Cash for Clunkers Gov. Website gives government ownership of your computer (really)

Glen Beck Show | 7/31/09

[pabianice]

Beck just showed an eyefill. The Government's Cash for Clunkers Website requires user to click on "accept" for a disclaimer. What a disclaimer! If you click "ok" it says in fine print that your computer is now considered the property of the Federal Government, including all content on your computer, and gives access to both the US and foreign governments. I am not making this up. Beck's computer froze because of heavy website use.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I’m not seeing “submit transaction” at http://www.cars.gov/index.php/dealer/

??

[khnyny]

LOL. Couldn’t resist, could you? You just proved my point!

There was information provided for confirmation (including the video from the segment), but you weren’t paying enough attention.

[TheRentschmeister]

“sounds more like a prank, someone making a point”????? Really? Tell me, is this:

http://www.cars.gov/index.php/dealersupport

A “Prank Site”? When one clicks on “Submit Transaction” the interesting read on sacrificing your rights that pops up is something, but a “Prank”? I think not. Orwellian yes, Prank no.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I left work before the first link to the video was sent. I responded prematurely when I got home, and then watched the video. Mea Culpa!

But any one of the people who saw it on TV could have said “Beck logged into the dealer area on cars.gov ...” and answered the questions:

What website?

What application?

But they didn't.

So excuse me if my “let's get the facts before we go running around like a bunch of nutcases” methodology nauseates you, but that's who I am.

[TheRentschmeister]

“There is no application for the program.

There is no disclaimer on the site.

Beck went to a non-official site and it is a scam.”

You are incorrect. The Dealer Support Section of Cars.gov
does INDEED contain the “Submit Transaction” Link where clicking the “I Agree” link means that your computer is, for all intents and purposes, now property of the United States Government. Though it is for the “Dealerships”, as a CUSTOMER, when you buy via said program, YOUR information is located in THEIR systems. If you are the Dealership Owner, consider the ramifications of the warning. Scam indeed.

[TheRentschmeister]

http://www.cars.gov/index.php/dealersupport

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

True, you initially referred me to a post on RealClearPolitics that has the video, which stops well short of being fully informative or reproducible. Then in your next post you referred me to the “Glenn Beck Website” in somewhat less than polite phrasing. I responded in annoyance to that recommendation, as Beck’s website has nothing about this whatsoever. So: I’m sorry I got all up on my hind legs about that. Clearly you were referring me back to the RCP site, not to Beck’s site. And unfortunately the RCP site has very little worthwhile info aside from “cars.gov” and the offending legal disclaimer text.

[OrangeHoof]

I think the real purpose for all of this is that Obama has agreed to sell the clunkers to Cuba. Those 1958 Chevys on the island are probably unfixable by this time and Obama has probably struck a deal to give them our clunkers because, after all, Cuba is one of Obama’s biggest allies.

[khnyny]

That’s ok, I think Freepers are getting used to being called “a bunch of nutcases”. Have a good weekend.

[kenth]

http://www.cars.gov/index.php/dealersupport

Ah yeah, sorry about that. Evidently the dealers are sent a letter with the link to the dealersupport area. I of course cheated and got the link through a search.

Evidently the auto makers submit a list of dealers to the government, who in turn sends them the website address. They then have to register for the program, get their login info, etc.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

The fact that the disclaimer was in the dealer area of the website was sorely missing from the first 98 posts in this thread.

We were told:

“The Government’s Cash for Clunkers Website requires user to click on “accept” for a disclaimer. What a disclaimer! If you click “ok” it says in fine print that your computer is now considered the property of the Federal Government, including all content on your computer, and gives access to both the US and foreign governments.”

“If you sign on to Cars.gov, the Government says it owns YOUR HOME COMPUTER and everything in it.”

“Don’t EVER go on that site unless you want the Government to control it”

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Thanks.

Okay, when I click on the "submit transaction" button I get:

=====

This notice is provided pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 USC § 552a: This information is solicited under the authority of Public Law 111-32, 123 Stat. 1859. Furnishing the information is voluntary, but failure to provide all or part of the information may result in disapproval of your request for a credit on this purchase or lease transaction under the Cars Program. The principal purposes for collecting the information are to determine if purchase or lease transactions are eligible for credits under the CARS Program, to ensure proper disposal of trade-in vehicles, to prevent, identify and penalize fraud in connection with the Program, and to update an existing government database of Vehicle Identification Numbers. If you complete the optional survey, the survey information will be used to report to Congress on the Program. Other routine uses are published in the Federal Register at 65 F.R. 19476 (April 11, 2000), available at: www.dot.gov/privacy.

