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Tag: Privacy
FEDS WANT TO TRACK YOUR DNA LIKE A LICENSE PLATE
FEDS WANT TO TRACK YOUR DNA LIKE A LICENSE PLATE
Seek ‘biosignature’ spying ability to ‘identify, locate specific individuals’
By Steven Peacock
Feb 15 2104
The federal government doesn’t just want the ability to track down your car; it wants to be able to track down your body as well.
Just as details are emerging about a controversial, nationwide vehicle-surveillance database, WND has learned the federal government is planning an even more invasive spy program using “physiological signatures” to track down individuals.
The goal of this research is to detect – as well as analyze and categorize – unique traits the government can exploit to “identify, locate and track specific individuals or groups of people.”
According to the program’s statement of objectives, “The scope of human-centered [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR] research spans the complete range of human performance starting at the individual molecular, cellular, genomic level.”
Documents WND located through routine database research reveal the ability to follow people by detecting “certain characteristics of operational interest” is designed for U.S. military and intelligence-gathering superiority.
It remains unknown when such capabilities might transition to the realm of domestic counterterrorism or law enforcement operations; however, the feds – through the Air Force Research Lab, or AFRL – are recruiting private-sector assistance in order to make this “biosignature” spying a reality.
Existing ISR systems are “ideal for identifying and tracking entities such as aircraft and vehicles, but are less capable of identifying and tracking the human,” the lab says in a planning document known as a Broad Agency Announcement, or BAA.
The Human-Centered ISR Leveraged Science & Technology Program will seek to develop, with outside help, technologies that the government can use “to identify, locate and track humans of interest within the operational environment,” according to solicitation No. BAA-HPW-RHX-2014-0001.
Research specific to fusing and analyzing sensor data has undergone consistent growth, but such efforts have been “system-centric” and fail to “adequately address the human element.”
This new research scheme seeks to strengthen the ability of intelligence analysts by placing the human component at the forefront of their efforts.
AFRL’s research could have implications for a variety of domains, such as air, space and cyberspace, it says. The program’s outcome also will broadly apply to other U.S. Department of Defense organizations and the intelligence community.
A second component of the AFRL initiative is the Human Trust and Interaction Program, which will conduct research into human-to-human and human-to-machine interactions.
This program segment entails several sub-areas, including Trust and Suspicion, which will focus on “the recognition of suspicious activities in the cyberspace realm.”
This segment will examine open-source data such as social media. It also will continue to leverage “more traditional intelligence sources.”
AFRL says it anticipates awarding three or four initial contracts for the overall initiative, which has an estimated program value of about $50 million.
The goal of this and other AFLR programs typically start out as largely theoretical, similar to the approach taken by the more widely known Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which created ARPANET, the defense-system predecessor to the Internet.
The Department of Homeland Security, on the other hand, merely has to solicit bids from industry for a National License Plate Recognition, or NLPR, database system.
While DHS is soliciting this service specifically for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, functions, the breadth of this NLPR service encompasses the gathering of transportation-movement data from major metropolitan areas nationwide.
This database, which would be fed with information gleaned from multiple sources, would “track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system,” according to the program solicitation.
The vehicle tracking-data then would be “uploaded to share with law enforcement.”
The database will be compatible with smart phone technology, enabling law enforcement offices to download thousands of listings – as well as close-up photos – of vehicle license plates.
Once DHS secures this service, the contractor must retain and make available data from previous months, as well as update the system with “new and unique” data monthly.
DHS anticipates awarding a one-year contract with four one-year options by May 14. It did not disclose the estimated cost.
Just as details are emerging about a controversial, nationwide vehicle-surveillance database, WND has learned the federal government is planning an even more invasive spy program using “physiological signatures” to track down individuals.
The goal of this research is to detect – as well as analyze and categorize – unique traits the government can exploit to “identify, locate and track specific individuals or groups of people.”
According to the program’s statement of objectives, “The scope of human-centered [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR] research spans the complete range of human performance starting at the individual molecular, cellular, genomic level.”
Documents WND located through routine database research reveal the ability to follow people by detecting “certain characteristics of operational interest” is designed for U.S. military and intelligence-gathering superiority.
It remains unknown when such capabilities might transition to the realm of domestic counterterrorism or law enforcement operations; however, the feds – through the Air Force Research Lab, or AFRL – are recruiting private-sector assistance in order to make this “biosignature” spying a reality.
Existing ISR systems are “ideal for identifying and tracking entities such as aircraft and vehicles, but are less capable of identifying and tracking the human,” the lab says in a planning document known as a Broad Agency Announcement, or BAA.
The Human-Centered ISR Leveraged Science & Technology Program will seek to develop, with outside help, technologies that the government can use “to identify, locate and track humans of interest within the operational environment,” according to solicitation No. BAA-HPW-RHX-2014-0001.
Research specific to fusing and analyzing sensor data has undergone consistent growth, but such efforts have been “system-centric” and fail to “adequately address the human element.”
This new research scheme seeks to strengthen the ability of intelligence analysts by placing the human component at the forefront of their efforts.
AFRL’s research could have implications for a variety of domains, such as air, space and cyberspace, it says. The program’s outcome also will broadly apply to other U.S. Department of Defense organizations and the intelligence community.
