January 25, 2014 · 9:35 am

The Near Future of Privacy

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Maybe it’s just a campaign ploy, but the RNC seems to be listening to Americans’ concern about bulk metadata collection. According to Time Magazine, the RNC passed a resolution yesterday that calls for Republicans to pass amendments to the federal statute that currently authorizes the NSA’s data collection activities. The resolution asks that the amendments ensure “blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence — electronic, physical, and otherwise — of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court.” As I’ve said before, I think the best way to end mass government surveillance is by eliminating the third-party doctrine that makes it “legal.” Still, this is a promising start, especially considering that, as Time reports, the resolution “passed by an ‘overwhelming majority’ by voice vote.” Time cited this as “the latest indication of a growing libertarian wing of the GOP.”

The sad thing is that, even though I think such amendments could get tremendous bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, and therefore pass easily, President Obama seems poised to veto anything that would end bulk metadata collection. If you listened carefully to his speech last Friday (check out my detailed analysis in last week’s podcast), you heard that the only thing about this program that he plans to change immediately is the depth of the queries that would be made of the database. Bulk metadata *collection* will continue at least until March, while Obama’s appointees try to square the circle: give government the same capabilities they currently have, without having metadata held in bulk by either the government, the individual phone companies, or an “independent” third party. As I said in my podcast, I think Obama’s hoping that by the time the appointees report back, saying that it’s impossible to have the same capabilities of bulk metadata collection without bulk metadata collection, Americans will have forgotten the whole thing.

So what is a privacy-minded person to do until we can either get rid of Obama and elect someone who will allow the end of bulk metadata collection, or until the Supreme Court overturns the third-party doctrine (my personal favorite)? Stop using the technology (phone, email, Internet browsing, etc.) that entails us sharing personal information with third-party service providers? Thankfully, no. Entrepreneurs are currently finding ways to make money while offering services catering to the privacy-minded. One company, called AnchorFree, is offering a service that

let[s] you browse the Internet anonymously–protecting you from the prying eyes of malicious hackers, governments bent on stealing your private data or even your everyday snoop by offering so-called activity encryption for anyone who accesses the Web.

Read more about it here at Forbes.

If email is what you want, you’ll be eager for the release of Lavabit’s Dark Mail Initiative, which promises easy-to-use, end-to-end encryption for a variety of platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, etc.). I look forward to learning more about it when I interview Ladar Levison on my show. (The interview is currently scheduled for 2/7. Follow my other blog, Don’t Let It Go, to make sure you don’t miss it in the event it needs to be rescheduled.)

Robust privacy protection via technology is valuable even in the absence of a government engaging in unconstitutional bulk metadata collection. Still, I am skeptical of those who claim that it is possible to enjoy enduring, robust privacy protection via technology, when powerful governments are so clearly opposed to it. If Snowden and others are right, and the NSA is intent on knowing as much as possible about everyone’s online activity at all times, how long will it be before our government figures out some way to shut down AnchorFree, Dark Mail, or other privacy-enhancing service providers?

Despite my skepticism, I am eager to learn more about these technologies and maybe even try them out myself. Claiming the privacy we deserve in this way might even help further the public debate on government surveillance, and bring us closer to the day when we will enjoy proper legal protection for our privacy.

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January 15, 2014 · 8:56 am

A Three-Video News Sandwich

Last night Jimmy Kimmel criticized Obamacare in his monologue, and even aired a fake ad that told the truth about the program: Obamacare is designed so that young and healthy Americans subsidize the health care costs of older and sicker Americans. Check out the video. Yes, it would have been better if Kimmel had named altruism as the root cause of Obamacare getting passed by Congress (the video says it’s because only older people vote), but in today’s context this is relatively bold.

What I’d love is for Kimmel and other popular talk show hosts to start taking Obama to task for his liberal use of executive orders. Obama held a press conference yesterday in which he announced his intention to use executive orders, along with his power to “convene Americans from all walks of life” in order to “move the ball forward” on his egalitarian agenda. He said he’ll be meeting with his cabinet members to see how far he can push the envelope to, in effect, legislate without any legislation being passed. Check out the video of Obama’s statement (if you can stomach it) here at The Right Scoop.

