Loss of Privacy

As if the TIPS program wasn’t bad enough, the LAPD now has a program called iWatch, which encourages others to report anything that doesn’t seem right.

“You report, let the police decide” is their mantra.  It is incredibly creepy and should be smacked out of existence as soon as possible.

By the way, the guy who says, “My name is Chris Matthews,” is lying.  He’s just an actor.  It’s likely that all the people in this video are actors who don’t really care about iWatch, the LAPD, and/or their communities.

If you see, hear or smell something suspicious … Report it

Can I report the LAPD or are they exempt from iWatch and will I get arrested for doing so?

It is absolutely insane to ask citizens to spy on their neighbors and report them for the slightest little thing.  I do not live in Ceauşescu’s Romania nor Stasi filled East Germany.  Then again, you already can’t make coffee in the nude at 530am in your own house because the neighbors call the cops on you.

Cnet went all out and fired up the new tasers and gave them a try.  Check out the article here.

Corsaire has released their white paper [pdf] on hacking magstripe gift cards.

This paper is based on research conducted on a large number of UK gift cards. It has been created to complement the presentation “Stored Value Gift Cards: Magstripes Revisited”, which was delivered at the EUSecWest security conference in London in May 2009. It concentrates on magnetic stripe (magstripe) gift card attack techniques and also provides a series of guidelines and tips for developers and systems architects who are involved in the process of implementing their own gift card technology.

From Public Knowledge, this video seeks to inform you about what the fuss is all about over net neutrality.

I wish I had the guts to do this at the airport, but I turn into a wuss every time.