The technology of the coming tribulation age just got two major boosts. First, IBM has bought into "Spookware" . . . Software and systems designed for tracking and / or monitoring people and their buying / web surfing / emailing and (many) other activities. Second, The development of software like NORA and the ever increasing pool of information being made available to it and other tools like it. Information that was once considered "nobody's business" ... buying habits, travel patterns, income and more. It's truely enough to make you sit up an go "Whoa! I didn't think they could DO that!".
With corporate money and govt intel involved in this sort of thing, I think it's safe to say that privacy is something that must be actively and agressively maintained because the minute you relax, it's gone.
Who is 'Minding Your Business'? . . . More people than you might suspect.
- - -----
IBM buys into spookware
By Ashlee Vance in Chicago
Published Friday 7th January 2005 20:56 GMT
IBM will soon be keeping a close eye on you thanks to its purchase of SRD (Systems Research and Development).
SRD, a small privately-held company based in Las Vegas, is best known for its ERIK and NORA identity management products. This spooky software collects data about an individual from various sources and is billed as a "customer relationship management" tool. SRD has been in business for 20 years and will now be part of IBM's Information Management software unit. No financial details about IBM's buy of SRD were revealed.
NORA ( Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness) is without doubt the most compelling product in SRD's arsenal. It's described by IBM as a great product for figuring out all you ever wanted to know about a customer.
Full Article:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/07/ibm_buys_srd/
- - -=\-=\-=\
Here's yet another tool in the quest to tie all the information about everyone together. The infamous "Total Information Awareness" project may have been scrapped, but I think it's safe to say that it's still around in the form of many smaller projects both corporate and governmental.
- - -----
U.S. National - AP
Driver's Licenses Spark Privacy Debate
Sat Jan 15, 6:34 PM ET U.S. National - AP
By ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writer
Privacy advocates warn that the new federal standards for driver's licenses will effectively create a national ID card, centralizing information that can be misused - by letting the government track the whereabouts of innocent people, for instance. Government officials say they're just making the cards more secure, and that the worries are overblown.
Full article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=6&u=/ap/20050115/ap_on_re_us/national_id_card_6
- - -=\-=\-=\
Here's more of the same...
- - -----
Thursday, 20 January 2005
Opinion: US biometric passports fail early privacy tests
by Andrew Brandt, PC World
Unfortunately, in the case of the US passports, the personal information is stored in unencrypted form. Worse, touchless technology might let someone with the right equipment read the personal information at a distance.
Full article:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/index.cfm?go=news.view&news=4476
- - -=\-=\-=\
Suppose somebody decided that you could not take part in any financial transaction unless you had one of these RFID chips embedded in your hand with a unique ID number coded into it?
This may be closer than many think. Tracking people is just the beginning.
Revelation 13:16-17, "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
- - -----
Parents Protest As School Requires Students to Wear Computer
Identification Tags
By LISA LEFF
The Associated Press
Feb. 10, 2005 - The only grade school in this rural town is requiring students to wear radio frequency identification badges that can track their every move. Some parents are outraged, fearing it will take away their children's privacy.
The badges introduced at Brittan Elementary School on Jan. 18 rely on the same radio frequency and scanner technology that companies use to track livestock and product inventory. Similar devices have recently been used to monitor youngsters in some parts of Japan.
Full Article:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=486581
- - -=\-=\-=\
