Is there anything the IPad won't do?
Posted on 09/06/2010 6:32:19 AM PDT by ShadowAce
How amazing would it be if you could walk into McTaco King and order that mid-morning bacon taco meal with Mountain Dew Big Gulp from your mobile device? Just imagine… as you approach the restaurant, a menu pops up on your screen, the phone makes suggestions and helps you super-size your order, before you even set foot in the restaurant!
Is there anything the IPad won't do?
This advertiser’s wet dream is about to become reality, thanks to WPS (Wi-Fi Positioning System) infrastructure pioneered by CIA front company Skyhook (formerly Quarterscope) and currently being implemented by several other intelligence-connected companies, including Google, Apple, and Navizon (which is supplying data to Microsoft).
WPS geolocates wireless network devices using a database of known wireless access points, such as in coffee shops. Since at least 2004, WPS companies like Skyhook and Google have been war-driving for access point data. More about the technical aspects of this later.
How did you conclude that Skyhook is an intelligence front company?
Follow the money.
In 2008 former CIA director George Tenet became Managing Director of Allen & Company, an investment bank that provided funding for Skyhook’s WPS development and Google’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) in 2004, while he was still director of the CIA.
Skyhook was also funded by shadowy investment firm Alliance Capital. Frank Savage, Alliance Capital’s former board chairman, also served on the board of Lockheed Martin and Enron. Alliance was Enron’s largest shareholder.
Regardless of where the seed money came from, you can now buy this WPS data commercially. Intelligence agencies are putting a lot of effort into developing new tracking and identification technologies. Once they turn these technologies loose on society, the corporations exploit them, resulting in even more personal data being exchanged on private networks, which intelligence agencies can snoop on at will with their NSA Internet vacuum cleaners.
What exactly is WPS and how does it work?
Nearly every modern network connected device (phone, computer network card, cable modem, wireless router, bluetooth headset, etc), has a unique number called a MAC address (Media Access Control, not Apple) built in.
Please note that even if a mobile device doesn’t obtain an IP address when connecting to wi-fi, merely conducting a normal SSID (Session ID) scan can result in exchanging MAC addresses with access points. Wireless devices scan for access points automatically, if you leave the default settings, resulting in the mobile obtaining the MAC addres of the access point and potentially revealing its own MAC, depending on the type of scan.
MAC addresses are embedded in beacon frames, which are part of the hardware link between wireless devices. Under exactly what circumstances would MAC address be transmitted by the mobile during a SSID scan, rather than scanning passively? I don’t know, but we’ll put that idea on the back burner for now.
Here is the relevant thing you need to know about them: they are unique and can identify any network connected device, wired or wireless, bluetooth, 802.11, etc. The good news is you can change a device’s MAC address.† The bad news is, that doesn’t really matter because that new number can be immediately correlated with your voice print and other biometric signatures in realtime by the mobile device (see Iphone trojan link below)
WPS is not generally used alone for geolocation. Hybrid systems including GPS and cell triangulation are more commonly used to geolocate. the advantage of adding WPS is that you can be located anywhere there’s a known wi-fi, such as inside buildings. and you can be triangulated more accurately than cell + GPS using a large number of access points. How often have you been in an urban setting and seen 10 or 20 or more access points in the list? If the exact location of those access points are known, they can all be used together to triangulate the mobile more precisely.
So my phone trades MAC addresses with a restaurant’s Wi-Fi. They show me the daily specials. Aren’t there potential benefits to something like this?
Yes, there are many potential benefits to advertisers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies who want to track masses of people. WPS is going to dovetail beautifully with the NSA’s Main Core and Apple’s new biometric Iphone trojan.
The only potential benefit to you is that you will not have to speak to the person behind the counter and your latté will be ready faster.
Intelligence agencies and DARPA are creating an AI surveillance cloud right before our eyes. Don’t think that because you don’t have an Iphone means the 3 people sitting around you haven’t had their trojans activated to identify your voice print and snoop on your conversation.
We already know how this ends. You better not be reading qbit.cc either or you’re going on their s*** list!
† But why is it that on Apple OSX 10.4 you can’t change the MAC address of your wireless card even as root? It simply fails with no error and keeps the original MAC address. I will find the answer to this question.
This behavior is nothing new for these agencies — they’ve been doing it all along, only gaining access through the internet providers. Now the ISP’s are pretty much cut out of the picture, along with, all the legal entanglements associated with gaining access through them, as well as, less need for gag orders on the companies.
OK, fair enough, all new kinds of info gathering will have good as well as bad possible uses, just as we always should be aware that bad things are possible when ever good things happen.
The bottom line here is that planning for success is better than planning for failure.
What are burners?
The concept of "privacy" seems to elude most people these days doesn't it?
This is one of those "damned if you - damned if you don't" situations. People want the technology but along with that comes the type of tracking referred to in this article. Not sure how you would get around it if you wanted the tech.
Demanding that all producers give you complete privacy, no tracking and unlimited access just ain't gonna happen.
The best thing to do is to educate yourself about what you are doing on the 'net and do the best you can. Limit what you do to the things you absolutely need and forget the rest.
The thing that bothers me is the my son's third grade teacher puts all her stuff on the web. Expecting third graders to rely on the web is too much.
This sort of stuff makes me want to throw my cell phone against a wall and revert back to 1980’s technology. But then how would a freep?
Thanks for the ping.
bingo!
It's not a threat to your freedom ... now. These systems are meant to target terrorists types. And that's not you... now. But project yourself into an America that's gone totalitarian. Trains are running to camps... You might be the target.
The systems that protect us in our day, can be switched and used against us... and that's the fear.
So we better give up our telephones, too? How about our cars? Our TVs? All travel is out, I guess?
Google maps is also gathering wi-fi addresses as it drives around taking pictures.
It could well be that in a few decades, it will be impossible to be anonymous while out in public. It will probably also be possible to infer where and what a person is going to be doing at any one time. If they deviate (ala THX 1138) it will be taken as de-facto proof of probable cause for detention.
Caller ID can be spoofed. Think of the number showing up on your handset as something from Wikipedia - it could well be true.
Years ago some calls were made to and from my home to people who lived in the ME (Iran, UAE etc) (long story) - and 5 different friends ( who didn't know each other) told me separately that my phone calls would be recorded for a minimum of 4 years... ( Not that anyone would actually listen to them - just that they would be recorded... ) It didn't effect any phone conversations in our home.
Information is a good thing. Enjoy the fact you know the score ... no need to change anything. Today, the listeners are trying to protect us - and that's a good thing.
Once you're a convicted, or even merely accused, offender they're going to track you very closely.
And if you're in one of the "special" categories (sex offender, domestic violence, DUI, FReeper, etc) they'll make your location available online along with your photo, license plate and other identification. You can run but you can't hide -- you can freely be "off"ed.
It's a slang term for disposable prepaid cell phones that drug traffickers like to use to avoid tracing their calls. You use them once and then toss (burn) them. (Everything I learned about drug trafficking I learned from watching the HBO series "The Wire".)
Try reading the sentence again, not that it's well worded.
Allen and Co. was part of the financing for Google's IPO in 2004. Not that it's like Google succeeded only because Allen subsidized it. In 2004 Google had its pick of companies to work with.
Then in 2008 the retired Tenet went to work for Allen.
What's missing, of course, is anything resembling evidence that Tenet or the CIA had anything whatsoever to do with the Google IPO in 2004. Or that Google needed any such assistance.
Actually, I wish I could believe the CIA was as omniscient and omnipotent as these types of articles portray. In fact, the evidence is they're largely the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
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