Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0924snooping0924.html

Personal surveillance in U.S. everywhere

Dawn C. Chmielewski and Alana Semuels / LA Times | September 24 2006

The corporate spying scandal at Hewlett-Packard Co. has piqued the ire
of prosecutors and politicians, but not of Mark Pawlick.

The New Hampshire dad figures the outrageous allegations of HP prying
into private phone records, tailing board members and sending computer
spyware to reporters are more examples of how America has become a
society of snoops.

"There's probably more surveillance than anyone is aware of. It's just a
fact of life," said Pawlick, who himself has resorted to a little
spycraft, by installing a tracking device on the car of his teenage
stepdaughter. "These things don't surprise us anymore."

At a time when your bank tracks how and where you spend every dime, the
federal government might be listening to your phone calls and your boss
almost surely knows how many minutes you spend on eBay, the notion of
personal privacy is changing fast.

HP's scandal highlights how conflicted those notions can be, in the same
way people thumbing through the supermarket tabloids tsk-tsk at the
invasive tactics of paparazzi.

"The public has a double standard," said technology futurist Paul Saffo,
adding that it's difficult for people to get riled up when someone
else's privacy is under attack.

At the same time, though, "we take it for granted we're being watched,"
Saffo said. "We all know we're being watched, but we assume no one who's
watching us cares."


The lengths to which HP went may have crossed ethical and legal lines -
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is weighing criminal
indictments and the FBI is investigating - but spying has become part of
modern life. And it's not just the big guys playing James Bond.

Women and men will Google prospective dates. Neighbors check what the
house next door sold for on Zillow.com. People use online satellite
imagery to sneak a peek into the backyards of the rich and famous.
Hidden nanny cams record baby-sitters. More than 75 percent of employers
monitor what their workers do on the job - and more than a third record
every computer keystroke.

"You really have, in a good and bad sense, a democratization of
surveillance technology," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit technology advocacy group.

For $155, for instance, nervous new parents can buy a wireless camera
small enough to hide in a smoke detector to keep tabs on the nanny. It
even has night vision. For $60, DisneyMobile sells a kid's cellular
phone with satellite tracking technology developed for the military.

Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego knows one
man who is such a privacy "zealot" that he considers any piece of junk
mail a violation of personal space. But he would willingly do a
background check if he felt something was amiss about his daughter's
boyfriend. He even went dumpster diving to investigate the dealings of a
corporation in which he had invested.

"People are conflicted, but they are in all aspects of life," Givens
said. "They have one set of standards for themselves and another for
others, including large corporations."

Pawlick, for instance, used global positioning technology to monitor
where his stepdaughter drove, and how fast. The tracker e-mailed him
when she exceeded the speed limit or drove to parts of town he had
designated as off-limits.

"I was out there basically doing this to protect her from herself,"
Pawlick said.

The 2001 attacks and ensuing war on terrorists opened the door to
heightened surveillance by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
They increased taping of Americans' phone calls and voice mails and
clandestinely accessed bank and credit card transactions. Authorities
are even using supercomputers to crunch enormous amounts of personal
data to predict who might become a terrorist.

Companies are heavily involved in checking up, often starting with
background checks on prospective workers. And people make it easier than
ever, by posting personal information to social networking Web sites
such as MySpace or pictures to sites such as Flickr.

Honey I am not surprise at all of us being spy on, and for the
gorvernment for being listening to our phone calls and reading our
e-mails, this is nothing new is coming form way back when they got
President Nixon scandal when he was spaying in the other party and maybe
way before that....Remember the movie with will smith "enemy of the
state" well I have always believed that movies like are half fiction
and the other half true.....So for now on we should all start watching
more what we say and write down in our e-mails, just in case the
government is listening and they decide to acuse us of terrorists or
enemy of the states.

peace brother

Nah...I could care less what they do if they listen to me or not BECAUSE
this government has gone corrupt...you have a 4th amendment...your right
to privacy regardless and you cannot be spyed on without "a warrant from
a signed district judge"...they are now just coming out with it all
right now conditioning everyone that this is ok and needed...

They can spy all they want on me and others here....they are breaking
the law of this nation and to the bill of rights they swore to uphold
and to protect and to serve the public trust...I'm still going to live
my life regardless...and not in fear either...yeah spy on the american
people...frisk and pat the american people down at the airports....check
points on the highways looking for illegal drugs this government ships
and fly's in here to get our kids on their dirty drugs to get us all
into the prison and state system of control run by the real drug
dealers....

But those borders are SUREEEEE going to remain wide open heh heh...

nice statement chisma but bush is trying real hard to take care of that
little nuisance amendment. he has a bill before congress now and they
never did anything for the over 2000 illegal wiretaps that he's already
performed under the guise of the homeland security act. i wonder if a
stalker could use the homeland sedurity act as an excuse for spying on
someone,"i thought she was a terrorist i swear".

So when do they start inputting micro chips in our brain to monitor our
thoughts?

Gee, I would be arrested pronto for my impure thoughts that I have all
the time. I consider religion a sort of mind control like this. So I
already have a place in hell waiting for me.

Ghostrecon

he he he he good point honey they have already try to used the
microships so far only a family volunter for the project. but sooner or
later they well do it with your permision or not it takes a trip to the
doctor office , a simple shot wish they could make you believe is a flu
shot and their you have it.

Shit never mind my inpure thoughts I don't want to be monitor and for
them to know where in the planet I am.

Hi sexymichy220

Well, I guess That movie Fantastic Voyage was a sort of Docudrama then.
Sometimes I think I can feel those little guys floating around in my
veins. I guess one of them got stuck in my arteries, or was it that
cheese steak I had last night? Maybe that's why I think I have ADD cause
my mind keeps switching to different channels like a TV set. I guess
they are trying to switch to the discovery channel and all they are
getting is the adult one. LOL