Apple ‘spy planes’ to film homes from the air

Apple has recruited a private fleet of aeroplanes equipped with military standard cameras to produce 3D maps so accurate they could film people in their homes through skylights, according to reports.

Tim Cook announces the new Apple iPad in San Francisco. Photo: Bloomberg

By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent

7:41AM BST 11 Jun 2012

The US software giant is expected to announce this week a new “Maps” programme for iPhones and iPads allowing users to view images previously out of reach to anyone but the intelligence services.

Producing images of streets, homes and gardens so clear they will show objects just 4in across and display the sides of buildings as well as their roofs, the product is aimed as a direct challenge to Google Maps.

The technology is understood to have already been tested in 20 cities across the world including London following Apple’s acquisition of C3 Technologies, a Swedish 3D mapping business, last year.

Google, Apple’s arch rival, last week announced plans to generate 3D maps for entire metropolitan areas for use on its mobile devices, which will also involve the use of cameras mounted on aeroplanes.

In recent years the search engine has been heavily criticised for its use of Street View cars which photographed entire cities from street level and, the company later admitted, secretly harvested personal information from unsecured household wifi networks.

Nick Pickles, director of the Big Brother Watch privacy campaign group, said the new technology was more invasive than Street View because it would “take us over the garden fence”.

“You won’t be able to sunbathe in your garden without worrying about an Apple or Google plane buzzing overhead taking pictures,” he told the Sunday Times.

Apple was not available for comment. Google said in its announcement last week: “Since 2006, we’ve had textured 3D buildings in Google Earth, and we are excited to announce that we will begin adding 3D models to entire metropolitan areas to Google Earth on mobile devices.

“This is possible thanks to a combination of our new imagery rendering techniques and computer vision that let us automatically create 3D cityscapes, complete with buildings, terrain and even landscaping, from 45-degree aerial imagery. By the end of the year we aim to have 3D coverage for metropolitan areas with a combined population of 300 million people.”

Apple to release new way for mobile app makers to track software users

By Jessica E. Vascellaro
Dow Jones Newswires

Workers put an Apple logo on the Mos- cone West Center in San Francisco. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off Monday. (David Paul Morris, Bloomberg News)
Apple is planning to release a new way for mobile app developers to track who uses their software, according to people briefed on Apple’s plans. It is the company’s latest attempt to balance developers’ appetite for targeting data with consumers’ unease over how that data is used.

The new tool, which could be detailed in the coming weeks, aims to better protect user privacy than existing approaches, these people said.

It comes after Apple last summer rattled the mobile industry by saying it would stop allowing app makers to use a unique identifier embedded in iPhones and iPads to track users across different apps. So far, the company hasn’t aggressively enforced that policy.

Many mobile companies rely on what is called the unique device identifier, or UDID, to serve ads and gather data — such as location and preferences — as people move between apps. But some privacy advocates argued that the string of numbers, which are anonymous, could be coupled with enough data to identify individuals.

How Apple’s new technology works and what it will allow developers to track remains unclear.

Read more: Apple to release new way for mobile app makers to track software users – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_20817736/apple-release-new-way-mobile-app-makers-track#ixzz1xOMsvyxh

Facebook Now Administering Organ Donor Status for its Members

Hayley Tsukayama
Washington Post
May 2, 2012

Facebook has added a unique feature to its social network: you can now tell the world — or just your family members — that you’re an organ donor.

The company announced the initiative on Tuesday, encouraging its 900 million users to let others know if they are organ donors.

… In that interview, Zuckerberg said that his relationship with Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs inspired him to use the social network for spreading awareness. Jobs underwent a liver transplant while being treated for pancreatic cancer. Zuckerberg’s girlfriend, who is in medical school to be a pediatrician, also encouraged him to add the tool.

In its FAQ section about the project, Facebook said: “More than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives. Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis.”

Read full report here

Cellphone Radiation Detector App Banned by Apple

Mike Barrett
Pressforactivism.com
Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Although many individuals think nothing of radiation emitted by cell phones, or even believe it to be true, there is a large amount of evidence showing how damaging cell phone use can actually be. In response to the released information and growing fear of cell phone radiation, a company has ironically released a mobile app which reportedly measures radiation levels emitted by smart phones.

Company Creates Radiation Detector App, Apple Bans it from App Store

The app was created by an Israeli company named Tawkon, and while not necessarily brand new, is relatively unknown. The lack of popularity probably has much to do with Apple’s banning of the app from their online app store since Apple rules the smartphone market. The company instituted the ban because it felt the app would be confusing to customers, though the ban was likely due to the fact that the app could only decrease sales for Apple’s iPhone. Whether Apple’s decision was driven by profit or not, there are some valid questions and concerns regarding the app’s accuracy.

Using a complex proprietary algorithm, Tawkon estimates the amount of radiation emitted by cell phones at any moment. As a way to measure the amount of radiation being emitted and ultimately picked up by the user, the company considers factors like current antenna strength, and whether a headset is being used or speakerphone is currently selected. The problem, however, is that the app depends on radiation baseline figures provided by device manufacturers. The app itself has no way of actually measuring radiation emissions, so it must rely on the publicly posted radiation emission quotes by manufacturers in order to estimate a device’s radiation output at all times.

Even if the app does rely on the figures from manufacturers, the creation of the app is a step in the right direction. Cell phone use has been shown to cause numerous problems and health complications by altering important regions of the brain. Consequences ranging from a negative influence on fetal brains to the downfall of biological systems of birds, insects, and humans has been pinpointed as a result of these devices and their respective towers (cell towers). What’s most concerning, though, is the impact they have on young, developing minds and bodies. Tons of evidence shows why children should not be using cell phones.