Ensuring transaction security is a crucial requirement of NHTSA-CARS clients. Using industry-standard security techniques ensures that your personal and financial information remains confidential. NHTSA-CARS uses security technologies that include your personal customer number and password, government standard encryption, and hardened perimeter protections such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems. The combination of your customer number and password enables you to be uniquely identified to NHTSA-CARS transaction processing. It is your responsibility to keep your password secure. Compromising your password by sharing it with others can have negative consequences for the integrity of your transactions. You will also need to use a secure browser. Certain browsers have the ability to communicate securely by encrypting the information as it passes across the Internet. This method of communication is called Secure Socket Layer (SSL). NHTSA requires the use of a properly configured browser as a condition for connecting to NHTSA-CARS using SSL. Therefore, SSL must be enabled on your browser to establish a connection with NHTSA-CARS. Additionally, be aware that your transaction passes through multiple security mechanisms, any one of which can halt the transaction if suspicious activity coming from your computer is detected. To avoid this from happening, please keep your anti-virus software on your computer current.

Your Internet Browser � How to Ensure That Your Session is Secure Once you've downloaded and installed your browser, here's how you can check for yourself that your Online Banking session is secure. As you browse through the resources available on the Internet, you'll notice that your browser's status bar changes with the Web page you have loaded. You should see a padlock graphic, either locked or unlocked, like this: Secure UnSecure Microsoft Internet Explorer N/A Mozilla Firefox

=====

...which is not the text everyone is shouting about. So, I swallowed hard and clicked the "I Agree" button to that, and was redirected to https://supplierpayments.esc.gov/OA_HTML/RF.jsp?function_id=28716&resp_id=-1&resp_appl_id=-1&security_group_id=0&lang_code=US&params=P0zQILIBWeGCk9LqBNM1oA, which indeed says:

This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the United States Government. It is for authorized use only. Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy.

Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign. By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring, recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the discretion CARS or the DoT personnel.

Unauthorized or improper use of this system may result in administrative disciplinary action and civil and criminal penalties.

Unauthorized attempts to defeat or circumvent security features, to use the system for other than intended purposes, to deny service to authorized users, to access, obtain, alter, damage, or destroy information, or otherwise to interfere with the system or its operation are prohibited. Evidence of such acts may be disclosed to law enforcement authorities and result in criminal prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-474) and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-294), (18 U.S.C. 1030), or other applicable criminal laws.

Okay. Now it's reproducible and documented. Good job, Freepers.

[JBCiejka]

Has anyone mentioned if the people who take the cash for clunkers will have to declare it as income and then pay taxes for it?

[mysterio]

The house you live in and land it’s on already belong to the government.

[Kackikat]

I have tried to help you, as I saw the segment on Glenn Beck, and I am not the one who needed to calm down. The segment hadn’t been off 5 minutes, before the whole thread was Posted (but it isn’t my POST)...so time is probably the reason not enough is online about it.

Maybe someone recorded it from their TV, and will put it on UTube tonight or tomorrow.??? It would help to clarify what we all saw, as you know, things are not always as they seem.
I was only passing on what I saw, as he operated the laptop on the tv show. It seemed very legit, we will see by tomorrow. Glenn Beck email address: me@glennbeck.com

[clintonh8r]

Excellent point. I haven’t heard whether or not it’s taxable.

[loungitude]

Unauthorized or improper use of this system may result in administrative disciplinary action and civil and criminal penalties.
:::::::::::::::::::::;
I hope you were authorized to click ‘submit transaction’!

[khnyny]

It hasn't been discussed (to my knowledge) here on FR, but it's looking likely. Also, there could be "double taxation" as the dealers and the buyers may both have to pay taxes on this money. Doesn't seem very legal to me if it shakes out this way, but hey, it's the government and they can make the rules.

Seriously, what people should REALLY be up in arms about is how the government fudged their statistics today and Obama trotted his little self out in front of the cameras (yet one more time) and lied about the economy "improving".

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"“sounds more like a prank, someone making a point”?????"

That was referring to the URL Jerry Pournelle had mentioned, back in post 6. Red herring, nothing to do with the Beck topic. And yes, that site is a scam.

The whole URL-and-click chain necessary to display the astonishing legal wording on the actual government site, and the intermediate results, are posted in #132.

[musicbymuzak]

If you don’t want it, I do. I love those old machines that seemed so blazingly fast when I was a kid, like frmo around 1999-2003 :)