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CISPA. Homeland Security Tracks These Keywords on Twitter and Facebook. Next time you write about an "infection," cooking "pork," sitting at the "airport" or "subway," or even mention "social media," know there's a chance the Department of Homeland Security will scan the tweet or Facebook comment. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) just released DHS internal documents about the surveillance of social media and the information collected daily. EPIC gained access to the documents with a lawsuit, pushing the Freedom of Information Act. The documents included hundreds of keywords that the government tracks. The Department of Homeland Security initiative started in February 2011. The department aimed to use social media to stay in-the-know about breaking news as it's happening.

"Social media outlets provide instant feedback and alert capabilities to rapidly changing or newly occurring situations," states U.S. SEE ALSO: Republican Senators: Keep Government Out of Cybersecurity Do you feel safer with U.S. Thumbnail courtesy of Flickr, Hello Turkey Toe. The US Government Is Data Mining You. This story first appeared on the TomDispatch website. I was out of the country only nine days, hardly a blink in time, but time enough, as it happened, for another small, airless room to be added to the American national security labyrinth.

On March 22nd, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Jr. signed off on new guidelines allowing the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a post-9/11 creation, to hold on to information about Americans in no way known to be connected to terrorism—about you and me, that is—for up to five years. (Its previous outer limit was 180 days.)

This, Clapper claimed, "will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively. " Joseph K., that icon of single-lettered anonymity from Franz Kafka's novel The Trial, would undoubtedly have felt right at home in Clapper's Washington. A System That Creates Its Own Reality Now, I don't want to overdo it. A Basilica of Chaos.

Social Media and Privacy Concerns

Privacy. Privacy/Security and Law. Here's The Best (And Prettiest) Way To See Exactly How You're Being Tracked Online. Track Who’s Tracking You With Mozilla Collusion. LONG BEACH, Calif. — Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs took the TED stage Tuesday morning to introduce Collusion, a Firefox browser add-on that lets you track who’s tracking you across the web for behavioral targeting purposes. Describing the medium as “an area of consumer protection that’s almost entirely naked,” Kovacs argued that the price we’re now being asked to pay for connectivenss is our privacy, and in turn, it’s “now time for us to watch the watchers.”

Collusion looks to offer more transparency to users by creating a visualization of how your data is being spread to different companies as you navigate the web. Each time it detects data being sent to a behavioral tracker, it creates a red (advertisers), grey (websites) or blue dot on the visualization and shows the links between the sites you visit and the trackers they work with. Image Credit: James Duncan Davidson, TED. White House pushes online privacy bill of rights - Feb. 23. A series of online privacy debacles has Washington stepping up its oversight. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a new online bill of rights intended to protect consumers' privacy when they surf the Web.

The policy lays out a set of guidelines for Internet companies about how they should treat consumers' data and manage their customer interactions. It stresses transparency, security, and user control of their data. (Click here to read the privacy bill of rights in its entirety). The bill is a splashy gesture, but it's also pretty toothless. The document is stuffed with vague rules such as: "Companies should offer consumers clear and simple choices, presented at times and in ways that enable consumers to make meaningful decisions. " The White House admitted that its framework is fairly lightweight. In the meantime, the White House cast its bill of rights as a "comprehensive blueprint" for future legislation. "We need this now," Bryson said. Gov Agency Pressuring Facebook To Collect More Info About Users Should Read White House's Privacy Report. Obama's Privacy Push Means Business As Usual For Web Firms. If the Obama administration wanted a simpler way to protect consumer privacy, it didn't need to issue a dense report or pressure Congress to pass laws increasing government oversight of the private sector - especially during an election year.

The White House simply needed to look in its own consumer protection playbook and take a page from its efforts to help credit card customers avoid crippling debt. Last year the Obama administration proposed rules for banks that require simple summaries of what their credit card agreements say; that followed similar rules requiring banks to show customers in monthly statements how long it would take to pay down their balance if they only paid the minimum amount due.

Instead, the Obama administration released the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights in a Networked World Thursday, which lays out ideas for protecting consumers. "Delivering 'free' online services costs money, and there's always some kind of trade-off. Companies Get A Seat At The Table. How Advanced Fraud Detection Services Work. As anyone who has ever had a valid credit card charge questioned knows, there is a lot of fraudulent use of cards, and the Internet has made it even easier for the bad guys to exploit them. According to comScore, last year ecommerce in the U.S. reached record levels of spending with more than $160 billion in transactions. With all this activity, it is like looking for the proverbial needle in a very large haystack to try to track down fraudulent transactions. But a look into a couple of new fraud detection and prevention technologies shows that perhaps the good guys are making some inroads in this war.

First is the news that MasterCard is working with Silver Tail Systems to map abnormal Web traffic flows on ecommerce sites. MasterCard has its own detection algorithms that handle things it observes across its payment processing network, but this shows that more effort is needed to understand the ways that fraud happens online too. Work-At-Home Scams To Avoid. Pat Colucci got an exhilarating phone call in the summer of 2009. The 75-year-old retired salesman of metal fillings, X-ray film and other dental equipment needed some extra cash, and a company called BankCard Empire in Phoenix, Ariz. offered a way: Colucci could run his own credit card processing business from the comfort of his modest home in Plainfield, NJ.

BankCard promised to provide Colucci with credit card swiping machines for sale or lease; the company would also register and build Colucci’s website to market the machines. From that point, Colucci would snare a small cut of each transaction processed. Once he sold a decent number of machines, he could kick back and watch the commissions pour in. All he needed to get started: a one-time fee of $32,450. Colucci (who says he doesn’t know how BankCard got his name and phone number) covered the bill with two credit cards---one from Chase Bank, the other from Bank of America. Smell a scam? E-Commerce Con Letter From Nigeria Dial-A-Crook. How Companies Learn Your Secrets. Security and communications.

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