The Secret Police may be watching you so
don't think, act or believe like a free person |
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Sept. 30, 2006
Secret police activity is a pathognemonic sign of tyranny. If you
can have no privacy, no inviolable personal space, free from
intrusions by the representatives of power, then you are a prisoner
of those powers.
The Gilbert and Sullivan type comedy at Hewlett-Packard has opened,
just a little bit, the lid on the stinking garbage of a society
controlled by snoops of every kind united only by their paychecks.
The fact is, as eloquently surveyed by New Scientist in their
recent cover story, "The boss is watching your every
click..., we have no reasonable
expectation of privacy, much less of being assured of "The right of
the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated," as our so-called Constitution claims to guarantee. What
we have become is a corporate dominated tyranny where corporations,
in complete cooperation with the police powers of the state, have
reserved the right to use any foul means they wish to accomplish any
goal, to destroy or ruin any person, that the whims of the managers
dictate.
I would also recommend Democracy Now's segment on this story from the
9/28 show, which is available at their web site. This is one
of the few places I have heard any frank discussion that includes
reference to the pervasiveness of spying in our country, of how
totally out of control professional spying by private and police
agencies has become.
Oddly, unless my prayers are answered and the whole technological
cancer that we call "modern society" is turned to useless slag by a
massive electromagnetic pulse, the only defense against this
tyrannical situation is complete transparency. When enough people
start posting their blog posts as actual signed posters on the
company gate there will be no incentive for retaliation against
bloggers because to do so would cripple the company.
When enough of
the population is willing to put signs on the lawn, stickers on the
bumper and pins on the lapel calling for a general investigation and
impeachment of all public officials involved in treasonous activities
such as lying to take us to war, being in bed with war profiteers and
covering up crimes by the corporate elite, we can begin to feel that
we are on the way to being a free country.
The problem rests in the reasonable fear of many that speaking
candidly will result, in one way or another, in retaliation. The
only way to deal with that fear is through solidarity, so an injury to one is an injury to all. The commitment of the
community to stand my and support, both morally and financially,
those who have been singled out for attack.
One way to accomplish this would be for local governments to set
aside funds that can be dispersed to individuals who have suffered
due to attempting to exercise their free speech rights. It would be
a bald-faced defense of the Constitution. Such local (they would
have to be local because that is the only field of action left in our
corpratocracy) initiatives could provide material support as well as
help in finding employment for victims of conscience in their
communities. We might see people wearing buttons like, "Proud to be
called an enemy of the state and a patriotic defender of the
Constitution."
Fear isn't the only thing we have to fear, but overcoming fear is the
first step to dealing with the rest.
© by the author.
| | We're usually unable to forward readers'
emails, but both readers and authors are
invited to visit our 'dialogue' page
for two-way communication: |
| |
This is an archived Unknown News page. For newest material, visit our main page.
The boss is watching your every click...
by Annalee Newitz, New Scientist
Sept. 30, 2006
It is one of the biggest corporate scandals of the year: Hewlett-Packard chairman Patricia Dunn allegedly enlisted private investigators to spy on members of the HP board and several journalists to figure out who was leaking boardroom secrets. The investigators are said to have tricked reps at phone company AT&T into handing over the call records of their targets. Dunn has now resigned and California's Attorney General is considering bringing criminal charges.
While HP's top brass has been grabbing headlines, hundreds of corporations are routinely spying on their employees without attracting media attention. Sometimes companies keep tabs on employees by hiding cameras in lavatories, or tracking company cars using hidden GPS devices. Most often, however, corporate surveillance consists of logging everything employees do on their computers, from instant messaging, to emailing to browsing the web. Such wholesale monitoring is commonplace at firm such as household products maker Procter & Gamble, Bank of America, net giants Yahoo and Google, and healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente. And people are seldom told they are being watched.
|
|
Surveillance culture on the march
The US may be the Wild West of workplace monitoring, but the UK and Australia aren't far behind. Carsten Sorensen, an expert on high-tech workplaces at the London School of Economics, warned recently that employee surveillance is on the rise. Bosses are using CCTV, network monitoring, GPS bracelets and even hidden microphones.
The UK's Data Protection Act could afford some protections to workers, as it limits the disclosure of stored data such as records of websites employees are visiting. However, UK watchdog group Privacy International says that so far "the act has been ineffective". Bloggers are at risk, too: last year, Joe Gordon was sacked from bookshop Waterstone's after 11 years there, for things he posted on his satirical blog.
