FBI can Remotely Activate your Android Phone and Laptop's Mic, Cameras: Report

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It wasn’t long ago when whole world was shocked at the revelation that NSA (National Security Agency) and FBI of United States of America has direct access to the servers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Skype, Yahoo, Apple and other internet companies, from where they can extract any user information at their will, without any authorization or approval required from justice and legal departments.

Situation has only worsen with this new finding that FBI can remotely activate the microphones and cameras of your smartphones running Google’s Android platform and laptops without users’ consent, reported WSJ.

Report said that FBI has been developing such hacking and surveillance tools for last ten years. Additionally, there are private firms which sell them such tools to spy the users. Without a doubt – as unveiled earlier – FBI has support from technology companies, such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and others.

Moreover, FBI uses spyware tools to record keystrokes or almost any activity on a computer or smartphone.

Report says that there are usually warrants required to undergo such surveillance on suspects, however, it argues that there were instances when FBI had recorded users’ data without any legal authorization.

With plenty of criticism about NSA’s PRISM program, this new hacking and spying practices from US law enforcement agencies are going to further hike the distrust level of technology users.

It merits mentioning here that there are over 900 million users with Android devices.
These revelations also raise serious questions about the privacy of individuals, which is seemingly brutally murdered by American government and agencies and buried hundreds of miles down under the turf.

Third world citizens are in desperate position, who had embraced these emerging technology gadgets and software for simplifying their lives, but ended up only to be watched by the American government.

Our own government, which can question American government about such shameless practices, is busy doing so many other use-less things.

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Zionist Facebook Suspends Account For Questioning Official Narrative on Shooting

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Despite the fact that the mainstream media got key facts wrong in early reporting

Facebook is suspending user accounts that question the official narrative behind the Sandy Hook school massacre, following a warning by Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance that “misinformation” posted on social media sites could result in prosecution.
An image posted in the aftermath of the shootings that questioned whether “a clumsy 20-year-old autistic kid” could have pulled off the murders of 26 people was deleted and the user’s account hit with a three day suspension.

“I was informed the reason for this punishment was the result of a meme I had shared,” writes the editor of SecretsOfTheFed.com. “Facebook told me it “…violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities”. I was further warned that “If you continue to abuse Facebook’s features, your account could be permanently disabled.” On Saturday, Connecticut state police warned that people posting “misinformation” on social media websites would be “investigated and prosecuted.”

However, this threat could apply to the vast majority of the mainstream media, who in their haste to get out ahead of the story reported numerous details that soon turned out to be completely incorrect.

- It was initially reported that Adam Lanza’s mother, the first victim of the rampage, was a teacher at the school, which was not true.

- It was initially reported that Lanza had also killed his father, which was not true.

- It was initially reported that the culprit behind the massacre was Ryan Lanza, Adam Lanza’s brother, which was not true.

- Initial reports that a “second gunman” arrested in the woods behind the school was involved in the massacre were later dropped without explanation.

Given that most of the “misinformation” about the shooting came from corporate media sources, the fact that Facebook is punishing users for asking questions about the proper sequence of events – essentially labeling such activity a thought crime – is a worrying development. As we have previously highlighted, Facebook occasionally deletes images and posts that it claims violate “Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” yet constitute little more than political conjecture or a healthy skepticism of official narratives on current events.

In September 2011, Infowars reporter Darrin McBreen was told by Facebook staff not to voice his political opinion on the social networking website.

Responding to comments McBreen had made about off-grid preppers being treated as criminals, the “Facebook Team” wrote, “Be careful making about making political statements on facebook,” adding, “Facebook is about building relationships not a platform for your political viewpoint. Don’t antagonize your base. Be careful and congnizat (sic) of what you are preaching.”

Paul Joseph Watson

Infowars

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Facebook turns off automatic facial recognition feature for EU users

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Facebook has turned off its controversial tag suggestions feature for users in Europe, in a move that campaigners will hail as a victory for privacy.

The social network tool took biometric information provided when users tag friends' faces in photos to make suggestions on the correct tags for future images.

But the company was heavily criticised when it introduced the feature and automatically opted-in all users in Europe last June without formally announcing its arrival on the site.

