Comments on: 600 Billion Data Points Per Day? It’s Time to Restore the Fourth Amendment http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/ Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:51:09 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: k2seo http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-62338 k2seo Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:38:17 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-62338 Its really gr8, very nice article... Its really gr8, very nice article…

]]> By: jojoalien http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-62148 jojoalien Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:47:20 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-62148 You should see how my comments showed up on my mac, It's a mess. My Mac is really no longer my Mac - it is now apparently running windows, and using my printer as another mounted volume. It took me a long time to figure that one out. You should see how my comments showed up on my mac, It's a mess. My Mac is really no longer my Mac – it is now apparently running windows, and using my printer as another mounted volume. It took me a long time to figure that one out.

]]> By: jojoalien http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-62147 jojoalien Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:44:28 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-62147 AT&T provides my, dsl (which is actually a wireless router), dish network, my home phone and my iPhone. I have had the unfortunate experience of being under constant survaliance, in ways you would not believe through these devices, they can turn your phone into a room listening device, obviously track your whereabout, control content on your tv, completley control your computer, and you own ability to set access and admin settings, add software, stop e mail...I could go on and on.. at first I found it facinating and engaged in a battle of tech wits, I'd figure out how they were doing it, and tell then how to do it better. They know I know they are watching me because the technology that they are using is a little over the heads of those who are using it. The killer was when I caught some US Gov security agency accessing my tv. They actually had to put a screen in (by interlacing it..long story) but I saw it accidentally as I paused and stepped back to see something I missed. I would never had noticed it otherwise. Since then it's just gotten crazier. I was foolish and said something over the phone that caught someone's attention, and now my life is so controlled it blows my mind! I believe we are on the verge of an "Orwellian Nightmare" as far as privacy is concerned. I did nothing wrong, so I guess I just have to wait it out, but it is creepy. AT&T provides my, dsl (which is actually a wireless router), dish network, my home phone and my iPhone. I have had the unfortunate experience of being under constant survaliance, in ways you would not believe through these devices, they can turn your phone into a room listening device, obviously track your whereabout, control content on your tv, completley control your computer, and you own ability to set access and admin settings, add software, stop e mail…I could go on and on.. at first I found it facinating and engaged in a battle of tech wits, I'd figure out how they were doing it, and tell then how to do it better. They know I know they are watching me because the technology that they are using is a little over the heads of those who are using it. The killer was when I caught some US Gov security agency accessing my tv. They actually had to put a screen in (by interlacing it..long story) but I saw it accidentally as I paused and stepped back to see something I missed. I would never had noticed it otherwise. Since then it's just gotten crazier. I was foolish and said something over the phone that caught someone's attention, and now my life is so controlled it blows my mind! I believe we are on the verge of an “Orwellian Nightmare” as far as privacy is concerned. I did nothing wrong, so I guess I just have to wait it out, but it is creepy.

]]> By: jojoalien http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-60827 jojoalien Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:47:20 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-60827 You should see how my comments showed up on my mac, It's a mess. My Mac is really no longer my Mac - it is now apparently running windows, and using my printer as another mounted volume. It took me a long time to figure that one out. You should see how my comments showed up on my mac, It's a mess. My Mac is really no longer my Mac – it is now apparently running windows, and using my printer as another mounted volume. It took me a long time to figure that one out.