In Australia, legislation in New South Wales requires employers to tell employees if they are under any kind of surveillance. However, the law does not regulate the level or type of spying, it just says that employees must be told about it. Electronic surveillance of Australian workers is on the rise, according to Canberra-based internet research firm Caslon Analytics, but there are as yet no national laws that limit monitoring of employees' use of email and the internet.
|
|
Meanwhile, an increasingly mobile workforce is blurring the line between work and private time: log into work computers from home and employers can track what blogs you create, sign into or post to, or what you write on newsgroups, even outside work hours. Suddenly, online private lives are becoming company business.
Kaiser spokesman Matthew Schiffgens thinks workplace internet monitoring by IT departments is fair enough. "If something you're doing [on your work PC] isn't related to work, you shouldn't do it," he says. Yahoo's employee handbook echoes this: "Management, or a designee, may review or monitor email messages and traffic, review records of telephone usage, and inspect the contents of file cabinets, disk drives, desks, offices, etc (even if locked)."
According to Jeremy Gruber, legal director of the National Workrights Institute based in Princeton, New Jersey, US companies can legally watch everything employees do -- and only two states require employers to tell workers they are under surveillance. Yet there are laws that prevent employers from listening to employees' personal phone calls made at work. So why no such protection for employees who might send a personal email or check an online auction's status during their lunch break?
"Legislatures are slow to address changes in technologies," Gruber says. "There's simply been no federal response to the problem of computer monitoring."
In this regulatory vacuum, a sizable industry has sprung up to offer software that monitors employees. One leader in the field, Wavecrest Computing of Melbourne, Florida, sells a product called Cyfin that tracks everything employees do online. Clients include oil giant ExxonMobil, UK telecoms firm BT and the US Department of Justice. Wavecrest spokesman Dennis McCabe says Procter & Gamble is also one of its largest customers. "They watch all 100,000 of their employees around the world with our products," McCabe says. Wavecrest's product could also help P&G managers prepare regular reports on what kinds of websites employees are visiting, and can also provide detailed analyses of unproductive workers.
Sandstorm Enterprises of Malden, Massachusetts, markets a sophisticated monitor called Net Intercept that watches all network traffic, not just web usage. However, Sandstorm chief James Van Bokkelen says it's impossible for IT managers to watch everything; instead, they focus on gathering evidence on the few individuals who are already a problem, sometimes resulting in firings. "Employers have their lists of suspects," he says.
Companies use more devious means than just software, though, as Clifton Swigert, a former employee of West Virginia power company Allegheny Electric, knows to his cost. He was fired after anonymously posting some views about the company in a Yahoo discussion forum. "It was the most horrific thing I ever experienced," recalls Swigert. "I had perfect attendance for 13 years at the plant."
Swigert had vented his frustration about the company's retirement program, and admits he "used some poor language" to complain about a diversity workshop. What he said may have offended some, but he wrote it anonymously, used his own computer and wrote long after work hours. The board where he posted was specifically for discussions of Allegheny Electric, and many of the hundreds of comments left by other people were also derogatory and critical.
Nevertheless, Allegheny decided to track down the anonymous poster and sue them. The lawsuit meant Allegheny could subpoena Yahoo and obtain Swigert's real name, but once they had it they dropped the lawsuit and fired him. In a counter-suit filed last year, Swigert's attorneys claimed this action was an abuse of legal process, but there has been no ruling yet.
At issue here is a special kind of US subpoena for "subscriber information" that opens the door for cases like Swigert's. It requires online service providers to supply lawyers with a subscriber's real name and address. The catch is that neither the lawyers nor the service provider are required to notify the subscriber that this information has been revealed. So some may be fired without ever knowing why, says Paul Levy, an attorney with civil liberties group Public Citizen. Others may know why, says Levy, but since they never get representation their cases go unreported.
Of course, another place where companies can track employees' activities outside the office is on blogs, and it is becoming more common for firms to issue a "blog policy" to employees, detailing what dirty washing the company doesn't want aired. Bank of America spokeswoman Lisa Kopp says personal blogs that breach company policy can lead to a person being fired.
Blogging policies have become widespread in the wake of several high-profile cases in Silicon Valley in which bloggers lost their jobs. Among those was Joyce Park, fired by social networking site Friendster two years ago. Park is the author of a popular blog called Troutgirl, which covers everything from high-tech issues to Park's cat. She marvels at the weirdness of the experience. "I was taken to a room, told it was a termination meeting, and told the reason was blogging," she recalls. "I asked what they objected to and they wouldn't tell me. I really just have no idea what I might have said."
