Privacy

Enron emails inspire GCHQ spooks

Geeks at GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), the UK's spook-infested listening station, are using the infamous Enron email trail to develop software that will monitor people's emails and stop them sending incriminating or confidential messages. The team would be processing the 500,000 emails in corpus Enron. "We've got the capability to leak out all our organisation's secrets through email. So how can you stop that happening?"

Better Face-Recognition Software

Computers outperform humans at recognizing faces in recent tests. For scientists and engineers involved with face-recognition technology, the recently released results of the Face Recognition Grand Challenge have been a quiet triumph. The match up of face-recognition algorithms showed that machine recognition of human individuals has improved tenfold since 2002 and a hundredfold since 1995. Indeed, the best face-recognition algorithms now perform more accurately than most humans can manage. The necessary in error rate was due in large measure to the development of high-resolution still-images and 3-D face-recognition algorithms. "For the FRVT 2006 and the ICE 2006, sets of high-resolution face images, 3-D face scans, and iris images were collected of the same people." 3-D face recognition has come into its own in the last few years because 3-D sensors for face recognition have become available only recently."

2057 - The Body

The Body: Flying ambulances? Intelligent clothing? Custom-built organs from scratch? Robotic surgery? Learn about today's medical breakthroughs that will extend our lives in 50 years. What would you see and experience if the clocks rolled forward 50 years? In a unique blend of drama and science, this three-part series shows you the world of tomorrow. Will we have flying cars? Will advances in medicine help us stay young forever? What about "printing" custom-made vital organs? What will our cities look like? What will tomorrow's wars be about? Will we have robots helping around the house? Will solar power be the new oil? Supported by the world's leading scientists and research institutes, we embark on a quest to answer some of society's most fundamental questions and reveal the dramas of tomorrow's world along the way. State-of-the-art computer graphics in combination with a dynamic story line will create a world usually only seen in feature films, but with the accuracy and relevance of a documentary. This series is all about opening the window of our future based on science fact, not science fiction. Hosted by Michio Kaku

Video, 43:00

Secret trials for terrorists, says US judge

A top-ranking US judge has stunned a conference of Australian judges and barristers in Chicago by advocating secret trials for terrorists, more surveillance of Muslim populations across North America and an end to counter-terrorism efforts being "hog-tied" by the US constitution. Judge Richard Posner, a supposedly liberal-leaning jurist regarded by many as a future US Supreme Court candidate, said traditional concepts of criminal justice were inadequate to deal with the terrorist threat and the US had "over-invested" in them. "We have to fight terrorism with our strengths, and our strengths evolve around technology, including the technology of surveillance."

Google Is Watching You

Digital privacy advocate and secret smoker Kevin Bankston was outed on Google's Street View. So, what else does the Internet know about us?

Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates

The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act. The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected.

EFF's Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T for Collaboration with Illegal Domestic Spying Program

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, allowing the lawsuit to go forward. The EFF lawsuit arose from news reports in December 2005, which first revealed that the NSA has been intercepting Americans' phone calls and Internet communications without any court oversight and in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the U.S. Constitution. This surveillance program, purportedly authorized by the President at least as early as 2001, apparently intercepts and analyzes the phone and Internet communications of millions of ordinary Americans. But the government did not act—and is not acting—alone. EFF's lawsuit alleges that AT&T has given the NSA unchecked backdoor access to its communications network and its record databases. On behalf of a nationwide class of AT&T customers, EFF is suing to stop this illegal conduct and hold AT&T responsible for violating the law and the fundamental freedoms of the American public.

Smile--You're Always On Camera

Last week, I got a glimpse of the future--and even captured a couple of minutes of it on video. It happened during the opening dinner of a three-day powwow on media and entertainment. The event glittered with executives and political wonks: Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke; so did Google's Eric Schmidt and Yahoo chief Terry Semel. Even more memorable than the speakers, however, were the scores of guests holding up little white boxes, about the size of a BlackBerry, videotaping the event. Each dinner guest had been given a "Flip" video camcorder--and instantly put it to use.

Scientists sue NASA, Caltech over deep new background checks

Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists and engineers sued NASA and the California Institute of Technology on Thursday, challenging extensive new background checks that the space exploration center and other federal agencies began requiring in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by 28 plaintiffs. Many have worked on such projects as the Mars rovers, the Galileo probe to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn, but none are involved in classified work, according to the suit. It seeks class-action status to represent similar JPL employees.

Cameras smart on suspect loitering

A suitcase sits alone in a busy airport terminal. Was it planted by a bomber or carelessly left while the owner went to buy coffee? This scenario, an all too common headache facing security staff, may soon be remedied with the help of intelligent security cameras developed by European scientists. "It's about developing solutions so that computers can detect abnormal behaviour,"

Scientists Drug-Test Whole Cities

Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant. The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, like methamphetamines, across the country. Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking. "It's a community urinalysis."

A Little Privacy, Please

Computer scientist Latanya Sweeney helps to save confidentiality with "anonymizing" programs, "deidentifiers" and other clever algorithms. Whether they are enough, however, is another question. Is it possible to maintain privacy, freedom and safety in today’s security-centric, databased world where identities sit ripe for the plucking? Several years ago Scott McNealy, chair­man of Sun Microsystems, famous-ly quipped, "Privacy is dead. Get over it." Sweeney couldn’t disagree more. "Privacy is definitely not dead," she counters; those who believe it is "haven't actually thought the problem through, or they aren’t willing to accept the solution."

City has eye on gunfire

New technology could make it easier for city police to know almost immediately when someone discharges a firearm in Brunswick. It could even help them catch the shooter. The Brunswick Police Department hopes to purchase a camera system next year that would help it nab anyone who breaks the law by firing a gun in the city. The proposed system uses a set of cameras that detects the sound of gunfire and pinpoints where the shots are fired, zooming in and taking pictures.

2057 - The City

The City: Cars without drivers? Humanoid robots in every household? Cyber-hacking? Intelligent camera surveillance systems? Learn about today's scientific advances that will shape our networked cities of tomorrow. What would you see and experience if the clocks rolled forward 50 years? In a unique blend of drama and science, this three-part series shows you the world of tomorrow. Will we have flying cars? Will advances in medicine help us stay young forever? What about "printing" custom-made vital organs? What will our cities look like? What will tomorrow's wars be about? Will we have robots helping around the house? Will solar power be the new oil? Supported by the world's leading scientists and research institutes, we embark on a quest to answer some of society's most fundamental questions and reveal the dramas of tomorrow's world along the way. State-of-the-art computer graphics in combination with a dynamic story line will create a world usually only seen in feature films, but with the accuracy and relevance of a documentary. This series is all about opening the window of our future based on science fact, not science fiction.

Video, 43 min