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Big Brother is watching you - and documenting
By Yuval Dror - Haaretz.com
"I don't know another Web site that has a privacy policy as flexible as eBay's," says Joseph Sullivan. A little bit later, Sullivan explains what he means by the term "flexible." Sullivan is director of the "law enforcement and compliance" department at eBay.com, the largest retailer in the world. Sullivan was speaking to senior representatives of numerous law-enforcement agencies in the United States on the occasion of "Cyber Crime 2003," a conference that was held last week in Connecticut. His lecture was closed to reporters, and for good reason. Haaretz has obtained a recording of the lecture, in which Sullivan tells the audience that eBay is willing to hand over everything it knows about visitors to its Web site that might be of interest to an investigator. All they have to do is ask. "There's no need for a court order," Sullivan said, and related how the company has half a dozen investigators under contract, who scrutinize "suspicious users" and "suspicious behavior." The spirit of cooperation is a function of the patriotism that has surged in the wake of September 11. We want law enforcement people to spend time on our site," he adds. He says he receives about 200 such requests a month, most of them unofficial requests in the form of an email or fax. One fax to eBay from a lawman - police investigator, NSA, FBI or CIA employee, National Park ranger - and eBay sends back the user's full name, email address, home address, mailing address, home telephone number, name of company where seller is employed and user nickname. What's more, eBay will send the history of items he has browsed, feedbacks received, bids he has made, prices he has paid, and even messages sent in the site's various discussion groups. A brief visit to the company's Web site reveals that the "user contract" that visitors are supposed to read before agreeing to the conditions is 4,023 words long. One paragraph makes reference to the site's "privacy policy." The user has to click on a link and is diverted to another document that is some 3,750 words long. It then takes another 2,390 words to reach the section about which Sullivan told the legal authorities: The user's privacy is solely up to eBay. In July 2002, eBay bought PayPal, Inc. for $1.45 billion. PayPal, which offers the most popular means of payment on eBay, provides clearing services for the execution of online transactions. Two years earlier, eBay bought Half.com, a site that specializes in sales of CDs and books

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posted by A Curmudgeon 6:26 AM

 

Official Terror Worse than 'Night and Fog'
(Whitley Strieber, unknowncountry.com, February 10, 2003)
Last night I read a document that turned my blood to ice. . . . The document I am referring to was created by John Ashcroft last month and presently exists in draft form. It is called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003. . . . The first page of the document is marked �Confidential�Not For Distribution.� It is clear that an attempt is being made to conceal this bill from congress until the �right moment.� This tactic is consistent with the closed administration of George W. Bush, which seeks to avoid even legally required contact with congress. . . . this bill, which effectively wrecks American freedom, is going to be brought forward . . . There is no national security reason to hide this document. It is not classified and the Justice Department has no legal grounds to suppress it in the way that is being attempted. . . . Under any circumstances other than a fearsome national emergency, Republicans and Democrats alike would unite to oppose this monstrous piece of legislation. . . . To pass this bill is to give up on our republic, on its constitution, indeed, it is to give up on America. The sad part is that its authors, the White House and the Justice Department, must already have done that, or it never would have been written. The mission of government at a time like this is to preserve our freedom while ensuring our security, not to destroy freedom in favor of security. In fact, if they destroy freedom here, if history and the experience of other countries counts at all anymore, we will not enjoy security, either. . . . Among many other things, this new bill enables the Attorney General by fiat to revoke the citizenship of anybody found to have ever contributed money to or participated in any organization the Justice Department deems to be a terrorist group. This means that the Attorney General can simply take away your citizenship if it decides that some group you once gave fifty dollars to was, even though unknown to you, a terrorist organization. The bill does not require any particular definition of that term. It�s up to the Attorney General to decide. . . . This means that an appointed federal bureaucrat will have the power to strip you of your citizenship at will. . . . It could strip citizenship even from people whose association with condemned groups had been entirely lawful. And there is no provision requiring the government to prove that the individual knew that the group was engaged in terrorist activities.

[Comment: Little Bush and his junta are about to establish the Fourth Reich. Why aren't you in the streets demonstrating? Why are you not organizing a General Strike! Where are our leaders? We the people of this planet are being dragged into a global conflagration of biblical proportions by an insane minority who have a lust for war. Is there no leader in the U.S. who is capable of rising to this challenge? Where are the Congressional Heroes who have risen in the past to save our republic? Are there no patriots left in this land who will stand up in the halls of government and say ENOUGH! We the people have had enough! It is time for you mad warmongers to go. Leave us NOW! The elections of 2004 may be our last chance to save this nation. Let us hope that our leaders come forward very soon.

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posted by LoZo 12:47 PM