battery life of two years, and to withstand the harsh conditions of hundreds of sterilization cycles.

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iPhone snitch network launched

infowars.com
A new iPhone App with the misleading name ‘PatriotApp’ attempts to draw on the power of the patriot movement, turning smartphone users into a gigantic snitch network.

You might think an app with such a patriotic name might have useful functions like a pocket constitution or quotes from our forefathers. But contrary to the services one might expect, this app allows users to report any ‘suspicious’ behavior directly linking them with top government agencies.

Much like the new DHS program ‘If you see something, say something’ this app is meant to turn average citizens into a network of spies feeding information back to the federal government.

Citizen Concepts, a company formed by insiders from DHS, defines the use of such an app on their homepage

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Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans’ Credit Cards in Real Time

wired

Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.

The document, obtained by security researcher Christopher Soghoian, explains how so-called “Hotwatch” orders allow for real-time tracking of individuals in a criminal investigation via credit card companies, rental car agencies, calling cards, and even grocery store loyalty programs. The revelation sheds a little more light on the Justice Department’s increasing power and willingness to surveil Americans with little to no judicial or Congressional oversight.

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US wants to ease telecom wiretapping: report

economictimes.indiatimes.com
WASHINGTON: An Obama administration taskforce is seeking to overhaul a federal law requiring telephone and broadband carriers to ensure their networks can be wiretapped, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials from the Justice and Commerce Departments, the FBI and other federal agencies told the Times tougher legislation was necessary because some telecommunications firms have launched new services and system upgrades that impede surveillance.

As part of their draft legislation to expand and strengthen the 1994 law, the officials want more legal incentives and penalties to push AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other carriers to make sure any changes to their networks will not disrupt efforts to conduct wiretaps, the report added.

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Obama wants unfettered access to your Internet activity

tgdaily.com
Despite outrage over George Bush's limited ability to wiretap into American phone calls, Obama wants to take it a step further and be able to monitor every single form of communication any American citizen uses. The same kind of authority the government has to wiretap into phone calls could be coming to Facebook, instant messaging, and every American's browser history, thanks to a push from the Obama administration.

The White House plans to introduce a bill into Congress next year that would give Obama the ability to tap into literally every communication any citizen makes online.

The move causes a whole new level of privacy concerns. After the outrageous uproar of the Bush administration's tapping into American phone records, privacy advocates should be all over this.

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Court allows warrantless cell location tracking

news.cnet.com

The FBI and other police agencies don't need a search warrant to track the locations of Americans' cell phones, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday in a precedent-setting decision.

In the first decision of its kind, a Philadelphia appeals court agreed with the Obama administration that no search warrant--signed by a judge based on a belief that there was probable cause to suspect criminal activity--was necessary for police to obtain logs showing where a cell phone user had traveled.

A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit said (PDF) tracking cell phones "does not require the traditional probable-cause determination" enshrined in the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits government agencies from conducting "unreasonable" searches. The court's decision, however, was focused on which federal privacy statutes apply.

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Appeals Court Rules Against Secret Police GPS Tracking

wired.com
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the police can’t covertly track a suspect’s car using a GPS device for an extended period of time without getting a warrant.

The ruling in the D.C. Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of a suspected cocaine dealer, saying that the use of a secret GPS tracking device on the man’s vehicle for two months violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a friend of the court brief supporting the challenge.

The government argued that a 1983 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Knotts, which allowed police to put a tracking beacon in a container to follow a driver to a secluded cabin, made it clear that GPS tracking was allowed without a judge’s approval.

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Citing Security Threats, Arab Countries to Block BlackBerry

FoxNews.com

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The United Arab Emirates' plan to blackball some of Blackberry's most popular services will be extended to the use of roaming services by foreign visitors, the nation's telecom regulators said Monday.

That would put BlackBerry

service out of reach for business travelers and others passing through the Mideast's busiest airport in the international business hub of Dubai, which averages about 100,000 passengers a day. The ban is scheduled to start in October.

The government cited a potential security threat because encrypted data sent on the devices is moved abroad, where it cannot be monitored for illegal activity. But the decision -- quickly followed by a similar move in Saudi Arabia -- raises questions about whether the conservative Gulf nations are trying to further control content they deem politically or morally objectionable.

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Top Secret America

washingtonpost.com

Starting yesterday and running throughout the week, the Washington Post is running a series of articles entitled Top Secret America. The purpose of the article is to ostensively discuss the growth of the US intelligence community and the reliance on private contractors in the post-9/11 world.