Although completely limiting exposure is nearly impossible, taking steps to avoid exposure to cell phone radiation is important. Simply talking on your cell phone less will result in less radiation exposure. Even placing your cell phone far away from you instead of in your pocket at all times limits exposure. You may also consider investing in an EMF protector or other similar technologies that limit exposure.

This post first appeared at Natural Society

Microchips Track Within Centimeters of your Location

Uploaded by TheAlexJonesChannel

 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The development of a new microchip for cell phones that knows the user’s location to within a few centimeters confirms the fact that contrary to biblical fears about mandatory implantable microchips, people have willingly exchanged their privacy for convenience and that the cell phone itself is the de facto “mark of the beast”.

“Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out,” reports MIT Technology Review.

“In theory, the new chip can even determine what floor of a building you’re on, thanks to its ability to integrate information from the atmospheric pressure sensor on many models of Android phones. The company calls abilities like this “ubiquitous navigation,” and the idea is that it will enable a new kind of e-commerce predicated on the fact that shopkeepers will know the moment you walk by their front door, or when you are looking at a particular product, and can offer you coupons at that instant.”

Over 82% of Americans own cell phones, with around half of these being smart phones. In the near future, the majority of Americans will own smart phones that will have the ability to track their location down to a few centimeters.

With the effort to legally establish surveillance drones as a legitimate tool in domestic law enforcement, authorities could save a lot of time and money by simply requesting cell phone companies provide real-time tracking of suspects via their smart phones.

Indeed, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all been caught secretly tracking the physical locations of their users and saving that information to a file. How long is it before such data is instantly available to law enforcement bodies on demand, just as governments are legislating that ISPs and cell phone companies divulge our web browsing histories, email, texts and call information?
http://wrc559.com/2012/04/11/new-microchip-knows-your-location-to-within-centimeters/

New Microchip Knows Your Location To Within Centimeters

Forget a chip in your forehead – the ‘mark of the beast’ is the cell phone

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The development of a new microchip for cell phones that knows the user’s location to within a few centimeters confirms the fact that contrary to biblical fears about mandatory implantable microchips, people have willingly exchanged their privacy for convenience and that the cell phone itself is the de facto “mark of the beast”.

“Broadcom has just rolled out a chip for smart phones that promises to indicate location ultra-precisely, possibly within a few centimeters, vertically and horizontally, indoors and out,” reports MIT Technology Review.

“In theory, the new chip can even determine what floor of a building you’re on, thanks to its ability to integrate information from the atmospheric pressure sensor on many models of Android phones. The company calls abilities like this “ubiquitous navigation,” and the idea is that it will enable a new kind of e-commerce predicated on the fact that shopkeepers will know the moment you walk by their front door, or when you are looking at a particular product, and can offer you coupons at that instant.”

Over 82% of Americans own cell phones, with around half of these being smart phones. In the near future, the majority of Americans will own smart phones that will have the ability to track their location down to a few centimeters.

With the effort to legally establish surveillance drones as a legitimate tool in domestic law enforcement, authorities could save a lot of time and money by simply requesting cell phone companies provide real-time tracking of suspects via their smart phones.

Indeed, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all been caught secretly tracking the physical locations of their users and saving that information to a file. How long is it before such data is instantly available to law enforcement bodies on demand, just as governments are legislating that ISPs and cell phone companies divulge our web browsing histories, email, texts and call information?

Biblical fears about the ‘mark of the beast’ being an implantable microchip forcibly injected into our foreheads have proven to be off base. Coercion was not necessary because people have been enticed into willingly giving up their privacy for convenience.

Indeed, paranoia about not being able to buy or sell without the ‘mark’ is now coming full circle with the increasing use of cell phones as payment gateways linked to credit cards.

Peer pressure and cultural brainwashing has also played a role – someone who doesn’t own a cell phone will find it almost impossible to operate in the modern world unless they live like a recluse or make a living by running a farm in the middle of nowhere.

The ‘Internet of things’ – where every appliance is connected to the world wide web – has been hailed by spooks as a green light for ubiquitous panopticon-style surveillance of the individual.

Broadcom’s new microchip will also make it easier for industry to accelerate plans to use Minority Report-style targeted advertising against consumers.

“The use case [for Bluetooth beacons] might be malls,” says Scott Pomerantz, vice president of the GPS division at Broadcom,. “It would be a good investment for a mall to put up a deployment—perhaps put them up every 100 yards, and then unlock the ability for people walking around mall to get very precise couponing information.”

The only way that technology can advance without destroying basic human rights in the process is if strong new legislation is passed increasing the penalties against both industry and government for using such technology to spy on users. However, the opposite is happening, with each new technological leap being dovetailed by aggressive efforts on behalf of the state to eviscerate what little privacy rights we have left.

Global Warming Exploited to Steal Aussie Land

Uploaded by 2WAYFM

Time to Talk hosts Malcolm Roberts who is convinced Global Warming is a manufactured phenomenon designed to create fear and rob people of their basic human rights. The residents of Lake Cathie, near Port Macquarie, have launched a campaign to fight their local council against moves to force some to vacate their homes.

The global warming controversy includes a variety of disputes about the nature, causes, and consequences of global warming. The debates are more in the popular media than in the scientific literature.[1][2] The disputed issues involve the causes of increased global average air temperature, especially since the mid-20th century, whether such a warming trend is unprecedented or within normal climatic variations, whether humankind has contributed significantly to it, and whether the increase is wholly or partially an artifact of poor measurements. Additional disputes concern estimates of climate sensitivity, predictions of additional warming, and what the consequences of global warming will be.

In the scientific literature, there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases.[3][4][5] No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view,[6] though a few organizations hold non-committal positions