A second component of the AFRL initiative is the Human Trust and Interaction Program, which will conduct research into human-to-human and human-to-machine interactions.
This program segment entails several sub-areas, including Trust and Suspicion, which will focus on “the recognition of suspicious activities in the cyberspace realm.”
This segment will examine open-source data such as social media. It also will continue to leverage “more traditional intelligence sources.”
AFRL says it anticipates awarding three or four initial contracts for the overall initiative, which has an estimated program value of about $50 million.
The goal of this and other AFLR programs typically start out as largely theoretical, similar to the approach taken by the more widely known Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which created ARPANET, the defense-system predecessor to the Internet.
The Department of Homeland Security, on the other hand, merely has to solicit bids from industry for a National License Plate Recognition, or NLPR, database system.
While DHS is soliciting this service specifically for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, functions, the breadth of this NLPR service encompasses the gathering of transportation-movement data from major metropolitan areas nationwide.
This database, which would be fed with information gleaned from multiple sources, would “track vehicle license plate numbers that pass through cameras or are voluntarily entered into the system,” according to the program solicitation.
The vehicle tracking-data then would be “uploaded to share with law enforcement.”
The database will be compatible with smart phone technology, enabling law enforcement offices to download thousands of listings – as well as close-up photos – of vehicle license plates.
Once DHS secures this service, the contractor must retain and make available data from previous months, as well as update the system with “new and unique” data monthly.
DHS anticipates awarding a one-year contract with four one-year options by May 14. It did not disclose the estimated cost.
OPT OUT of care.data programme automatically collecting patient health records
The Daily Telegraph article referenced by Tom Gray’s posting does indeed express concerns here in Europe about the impact that Snowden’s revelations might have on the collection of data from medical records. However, if you read the comments that have been attached to the article you will see that in England at least there is considerable concern *about* the NHS’s “care.data” programme for automatically collecting patient health records from their doctor’s surgery. These concerns I believe are pre-Snowden in origin, and centre on the fact that the data will be collected for each patient *unless* he/she opts out, and that much of the data will be at best “pseudonomised”.
One of the leaders of the campaign against care.data is Dr Neil Bhatia (in British English a “General Practitioner” or GP, i.e a family doctor) – his website is
at: http://www.care-data.info
Quoting Dr Bhatia: care.data is going to begin very soon, and it will affect every man, woman and child in England and their confidential medical records. All households in England will shortly receive a junk mail leaflet through their letterbox about this programme, entitled “Better information means better care” . This leaflet is not about sharing your medical information with doctors, nurses and other health professionals outside of your GP surgery. It’s not about the ways in which your GP shares information about you as part of providing essential medical care.
It’s not about ensuring that hospital specialists have the information that they need when you are referred to see them.
And it’s not about submitting information so that GP surgeries and hospitals are paid appropriately for the care that they provide. This leaflet is about care.data . Not that you’d know, since “care.data” is never mentioned in the leaflet. The HSCIC and NHS England are not asking for your permission to extract and upload your data – they’re forcibly taking your information. Your information is not going to “the NHS” – it’s going to a single organisation, the HSCIC.
They alone determine what happens to it next – not you.
There is no consent with care.data – the decision has been made for you, and your GP surgery, by the HSCIC.
All you have is the right to object and reverse the decision affecting your medical information.
You have to act if you wish to preserve your confidentiality. Unless you do, care.data will go ahead and involve your GP records by default. > > And you have to act fast, because once your data is uploaded you can never get it removed from the HSCIC databases.
This website aims to provide information to everyone about care.data so that you can make an informed decision about opting out or not.
If you do decide to opt-out, this site will tell you how to do so and the opt-out options that you have.
This website provides facts, not opinion. It’s for you to decide whether to opt-out or not. This site will tell you what will be happening to your medical information and what control you have over the data flows to and from the HSCIC databases. . . . .
care.data is not anonymous
• Sensitive and identifiable information is going be extracted from your GP records and uploaded to Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) databases
• Sensitive and identifiable information has already been extracted, and will continue to be extracted from your hospital records and uploaded to HSCIC databases
• You will not be asked for your explicit permission or consent before these extractions take place
• The two sets of your information will be combined into one database and subsequently released, in various formats, to organisations within and outside of the NHS, for the purposes of administration, healthcare planning and research
• The HSCIC charges for releasing information to organisations, especially identifiable information
It sells data
• The information is not going to be available to doctors and nurses, and so will not be used to provide direct medical care
• The HSCIC will keep your uploaded information indefinitely – it will never be deleted, but continuously added to
• You cannot prevent the HSCIC from releasing information uploaded about you in anonymised or potentially identifiable formats
• You cannot control when, to whom, for what purposes, and what specific information the HSCIC releases about you from your care.data record <snip>
I and my family have managed to opt out.
Brian Randell
‘Scary’ NSA will spy on you – every which way they can
“the NSA gets to do something like intercepting 7 billion people all day long with no problems, and the rest of us are not even allowed to experiment for improving the security of own our lives without being put in prison or under threat of serious indictment. This is what [Thomas] Jefferson talked about when he talked about tyranny”
– Jacob Appelbaum
http://rt.com/usa/appelbaum-30c3-nsa-snowden-986/