Recent Posts
^Unfortunately for us, it's the same wavelength whose only distinction is that it opens garage doors.Heh. Is that true? I didn't know that. Well, at least one could say that it "opens doors", I suppose...-40hz (December 17, 2013, 06:36 PM)
Now I'm not so hungry...Oh, sorry, if it was the M'bengi-stoidi that did that. Don't worry though, I made it up as a joke.-Edvard (December 16, 2013, 08:36 PM)
If they existed, the M'bengi-stoidi would be very "backward"...-IainB (December 17, 2013, 09:50 AM)
Not extinct by any means. They were assimilated into the neighboring Sesumarongi and became part of their culture - albeit while still retaining their own ethnic churches, markets, and restaurants.
-40hz (December 17, 2013, 01:36 PM)
Now I'm not so hungry...Oh, sorry, if it was the M'bengi-stoidi that did that. Don't worry though, I made it up as a joke.-Edvard (December 16, 2013, 08:36 PM)
Lawsuit Claims Accidental Google Search Led To Years Of Government Investigation And Harrassment
from the so-plausible-yet-so-bizarre dept
We've seen a few lawsuits filed over autocomplete suggestions, but those have all been aimed at Google by people who failed to understand a) how search engines work, and b) the unintended consequences of their actions. Targeting a search engine for unflattering autocomplete suggestions tends to make the problem worse. Each legal effort only results in more stories "confirming" the autocomplete suggestions.
This lawsuit is a bit different. The plaintiff is arguing that an accidental search triggered by an autocomplete suggestion ruined his life. But it's not Google's fault. It's… well, it's pretty much damn near everyone else.
Jeffrey Kantor, who was fired by Appian Corporation, sued a host of government officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry in Federal Court, alleging civil rights violations, disclosure of private information and retaliation…
He also sued Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Rand Beers, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, EPA Administrator Regina McCarthy and U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta.
That's a lot of big names, all of which are somehow related to Jeffrey Kantor's errant search, a mistake anyone could have made. But in this era of pervasive surveillance, a mistake may be all it takes.
"In October of 2009, Kantor used the search engine Google to try to find, 'How do I build a radio-controlled airplane,'" he states in his complaint. "He ran this search a couple weeks before the birthday of his son with the thought of building one together as a birthday present. After typing, 'how do I build a radio controlled', Google auto-completed his search to, 'how do I build a radio controlled bomb.'"
From that point on, Kantor alleges coworkers, supervisors and government investigators all began "group stalking" him. Investigators used the good cop/bad cop approach, with the "bad cop" allegedly deploying anti-Semitic remarks frequently. In addition, his coworkers at Appian (a government contractor) would make remarks about regular people committing murder-suicides (whenever Kantor expressed anger) or how normal people just dropped dead of hypertension (whenever Kantor remained calm while being harassed).
Kantor also claims he was intensely surveilled by the government from that point forward.
He claims government officials monitored his book purchases and home computer, and implied that everything he did was being monitored…
Kantor [also] claims the stalking spilled over into his personal life when the government secretly attached a GPS antenna to his car to track him.
Kantor alleges this harassment continued long after he lost his job at Appian (who he's currently suing as well). The claims of stalking, harassment and surveillance fill a great deal of the 33-page filing. His suit also claims that personal information obtained through "FISA warrants" was routinely used against him (and repeated back to him) by a number of people -- the so-called "group stalking" or "gang stalking."
Kantor also makes the rather novel claim that the statute of limitations (for incidents over 2 years old) doesn't apply because the exposure of the NSA's PRISM program (which is how the accused apparently gathered much of Kantor's private info) didn't occur until 2013.
Section 223 of the Patriot Act gives citizens two years from the time they discover that their civil rights have been violated to sue. These privacy violations occurred between 2010 and 2013. Many of the privacy violations occurred in the last two years. Other violations that Kantor alleges occurred in 2010 and early 2011, which is beyond 2 years. However, the law says that the timeline is based on when the citizen had a reasonable chance to discover the violation. Since the PRISM program was only declassified in July of 2013, these earlier violations should not be time-barred.
All in all, the filing doesn't build a very credible case and comes across more as a paranoiac narrative than a coherent detailing of possible government harassment and surveillance. Here are just a few of the highlights.
One day in 2010, Kantor went to an adult web site from his home computer. The next day at work, a CRGT manager, Tony Buzanca, came up to Kantor, who was working at his computer, bent over and whispered in Kantor's ear, "people who go to pom sites are going to hell." Kantor contends that the government monitored Kantor's internet traffic, disclosed this private information to Buzanca, and had Buzanca repeat it back to Kantor for the purpose of harassment and group stalking. There was no legitimate investigative purpose to this disclosure of Kantor's private information, which must have been obtained through the Patriot Act enabled FISA warrant...
