Monthly Archives: April 2013

Americans: Monkeys in Cages

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Today is the day America ended. We didn’t quite get to finish our 237th year.

If there was any doubt that freedom in America had already ended, and been converted into a totalitarian surveillance state, those doubts must have been erased in any rational mind with the announcement on April 19th, 2013  that “Boston is in lockdown today”. Citizens were warned to “stay inside, avoid movement, and keep doors locked” while a door-to-door search was to be conducted for suspects associated with the Boston Marathon bombing.

I grew up at the end of the Cold War. Americans were proud to distill the difference between America and those Rat B*st*rd Communists as: “We would rather let one hundred guilty men go free than imprison an innocent man; Communists would rather imprison hundreds of innocent men to get one guilty man”. By that measure, welcome to the United Communist States of America.

A lot has happened since the 50’s: loss of innocence. But more importantly, loss of freedom. The world has been turned on its head, and we have become the very sort of state we fought World War II to save the world from.

Just whose fault is it? The system is easy to blame, but it’s a system we allowed to evolve as it has. It doesn’t take much soul-searching to understand how it happened. The People are to blame. And, if this grave injustice we have done to ourselves is ever to be righted, it is We The People who must do it; once again overturning tyranny and the forces opposing Freedom. We must end The War on Citizens currently waged by the Federal Government.

Cell Phone Google Maps + Drone = You’re Owned

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Welcome to Remedial Math 101

I’m looking at Google Maps. There’s a red pin on it. It shows where a Radio InfoWeb Listener is located. It shows a white pickup truck where a man is relaxing and listening on his Blackberry. This kind of tracking is now simple, automatic, and happens, perhaps, millions of times per second. It requires no more than an Internet connection and a web browser. The question is, is this acceptable?

Satellite View of Man In Truck Identified By Internet Protocols and Common Web Tools

A man listening to an Internet Radio Station with a Blackberry is identified and located instantly via commonly available tools.

How was this done? Instantly and automatically. When the man’s phone contacted the audio server, it’s IP address became known, because it’s necessary to direct the audio stream to the stream player. When the IP Address is provided to Google, the telcom provider can be determined because IP addresses are issued in blocks (“NETBLKS”) to specific provider. The provider is then queried, and it instantly provides coordinates for the IP from its moble network. The cell tower providing the connection to the user’s phone has a multi-antenna array that allows it to geo-locate the source of the signal by comparing the phase relationships of the signal as it is received at each of the antennas.

The fact that it’s a Blackberry phone is known because the phone identifies itself when establishes the audio stream. The man may not be aware of many of these factors:

  • That his telcom providers rats out his coordinates; perhaps even if he has expressly requested it not to
  • That his phone rats itself out to the stream provider
  • That cell towers triangulate his exact location
  • That cookies are not involved
  • That once you’re identified by an IP address, you’re associated with tons of tracking data that has been accumulated over time

The bottom line is, when you carry a cellular device that’s turned on, you may as well have a big target painted on your back, and another on the top of your head. You’ve been made. In real time. And as the title implies, you could be targeted by a drone, whether operated by the government, business, or criminal. In this surveillance society, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate from the three when it comes to your personal security and safety.