Silicon Spies
by SIAN CAMERON
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This week we received confirmation that Big Brother is around the corner. A 'spy centre' at which police and intelligence officers can eavesdrop on e-mails and internet messages has won �25 million of Government funding.
They will be able to decode encrypted messages and monitor mobile phone networks, and though ministers insist the project is vital to combat increasingly sophisticated computer criminals, there is concern the security services could use the new centre to monitor perfectly innocent people.
Already, the mere fact that you use the internet means your lifestyle is on record in your computer. In fact, soon it will knew more about you than your closest friends and relations.
From what you eat, to what you wear, where you work and your hobbies, a complete profile can be built up from the internet sites you visit. Privacy International estimates that each adult in the developed world is on roughly 200 computer databases.
DIRECTOR general of Privacy International Simon Davies says: 'When civil-rights advocates discuss the destruction of privacy they usually frame their concerns around the growth of surveillance. And now, surveillance depends on information technology.'
There are already CCTV cameras on thousands of street corners, DNA profiling and satellite surveillance. And police can pinpoint someone's location by tracking their use of a mobile phone or cash machine.
But the biggest potential for building up detailed pictures of an individual's habits and preferences is on the internet. As browsers wander around the web, electronic 'footprints' are left, making it easy for personal data to be obtained.
In particular, millions of sites use electronic tracking devices called 'cookies', small files which attach themselves to the hard disk of your computer when you visit a website and then relay information to the company which has planted the cookie.
Cookies can be useful for online shopping. Companies use them to remember your name and password, so you don't have to log on when you return to a site.
But civil rights campaigners object to how cookies are used by advertising companies which scatter cookies all over the web - so people pick them up unwittingly.
Companies can keep track of what each individual internet surfer is doing on the web and build up a profile of his or her interests.
When an individual clicks on certain websites, they are targeted with adverts their cookie profile suggests might interest them.
One of the biggest online advertisers, DoubleClick, sparked outrage recently over its plans to make all the information it had picked up using cookies available to a direct marketing company. The two companies would have held a database of phenomenally detailed information on millions of people.
DoubleClick has since withdrawn these proposals, but the ease with which such information can be gathered, without the subject Knowing, shocked many.
The situation is set to intensify. Last month television viewers were treated to the first-ever 'interactive' commercial.
By pressing a button on their remote control while the advert was on, viewers went to a separate 'pop-up' box, which offered them the product from an electronic shopping man.
Industry analysts believe the technology - which is being showcased on Open, the interactive TV channel - will quickly be adapted for TV programmes themselves.
Soon people will be able to buy goods they see on soap operas, or holidays featured in travel programmes. The technology will also allow companies to track the buying habits of individual viewers and tailor adverts and programmes to their 'psychographic' profiles.
And eventually, even news programmes could be individually packaged to contain items of interest to the viewer. Fletcher Research estimates that 13 minion homes - half of all Britain's households - will have interactive TV by 2004.
Worryingly there is no legislation to prevent tie gathering of information or what is done with it.
Computer expert Jim Gilligan, of the University of the West of England, says: 'People forget that the net is inherently insecure.
'If you are putting things on the net, you are sending them everywhere, not just from A to B. If you want to get hold of something on someone else's machine, you just have to know what to look for. Other machines look at what is on yours ten, 20 or even 30 times a day.'
There are basic steps computer users can take to increase personal privacy, including destroying PC files containing bank details or personal data, changing passwords and using passwords made up of random letters and numbers.
Passwords can be put on to confidential files. Cookies can be deleted or disabled, and software eased 'firewalls' is available for free. These stop information being sent to other computers without the user's permission. Special 'encryption' technology can now also be used to scramble e-mails or files.
So, if precautions are taken, we can stir manage computers, rather than them managing us.
COOKIE CENTRAL
www.cookiecentral.com
A VERY useful comprehensive guide to cookies and how to disable them.
ANONYMIZER
www.anonymizer.com
A DEMONSTRATION of just how much the Internet knows about you and a way of browsing anonymously.
PRIVACY INTERNATIONAL
www.privacy.org
AN ORGANISATION dedicated to discussion of privacy Issues around the world.
ENCRYPTION
www.pgpi.org
A FREE encryption programme that will scramble e-mails.
ZONE LABS
www.zonelabs.com
SELLS a security firewall called ZoneAlarm, which prevents Information being sent to another computer without the users permission.
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
www.discovery.com
A SECTION on cyber-surveillance and how the web might be looking over your shoulder.
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Daily Mail (UK), Tuesday, May 2, 2000
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
Communist Tyrant Josef Stalin
(Listen anytime to Votefraud vs Honest Elections "crash course" radio show over the internet at www.sightings.com in the archives, April 3rd, 2000 show, Jeff Rense host, Jim Condit Jr. guest)