Two days before Kantor requested to be transferred, he drove to a park area of Ft Belvoir after work. He hiked on a trail and retumed to his car, which was in an isolated area (where no one normally parks). There was a van next to his car and there were three men. As Kantor returned to his car, one man said to the other, "He has been here two years 'and he won't quit. I guess he is trying to prove a point." Kantor later discovered that an antenna had been affixed to his Audi A4. The government must have been using GPS tracking to track Kantor and the stalkers were using this GPS information to follow Kantor around and stalk him…
Kantor had driven to lunch with his Appian manager, Mike Kang. Mike Kang asked Kantor what movies his wife likes. Kantor answered and politely asked Mike Kang what movies his wife likes. Kang stated that his wife likes "the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and the "Harry Potter" movies. Kantor thought that this was strange since at the time the only version of "the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" that existed was in Swedish and Harry Potter was a kids' movie. Kantor also thought this was disturbing because those were the exact two books that he was reading, and he had borrowed these books from his local library. The second book Kantor was reading to his son…
As Kantor left work that afternoon, he was followed by an African-American man in a suit. The man sat across from Kantor on the Metro train. At the West Falls Church exit, which is one stop before the Dunn Loring exit, the man got up and started screaming at the top of his lungs at Kantor, "You respect my privacy, I'll respect your privacy, bitch!" He screamed this around five times at Kantor at the top of his lungs, and then got off the train right as the doors were about to close...
[Kantor' boss] also sent Kantor an email that said, "It's the end of the world as we know it." Kantor forwarded the email to his house. The next day he showed his father, Lawrence Kantor Jr, the email, with the title, "It's the End of the World as We Know It" and Kantor's browser history, which showed that he had emailed for the chords and lyrics to REM's "It's the end of the World as We Know It" the night before his manager sent him the email. This group stalking had occurred hundreds if not thousands of times, but this was an instance where there was digital proof and a witness on Kantor's side that had seen it in action…
Kantor in this very draft alleged that he was being wrongly investigated as a terrorist and complained overhearing his coworkers saying that his car was being searched for an AK--47. In the evening of 8/5/2013, a Vienna police officer walked into the volunteer office and said to Kantor and the three other volunteers in the room, "So this is where all the terrorists hang out. I am going to go look for an AK-47." The police officer then left. He said nothing prior to this comment and nothing after it. Kantor had never seen the police officer before or hence. This illustrates that the privacy violations and group stalking are still occurring. Is Kantor supposed to Contact the town police and complain that police officers are stalking him (which is a crime that they themselves like the FBI are supposed to be preventing, instead of engaging in)?
Kantor has retained Christopher Swift of Swift & Swift, an attorney who apparently specializes in patent law, to represent him in this lawsuit against several government officials. The lawsuit seeks $13.8 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in statutory damages, as well as an injunction against the government to prevent it from further stalking him.
But that's not all!
The lawsuit also asks the judge to find that the PATRIOT Act is unconstitutional and illegal and order the FBI to turn over all calls and contacts where violations of the PATRIOT Act are alleged to the DoJ and the administration's "privacy advocate."
Now, there are a couple of ways of looking at this. Kantor may have undiagnosed mental issues which have led him to believe everyone (at several consecutive jobs) is out to get him and has access to his personal info. Certainly, the idea that the government has access to all of this info is less dubious than it was back in 2009 when the harassment allegedly began, but the rambling nature of this filing (which was apparently written with the assistance of an attorney) sounds a bit more like unhinged near-ravings than a blow-by-blow account of long-term harassment.
On the other hand, there would be no better way for the government to harass someone out of the workforce (while maintaining plausible deniability) than to create a situation so over the top and ridiculous that it instantly strips the victim of all credibility. So, there's that to consider as well.
The alleged starting point (the wrong Google search) is also not that far off either, as far as that goes. With certain keywords triggering NSA activity, it's not exactly paranoid to express a concern that a few erroneous searches could result in some sustained surveillance.
Kantor v Everybody (Text)
Kantor v Everybody (PDF)
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...yeah, but it only allows me to log in - it doesnt allow me to registerOIC. Sorry, I thought you would be able to sign the petition that way. I actually did it via a hyperlink in their email (which was peculiar to me), so did not give it out publicly.
And any variation of that page address sends me to the login page...
