(Image is in the Public Domain)

Even though cameras have been shown to be a great big boondoggle in the UK, Chicago apparently plans to repeat history.

Virtual Shield will capture, monitor, and "fully index" video from the Windy City's surveillance cameras. The software used to run the system will be able to recognize specific license plates, vehicle descriptions, and even patterns of behavior. If someone drops a briefcase on the El platform and it stays unattended for more than a minute, the system could alert the OEMC, which could then dispatch police officers to the scene.

Lovely.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Still trust the government to not abuse their surveillance power? Read this story about a federal agent who used the Department of Homeland Security's database to stalk his ex-girlfriend and her family. When we paraniod types tell you that massive government systems can be turned against us easily, remember that though we may be loud, obnoxious, and a little nuts at times, that doesn't mean we're wrong.

Says the only person to vote against the bill: "We are putting this industry out of business".

Well, yeah. You are. Kudos for all those who voted for it!

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

It would be nice if this worked: allowing customers to pick only the channels they want and not charge them for all the ones they don't.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

From the Consumerist:

Early Termination Fees: FCC regulations would require companies to prorate ETFs, with the penalty for escaping a 2-year contract cut in half at the end of the first year.

Service Maps: Cellphone companies would be required to provide detailed maps showing call quality down to the street level. The maps would be augmented by data on dropped calls and coverage gaps collected and publicized by the FCC.

Fee Disclosure: Overage charges would be displayed separately from taxes, and companies would be prohibited from levying any fees, apart from the basic service charge, not expressly authorized by federal, state, or local regulation.

Contract Disclosure: Depriving us of a source of many posts, companies would be prohibited from extending contracts without "point-of-sale notification," and customers would have 30 days to cancel any contract, new or extended. Any contract changes would need to be sent to consumers in writing, and could not take affect for 30 days.

Unlocked Phones: The bill would give the FCC a homework assignment: a single-spaced report to Congress on the harmful and anti-competitive practice of locking handsets.

Military Exemptions: Companies would be required to release military members awaiting deployment from their contracts.

Wow. I can't remember the last time I saw a consumer friendly bill that didn't have some horrible drawback attached. No custom fees? Prorated early termination fees? Street level service maps! So very cool… Let's hope for the best.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Reading the wikipedia page, you can find that the No-fly list was implemented on 9/11 2001 and ballooned from 16 names to over 40,000. There have been many false positives including children and some famous people (fortunately some of whom are congress members).

According to this story, all the millions of dollars, the time wasted, and the frustration cast doubt whether the program was worth it. The man described in this article is actually Gerry Adams, a spokesman for the Irish Republican Movement.

It's because of suspected past ties to the IRA that he has been flagged eternally for extra security checks and constant harrassment. Read the story for a well written example of such which includes this awesome quote:

I hand the FBI young gun a copy of my travel schedule – a document that has been in the possession of the US state department for the past month or so.

"Huh," he says. "Why are you going to the White House, sir?"

"To see the president."

"Huh. Why?"

"He asked me," I say evenly.

George W. Bush

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Part of the Patriot act allowed the feds to issue "National Security Letters" which could demand information without subpoena, without probable cause, and included a gag order requiring that the recipient could not share that they'd received such a letter with anyone.

Despite this being a gross over-stepping of power, Congress did pass AND RENEW the Patriot act. All that aside, a federal judge finally struck the provision as unconstitutional.

Although Marrero recognizes the importance of preserving national security, he asserts in his decision that "The Constitution was designed so that the dangers of any given moment would never suffice as justification for discarding fundamental individual liberties or circumscribing the judiciary's unique role under our governmental system in protecting those liberties and upholding the rule of law."

DHL

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In what has become the norm and not the exception, an expensive Department of Defense project has been shown to be a complete failure wasting millions of dollars and all of our time. What makes this story interesting is it was due in no small part to the efforts of the Government Accountability office that this project was scrapped. They discovered that the program was using live data on American citizens instead of dummy data and that none of the required privacy protections had been put in place. Go figure.

Most frightening is this line:

The privacy office concluded that although required privacy analyses were ignored, the Privacy Act was not technically violated because the live data were covered by privacy notices issued earlier for other programs that originally gathered the information.

Which demonstrates the danger of taking data for one reason, but using for a completely different reason altogether.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

We need "right regulation" against manipulative and dirty tactics for this very reason. In a market of little to no regulation, you get situations where there are so many seals and claims of "this product is great!" that a customer can't make any sense of it.

"All kinds of products are cropping up and it's hard to tell which ones are actually making solid claims and which ones are throwing 'natural' on the label or some similar term," Collins said. "The most frustrating thing is when you spend more money on something that you think is green or environmentally friendly and then when you get home you realize that it's pretty similar to all the other items. I still get duped."

(Image is in the Public Domain)

HR 811, which I've previously covered here, has been cut back some, but is still being recommended by the EFF. Above all, this bill requires a paper trail which has been lacking until now.