Privacy campaigners were particularly disturbed since Facebook allows photographs to be published on its site without the express permission - or even knowledge - of those pictured.

With the facial-recognition feature activated on the site, this meant in essence that those uploading photos were handing the personal biometric information of those photographed over to the company.

 The removal of the feature and the forced deletion of all the biometric data will be a blow to the company which is under intense pressure to find new ways to convert its vast hoard users' personal information into cash since it was floated on the stock market earlier this year.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO: The decision will be a blow to the company which is under pressure to find new ways to rake in more money.

Responding to the removal of the feature, Nick Pickles, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: 'Users need to be in control of what happens to their data and it’s absolutely right this applies to people’s pictures on Facebook in the same way as their written personal information.

'The wider issue is not just about people opting-in to use the technology, but how you regulate something when often the person in the photo might not be aware their photo has even been uploaded.

'Facial recognition has the potential to undermine people’s privacy far more dramatically than most existing technology, with ever more creative uses finding ways to track us and target us.'

Facebook was forced to carry out a review of the controversial feature's introduction after a wave of anger about potential data protection issues.

It announced last month that it would suspend the feature across Europe and erase all the biometric facial-recognition data it has collected thus far from users on the continent by October 15.

GOOGLE ORDERED TO FIX PRIVACY POLICY 'WITHIN MONTHS'

European regulators have ordered Google to clarify its new privacy policy and make it easier for users to opt out of it.

France’s National Commission on Computing and Freedom led a European investigation into Google’s new unified policy, which replaced 60 individual policies for its search, email and other services and regulates how it uses the personal data it collects.

CNIL's president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin said the company had 'three or four months' to make the revisions, otherwise 'authorities in several countries can take action against Google'.

Google responded that it is reviewing the commission’s report but that it believes its policy respects European law.

The current row revolves around Google's decision to pool of anonymous user data across Google services. For Google, this is a big advantage when selling online ads.

Google and other large internet groups like Facebook provide free services to consumers and earn money from selling ads that they say are more closely targeted than traditional TV or radio campaigns.

The move followed a review by Facebook Ireland of the degree to which the social networking site had implemented recommendations made in an audit of the social networking site by the Irish Data Protection Commission last December.

That report assessed Facebook Ireland’s compliance with Irish Data Protection law and by extension EU law. The aim is to re-introduce the tag feature in the future, but with new guidelines and different forms of notice and consent.

Billy Hawkes, the Data Protection Commissioner for Ireland, said last month the tool would only return to the site if Facebook agreed with the department on the 'most appropriate means of collecting user consent'.

He praised the multi-billion pound company for 'sending a clear signal of its wish to demonstrate its commitment to best practice in data protection compliance.'

Mr Hawkes says Facebook should make users more aware of what happens to their personal data to increase control over privacy settings.

Mr Pickles added: 'It may be possible in future to find a way to use facial recognition on Facebook in very limited circumstances.

'However, given the challenge of securing consent from both the person uploading the photo and the people in the photo being scanned, it may be practically impossible to secure an adequate level of consent.

'What must not happen is the consent requirement be watered down because it proves difficult.'

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This is how Facebook is Tracking your Internet Activity

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Facebook really is watching your every move online. In testing out a new diagnostic tool called Abine DNT+, we noticed that Facebook has more than 200 “trackers” watching our internet activity.

Skip directly to see our findings >

Abine defines trackers as “a request that a webpage tries to make your browser perform that will share information intended to record, profile, or share your online activity.” The trackers come in the shape of cookies, Javascript, 1-pixel beacons, and Iframes. Cookies are tiny bits of software that web pages drop onto your device that identify you anonymously but nonetheless signal useful behavior about your background interests to advertisers who might want to target you. Critics call this spying. Advertisers call it targeting.

Full article here

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Facebook Monitors Your Chats for “Criminal Activity”

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Facebook and other social platforms are watching users’ chats for criminal activity and notifying police if any suspicious behaviour is detected, according to a report.

The screening process begins with scanning software that monitors chats for words or phrases that signal something might be amiss, such as an exchange of personal information or vulgar language.

