---- Original Message ----- From: John A Imani To: anarchistmarxisteconom...@lists.riseup.net ; r...@lists.riseup.net ; rac-la_support...@yahoogroups.com Cc: copwatc...@lists.riseup.net ; a...@lists.riseup.net Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 11:55 AM Subject: Apple and the Computer Backdoor
(JAI: The article directly below from the Wall Stree Journal details Apple's secret tracking of users whereabouts without their consent or even knowledge. It is (bad word) complimented, no complemented (as they are two sides of the same coin), by an article from the Economist unveiling the existence of 'kill switches'-- operable at and promoting the interests of the US government--in military equipment lent or sold to foreign governments. This is dangerous. Who's to say that there doesn't also exist or will also exist another back-door directly to Apple and that all this info is being or could be or, even, has been sent and probably recorded? Cops will love this. Maybe, cops already love this. In the Economist article below such autonomous and/or remote controlled 'backdoor' switches for military equipment are already in use. If they can get by with stashing it in that shit, they can most certainly get it past us. If the liberals want to make themselves a proper credit for a proper contribution to this great fight we are all (willingly or not) engaging in, then they could spend their time writing about and then writing and passing a law prohibiting such devices; knowing these people they will probably settle for a "Truth in Electronics Disclaimer" allowing such devices but telling us what we already know: they are there.) Apple Receives iPhone Location Data By JULIA ANGWIN And JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES While Apple Inc. has yet to comment on a new study that found its iPhones store data on users' locations, the company has previously revealed to lawmakers that it does collect such information. Apple automatically transmits to itself location information about users of its smartphones, according to a letter the company sent to U.S. Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) last year. The letter, which is publicly available on Rep. Markey's website, became newsworthy this week in light of findings from two researchers who uncovered a file on iPhones that keeps a record of where the phone has been and when it was there. The file is unencrypted and stored by default. The discovery of this location file touched off a furor among iPhone owners who could see for the first time a trove of location data about themselves stored on their phones. The researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, said they had no evidence that the file was being transmitted to Apple. But the letter indicates that the company is indeed collecting similar data from iPhones that have location services turned on (as they are by default, according to Apple's website) and use apps that require location. Apple says it will then "intermittently" collect location data, including GPS coordinates. It doesn't specify how often a person must use the app for intermittent collection to occur. Apple gathers the data to help build a "database with known location information," the letter says. "This information is batched and then encrypted and transmitted to Apple over a Wi-Fi Internet connection every twelve hours (or later if the device does not have Wi-Fi Internet access at that time)," the company wrote in the July letter to Congress. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The outcry follows earlier revelations by The Wall Street Journal that many of the most popular smartphone apps go even further in transmitting personal information about phone users-by sending location and other data to third parties, sometimes without user consent. A Journal examination of 101 smartphone apps showed that 47 sent location information to other companies without users' awareness or consent, and 56 sent the phones' unique device ID. Companies receiving such data included Apple and Google Inc., as well as advertising networks. Researchers have found that Apple devices like the iPad and iPhone are logging user data like locations and time stamps. WSJ's Jen Valentino-DeVries reports on digits. In Apple's letter to Mr. Markey, the company said it began offering location services in 2008. The company wrote that its early cellphones used location databases maintained by Google Inc. and Skyhook Inc., but that in April 2010 Apple began relying on its own location databases. "These databases must be updated continuously to account for, among other things, the ever-changing physical landscape, more innovative uses of mobile technology, and the increasing number of Apple's customers," the company wrote. On Wednesday, Rep. Markey sent a follow-up letter to Apple asking why the company is storing customer location data on its phones and whether it is using the data for commercial purposes, which could violate the Communications Act. "Apple needs to safeguard the personal location information of its users to ensure that an iPhone doesn't become an iTrack," Rep. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703983704576277101723453610.html#ixzz1KBWKDlvm __________________________________________________________________________________ High-tech warfare Something wrong with our **** chips today Kill switches are changing the conduct and politics of war Apr 7th 2011 | from the print edition IN THE 1991 Gulf war Iraq's armed forces used American-made colour photocopiers to produce their battle plans. That was a mistake. The circuitry in some of them contained concealed transmitters that revealed their position to American electronic-warfare aircraft, making bomb and missile strikes more precise. The operation, described by David Lindahl, a specialist at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, a government think-tank, highlights a secret front in high-tech warfare: turning enemy assets into liabilities. The internet and the growing complexity of electronic circuitry have made it much easier to install what are known as "kill switches" and "back doors", which may disable, betray or blow up the devices in which they are installed. Chips can easily contain 2 billion transistors, leaving plenty of scope to design a few that operate secretly. Testing even a handful of them for anomalies requires weeks of work. Kill switches and other remote controls are on the minds of Western governments pondering whether to send weapons such as sophisticated anti-tank missiles, normally tightly policed, to rebels in Libya. Keeping tabs on when and where they are fired will allay fears that they could end up in terrorist hands. Such efforts would not even need to be kept secret. A former CIA official says the rebels could be told: "Look, we're going to give you this, but we want to be able to control it." That lesson was first learned in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when America supplied Stinger missiles to help Afghan fighters against Soviet helicopter gunships, only to have to comb the region's arms bazaars in later years to buy them back (some were then booby-trapped and sold again, to deter anyone tempted to use them). America worries about becoming the victim of kill switches itself. Six years ago a report by America's Defence Science Board, an official advisory body, said "unauthorised design inclusions" in foreign-made chips could help an outside power gain a measure of control over critical American hardware. Chips off the home block In response, America has launched schemes such as the Trusted Foundry Programme, which certifies "secure, domestic" facilities for the manufacture of the most critical microchips. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Pentagon outfit devoted to expanding the military's technological abilities, will spend at least $20m this year on ways to identify rogue microchips. The Army Research Office is holding a closed conference on kill switches in mid-April. Farinaz Koushanfar, a DARPA-funded expert at Texas's Rice University, says microchip designers would like to be able to switch off their products "in the wild", in case the contractors that make the chips produce some extra ones to sell on the sly. She designs "active hardware metering" chips that, in devices connected to the internet, can remotely identify them and if necessary switch them off. An obvious countermeasure is to keep critical defence equipment off the net. But that is only a partial solution. Chips can be designed to break down at a certain date. An innocent-looking component or even a bit of soldering can be a disguised antenna. When it receives the right radio signal, from, say, a mobile-phone network, aircraft or satellite, the device may blow up, shut down, or work differently. Old-fashioned spying can reveal technological weaknesses too. Mr Lindahl says Sweden obtained detailed information on circuitry in a heat-seeking missile that at least one potential adversary might, in wartime, shoot at one of its eight C-130 Hercules military-transport planes. A slight but precise change in the ejection tempo of the decoy flares would direct those missiles towards the flame, not the aircraft. Such tricks may be handy in dealing with unreliable allies as well as foes, but they can also hamper Western efforts to contain risk in unstable countries. Pakistan has blocked American efforts to safeguard its nuclear facilities. The country's former ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, cites fears that such measures will include secret remote controls to shut the nuclear programme down. A European defence official says even video surveillance cameras can intercept or disrupt communications. To avoid such threats, Pakistani engineers laboriously disassemble foreign components and replicate them. Wesley Clark, a retired general who once headed NATO's forces, says that "rampant" fears of kill switches make American-backed defence co-operation agreements a harder sell. David Kay, a notable United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, bemoans "scepticism and paranoia". You just can't trust anybody these days, even in the weapons business. from the print edition | International (JAI: US 4-9-11) http://www.economist.com/node/18527456?story_id=18527456 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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