Big Brother's Ears

Rewritten from e-mail.

You probably already knew that the government can listen to your cell phone conversations, read your e-mail, go through all your laptop files at an airport and confiscate your laptop or PDA without an explanation.

But did you know they can listen to conversations wherever your cell phone is -- even if it's turned off? A simple version of this is reportedly routinely used in 9-1-1 emergency service tracking, where a signal can be sent to a cell phone that does not allow it to be turned off.

Or, did you know, that according to released documents when you are in a late model car with OnStar it's possible for private conversations in your car to be overheard -- even if you don't have a cell phone in the car?

This came out in a recent court case. Interestingly, the judge did not object to the FBI overhearing private conversations -- but to the fact that while a government agency was listening on the OnStar device, it couldn't be used for emergency services.

If you like that, you'll also love this.

Although it sounds 1984 paranoid, you can verify it, yourself. The government now requires tire manufactures to put in chips in tires that allows tracking your vehicle. This is mandated in tire standard AIAG B-11 ADC and it's illegal for manufacturers to sell tires in the U.S. that lack this untamperable RFID tracking chip.

There's a lot of legal and technical stuff related to all this from respectable sources on the Internet that explains how it all works -- and it's limitations.

Even it you trust the government in this "nothing's illegal for the sake of homeland security" era, this technology is also available to people who might love to listen in on anything from conversations about your business plans to your intimate conversations.

Even political strategy sessions could be a target.

Something to think about.

Assuming all this is true, the question is, how much of our privacy are we willing to give up -- or have taken from us -- for a sense of security?

This is a good topic for debate. Although the cases revealed in court primarily involve organized crime, suspected terrorists, and gangs, we can guess from the "redacted" passages in court documents that much is being kept secret.

Do you think Benjamin Franklin, one of the founders of our country, would have said the following if he lived in our era?

Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.

-Benjamin Franklin.

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