So, how do I 'support the cause' (but I can understand if you dont know either!)-tomos (December 16, 2013, 04:30 PM)
If you want to take part, got to the Demand Progress website and sign up http://act.watchdog.net/loginthe link there is for a login page - watchdog.net goes to the login page as well...-IainB (December 15, 2013, 04:59 PM)
Did you forget a demand progress link there Iain?
I dont see anything though on the demandprogress site:
http://www.demandprogress.org/
____________________-tomos (December 16, 2013, 07:51 AM)
Error 0x80072efd: Failed attempt to download URL: 'http://go.microsoft....wlink/?LinkId=158917' to: 'C:\Temp\{d6074b06-1636-45dd-bf35-baf3e6d131d2}\vstor_redist.exe'
___________________________
A new version of Project Colletta is available now, with support for Windows 8 and Office 2013. Please use this forum for comments and to report problems.
Microsoft Research Project Colletta
Project Colletta is an extension of the Windows UI that supports lightweight management of the user's activities through tagging.
Download details
File Name ProjectCollettaSetup.exe
Version 3.0.0
Date Published 22 October 2013
Download Size 2.22 MB
Note By installing, copying, or otherwise using this software, you agree to be bound by the terms of its license. Read the license.
Visit the project home page for full details. The new 3.0 version supports Windows 8 and Office 2013, but note that support for older versions of Office is more limited: there is no docbar for Excel 2010, and much less for Office 2007.
Also see our privacy statement.
Known limitations
When using protected mode Acrobat Reader, the wrong file is tagged (protected mode really opens a "shadow" temporary file in place of the one you requested, and this is the file path which Project Colletta sees).
When you click on a docbar, the corresponding application window should come to the fore, and vice versa: sometimes this does not occur.
Saved emails (.msg files) are not distinguished from "normal" email messages and get incorrect docbars.
The IE add-in is not compatible with "enhanced protected mode" - currently, to get IE docbars to appear, you need to disable EPM (via IE's advanced settings page).
If you try to tag a PowerPoint deck which has been downloaded from the internet (i.e., which shows the "this file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer" mark), PowerPoint will complain that the file is corrupt. You need to unblock the file before Project Colletta can touch it. (This seems to be a problem only with PowerPoint: the other Office applications seem fine.)
Change history summary
3.0.0
Updated for Office 2013 and Windows 8; Office 2007 no longer supported.
Many bug fixes, and some unused facilities removed
2.2.0
IE9, OneNote and Acrobat Reader support
URL drag and drop
Improved installer
Numerous bug fixes and UI improvements
2.1.3
First public release
__________________________
An interim release to satisfy a few user requests.
Allows insertion of file links in item panel via holding CTRL key when adding an item via the item menu or via drag and drop.
All stack menu item exports "Save active stack List Items as" (text file, Browser-searchable, self-decrypting) are now based on the active stack list (searched) item content rather than the entire active stack content.
- @berry
From: Melanie Jones <[email protected]>
00:34 (11 hours ago)
Snowden is ready to testify for Germany if the country will give him asylum – let's push Angela Merkel to accept!
Sign the Petition!
Share on Facebook!
Dear XXX,
Edward Snowden is ready to testify on the US wiretapping of Angela Merkel’s phone if Germany will grant him political asylum — and Merkel may just take him up on the offer.
“My government continues to treat dissent as defection, and seeks to criminalize political speech with felony charges that provide no defense,” Snowden wrote German officials. “Speaking the truth is not a crime.”
Edward Snowden will never be safe if he returns to the US, and temporary asylum in a country notorious for its own civil liberties abuses won’t work in the long run. But if Merkel lets him stay on German soil, Snowden could have a life again — which is the least we can do for the whistleblower who exposed the NSA.
Berlin has a growing reputation for standing up against civil liberties abuses. But if Merkel turns Snowden down, it will look as though she supports the Obama administration’s disregard for privacy and mockery of international law — now let’s make sure she knows that before she makes her decision.
PETITION TO ANGELA MERKEL'S GOVERNMENT: Stand up to the NSA's encroachment and protect the man whose whistleblowing exposes the US' betrayal of Germany — grant Edward Snowden asylum in exchange for his testimony now.
Click here to sign -- it just takes a second.
Thanks,
-- The folks at Watchdog.net
I am a bit confused as to what "cloning" means as opposed to creating an image and what the advantage would be?Yes, I found it confuzzling too.-beethoven (December 13, 2013, 10:48 PM)
I could be wrong so back things up first, but...Yes, that is how it seems to work - from my experience at any rate. Quite nifty really.
