Olympics Preview: Beijing's Internet Censorship, Surveillance

Sinobyte commenters have raised two good questions about Internet freedom during the Olympics, set for August 8 to 28 in Beijing. I'm going to give the best kind of answer available for each: an educated guess.

I had written about "free Wi-Fi," which hasn't yet really started working, but is slated to be available during the games in some key areas of the city.

Official Tracks Diesel

A vice president of a mobile fueling company — suspecting drivers were stealing fuel from company trucks — used GPS tracking and a private investigator to determine that more than $30,000 of diesel had been stolen.

Two employees of SMF Energy Corp. — James R. Russell, 31, of Zachary, and William Cain III, 42, of Baton Rouge — were arrested Wednesday by Louisiana State Police after the vice president approached the agency last month with evidence from the company’s internal investigation, State Police spokesman Trooper Johnnie Brown said.

Videos Show her Exercising in Gym

For 40 minutes yesterday, people in Court 4D at the High Court stared at two flat screen monitors in the gallery.

A woman was seen hanging out clothes, exercising at a gym, praying at a temple and taking a walk at night.

As the woman was Madam Amutha Valli Krishnan and the footage was shot by a private detective, you could understand the rapt attention.

Bug's Life a Busy One as Lovers Get Suspicious

Sydney is in the grip of an infidelity epidemic, with more than 1000 people a month wanting to monitor their partner's every word and move. At least, that's what private investigators would have you believe.

According to one, Luke Athens, suspicious spouses are spending thousands of dollars to have tracking boxes fitted under cars, their partner's deleted text messages read and gifts delivered with cameras and listening devices hidden inside. He said yesterday he cannot keep up with demand. "I don't know what is going on out there, but business is absolutely booming."

His company, Heartbreakers, carries out sweeps for listening devices on Sydney homes every week and says one in five come up positive. He says people are buying bugs on eBay for as little as $120 and hiding them behind powerpoint covers or in light fittings. It is not illegal to buy or own bugs but it is illegal to use them without the consent of the person being bugged.

Wireless Video Surveillance For The Boston Marathon

Strix Systems announced the deployment of Strix Integrated Wireless Video System for the Boston Marathon event held April 21st, 2008. Strix Access/One Outdoor Wireless System (OWS) provided the foundation for the rapid temporary deployment of multiple Integrated Wireless Video Surveillance Systems (IWVS) that delivered high quality Milestone video surveillance to a number of state and local public safety agencies.

Home Consumer/DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Video Surveillance Camera Market to be $1 Billion by 2012

Video surveillance in consumer homes promises to drive a new market for consumer/DIY cameras and remote home monitoring services. Growing consumer awareness and product offerings will enable the market for consumer/DIY surveillance cameras to grow to over $1 billion dollars by 2012. This presents a promising expansion opportunity for camera manufacturers, broadband operators and semiconductor manufacturers, according to MultiMedia Intelligence.

The applications driving home video surveillance range from simple doorbell cameras to remote surveillance and recording services. Companies are positioning do-it-yourself (DIY) surveillance kits that include cameras, network adapters, and PC and internet-based monitoring and recording software. Such systems also allow consumers to monitor their home remotely over the Internet, or even via their mobile phones.

Surveillance Pictures Released in Search for Armed and Dangerous Robber

Police believe the same man robbed two liquor stores and they're releasing surveillance pictures in hopes someone will recognize him.

Police believe this man to be armed and dangerous.

Surveillance Cameras Don't Cut Crime, Says Expert

Surveillance cameras may help police with criminal investigations but wouldn't prevent crimes by themselves, according to one surveillance expert.

Josh Greenberg, a mass communications professor at Carleton University, who has studied the impact of closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance, says people support the idea because they believe it will help protect them from robberies, sexual assault or other violent crimes.

Greeley Schools Won't Let Parent See Bus Surveillance Video

Greeley school officials say privacy laws prevent them from letting a parent see a surveillance videotape after his son was disciplined for a fight on a school bus.

Mike Moskalsk says he asked to see the video taken on the bus after his son was suspended for 10 days after the April fight. Moskalsk says his son didn't start the fight but was defending himself.