]]> By: jojoalien http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-60826 jojoalien Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:44:28 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-60826 AT&T provides my, dsl (which is actually a wireless router), dish network, my home phone and my iPhone. I have had the unfortunate experience of being under constant survaliance, in ways you would not believe through these devices, they can turn your phone into a room listening device, obviously track your whereabout, control content on your tv, completley control your computer, and you own ability to set access and admin settings, add software, stop e mail...I could go on and on.. at first I found it facinating and engaged in a battle of tech wits, I'd figure out how they were doing it, and tell then how to do it better. They know I know they are watching me because the technology that they are using is a little over the heads of those who are using it. The killer was when I caught some US Gov security agency accessing my tv. They actually had to put a screen in (by interlacing it..long story) but I saw it accidentally as I paused and stepped back to see something I missed. I would never had noticed it otherwise. Since then it's just gotten crazier. I was foolish and said something over the phone that caught someone's attention, and now my life is so controlled it blows my mind! I believe we are on the verge of an "Orwellian Nightmare" as far as privacy is concerned. I did nothing wrong, so I guess I just have to wait it out, but it is creepy. AT&T provides my, dsl (which is actually a wireless router), dish network, my home phone and my iPhone. I have had the unfortunate experience of being under constant survaliance, in ways you would not believe through these devices, they can turn your phone into a room listening device, obviously track your whereabout, control content on your tv, completley control your computer, and you own ability to set access and admin settings, add software, stop e mail…I could go on and on.. at first I found it facinating and engaged in a battle of tech wits, I'd figure out how they were doing it, and tell then how to do it better. They know I know they are watching me because the technology that they are using is a little over the heads of those who are using it. The killer was when I caught some US Gov security agency accessing my tv. They actually had to put a screen in (by interlacing it..long story) but I saw it accidentally as I paused and stepped back to see something I missed. I would never had noticed it otherwise. Since then it's just gotten crazier. I was foolish and said something over the phone that caught someone's attention, and now my life is so controlled it blows my mind! I believe we are on the verge of an “Orwellian Nightmare” as far as privacy is concerned. I did nothing wrong, so I guess I just have to wait it out, but it is creepy.

]]> By: BayesianO http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-60790 BayesianO Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:39:54 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-60790 I've worked in the field of geolocation for the past 5 years, including building and deloying the world's first crowd -sourced geolocation data network used to derive real-time nationwide traffic condition information and predicting it ahead, including employing anonymized geo-location data from cell phones.<br><br>The typical positioning accuracies Jeff Jonas mentions in his article are commonly achieved in telco positioning systems, although environmental constraints can get in the way of accurate positioning. For example it is not uncommon to achieve a "<1 metre precision" GPS-based geolocation point, but in a location in which multipath and limited horizon effects can create an implied position 100's of metres from a users true location. However such environmental constraints are commonly static or slowly varying, and technologies now exist to allow such positioning errors to be calibrated out of geolocation systems by carriers.<br><br>Some references:<br><br>Paper on database-base calibration of cellular positioning<br><a href="http://www.ent.mrt.ac.lk/dialog/documents/IET_shashika.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.ent.mrt.ac.lk/dialog/documents/IET_s...</a><br><br>TruePosition U-TDOA (non-GPS based cellular positioning technology) delivers ~50m spatial resolution<br><a href="http://www.trueposition.com/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=10292&folderId=19002&name=DLFE-402.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.trueposition.com/c/document_library/...</a><br><br>Also, not that if you can determine in terms of "address" where someone is, even in the presence of imprecise geolocation information, then you can make the location assignment of an individual exact, even in the presence of inaccurate gelocation information.<br><br>Patent-pending on croud-sourced location calibration based on bayesian clustering of imprecise labelled location determinations:<br><a href="http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsearch-bool.html&r=2&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=downs.IN.&s2=oliver.IN.&OS=IN/downs+AND+IN/oliver&RS=IN/downs+AND+IN/oliver" rel="nofollow">http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1...</a><br><br>Sprint provides a positioning web service to their application providers using their A-GPS positioning network:<br><a href="http://www.nextel.com/assets/pdfs/en/solutions/mobile_locator_fact_sheet.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.nextel.com/assets/pdfs/en/solutions/...</a><br><a href="http://www.nextel.com/en/solutions/gps/mobile_locator.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.nextel.com/en/solutions/gps/mobile_l...</a> I've worked in the field of geolocation for the past 5 years, including building and deloying the world's first crowd -sourced geolocation data network used to derive real-time nationwide traffic condition information and predicting it ahead, including employing anonymized geo-location data from cell phones.

The typical positioning accuracies Jeff Jonas mentions in his article are commonly achieved in telco positioning systems, although environmental constraints can get in the way of accurate positioning. For example it is not uncommon to achieve a “<1 metre precision” GPS-based geolocation point, but in a location in which multipath and limited horizon effects can create an implied position 100's of metres from a users true location. However such environmental constraints are commonly static or slowly varying, and technologies now exist to allow such positioning errors to be calibrated out of geolocation systems by carriers.

