Is nothing private? Facebook tracks which sites 800m users visit… even AFTER they sign off ...

Facebook is tracking which sites its 800million users visit – even after they have signed out, a new report has revealed.

Company employees are also able to watch where people who are not membersof the social-networking site go online, if they have just viewed Facebook once.

Critics have expressed serious concern about the practice and called for tighter regulations to protect internet users’privacy.

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We’ll be watching you: Facebook can track which sites users visit even after they log off thanks to plug-ins and cookies

‘Facebook could be tracking users without knowledge or permission, which could be an unfair or deceptivebusiness practice,’ Representative for Massachusetts Ed Markey told USA Today.

The site has explained for the first time how it uses two types of cookies to log the extensive data in a series of interviews with USA Today.

The tracking means that every time an internet user being followed clicks on to a third-party page which has a Facebook plug-in attached, such as the popular ‘Like’ widget, a record is sent back to the company.

According to Facebook, the data is used to boost security and improve the quality of the plug-ins and not to gather personal information to promote user-specific ads.

Officials said the sponsored ads found on a user’s Facebook page are based on the information provided on the profile and by the choices made when clicking the ‘Like’ button.

But still, some web observers are worried.

Eyes on me: Critics have called for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, pictured this month, to face tighter internet regulations

‘Tracking data can be used to figure out your political bent, religious beliefs, sexuality preferences, healthissues or the fact that you’re looking for a new job,’ Peter Eckersley, projects director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organisation, told USA Today.

‘There are all sorts of ways to form wrong judgments about people.’

Here’s how it works: Every time you log onto Facebook it inserts a ‘session cookie’ and a ‘browser cookie’ into your browser. If you simply visit the site without signing up on the browser cookie is inserted.

From that point on, each time you visit a site which uses Facebook technology, the cookie works in conjunction with the plug-in to alert Facebook to the date, time and URL of the page you are viewing.

The unique characteristics such as your IP address, screen resolution, operating system and browser version, are also recorded, USA Today reported.

Facebook is therefore able to compile a rolling address book of all your webpage visits for 90 days, continually deleting entries for the oldest day and adding the newest.

‘Facebook could be tracking users without permission, which could be an unfair business practice,’ Representative Ed Markey, pictured, has said

If you are logged-in to your Facebook account and surfing the web, the session cookie records this date meaning your name, email address, friends and all data associated with your profile are also logged.

Arturo Bejar, Facebook’s engineering director, acknowledged to USA Today that Facebook could learn where specific members go after they have signed off but denied the company recorded such information.

Mr Bejar told the paper: ‘We’ve said that we don’t do it, and we couldn’t do it without some form of consent and disclosure.’

That testimony was not enough to appease Ilse Aigner, Germany’s minister of consumer protection, who last month banned Facebook plug-ins from government websites and suggested that private companies to follow suit.

While Thilo Weichert, a data protection commissioner in the Germany said: ‘Whoever visits Facebook or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years. Such profiling infringesGerman and European data protection law.’

Elsewhere, Arnold Roosendaal, a doctoral candidate at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, and Nik Cubrilovic, an independent Australian researcher, independently wrote about how pages containing Facebooktechnology carried out tracking on a greater scale than the company publicly admitted to.

Denial: Facebook said it did not use the trackingto record where users go and a spokesman said the company has ‘no plans to change how we use this data’

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes slammed Germany to USA Today, saying the country does not understand how the tracking technologies work. And he blamed ‘software bugs’ for the indiscriminate tracking uncovered by Roosendaal and Cubrilovic.

‘When we were made aware that certain cookies were sending more information to us than we had intended, we fixed our cookie management system,’ Mr Noyes told USA Today.

However, Mr Roosendaal said: ‘They have been confronted with the same issue now several times and every time they call it a bug. That’s not really contributing to earning trust.’

And Mr Markey, who is behind a bill aimed at limiting online tracking of children, said Facebook ‘should be covered by strong privacy safeguards.’

