] JetBlue Airways confirmed on Thursday that in September
] 2002, it provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a
] defense contractor for proof-of-concept testing of a
] Pentagon project unrelated to airline security -- with
] help from the Transportation Security Administration.

1. Jet Blue is so fucked. They violated their privacy policy. There are passenger social security numbers in the pdf file linked from this story. The law suits should start flying any minute now.

2. The PDF is worth checking out. Its a nice example of the things you can learn from trolling a database like this.

3. These consultants seem to recommend that if you don't own your home or you change residency too frequently, you ought to be given additional scrutiny at the airport.

This is the future we are heading towards. We have total access to all your purchasing, credit, and other demographic information, and if we determine that you don't fit into a popular demographic group, or that you fit into a demographic group we often have trouble with, you can look forward to getting hassled endlessly.

Remember that you live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we employ omnipotent surveillance to keep us safe from danger.

Wired News: JetBlue Shared Passenger Data

This is the first time I've ever recommended a TV show. (Like an actual episode rather then a program in general.)

1. This is illegal as hell.
2. If the ads are included there is no good reason for ABC to have a problem with this.
3. This looks like an interesting program.
4. The ensuing discussion is exactly why I want to connect mythtv to memestreams.
5. If it is legal, and it is, for me to save television programming off the wire, and view it at any time, why should it not be legal, and it isn't, for someone else to download television programming, and provide it to me. This is assuming we aren't talking about cable, and we aren't cutting out the ads. Seems to me that people who make television like this, which is entirely ad supported, could simply increase their viewers, as well as revenue, by posting the archives online. There might even be some money to be made in selling access to complete archives. I think there is a short term strategic advantage for the company that does this first....

(U: Its about 20 minutes of video. No commercials (hrmph). Comstock does a good job of defending the act. She handles Koppel well. Its clear that the "enemy combatent" issue is more serious then the Patriot act. Its clear that the level of secrecy makes it difficult to know if the FBI is abusing the law. They clearly state that they can't discuss specifics, and then they offer specific examples about notification timeframes for "sneak and peek" warrants that are probably reasonable. I.E. The secrecy allows the FBI to only release information that is politically useful to them, and they clearly take advantage of that here. Can we say "I rest my case" yet? When Koppel comes back for his closing remarks, however, he lets them have it. Its totally worth watching to see him come back and tear into them.)

On Lisa Rein's Radar: Ted Koppel On The Dangers Of The Patriot Act

The statement put up by blackboard about Interz0ne

There is one key point they are missing.. Using the law to silence someone is a very dangerous game. You don't casually sue someone in a mannor that attacks their free speech rights and go on to frame yourself as a good American company looking after your customers.. It doesn't work that way. Once you pull out the legal guns, and use them to attack free speech in any form, our core American values kick in immediately and become focused 100% on taking your ass out. Its the point where you have proven yourself a danger.. Not just to some hacker con, not just to the security community, but to our country and its values as a whole. Really! It is that _big_ if an issue. There is no excuse or way to rationalize attacking free speech that you are going to be able to convince me, or most of this community, is just.

The hacking community (security, open source, etc) is under attack on all fronts right now by the abuse of IP law. As the situation continues to get worse, its safe to assume we will start to respond to attacks such as this much like wounded animals protecting their young.. Unrestrained and vicious. People are starting to lose faith in the legal system's ability to protect our rights from the big pockets who would rather have more control.. This is a bad situation getting worse.

Criminals can work outside the system.. Thats an option for them.. So the people they are truly afraid of will barely be effected. However, the rest of us do not have that option. Destroying the openness of the hacking community will destroy the ability for the hacking community to exist at all.. The basis of the hacking community is the open share of ideas and knowledge.. Thats whats being attacked.. The heart of our community. It will not be allowed to happen.

BlackBoard Inc.

Interz0ne talk censored due to DMCA notice (blogging from the sequestered talk (which is instead a discussion about what occured)).

(Rattle here blogging live from my talk.. There is a reason I have been going around all day chanting "Chilling Effects" in ominous tones..)

Interz0ne: Cease and Desist Letter - 20030411

] Asif Iqbal, a Rochester, New York, management consultant,
] must get FBI clearance every Monday and Thursday when he
] flies to and from Syracuse for business. Iqbal can't get
] off a government watch list because he shares the same
] name as a suspected terrorist.
]
] What's more, the suspected terrorist Iqbal has been in
] U.S. custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
] since January 2002 when he was captured in Afghanistan.

Transportation Security Administration = Totally Stupid Assholes?

If you haven't read about it yet, you should follow the link through to CAPS II... Think all this added anti-terror security is temporary? Think again. Of course, they are promising that the institutionalized revision will actually include a way to remove yourself from the list ( :-O, these people are absolutely BRILLIANT). How one gets on the list will, of course, remain secret. So, basically, if everyone flies, and they need to get rid of someone they don't like, its really easy, and its impossible for anyone to ever find out what occured. You can bet your ass a hell of a lot more then "due process" will be "vanishing" under this system (Mike Hawash anyone?). Look for it to eventually get applied to every single mode of transportation in the country. Look for the Supreme Court to "interpret" that this is "legal." I'm sure that one or two of the justices will agree to "take one for the team" and write a dissent, if that makes you feel any better.

Wired News: Due Process Vanishes in Thin Air

From Boing Boing (http://www.boingboing.net/):

Zed sez: "An Indian-born Canadian citizen was flying home from India to Toronto, and transferring at O'Hare. INS decided her passport was funny-looking, destroyed it, denied her access to the Canadian consul, and deported her to India via Kuwait with her papers in such disorder she might not have been able to get into India if Kuwaiti and Indian authorities hadn't been so co-operative."

Permanent link to Boing Boing post: (http://boingboing.net/2003_02_01_archive.html#90351481)

US INS destroys Canadian woman's passport, sends her to India

] "I have long maintained that we are headed to a future of
] completely transparency, where both personal privacy and
] institutional secrecy would vanish and we would be
] forced, as are people in small, gossip-y towns, to create
] societies tolerant enough to accept an certain amount of
] personally eccentric behavior and even private, though
] widely-known, scandals. Instead, we know seem headed into
] a future where The All-Seeing Eye can know everything
] about us and we can know - or say - nothing about It. I
] can't imagine leaving a less promising future to my
] descendents. Nor can I imagine why the American people
] are so willing to inflict such a future on their kids
] that driving a few blocks to vote against it was too much
] trouble."

There is alot I want to say about both these articles. I'll likely revisit this.

Highly recommended read.

Another Barlow Rant about TIA