Big Brother is watching YOU!

Have you ever been put under surveillance?  Have you gone out to the bus stop and seen a white beat up old car sitting there with the engine on, and then sheepishly a head pops up from behind the steering wheel and looks at you? Have you had unmarked police patrol cars wait for you to drive to church and then pull in behind you as you go past?

Even if non of these things have happened to you you need to know how authorities can use your own devices, your cell phone and your computer to spy on you.  Spying is now easier than ever.  A couple of years ago a man found some police tracking gear in his car which he put up on trade me for sale.  Also a few years ago a policeman got shot and killed with a high powered air rifle while installing spying/tracking equipment in a vehicle.

However the need for the police to pay for spy equipment, and pay for someone to take the risk of installing it, and to take the risk their equipment might be discovered (or even sold) is now totally unnecessary, provided you keep your cell phone on you. Instead you pay for the phone.  You make sure you take it with you. You keep it charged and operational.

A cellphone always gives its position. This is essential to the operation of the device.  The cellphone network needs to know where the phone is so that it can route calls and messages to the phone.  Some modern phones have GPS built in so they can provide a position to about 0.1 meters.  So if you are somewhere you should not be, you might need to be able to explain how your phone got there!  Other phones which do not have GPS built into them cannot give a position this accurate, however, an approximate position can be triangulated from the signal strength at three towers.

The other thing that the cellphone can do is transmit the sounds picked up by its microphone:  your phone could become a 24/7 bugging device.  Do not be fooled that switching it off gets rid of the bugging.  The power is connected and a well designed bugging program will make your phone act like it is off while continuing to bug you. 

So if you have your phone on you, you know that the authorities, (or jealous husbands/wives/business rivals) could know where you are and what you are saying.  If you want some privacy then you have two options: forget your phone, or take out the battery.

In recent years it has become known that the windows operating system is bugged http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/5/5263/1.html. I found it interesting that the site for replacing the NSA keys built into windows http://www.cryptonym.com/hottopics/msft-nsa/ReplaceNsaKey.zip can no longer be accessed.  The good thing is that there are perfectly good operating systems (may I recommend ubuntu) that are not compromised by the NSA. 

The final thing to be aware of is ECHELON. This is a signals intelligence network operated by UK, Austraila, New Zealand, Canada and USA. This is system of computers continually monitors telephone, computer and radio transmissions using a dictionary to find communications of interest.


I am not suggesting that we abandon technology like cell phones or Microsoft operating systems.  Rather be aware of big brother and know that the authorities can find you and listen you anywhere you take your cell phone.  Be aware that if your have some sensitive research on your windows computer, it is not private.

After the Police have watched you for a while, and found nothing of interest, they will get bored and give up, but we the users of technology must never forget, big brother may be watching.


Tony