‘The massive trove of personal information that Facebook accumulates about its users can have a significant impact on them — now and into the future,’ he told USA Today.

Ron Culler, of Secure Designs, told WFMY he is not surprised by this tracking.

‘It’s just how the internet works. It’s how targeting advertising is done for the big ad sites like Yahoo andGoogle,’ he said. ‘Facebook wants to know who’s going to their sites, who’s using their ‘Like’ buttons and link buttons and things like that.’

But Mr Noyes said that the company has ‘no plans to change how we use this data.’

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Pentagon chief calls India, China ‘threats’ ...

AFP

US Defense Secretary Leon Panettareferred to India and China as “threats” on Thursday, but his spokesman quickly sought to clarify his remarks.

The Pentagon chief, speaking to workers at a Connecticut shipyard that builds attacksubmarines, described an array of threats facing the United States, including Iran,North Korea and cyber attacks.

He then strayed from standard US policy rhetoric by adding India and China to the list of security dangers, saying the United States would need to make clear to these “rising powers” that it would not be pulling out of the Pacific region.

“We face the threats from rising powers, China, India, others that we have to always be aware of, and try to make sure that we always have sufficient force protection out there in the Pacific to make sure they know we’re never going anywhere,” he said.

The US government never openly portrays China as a security threat, even though it frequently voices concern about Beijing’s military buildup and assertive stance in theSouth China Sea.

As for India, US officials view the country as an increasingly vital ally and the Pentagonis anxious to bolster security ties.

Panetta’s comments came at an awkward moment just as President Barack Obamawas on a tour to promote a renewed US focus on the Asia-Pacific region, including a stepped up military presence.

Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby told reporters later that Panetta did not view China or India as military threats.

“Any suggestion that he was implying that either country was a military threat is just false,” Kirby said.

“He was referring instead to the challenges these rising powers face within themselves, challenges that we share with them as we try to forge better relationships going forward in a very turbulent, dynamic security environment.”

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Facebook hit with unsolicited porn, violent videos ...

Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it is investigating a rash of unsolicited graphic images that hit some users’ accounts this week.

The images, Internet links and videosdepicting pornography and violence have hit some people’s Facebook newsfeeds in recent days.

“We experienced a coordinated spam attack that exploited a browser vulnerability,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “Our efforts have drastically limited the damage caused by this attack, and we are now in the process of investigating to identify those responsible.”

Facebook does not know yet who was behind the attack and a motive was not clear, Noyes added during an interview with Reuters.

Facebook users were tricked into pasting and executing “malicious” javascript in their browser URL bar, which led to them unknowingly sharing the content, Noyes explained.

Facebook engineers have been working to reduce this browser vulnerability, he added.

Facebook and other “Web 2.0″ sites are easy targets for such attacks because they pull in a lot of content from outside sources, according to Paul Ferguson, senior threat researcher at Trend Micro Inc.

“It seems every other day there is some new Facebook ‘threat,’ but this is just the new reality of Web 2.0 and social networking,” Ferguson said. “It is ‘low-hanging fruit’ for criminals.”

(Reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Jim Finkle in Boston, editing by Gerald E. McCormick andMatthew Lewis)

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Perfect Storm of Internet Censorship ...

In recent weeks the governments of Britain, Israel, the US, Japan, India and China have reported alleged cyber attacks by foreign militaries, hackers, and malicious software like Duqu, a virus similar to the Stuxnet cyber weapon constructed by Israel and the US for use against Iran’s nuclear program.

Although the nature and origin of the attacks or even whether they took place at all cannot be independently confirmed, the supposed threats are being used to propose punishing new legislationaimed at stifling internet freedoms and are igniting new rivalries in what many see as the battlefield of the21st century: cyberspace.

Find out more about the coming battle for internet freedom in this week’s edition of GRTV Behind the Headlines.

TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=3110

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Tension: India to increase buildup of troops on border with China ...

