Is Your Identity Up For Grabs?

 

In an age of data breaches and sophisticated identity thieves, protecting your digital information is more important than ever. A new state survey from AARP shows Washington consumers are falling further behind in the battle to protect their identities. According to AARP’s report, six-in-ten Washington adults (60%) failed a quiz testing their “Digital Identity IQ.”

Take the quiz to see if you know how to protect your digital identity.

Learn more about the AARP study here:  Up for Grabs: Taking Charge of Your Digital Identity: Survey of Washington Internet Users Age 18+

TSA's Secret Watchlist

The Transportation Security Administration has created a new secret watch list to monitor people who may be targeted as potential threats at airport checkpoints simply because they have swatted away security screeners’ hands or otherwise appeared unruly.

According to a confidential memo, any behavior that is "offensive and without legal justification" can land a traveler on the list, as can any "challenges to the safe and effective completion of screening." Anyone who has ever "loitered" near a checkpoint could also make the list. So could any woman who pushes a screener's hands away from her breasts.

Hugh Handeyside, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, stated the policy gives the agency wide latitude to "blacklist people arbitrarily and essentially punish them for asserting their rights".

According to the LA Times "The watchlist would seem less perilous if the TSA were not one of most incompetent agencies on Earth. After a series of undercover tests at multiple airports across the country, the Department of Homeland Security concluded last year that TSA officers and equipment had failed to detect mock threats roughly 80% of the time. (In Minneapolis, an undercover team succeeded in smuggling weapons and mock bombs past airport screeners 95% of the time.) An earlier DHS investigation found the TSA utterly unable to detect weapons, fake explosives and other contraband, regardless of how extensive its pat-downs were."

The TSA has a long history of intimidation. In 2002, it created a system of fines to penalize travelers with bad attitudes, charging up to $1,500 for any alleged "nonphysical interference." This included any "situation that in any way would interfere with the screener and his or her ability to continue to work or interfere with their ability to do their jobs."

Peerio: Privacy for Everyone

Peerio is a state of the art encryption tool for everyone - designed to be as simple as it is secure. With a one-minute signup, end-to-end encryption by default, and cloud backup, you can easily
share private messages and files and access them from anywhere.

Peerio: Privacy for Everyone (YouTube Video)

Nadim Kobeissi, the brain behind Cryptocat and miniLock, is back with yet another tool designed to make your day-to-day life more secure. Peerio - a cloud-based, end-to-end encrypted communications suite that lets you send messages and share files as easily as you use Gmail or Skype's IM tool.

E-mail Privacy Act 2018

 

The House of Representatives passed a bill this week called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes the nation’s military and defense programs. Earlier in the week, scores of Representatives offered amendments to this must-pass bill in hopes of ensuring that their ideas get a chance to become law.

Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS) used this opportunity to include as an amendment the Email Privacy Act, a piece of legislation long-favored by EFF. The Email Privacy Act would codify the rule announced by the Sixth Circuit—and now followed by providers nationwide—that requires government agents to first obtain a probable cause warrant when seeking the content of communications stored by companies like Google, Facebook, Slack, Dropbox, and Microsoft.  Read more from the EFF.

National Security Requests to Apple Spike

The number of data requests from the U.S. government to Apple Inc. more than doubled last year, according to a biannual transparency report released by the consumer tech giant Friday.

Apple received 16,249 national security requests across 8,249 accounts between July 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017, almost three times higher than the amount of requests received during the same period in 2016, when the company saw just 5,999 such requests.

Broadly speaking, a national security data request is usually made to compel access to private user information that’s stored by the company. These requests sometimes allow the government to learn more about suspected terrorists, criminals or other targets in order to pursue legal charges. (Cyberscoop, May 29, 2018)

California's New E-Ink License Plates (with built-in tracking)

We talked about digital drivers' licenses, and now there are digital license plates...

California is now testing a unique license plate option: a digital license plate that sports a Kindle-like E-ink display. Here’s the basic run down of the new (currently in pilot-testing) license plates. The plate can be changed automatically - but not to switch out your license number like you’re a spy racing across international borders - to update the displayed registration data and (theoretically if the State of California approves) display advertisements or other data when the car is stopped.

In addition to the flexibility of the display, the digital plates also sport a tracking device that will alert the police to the location of a stolen vehicle and allow for general vehicle tracking. (KGTV 10, April 20, 2018).
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With the current price of the e-Link plate ($699 + $7 monthly connection fee) few people are signing up for them. But, this may change as the cost comes down, and may in time become the standard license plate format.

The tracking ability built into these plates creates significant privacy issues.  As we have previously seen, license plate tracking of our current standard plate is a concern. Having automatic vehicle tracking built into the license plate of the future is a privacy nightmare.

And now Washington State is in the early stages, considering whether to adopt these digital plates. The plates will cost about $300 in WA, and come with the same concerns about government tracking and data privacy.

Your Complete Amazon Purchase History

Did you know that Amazon stores your complete purchase history from 2006 through today on its web-site? Well, it does, and as a service to its customers, Amazon makes that information available to you. Just log into your Amazon account here, set the date range for your orders and Amazon makes your purchase history available to you as a MS Excel spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet contains a list of the items you purchased, the amount that you paid, how you paid (i.e. what credit card you used), the address where the item was shipped, and more.

This is a great way to keep track of all of your Amazon purchases over the years, but there is a problem - you can't delete this information. Amazon will always have a complete, and very detailed history of the purchases you have made.

To avoid having a purchase from Amazon associated with you, you will need to use a separate Amazon account, fund it with a source different than that used for your primary account. (Use an Amazon Gift Card, or fund your new Amazon account through Privacy.Com). You should also have the items delivered somewhere other than your home address (think Amazon Locker here).

Now maybe you don't care that Amazon maintains a detailed list of all your purchases. Maybe you think it's a good service to let you review you entire purchase history - it is. But, what does that purchase history tell others about you?  Groups like the American Library Association have long opposed the government gaining access to your reading history at libraries. Is your Amazon reading (purchase) history really that much different?