Some references:

Paper on database-base calibration of cellular positioning
http://www.ent.mrt.ac.lk/dialog/documents/IET_s...

TruePosition U-TDOA (non-GPS based cellular positioning technology) delivers ~50m spatial resolution
http://www.trueposition.com/c/document_library/...

Also, not that if you can determine in terms of “address” where someone is, even in the presence of imprecise geolocation information, then you can make the location assignment of an individual exact, even in the presence of inaccurate gelocation information.

Patent-pending on croud-sourced location calibration based on bayesian clustering of imprecise labelled location determinations:
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1...

Sprint provides a positioning web service to their application providers using their A-GPS positioning network:
http://www.nextel.com/assets/pdfs/en/solutions/...
http://www.nextel.com/en/solutions/gps/mobile_l...

]]> By: not me http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-60707 not me Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:52:39 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-60707 Actually, Jeff Jonas is just making up some of those facts. The *capability* of a network to calculate geolocation for a given event is very different from whether that network actually does generate and retain a record of that information. And the telcos aren't generating that information, contrary to what Jonas implies.<br><br>Also, his figures -- 60m precision for trilateration, and 10-30m for GPS -- clearly come from some alternate universe. Anyone who doubts that needs to check the actual E-911 Phase II requirements (as set out in the federal regs: try 100m-300m for trilateration), and then do some casual Googling to see which carriers have been fined (or otherwise chastised) by the FCC for failing to meet even those standards. Actually, Jeff Jonas is just making up some of those facts. The *capability* of a network to calculate geolocation for a given event is very different from whether that network actually does generate and retain a record of that information. And the telcos aren't generating that information, contrary to what Jonas implies.

Also, his figures — 60m precision for trilateration, and 10-30m for GPS — clearly come from some alternate universe. Anyone who doubts that needs to check the actual E-911 Phase II requirements (as set out in the federal regs: try 100m-300m for trilateration), and then do some casual Googling to see which carriers have been fined (or otherwise chastised) by the FCC for failing to meet even those standards.

]]> By: Ryan Radia http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-60680 Ryan Radia Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:39:34 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-60680 Most GPS-based automobile navigation systems aren't bidirectional, as I understand them, unlike OnStar. So I think you'd be fine with most cars... Most GPS-based automobile navigation systems aren't bidirectional, as I understand them, unlike OnStar. So I think you'd be fine with most cars…

]]> By: andrew_feinberg http://techliberation.com/2009/08/17/600-billion-data-points-per-day-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-restore-the-fourth-amendment/comment-page-1/#comment-60678 andrew_feinberg Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:28:52 +0000 http://techliberation.com/?p=20445#comment-60678 What about the car you drive? I purposefully have avoided driving a car with OnStar built in. Why? I don't want a GPS and a built in microphone that can be remotely activated and/or monitored without my knowledge. I can take the battery out of my BlackBerry (but not if I had an iPhone -- food for thought) but I can't exactly rip apart my car's electrical system. <br><br>It's great that OnStar can call 911 for you and send an ambulance and rescue squad to cut you out if your airbag goes off following a catastrophic collision. But it's downright frightening that the sort of tracking and remote monitoring that OnStar touts as a feature is being marketed to Americans without so much as an eyebrow being raised as to the frightening aspects of a tracking device and microphone built into your car. <br><br>I'll probably drive "used" cars sans built in navigation as long as I can find them. Heck, eventually it'll make me a collector of "classics!" What about the car you drive? I purposefully have avoided driving a car with OnStar built in. Why? I don't want a GPS and a built in microphone that can be remotely activated and/or monitored without my knowledge. I can take the battery out of my BlackBerry (but not if I had an iPhone — food for thought) but I can't exactly rip apart my car's electrical system.

It's great that OnStar can call 911 for you and send an ambulance and rescue squad to cut you out if your airbag goes off following a catastrophic collision. But it's downright frightening that the sort of tracking and remote monitoring that OnStar touts as a feature is being marketed to Americans without so much as an eyebrow being raised as to the frightening aspects of a tracking device and microphone built into your car.

I'll probably drive “used” cars sans built in navigation as long as I can find them. Heck, eventually it'll make me a collector of “classics!”

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