Against the backdrop of Chinese military build-up along its boundary with India, the Army has proposed an increase in its strength by around one lakh and raising a new mountain strike corps along with other new formations in the Northeast. “We have proposed to increase our strength by another 90,000 to one lakh troops and that has been cleared by the Defence Ministry. The proposal is at present awaiting clearance from the Finance Ministry,” army sources said here. Army`s present strength is more than 11 lakh troops including over 35,000 officers.

They said the increase in the number of troops will be done in a phased manner over a period of more than five to six years. Asked about the expansion plan, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju said, “We are keen on securing borders and we will take steps to do so. Wherever we feel there is a threat, adequate measures will be taken.” Asked about reports that China could do a Kargil on India, he said, “There is nothing to be particularly alarmed about the Chinese border.” He was talking to reporters at a function in Manekshaw Centre here. Under the Army proposal, which is likely to cost over Rs 60,000 crore, the Army has soughtGovernment`s sanction for raising a mountain strike corps and four mountain divisions. The Army is also planning to deploy two independent armoured brigades in Uttarakhand and Ladakh. Once cleared, the proposal would be put up before the Cabinet Committee on Security for approval and financial sanction.

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Google Publishes Takedown Requests From US Government ...

Ever wonder what kind of content world governments ask Google to remove from their search results?

Well, Google has just published their “Transparency Report”, which details the type and nature of takedown requests that they’ve received from all over the world. What do you think US government officials have asked to be taken down?

Turns out, most of the recent US requests seem to be related to police brutality, and content that “defames” law enforcement officials. Google states that takedown requests in the US from officials have risen 70% compared to their previous reporting period.

Other countries, such as India, asked for content showing protests against social leaders to be taken down. Some requests were related to personal defamation, which Google usually seems to comply with.

So, what does this mean? Maybe nothing. Check out the full report and decide for yourself.

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November 9th Communications Shutdown: A System Reboot Needed to Activate New Code?

My take on the communications shutdown:

In what is obviously a muscle flexing exercise meant to show the public just how much power and control the federalgovernment really has, all communications will be cut off for an estimated three minutes on November 9^th, 2011.

Claiming this is a test of the emergency response system, the terror alert system, and any other excuse they can come up with, Fema (that would be the same FEMA in charge of those camps they deny exist) will conduct a complete communications shutdown: all TV, radio, internet, and phone systems will be disabled simultaneously. This will be at 1:00 CST.

I am trying to figure out what kind of national emergency would require cutting all communications, broadcasts and internet use?  Maybe an emergency in which the government itself feels threatened by …….the people?  If this were a test to make sure the system was intact in the event of an emergency I could understand it.  But that isn’t what this is.  This is a test meant to ensure that the apparatus is in place and operational in the event the government wants to prevent communication between citizens: this is a test to make sure they CAN shut it all down if they choose to.

Think Egypt here.  As the protest crowds grew in Egypt, what did the government do? They shut down all cell phones and internet access in an effort to halt communications. It didn’t stop anything, the crowds still grew, but the idea behind this action was clear.

I believe what is actually behind this might be the downloading of some kind of code needed to make the shut-down apparatus work efficiently.  Think about your cable system if you have one or even an upgrade to many computer programs.  A new code must be downloaded and installed, then the system shutdown and re-booted for the changes to take effect.  And, just like these coded program changes in computers and cable, once you re-boot, whatever was newly installed is activated and just runs silently behind the scenes.  In fact, in almost every case, you are not even aware of what changes were made. I have astrange feeling this is what is happening here.  I also think this is somehow attached to the all-digital system they forced everyone onto a few years back.

Being a rather rational and logical person, the idea of shutting off communications of all kinds during a national emergency just doesn’t make any sense to me.  Why would anyone want to do that?  Wouldn’t your first reaction be to make sure communications were all intact and operational?  Unless of course, their definition of an emergency is something other than say extreme weather,floods or things of that kind.

In what kind of emergency situation would it benefit the public to have all communications shut down?  I can’t even think of one.

If I were the government I could see where it could be really handy especially in light of the steady growing unrest across the country. Of course their phones, computers and broadcast systems would all be working just fine as their communications systems are independent of the system the public uses.