Do You Want Spies With That?

While the Patriot Act has raised fears about the U.S. government spying on ordinary citizens, the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying has received much less attention.

During the late 1990s a private security firm spied on Greenpeace and other environmental groups, examining activists' telephone records and even sending undercover agents to infiltrate the groups, according to an article in Mother Jones. In 2006 Hewlett-Packard was caught spying on journalists. Last year Wal-Mart apologized for improperly recording conversations with a New York Times reporter.

And now it turns out that Burger King, home of the Whopper, hired a private security firm to spy on the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a group of idealistic college students trying to improve the lives of migrants in Florida.

On Using a Hidden Camera in Your Home

Our agency occasionally gets calls about setting up covert cameras in the home. The reasons for the requests vary from personal belongings missing, a new baby sitter or nanny being hired or concerns that children may be misbehaving.

Setting up a covert camera in your home is legal in all 50 states. This refers just to the video aspect. Providing sound along with the pictures is a different matter and falls under a separate law.

District Must Explain Object in the Ceiling

Everett School District officials can and should put to rest any lingering controversy over the Kay Powers case. It may be as simple as answering one question:

What was the cone-shaped object that several teachers report seeing in the ceiling of Powers' classroom last spring?

Lawmakers Propose Mandatory Business Surveillance Cameras

Bethlehem lawmakers are taking big steps to help prevent and fight crime.

A new bill could soon make surveillance cameras mandatory for hundreds of businesses. But some people argue it's unfair to many small business owners.

Looking For Lessons in Past Wiretapping Battle

In the good old days, there were copper lines and the feds liked to tap them. Then came digital switches and phones that could roam, and the feds wanted to tap them, too.

And in 1994, after acrimonious debate that ripped apart an emergent tech-focussed civil liberties group, the feds won and the phone system's architecture would have surveillance baked into the switches in perpetuity.

A Next-Generation System Enables Persistent Surveillance of Wide Areas

Finding, tracking, and monitoring events and activities of interest on a continuous basis are critically important for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). In particular, we want to monitor large areas (tens of square kilometers) with sufficiently high resolution for distinguishing and tracking dismounts (persons) and vehicles. This is a challenge because imagery for a square kilometer at 15cm ground space distance (i.e., the size of the pixels on the ground) requires more than 44 million pixels. We also want to monitor these areas on a persistent basis using unmanned autonomous systems (UASs).

Private Detective Probes Case From Outer Space

Private eye T.K. Davis has worked his share of oddball cases. Once, he tracked down a one-armed woman wanted for child endangerment. He staked out a backyard to catch a guy throwing dirt clods into a pool. When you make your living answering life's mysterious questions at $100 an hour, you take a few calls out of the blue.

Sex, Lies & Surveillance

Damien Delzoppo of Avenue Investigations says he was playing a clean game — "well within the limits of the law" — during an episode that ended with one Melbourne contractor blackmailing a rival into pulling out of the tendering for a local council job.

It seems that the rival — owner of a construction business, 20 to 30 workers — had been winning council jobs left and right. He was significantly undercutting everybody else. It was a mystery. It didn't take long to find out the guy was having an affair with his materials supplier. She was selling him the materials cheap.

An Airline Terminal for a Security-Wary Era

From the moment that passengers first arrive at JetBlue Airways’ $750 million terminal at Kennedy International Airport in September, they will face an unmistakably post-9/11 world.

Most airline terminals have been jury-rigged since 2001 to accommodate all the extra security workers and equipment. But JetBlue’s new Terminal 5 is among the first in the United States designed from the ground up after the terrorist attacks.

Police Hope Surveillance Helps Find IndyGo Shooter

A 15-year-old boy says he's happy to be alive after being shot on an IndyGo bus Saturday night. Now police are asking for the public's help to find the suspect. Surveillance images from inside the bus show the suspect walking to the back. At one point, police say he stepped on a woman's foot.

Courtney Distancing Self From Advocacy Group's Surveillance-Bill Ads

When a nonprofit group began running ads to pressure U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, into supporting a controversial terrorist surveillance law last month, the congressman's staff quickly denounced them as misleading, partisan and unfair.