Cryptogon has a post on a law proposing videoing of drivers in cars - Proposed Law Would Put Video Cameras In Cars.

I’m sure the FBI wouldn’t access these cameras, like they access the microphones on the cell phones that people are carrying around. Oh no. Never.

Via: CBS:

Lawmakers are considering controversial new legislation this week that would allow vehicles to be equipped with dashboard cameras to record the moments leading up to accidents.

The proposed law, AB1942, would promote safer driving habits and reduce accidents by permitting video recorders to be installed on the windshield.

The bill currently allows devices to record video, audio, how fast and which direction the vehicle is traveling, a history of where your car has been, steering and brake performance and seat belt usage.

The devices would record in a continuous loop and would only save information if there is unusual vehicle motion or a crash. They could also be capable of transmitting the information to a central control center the moment of the accident.

Proponents say there are enough safety measures to avoid an invasion of privacy, but others call the proposal a huge overreach of government power.

The post mostly caught my eye because of this reference to an old CNet article on eavesdropping on mobile phone users, even when their phones are switched off -FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool.

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.

While the Genovese crime family prosecution appears to be the first time a remote-eavesdropping mechanism has been used in a criminal case, the technique has been discussed in security circles for years.

The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."

Cryptogon also has some thoughts about Matt Simmons' passing away - Matt Simmons Dead “Of An Apparent Heart Attack”.

Core77 points to a Bruce Sterling talk at the Lift Asia conference on urban poverty that is replacing rural poverty as the world's peasants migrate to the cities and what mobile phone networks mean for them ("there is no cell phone divide" between rich and poor) - Mobiles and the Urban Poor.

Bruce Sterling's talk at LIFT Asia, about how the poor are moving to cities, using mobile technologies to access services like payment, was impressive.

But what made it simply brilliant was his discussion on how the future collapse of North Korea will present South Korea with a challenge of enormous proportions, and how mobile technology and mobile payment can be part of the solution:

"When you are working on cell phones, when you are working on the web, when you are working on electronic money and payment systems, you need to think: What if my user is a North-Korean? How would I do this differently if I knew my user was from Pyongyang, that his regime had collapsed, that his economy had collapsed, he was completely bewildered, and he had never seen a cell phone or a computer in his life, and I intended to make him a productive and happy fellow citizen in ten years, what kind of technology would I give that person, what kind of trading system, economic system?"

According to LIFT organiser Laurent Haug he moved a large part of the audience, leaving a strange silence in the room as they came out for the break.

The Daily Tech reports on plans to bring high speed internet access to the developing world - Google Funds Startup to Bring Cheap Satellite Internet to 3 Billion People. The article calls this "cheap" access, but the pricing terminology is confusing - $500 per megabit per month doesn't sound cheap to me.

New company will use unique scheme to dramatically cut costs, deliver high speed internet to remote locations

While over 80 percent of Americans are online, broadband adoption is growing slower than expected. The problem stems from the fiber optics business. Buoyed by high demand and exuberance, fiber optic companies laid down high speed cables across the oceans to support the data demands of hungry 3G and cable internet networks.

After these cables were laid the demand slacked off predictably, leaving the fiber optic companies with little revenue and high debts. Many were bought up by larger companies and consolidated. In the aftermath, over 3 billion people were left without access to high speed networks and new installations reduced to a crawl. The only alternative was geosatellite, which costs a whopping $4,000 USD per megabit per month.

Now a new company is seeking to change that. The company, O3B, draws its name from the phrase "other 3 billion" to describe the world's population with no internet coverage. The company, located in U.K.'s Channel Islands, is building 16 satellites thanks to $65M USD in funding from HSBC Principal Investments, a private equity provider; Liberty Global, a service provider for phone and Internet access in 15 countries; and Google. ...