"My sacking was the most horrific thing. I had perfect attendance at the plant for 13 years"
Another blogger fired around the same time was Mark Jen, who lost his job at Google. He's still not sure what he said, though the company did ask him to take two Google-related posts off his blog shortly before his firing. He took the posts down right away, but apparently that wasn't enough.
Not that Google -- which runs the blog engine Blogspot -- is against blogging. Karen Wickre, editor of Google's corporate blog, says the firm likes to hire bloggers because it's "nice to know that they can put a couple of sentences together". So does Google makes a regular habit of reading people's blogs before hiring them? "We're always looking for good people with talent," Wickre says. "I'm not willing to make a blanket statement that blogs don't matter."
Others think blogs are beginning to matter a whole lot. David Nachman of background-screening company HireRight based in Irvine, California, agrees with Wickre that a job-seeker's blog might affect their chances of getting hired. Traditionally, HireRight has only provided criminal record checks and checks on qualifications and experience, but Nachman says interest in online activity is growing. "We don't offer this service yet, but it's absolutely already happening. Employers are going to blogs and social networking sites when hiring."
In effect this means that online monitoring may be starting before employees even sign their contracts. While some will find this shocking, many tech workers express a kind of fatalism. "There are always ways to find out what individuals are doing, and sometimes that results in people getting fired," says IT administrator John Gilbert. "Everywhere I've worked, there's never been any privacy."
Archived from original publication
| | | You're invited to respond: |
| |
|
|
The problem rests in the reasonable fear of many that speaking
candidly will result, in one way or another, in retaliation.
The
only way to deal with that fear is through solidarity, so an injury to one is an injury to all.
The commitment of the
community to stand my and support, both morally and financially,
those who have been singled out for attack.<
|
|
|
Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
|
Previous articles by Dr Ruhs:
The end is at hand
by Herb Ruhs, MD
When spinach becomes a matter of life and death
by Herb Ruhs, MD
And now for something completely different
by Herb Ruhs, MD
We are all prisoners on home supervision
by Herb Ruhs, MD
There is no war but class war
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Meanwhile, back on Lifeboat Earth
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Is anyone willing to think about America’s dismal health statistics?
by Herb Ruhs, MD
A plague of criminals
by Herb Ruhs, MD
On facing adversity with courage and good humor
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Bush's death toll will vastly exceed Hitler's
by Herb Ruhs, MD
An unemployed physician
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Who "Them" are:
You can't tell
the players without a scorecard
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Global warming passes the point of no return
by Herb Ruhs, MD
In case you wondered why your doctor would sell you down the river
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Time to pull the rip cord
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Can the President legally
crush a child's testicles?
His lawyer says, "It depends ..."
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
The great American misunderstanding
by Herb Ruhs, MD
When death is the proper penalty
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The revolution this time
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The good tidings and the bad
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Health care in America: An ongoing, massive con game
by Paul Krugman, The New York Times
with comments by Herb Ruhs, MD
Competition: Destroyer of character
by Herb Ruhs, MD
America without the myths
by Herb Ruhs, MD,
To dream the impossible dream
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Refusing to see the obvious
by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
with comments by Herb Ruhs, MD
What can we do? Rhetorically speaking, that is.
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Banned in Cloverdale, by Herb Ruhs, MD
All of us are being fatally poisoned
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Daubert is the most influential Supreme Court ruling you've never heard of
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Enough already
by Herb Ruhs, MD
War is sometimes justified, often not, but always insane
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The bad news is the same as the good news
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Trying to control your emotions "can make you pretty stupid"
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The gangsters' mentality
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Nietzsche, New Orleans, and 'Nam
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Four decades in five minutes
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The masquerade of "civilization"
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Habits of successful modern cannibals
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Face these horrors with acceptance, equanimity, humor
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Yet another, higher dose of pain
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The war of one against all:
The roots of our enslavement
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Doctors, medicine, hospitals, and the rest of the story
by Herb Ruhs, MD
System of privilege expands in scope and overall power
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Highway robbery turns out to be legal after all
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Class warfare, anyone?
Why class war is not a fiction but a fixture of our lives
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Why the little-known news is the most important
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Why "Free Speech" does not matter
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Big pharma
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The genius fish and other comments
by Herb Ruhs, MD
When all else fails, try the truth
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Childhood abuse and the role it plays in maintaining coercive power
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Murder by medical device
by Herb Ruhs, MD
|
|
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
|