We have long since passed the point where we can trust government on any level.  This impending communications shut down is only a test run for something far more serious.  This is not about public safety, emergency response or any of the other fluff and hype put out to try and explain why the government would engage in such a test.  In my opinion, this is merely a test run for a future event which could be catastrophic as far as the general public is concerned.

 Keep your eyes and ears open……. something is afoot here and it doesn’t look good for most of us.

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Did You Know Feds Will Temporarily Cut Off All TV and Radio Broadcasts on Nov. 9?

If you have ever wondered about thegovernment’s ability to control the civilian airwaves, you will have your answer on November 9th.

On that day, federal authorities are going to shut off all television and radio communications simultaneously at 2:00PM EST to complete the first ever test of thenational Emergency Alert System (EAS).

This isn’t a wildconspiracy theory. The upcoming test is posted on the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau website.

Only the President has the authority to activate EAS at the national level, and he has delegated that authority to the Director of FEMA.  The test will be conducted jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through  FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS).

In essence, the authority to seize control of all television and civilian communication has been asserted by the executive branch and handed to a government agency.

The EAS has been around since 1994. Its precursor, the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), started back in 1963.  Television and radio broadcasters, satellite radio and satellite television providers,  cable television and wireline video providers are all involved in the system.

So this begs the question: is the first ever national EAS test really a big deal?

Probably not. At least, not yet.

But there are some troubling factors all coming together right now that could conceivably trigger a real usage of the EAS system in the not too distant future.  A European financial collapse could bring down U.S. markets. What is now the “Occupy” movement could lead to widespread civil unrest. And there are ominous signs that radicalgroups such as Anonymous will attempt something major on November 5th- Guy Fawke’s day.

Now we know in the event of a major crisis, the American people will be told with one voice, at the same time, about an emergency.

All thats left to determine is who will have control of the EAS when that day comes, and what their message will be.

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Feds Order YouTube To Remove Video For Containing “Government Criticism” ...

The number of takedown orders received by Google from authorities based in the United States rose dramatically over the past year, with demands to remove information, includingvideos containing “government criticism,” increasing by 70 per cent.

“In the US, Google received 757 takedown requests across its sites and services, up 70 per cent from the second half of last year,” reports technology website V3.co.uk.

“US authorities also called for the removal of 113 videos from YouTube, including several documenting alleged police brutality which Google refused to take down.”

The figures are revealed in Google’s newly released transparency report, which also details how the number of “user data requests” by US authorities increased by 29 per cent compared to the last reporting period.

The reason listed for the removal of a You Tube video in one instance is “government criticism”. The exact identity or content of the video is not divulged. The report states that the removal requests pertaining to “police brutality” were done on the grounds of “defamation” and are included in that separate category, meaning the takedown order on the grounds of “government criticism” was made by the “executive,” ie the federal government.

The report does not indicate whether or not You Tube complied with the removal request, but it did comply with 63 per cent of the total requests made.

The number of “Items requested to be removed” by US authorities was almost seven-fold the number requested to be removed by Chinese authorities, a country much maligned for its Internet censorshippolicies.

As we have previously documented, Google-owned You Tube has complied with thousands of requests worldwide to remove political protest videos that are clearly not in violation of any copyright or national security interests and do not constitute defamation.

One such example was You Tube’s compliance with a request from the British government to censor footage of the British Constitution Group’s Lawful Rebellion protest, during which they attempted to civilly arrest Judge Michael Peake at Birkenhead county court.

When viewers in the UK attempted to watch videos of the protest, they were met with the message, “This content is not available in your country due to a government removal request.”

Indeed, the latest figures show that takedown requests on behalf of British authorities have also skyrocketed by 71 per cent, including 44 removal orders in the first half of this year which came directly from the UK government, one of which was the Birkenhead protest footage.

In Britain, a total of 135 videos were removed from You Tube on the grounds of “national security” and 43 web search results were also blacklisted by government decree.

