Loss of Privacy

The Wall Street Journal has obtained over 200 documents that details how the US government obtains its surveillance tools.

The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones, and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country. The papers were obtained from attendees of a secretive surveillance conference held near Washington, D.C., last month.

The catalog is absolutely incredible and searchable at the Wall Street Journal.

From C-SPAN:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano talked about national security following the recent killing of Osama bin Laden, and ten years after the September 11, 2001, attacks. She also answered questions from a moderator and the audience.

More here.

Japanese researchers are testing new television set in which the TV will be able to watch you and detect future shows and advertisements that you might want to see.

TAN (user technology assisted navigation) TV viewing interface as it is called, has a camera mounted on the TV which photographs the viewer and estimates the viewer’s degrees of interest, concentration, etc from circumstances such as who is watching the TV with how much interest. The information is processed by a tablet PC and recommended information is shown to the viewer, it is possible to show individual interests as well in case there are multiple viewers.

The viewer’s interest is determined by observing his face, facial expression and motion.

Maybe in the near future television will have a front facing camera and actually identify individual viewers by their faces and serve advertisements and give recommendation accordingly.

Maybe in the near future I won’t have a telescreen at all.

Jellyfish Intelligence is the name of a new company formed by former officials at Blackwater. Jellyfish Intelligence will serve Fortune 500 companies with corporate spying services. Jellyfish CEO and former Blackwater senior executive Keith Mahoney insists that the new company will not be controversial.

Along with Mahoney, there’s Michael Yorio, the executive vice president for business development and another Blackwater vet; Yorio recently prepped the renamed Xe Services for its life after founder Erik Prince sold it.

Jellyfish’s chief technology officer is J.D. Smith, who was part of Able Danger until lawyers for the U.S. Special Operations Command shut the program down in 2000. Also from Able Danger is Tony Shaffer, Jellyfish’s “military operations adviser” and the ex-Defense Intelligence Agency operative who became the public face of the program in dramatic 2005 congressional testimony

Jellyfish is about corporate-information dominance. It swears it’s leaving all the spy-world baggage behind. No guns, no governments digging through private records of its citizens.

What’s that mean? Through a mouthful of corporate-speak (“empowering the C-suite” to make crucial decisions) Mahoney describes a worldwide intelligence network of contacts, ready to collect data on global hot spots that Jellyfish can pitch to deep-pocketed clients. Does your energy firm need to know if Iran will fall victim to the next Mideast uprising? Jellyfish’s informants in Tehran can give a picture. (They insist it’s legal.)

They’ve got “long-established relationships” everywhere from Bogota to Belgrade, Somalia to South Korea, says Michael Bagley, Jellyfish’s president, formerly of the Osint Group. A mix of “academia, think tanks, military or government” types.

I can’t be the only person thinking that this is not going to turn out well. Take a look at the Fortune 500 companies. How many of them would love to have corporate spies on the payroll? Who do you think you are going to encounter the next time you go to protest a major company?

Ironically, Jellyfish has named themselves after a creature that looks cute and harmless, but can kill you with it’s poisonous tentacles that get everywhere. Then again, they weren’t so great with their former name, Blackwater.

From the Wall Street Journal’s digits:

Data firms and technology companies are using TV watchers’ personal data to help sell targeted ads, Jessica Vascellaro reports. We discuss how cable and satellite co’s are mining this data, how they’re using it to stay ahead in the age of the Internet – and how you can opt out of being tracked.