I think if you switch the settings in GMail to use IMAP, and then change the server settings in TBird to use the GMail IMAP servers, your folder hierarchy and existing message store should be preserved and replicate back up to GMail.-40hz (December 13, 2013, 12:34 PM)
While picking on the Email providers do keep in mind that SMTP is about as secure as a Snail Mail Post Card. Because that avenue of exposure has always existed...it's just being exploited by the best of the worst at this point.That just gave me a new meaning for that acronym... Snail Mail To Post-Stoic Joker (December 13, 2013, 06:19 AM)-wraith808 (December 13, 2013, 08:11 AM)
...Given Microsoft's long and incredibly consistent history of making excuses about blatant security holes for years before finally fixing them they certainly wouldn't be a company I'd turn to if I wanted more privacy.Yes. In terms of security/privacy, they're all probably about as bad as each other, with any differences likely to be marginal at best. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
_______________________-Vurbal (December 12, 2013, 04:01 PM)
(b) is encrypted (post-SnowdenGate) and successfully protects against US NSA legal/illegal surveillance, with the encryption keys being unknown to the Cloud service provider.
Note: If you just want this on its own, refer: Pre-encryption makes cloud-based storage safer
You need to change the App URL.Oh, thanks. That's my Textarea Backup Greasmoneky script. When I start a new Mini-Review, Textarea Backup restores the last Mini-review I did and puts all the text from it into the data entry panel. It's pretty handy, because it includes all the template too, but of course I should check and delete/update all the content...-4wd (December 12, 2013, 11:02 AM)
Gmail’s Recent Image Handling Changes | Movable Ink Blog
Last week, Gmail implemented changes that impact the way the email service renders images that will impact real-time content for a segment of Gmail users.
Below, we hope to clarify the Gmail changes, summarize their impact, and share what actions Movable Ink has taken and is continuing to pursue to address any concerns.
1. What changes were made in Gmail, and what is the impact to Movable Ink?
Traditionally, when a recipient views an email, images are downloaded from the server that hosts the images. This allows information to be communicated back to the image’s host source—such as the user’s current location, device, and time of day.
a.) Gmail is now requesting all images from proxy servers (googleusercontent.com), which incorrectly situates users in its headquarters in Mountain View, California when images are downloaded. This impacts the ability to geo-target image content for those Gmail users who are affected by the changes. (Note: Local Maps using zip codes appended as query parameters are unaffected.)
b.) Gmail is stripping the user-agent headers from the client request, which eliminates the ability to determine the Gmail user’s device and target image content appropriately.
c.) Gmail is removing the cache-control headers from the responses, which forces the user’s images to be stored in their browser’s cache for up to a day. This only impacts live image content if a Gmail user re-opens the email after the first open.
In summary, a limited set of Movable Ink features will not work within a segment of Gmail accounts and, in those cases, will be replaced with default content.
2. What email users are affected by the changes? How big is the impact to my list?
After analyzing our data since the changes were implemented late last week, 2% – 5% of the average enterprise B2C email marketer’s subscriber list is affected by Gmail’s changes, since they only affect recipients that open emails through the Gmail.com desktop client, the Android Gmail app, and the iOS Gmail app.
Not all Gmail users are impacted.
The changes have no impact on Gmail users who access their accounts through Mac Mail, the native Mail app on iOS devices, non-Gmail Android apps, non-Gmail Windows apps, Gmail via Outlook, etc. Additionally, all email domains that are not @gmail.com are not impacted.
More Gmail recipients open email on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads) than through any other email service — including web-based Gmail itself, which greatly mitigates the impact of the changes, and is the reason why they only affect 2% – 5% of most email marketers’ subscribers.
Below is a summary of who is affected by the changes:
Gmail Image Handling Changes Impact Summary
3. How is Movable Ink responding to the affected features?
a.) Geo-targeting: We have made it possible for marketers to show default content to users that have images hosted within the Gmail proxy domain. This eliminates any concerns about displaying incorrectly geo-targeted content when a user is falsely identified as being in Mountain View, California.
b.) Device targeting: If a user’s device cannot be detected for any reason, a default version of an email will be rendered and is configurable within the Movable Ink dashboard.
c.) All other real-time content: Other types of real-time content such as countdown timers, social feeds, web crops, and video will appear as intended on the first open of an email. Subsequent opens from an individual recipient will display the original image due to Google’s caching which can last for up to a day. According to research from Experian Marketing Services, 97% of email recipients only open email marketing messages once, again mitigating the impact.
Our team is in contact with representatives at Google to recommend and discuss alternatives to last week’s changes. We will be sure to share updates as we have more information. If you have any questions in the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].