The software pays more attention to chats between users who don’t already have a well-established connection on the site and whose profile data indicate something may be wrong, such as a wide age gap. The scanning program is also “smart” — it’s taught to keep an eye out for certain phrases found in the previously obtained chat records from criminals including sexual predators.

If the scanning software flags a suspicious chat exchange, it notifies Facebook security employees, who can then determine if police should be notified.

Keeping most of the scanned chats out of the eyes of Facebook employees may help Facebook deflect criticism from privacy advocates, but whether the scanned chats are deleted or stored permanently is yet unknown.

The new details about Facebook’s monitoring system came from an interview which the company’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan gave to Reuters. At least one alleged child predator has been brought to trial directly as a result of Facebook’s chat scanning, according to Reuters’ report.

When asked for a comment, Facebook only repeated the remarks given by Sullivan to Reuters: “We’ve never wanted to set up an environment where we have employees looking at private communications, so it’s really important that we use technology that has a very low false-positive rate.”

Facebook works with law enforcement “where appropriate and to the extent required by law to ensure the safety of the people who use Facebook,” according to a page on its site.

“We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards.

“We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.”

Indeed, Facebook has cooperated with police investigations in the past. In April, it complied with a police subpoena from the Boston Police Department by sending printouts of wall posts, photos and login/IP data of a murder suspect.

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Web Founder worried about Facebook, Google, Apple and CISPA

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British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the man
credited with inventing the world wide web, gives a
speech on April 18, 2012 in Lyon, central France
(AFP Photo/Philippe Desmazes)

He revolutionized the world by inventing the World Wide Web. Decades later, though, MIT professor Tim Berners-Lee is warning consumers of his creation against Google and Facebook, as well as the government’s attempts to censor the Internet. In an interview published by the Guardian on Wednesday, Berners-Lee celebrates the marvels made possible by the Web but cautions users to be weary of what companies could be doing with thought-to-be-private info. While the Internet offers endless answers, solutions and opportunities for entertainment, the British-born professor warns that the companies that consumers invest their personal data into might not necessarily be their friend.

"My computer has a great understanding of my state of fitness, of the things I'm eating, of the places I'm at. My phone understands from being in my pocket how much exercise I've been getting and how many stairs I've been walking up and so on,” says the scientist. As helpful as that could be, though, Berners-Lee says it has its downside. "One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don't,” he explains. “There are no programs that I can run on my computer which allow me to use all the data in each of the social networking systems that I use plus all the data in my calendar plus in my running map site, plus the data in my little fitness gadget and so on to really provide an excellent support to me."

Who is benefiting then? Companies like Facebook, Google and Apple, which are monopolizing not just the Internet, but their user’s information. "It's interesting that people throughout the existence of the web have been concerned about monopolies. They were concerned [about] Netscape having complete control over the browser market until suddenly they started worrying that Microsoft had complete control of the browser market. So I think one of the lessons is that things can change very rapidly,” he says. Berners-Lee’s comments eerily mirror warnings made earlier in the week to the Guardian by Sergey Brin, the co-founder of search engine giant Google. Discussing the hold the company has over its users, Brin said in his interview that consumers are forced to “play by their rules,” which, he added, are “really restrictive.”

“The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine is the Web was so open. Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation,” said Brin. On his part, Berners-Lee says that as companies monopolize out way of receiving and delivering information, consumers are quickly becoming more and more vulnerable to be left at their mercy. In attacking Apple over how they attempt to force their customers into using their own applications, the professor says it should be up to the users to decide how they want to control their own devices. "I should be able to pick which applications I use for managing my life, I should be able to pick which content I look at, and I should be able to pick which device I use, which company I use for supplying my internet, and I'd like those to be independent choices,” he says.

Berners-Lee adds that the Web has seen some monumental changes as it has developed since the 1980s. As people trust their personal and private information with companies that are big today, though, he cautions that they might someday be at the mercy of websites gone kaput. "Before the web, Gopher [an early alternative to the world wide web] was taking over the whole internet, it seemed, very quickly. I remember in an internet engineering meeting, somebody remarked that it was incredible how quickly it was taking over. One of the wiser people said: 'Well it's funny, it's amazing how quickly people on the internet can pick something up, but it's also amazing how quickly they can drop it,’” he tells the Guardian.