O3B's unique plan is to launch medium-earth orbit (MEO) satellites, which orbit at 5,000 miles and only have 120 millisecond latency and are less expensive compared to geosatellites which orbit at 22,500 miles, have a latency of up to 600 milliseconds, and cost more. The new satellites are predicted to cut costs down to around $500 USD per megabit per month, much more affordable.

The ABC has a strange article on mobile phone surveillence, pointing the finger at China.

Serious concerns were raised at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos last week about the ability of the Chinese Government to spy on the country's 500 million mobile phone users. The head of China's biggest mobile phone company, which has more than 300 million subscribers, stunned delegates by revealing that the company had unlimited access to the personal data of its customers and handed it over to Chinese security officials when demanded.

The admission, described as "bone-chilling" by US Congressman Ed Markey, sent shivers through an audience of telecom experts at WEF who immediately saw the potential for misuse and surveillance. "We know who you are, but also where you are," said the CEO of China Mobile Communications Corporation, Wang Jianzhou, whose company adds six million new customers to its network each month and is already the biggest mobile group in the world by users.

He was explaining how the company could use the personal data of its customers to sell advertising and services to them based on knowledge of where they were and what they were doing. When pressed about the privacy and security implications of this, he added: "We can access the information and see where someone is, but we never give this information away ... only if the security authorities ask for it."

The movement of mobile phone users can be tracked because they connect to local base stations, giving a trail that can only be accessed in most democratic countries by security officials under strict conditions. Mobile phones can also be easily tapped.

Mr Markey, who is chairman of the US House of Representatives subcommittee on telecommunications, contrasted the situation with the checks and controls in place in the United States, where a court order is required for the government to check phone records. "I have my eyebrows arched so high they're hitting the ceiling," he told AFP after listening to Mr Wang. "I have many, many more questions about what the relationship is with the government and moreover how the company can use that information."

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that mobile phone companies know who you are (in fact, they'd be in trouble if they didn't) and and where you are - or that they pass this information to governments - this has been true as long as mobile phones have been around.

I do like the way Congressman thinks its OK for security agencies in the West to be able to listen in and track anyone using their phone (even when it is against the law), but not to sell targeted advertising. I also wonder if location based marketers will have some of the same problems the FBI does ?

I think the location based marketing stuff could be taken a step forward - if rumours that mobile phones allow remote eavesdropping even when they are turned off are true (which might explain why people can get in trouble for not carrying their phone around), perhaps marketers could use this feature to extend the telemarketing concept to pestering people on the move.

For example, a person could be passing by a McDonalds, and a marketing surveillence bot could recognise that they have said "I'm hungry" in the last half an hour and haven't been into a restaurant, or anywhere else they could buy food, since.

Instantly it dispatches a job to a person in a call centre to call you this person up on their phone and suggest thay drop in to Macca's for something to eat. For business's with loyalty programs they could even give them hints on what their new balance would be or if they have any freebies to claim.

What a brave new world that would be - and we're risking the Chinese getting their first while we dawdle and quibble over who is allowed to perform mass surveillance and under what circumstances...

Moving on, I had a good laugh when I read the news that a "rogue trader" had somehow lost 5 billion Euros of French Bank Societe General's money - I know I'm a bit cynical but this is the most ridiculous story I've read in a long time. Everyone else is losing billions from the ARM / CDO / toxic debt fiasco, but these guys - they have a rogue trader. Sure.

Meanwhile, the LA Times reports that some homeowners now in a negative equity situation are walking away from their mortgages and telling their banks to foreclose on them. I was in Hong Kong at the height of their real estate boom in the 1990's and saw a few people do this after the bust. Hopefully both the lenders and the borrowers learn from their display of excessive greed and stupidity earlier this decade and we don't see a repeat of this foolishness for a generation or two.

More foolishness (of a rather more immoral and unpleasant nature) is going on in Iraq, with the decaying Bush administration trying to lock the Iraqi "government" into an agreement that allows the US military and their mercenaries to do as they please for the foreseeable future. Guess they still have some more persuading to do to get the locals to hand over the oil...