These figures illustrate how governments, particularly the United States and Britain, are getting more aggressive in pushing for web censorship as the state increasingly tries to strangle the last bastion of true free speech, the Internet, as authorities simultaneously try to advance draconian cybersecurity measures that would hand them complete control over the world wide web.

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Anonymous Attacks Child Porn Websites and Publish User Names ...

This past week it was reported that the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous claimed credit for taking offline over 40 websites used for sharing pedophilia – and for exposing the names and identifying information of more than 1500 alleged pedophiles that had been using the sites.

News of the Anonymous campaign to actively target anyone hosting child porn sites comes from statements associated with Anonymous on Pastebin and two Anonymous YouTube video channels. AnonNews has yet to issue a press release.

It’s within Anon’s character to go after targets that provoke the collective’s ire. Yet in this instance the group is highlighting a moral sense of outrage and horror most people will relate to – the evil crime of child sexual abuse – while revealing an internet underworld that many will be terrified to learn about for the first time.

According to Anonymous’ published timeline of events from the past few days, Anon’s campaign began on October 14 when some of its memberswere browsing a darknet site called Hidden Wiki.

Hidden Wiki is an index containing hundreds of underground websites that can’t be seen by search engines or viewed by regular internet users. Such sites can’t be reached by conventional means, and contain a variety of content ranging from innocuous to illegal.

An Anonymous Pastebin statement explains that their new campaign manifested upon finding a Hidden Wiki listing called “Hard Candy” that they say “was dedicated to links to child pornography.”

Anonymous claims that most of the pedophile-content sites listed on the Hidden Wiki, “shared a digital fingerprint with the shared hosting server at Freedom Hosting.”

The AnonMessage and BecomeAnonymous YouTube channels both posted videos with statements of intent to hunt, skin and kill pedobears everywhere, starting with Freedom Hosting.

In addition to both YouTube videos, Anonymous published statements with an events timeline and declarations of intent. According to this statement on Pastebin:

The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape and death.

For this, Freedom Hosting has been declared #OpDarknet Enemy Number One. By taking down Freedom Hosting, we are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites, among these is Lolita City, one of the largest child pornography websites to date containing more than 100 GB of child pornography.

We will continue to not only crash Freedom Hosting’s server, but any other server we find to contain, promote, or support child pornography.

Anonymous extended the threats beyond the cluster of Hidden Wiki’s index:

Remove all child pornography content from your servers. Refuse to provide hosting services to any website dealing with child pornography.

This statement is not just aimed at Freedom Hosting, but everyone on the Internet. It does not matter who you are, if we find you to be hosting, promoting, or supporting child pornography, you will become a target.

Late on Tuesday, October 14, Anonymous told Freedom Hosting to remove all the pedo links from its server.

Freedom Hosting ignored the demand and Anonymous responded by attacking and taking the server offline. It was back up the following day, but Anonymous had it down again by the evening of the 15th.

Commenters on various forums, including Reddit, have remarked that Anonymous’ attacks on Freedom Hosting’s sever are particularly sophisticated in comparison to previous Anonymous campaigns.

After smacking Freedom Hosting around, Anonymous then singled out another Hidden Wiki listing, a file-swapping site used by pedophiles called “Lolita City” from which 1,589 names were extracted and published on Pastebin.

Powerful vigilantes going after pedophiles – as appealing as it might sound to scorch the earth where sickness lies, serious questions are being raised about certain aspects of this campaign and concerns may emerge about possible interference with law enforcement activity that might already be in place.

Examiner ran this statement pulled from the Anonymous “Lolita City” documents,

If the FBI, Interpol, or other law enforcement agency should happen to come across this list, please use it to investigate and bring justice to the people listed here.

I think that saving the victims of these heinous crimes needs to be a priority in all this, as well as making sure innocent people don’t get wrongly accused.

Meanwhile, as the public at large begins to learn about the deep web, underground darknet sites and Tor from campaigns like OpDarknet, it’s going to be a challenge to keep politicians and pundits from tarring internet anonymity tools with the brush of child porn and criminal activity.

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