A recent USA Today article sums up our modern privacy dilemma with one sentence: “With tiny tech, a video little brother is always watching”.

From the article –

Welcome to the era of citizen journalism.

“Video empowers the individual against big brother,” says Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California.

“Little brother is now watching back,” says Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo.

Citizens have been videotaping police and other incidents for more than a decade. One of the most notorious was the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles in 1991.

But these days it doesn’t just happen piecemeal; taking videos and uploading them to the Internet is all the rage, thanks to tiny, inexpensive cameras, often embedded in cellphones, and the homemade video boom online.

When Richards started ranting at the comedy club last month, a patron went for his camera, a small Canon Powershot, says Harvey Levin of TMZ.com, the celebrity website that posted the video. Levin will not say whether TMZ paid for the video. He says the patron never planned on taking it and wants to remain anonymous.

“People would ordinarily never think of getting a shot off of their camera and sending it to someone like me when they’re eating at a deli and suddenly Paris Hilton walks in,” Levin says. “It’s created an army of passive paparazzi.

“It’s not that everybody has a camera. It’s that everybody has a cellphone and the cellphones all have cameras now.”

Call it cell-veillance.

Source: With tiny tech, a video little brother is always watching

TechEBlog has published their list of the top five strangest webcams. The list includes such webcams as the “USB Webcam with Telescopic Lens” the “360-Degree Webcam” and a stuffed animal webcam called the “Puppy Dog Webcam”.

You can view the entire webcam list along with descriptions and pictures @ Top 5 Strangest Webcams.

CNET News is reporting on a new use of cell phone mics by the FBI as eavesdropping devices. The FBI is using a “roving bug” technology that allows them to remotely activate a user’s cell phone mic to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The “roving bug” technology allows for eavesdropping even in surveillance situations where the user’s cell phone is powered off.

From CNET News —

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a “roving bug,” and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.

The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the “roving bug” was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect’s cell phone.

Kaplan’s opinion said that the eavesdropping technique “functioned whether the phone was powered on or off.” Some handsets can’t be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.

Source: FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

Here is an interesting site that allows you to trace a networked computer’s IP address, down to the nearest country, city, zip code - and have the location plotted on a Google map.

Search and Map IP Addresses

Wired News is reporting on a new technology startup called Reputation Defender that promises to help users delete and clean up their online reputation ( for a fee of course ).

From the article –

The mistakes you make on the internet can live forever — unless you hire somebody to clean up after you.

A new startup, ReputationDefender, will act on your behalf by contacting data hosting services and requesting the removal of any materials that threaten your good social standing. Any web citizen willing to pay ReputationDefender’s modest service fees can ask the company to seek and destroy embarrassing office party photos, blog posts detailing casual drug use or saucy comments on social networking profiles.

Source: Delete Your Bad Web Rep

CIO.com is reporting that an expected upgrade in the Skype 3.0 internet phone software will include the ability to automatically detect and call phone numbers found on web pages.

This should be a handy feature for Skype users who do regular online public record research and people searches.

From the article –

Skype will begin testing an upgrade of its free communications software that can automatically detect phone numbers in webpages and initiate calls…

The new feature that recognizes telephone numbers in a webpage is called Click-to-call. It allows users to place calls to those numbers using the fee-based SkypeOut service.

Source: Skype Upgrade to Get Smart New Features

Silive.com is reporting on a surveillance camera system that will monitor crime and potential terrorist threats on New York City buses.

From the article –

The camera-equipped buses were rolled out at the Michael J. Quill Depot, West 41st Street and 11th Avenue, to show off the $5.2 million system developed by Integrian Inc.

The state-of-the-art crimefighting camera system features multiple interior cameras, including one that faces forward to display the bus driver’s view.

The cameras are connected to a digital video recorder, which stores the footage for possible use in the investigation of accident injury claims and prosecution of criminal activity.

The new surveillance system will be a great deterrent of crime and vandalism, New York City Transit spokesman Charles Seaton said, adding that it also will be an important weapon against terrorism.

Source: New cameras will eye crooks on city buses

This 11/06/2006 article from Business Week details the pros and cons of the various people search, mapping and tracking technology that are featured on cell phones.

From the article –

They’re becoming increasingly sophisticated tracking devices popular in social networking circles

By now, anyone with a Net connection is familiar with social networking sites such as MySpace.com. The only name that may score higher on the buzz-o-meter is Barack Obama. But the momentum has really just begun. Site operators are linking their services to cell phones, enabling users to stay in constant touch without booting up a PC. Social networking has “become so incredibly viral,” says MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, “it makes all the sense in the world to port this to a mobile device.”

Now more cell services are incorporating location-based satellite technology and maps from the likes of Navteq Corp., making all kinds of social applications possible. Services such as Dodgeball.com, Geocaching.com, and Plazes.com help satellite-linked users find restaurants, nightclubs, and movie theaters, and learn where friends in their network are congregating. All they need to do is press a few buttons to pull up the best route to a desired destination.

Source: The Long Arm Of The Cell Phone

A Taiwan-based technology company is reportedly the first to develop a Wi-Fi cell phone that is exclusively compatible with the Skype VoIP phone service. Users of this new cell phone will be able to make free Skype calls from any accessible Wi-Fi network.

From Blogger News –

Accton Technology Corporation, an elite provider of telecommunications and networking, unveiled its latest contribution to the evolving world of technology. The Taiwan based company has developed the first Wi-Fi phone made exclusively for Skype compatabilities. The phone, entitled the Accton VM1185T, is the first hand-held device to come equipped with Skype’s Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software. Because of this rarity the Accton VM1185T was subjected to pass Skype’s vigorous one month testing phase. It passed with flying colors.

Source: First Wi-Fi Cell Phone with Skype Compatabilities

Engadget is reporting on a German driver, who was so single-mindedly focused on the directions from his GPS navigation system that he forgot to pay attention to numerous road construction signs and crashed his Mercedes into a pile of sand.

Lesson — “Technology is a great tool, but don’t let it do your thinking for you.”

Article: Motorist has faith in GPS, drives into sandpile