"Whatever social site, wherever you put your data, you should make sure that you can get it back and get it back in a standard form. And in fact if I were you I would do that regularly, just like you back up your computer … maybe our grandchildren depending on which website we use may or may not be able to see our photos." That isn’t to say that the corporations invested in the Internet are the only parties to cause concern. As the USZ Congress tries to pass the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) under the guise of cybersecurity concerns, the founder of the Web tells the Guardian that the government is going to cause a major Internet collapse impacting the rest of the world.

"[It] is threatening the rights of people in America, and effectively rights everywhere, because what happens in America tends to affect people all over the world,” he says of CISPA. “Even though the SOPA and PIPA acts were stopped by huge public outcry, it's staggering how quickly the USZ government has come back with a new, different, threat to the rights of its citizens." Congress is currently considering several would-be laws, including CISPA, which have caused advocates for an open Internet to rally against them in opposition. Activists are currently in the midst of “Stop Cyber Spying Week” to raise awareness of Washington’s plans for the Web. These protests precede “Cybersecurity Week,” when lawmakers will discuss CISPA and other acts at the Capitol Building.

(RT)

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Facebook: Founder of Open Source Facebook rival killed at 22

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Diaspora founders from left to right:
Maxwell Salzberg, Daniel Grippi, Raphael
Sofaer and the late Ilya Zhitomirskiy.

Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the co-founders of Facebook-alternative Diaspora, died Saturday night at the age of 22. A spokesman for the San Francisco medical examiner's office confirmed the death of Zhitomirskiy to FoxNews.com, originally reported Sunday by popular tech news blog TechCrunch. He was unable to confirm reports that the young man committed suicide. Confirmation of the final cause of death could take weeks, he said. Peter Schurman, a Diaspora spokesman, declined to comment on specific details but acknowledged Zhitomirskiy's death. "We're all very sad that Ilya has passed away", Schurman told FoxNews.com.

The New York University graduate was struggling to launch his social network Diaspora -- an open-source social network Zhitomirskiy started building with classmates Dan Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg and Raphael Sofaer early last year. Their goal was to provide an idealistic Facebook alternative with an emphasis on user control and privacy. The team struggled with money as it worked to release its website, despite quickly raising $200,000 in funding through venture capitalists and microfinance startup Kickstarter after being featured in The New York Times. But a blog post from the company on Oct. 12 begged followers for more money; the company argued that PayPal had been "mysteriously and arbitrarily" freezing donations to the site. PayPal reportedly liberated the funds.

The site’s founders described Diaspora as a "distributed network, where totally separate computers connect to each other directly, will let us connect without surrendering our privacy." Last year, they released the first version of the site to a limited audience. The team’s efforts even got the attention of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who donated money to the project. “I think it is cool people are trying to do it,” he told Wired. “I see a little of myself in them. It’s just their approach that the world could be better and saying, ‘We should try to do it’.” Friends and fans came together on Twitter to mourn the young entrepreneur’s death. “This is very #sad; I also wish the @joindiaspora team strength,” one fan said. "Shocked and deeply sad for the world that my friend @zhitomirskiyi, co-founder of Diaspora, is dead... The world needed his voice", said Mozilla interface guru Aza Raskin. Diaspora has launched a site redesign in the wake of Zhitomirskiy’s passing.

Analysts believe that the CIA and other leading Zionist intelligence agencies across the world who currently use Facebook as a data collection and spying center for their vicious aims of global control, could not afford an open source rival to emerge and get stable against Facebook and Twitter.

“This could possibly put Facebook out of business one day as the masses are gradually waking up in realization of the fact that their privacy is being brutally compromised by the mainstream social media. It could make it impossible for these crooked agencies to spy on us in the long run, so getting rid of one of the team would probably scare the others away and close the project”, one cyber security analyst was found saying on his blog. “Mark Zuckerberg's aid to the group could possibly be a stunt to keep the heat away from Facebook as this incident would happen in the future. This all seems to be a well organized corporate murder by the Zionists”, he added.

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