If you watched that video and are thoroughly disgustipated, you could use the lift you’ll get from watching the next video, Senator Ted Cruz’s Q & A with President Obama’s advisory panel on privacy. Cruz does a decent job pressing the panel on NSA overreach, but I think he could have gone further and pointed out the problems that would exist even if the telephone companies are compelled to retain Americans’ telephone metadata, as a substitute for the current NSA bulk metadata collection program. One of the panel members even suggested that a single private company, as opposed to the NSA, could be hired to store all the data, if there were concerns about the efficiency of having each telephone company store the data separately. That arrangement would likely be even worse than what we have now, and yet Cruz didn’t object when the idea was raised.

My nitpicky criticisms aside, what is also commendable about Cruz’s questioning of the panel is the language he uses with respect to the jihadists who have committed terrorist attacks on our soil in the years since 9/11/01. He repeatedly refers to the massacres in Fort Hood and Boston as “terrorist attacks,” and blames “Jihad” for them. This is important because the Obama Administration calls the Ft. Hood massacre an instance of “workplace violence,” and has scrubbed references to Islam from various counter-terrorism training materials. Cruz argues that these attacks might have been prevented if Hassan and the Tsarnaev brothers had been given appropriate scrutiny and surveillance.

Check it out:

Cruz continues to be the politician in Washington who gives me the most hope. Now only if he would read my piece on the third-party doctrine 🙂

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January 13, 2014 · 10:37 am

Competition in Civilized Society

Several news outlets (e.g., WSJ) are reporting this morning that Japanese company Suntory Holdings has agreed to purchase Beam, Inc., the maker of Jim Beam whiskey, “for $83.50 a share…a 25% premium over Friday’s closing price.” Beam hasn’t yet decided to accept the offer, but if it does, “it would create the world’s fourth-largest liquor company by volume.” Currently Suntory is just in the top 15 companies by volume, but is nonetheless able to fund the $13.6-billion transaction with a combination of cash on hand and lender financing.

The company says it doesn’t plan significantly to reduce the scale of operations or workforce of Beam, as it “hopes to use Beam for a ‘major offensive’ in the global markets—particularly Japan, the U.S., Australia, Europe and the emerging markets….” Whiskey, particularly higher-priced brands of bourbon, are in vogue again, and this is something upon which Suntory plans to capitalize. (Incidentally, I wonder whether both the rise in consumption of whiskey, and the fact that the fourth-largest liquor company in the world is a ripe acquisition target, are due to Barack Obama’s nihilist economic policies.)

Contrast this way of dealing with a competitor—making an offer to buy him out on terms that benefit everyone—with the recent news from France’s taxicab industry. CNET reports today that striking taxicab drivers in Paris actually vandalized an Uber car, slashing the tires and smashing the windows, the latter causing passengers to suffer lacerations to their hands. The cab drivers apparently resent losing business to Uber, which pioneered the business model of having customers “use a smartphone app to easily summon a car, inform the driver about your destination, and pay.” The company got its start in Paris, but instead of giving Uber thanks for its time- and money-saving innovation, or instead of seeking to become part of Uber (or a competitor’s) network, Parisian cab drivers are assaulting Uber’s drivers and vandalizing its cars. Moreover, the cab drivers in France have apparently used whatever political clout they have to impose a country-wide “rule starting January 1 that requires a minimum 15-minute wait before an Uber-like service can actually pick up a passenger.” As my friend Frode, who posted this story on Facebook this morning quipped, this is necessary “to level the playing field.” I guess in France, the slogan is, “If you can’t beat them, pummel them”?*

At least here in the United States we still have a veneer of companies actually competing for their market share. GM, which has been given, at taxpayer expense, a huge leg up in the auto industry, has just unveiled its 2015 GMC Canyon, a midsize truck that GM, according to the Wall Street Journal, hopes will help it “unseat Toyota as the leader in the mid-size pickup market.” GM already has another midsize truck, the Colorado, which it just released last year. The company will try not only to increase its market share for mid-size trucks, but also help increase overall demand in this market segment. The Colorado will be marketed to “active people who like using their truck for work and play,” while the Canyon will emphasize luxury and high-tech conveniences.

Toyota, in response, is vandalizing GM’s factory and assaulting its workers. Actually, the WSJ reports that Toyota “gave the Tacoma a restyled exterior look and an upgraded interior,” and may be planning another “face-lift.”

*Remind anyone of speed limits on trains imposed in a certain novel of increasing relevance to today’s world?

(By the way, if you sign up for Uber using the code “wary4,” then you will get $20 off your first ride, and I will get $20 in my Uber account. Win-win, assuming you need Uber’s service on an upcoming trip.)

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