PRIVACY ORIENTED | From the age of BIG BROTHER – greetings!

Pacific tax havens at risk: report

Jemima Garrett, Last Updated: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:34:00 +1000

The international campaign against tax havens has driven three Pacific Island nations’ off-shore finance centres out of business, according to a new report.

The report, by the Pacific Legal Network, warns of serious implications for the remaining centres in Samoa, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands.

Six Pacific nations are on the “Tax Haven Grey List” run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Pacific Legal Network says conditions imposed by the OECD have forced Niue, Nauru and the Marshall Islands to close down their off-shore finance centres.

Kim Ralston, the Pacific Legal Network’s tax haven expert, says Pacific countries must get off the OECD Grey List if they want to keep their finance centres.

“Pacific Island countries really need to undertake a cost-benefit analysis and to determine whether it is worth retaining their offshore financial centres in light of the increased regulation costs,” she said.

She says the countries must also consider whether they are worth keeping “in light of the stigma attached to them and how that might actually affect their economy.”

The world is in dire need of a free, anonymous, encrypted webmail provider that does not have anti-privacy insecurity or other major problems. There are currently a few outfits on the net that seem to attempt to fill this gap, but they all fall short. The biggest ones are listed here, along with why they’re inadequate.

Hushmail.com
Hosting: Canada
Incorporation: Canada
The Problem: Hushmail’s webmail is not secure at all and Hushmail has a history of giving up information to foreign governments persuant to Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties. Also the webmail requires Javascript and cookies. NSA access allegations (which they deny). Three weeks of not signing in and they hold your account for ransom.

Safe-Mail.net
Hosting: Israel
Incorporation: Israel
The Problem: Israel. Israel’s government, that is. That and Safe-Mail’s privacy policy is laughable. NSA access allegations (which they deny).  See my previous blog post for more on Safe-mail. Requires javascript upon initial signin.

AnonymousSpeech.com
Hosting: Malaysia
Incorporation: Switerland
The Problem: You only get 14 days before your free account needs to be paid for or it is deactivated. An e-mail address here, such as john.smith@anonymousspeech.com, is not good for using for every day business. People will wonder why you need such an anonymous account and think you must have something illegal going on! Also requires javascript.

MailVault.com
Hosting: Germany
Incorporation: Unknown, maybe none
The Problem: Hosting is down every once in a while, or logging in gives an error with an unknown cause quite often. The SSL certificate is usually long expired. The webmail app can be buggy. Also, early on there were allegations from a credible source of MailVault employees reading client’s confidential e-mails. MailVault is also run by MetroPipe, which has bad reviews (scroogle “metropipe”+”scam”). The story of MailVault’s creation is interesting as well. In none of what I just wrote am I referring to what Privacy.li has written about MailVault/Metropipe. Mailvault management doesn’t respond to client or potential client e-mails, and I can only hope that that is the case when a government agency e-mails them.

Cyber-Rights.net
Hosting: Canada
Incorporation: UK
The Problem: All the same ones as Hushmail, because they piggyback off of hushmail, but it’s even worse beause they’re in the UK.

S-Mail.com
Hosting: Russia
Incorporation: Ireland
The Problem: Requires java, javascript & cookies. I don’t know about much else with S-Mail.

I’m going to be asking the above e-mail providers about their privacy practices sometime in the future. Stay tuned for the results. I’m sure it will give us new reasons to fear most of them.

What the world needs is a webmail provider with the following:

1. free accounts for an unlimited time (could be limited in size to some amount within reason)
2. offshore incorporation (most important is that they’re not in: US, UK, EU, Israel or Canada)
3. offshore servers (most important is that they’re not in: US, UK, EU, Israel or Canada. Good places might be: Panama, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Switzerland, Bahamas, Andorra, Etc.)
4. PGP encryption built in
5. does not transmit user IP addresses with e-mails
6. does not require cookies, java, flash, javascript, active x or any other scripts.
7. preferably no logs
8. no storing of your encryption keys, if possible, so the provider can’t read your encrypted e-mail
9. pseudoanonymous way to pay for upgraded service (cash by mail, money orders, e-currencies, Western Union, MoneyGram, etc.)

Any offshore e-mail providers I’m missing? Post a comment and I might add that service.

We have officially reached Reason #19,000,000 to never even visit the UK. (No I don’t hate the English – it’s just that the government over there has elevated their tyranny to the status of: LUDICROUS!) Now this from the Telegraph:

Environmental protesters taking part in a mass protest camp in London will be photographed by police as they arrive, officers have confirmed.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent for The London Telegraph
Published: 10:48AM BST 26 Aug 2009

The police have vowed to use ‘community style’ policing following criticism of how they dealt with G20 Photo: PA

Up to 3,000 people are expected to join the week-long Climate Camp to protest against the institutions and industries they believe are causing global warming.

Protesters will gather at six points across London including the headquarters of BP and Shell and the Bank of England before “swooping” on an undisclosed location.

The exact site of the camp remains a closely-guarded secret until the last minute, although it is widely thought to be a “grassy area” somewhere in East London.

Police will be present at every swoop location and have brought in extra officers to ensure there are around 500 police on the campsite everyday.

Ch Supt Helen Ball, of the Metropolitan Police, said taking photographs of protesters remains an important tactic.

“At the moment we will be photographing people on arrival at the camp because it is important for us to know if there are people coming who want to cause violence and disorder,” she said.

However activists have vowed to respond by blocking the views of photographers with placards and banners and persistently taking pictures of the photographers themselves.

The police said all activists will not be routinely searched before entering the camp. Protesters have already been warned to leave penknifes and any sharp implements at home.

Up to 30 officers based at the Met’s Lambeth control room will oversee developments at the climate camp via a network of CCTV cameras. Operators have access to more than 12,000 cameras across the capital, plus live feeds from the force’s three helicopters.

I’m told that speaking to journalists on the condition of anonymity, an EU official said August 21 that the EU and the EU member states plan to contact Swiss authorities to formalize an agreement that would enable the transfer of bank account information of EU citizens suspected of tax fraud and evasion by depositing large amounts of funds in secret bank accounts.

They said:

We do welcome favourably the fact that it was possible [for Switzerland] to assist the United States in [the UBS] case. We expect a similar request from EU member states to Switzerland would not receive different treatment. Any action to seek to improve good governance and transparency in the area of tax affairs is to be welcome.

AP | Last updated 09:30 25/08/2009

A Swiss government official is demanding that Google immediately take off the internet any image of Switzerland in its Street View Maps, and the company said it would discuss the matter with the privacy rights regulator.

Hanspeter Thuer, federal data protection commissioner, said Google’s pictures were violating Switzerland’s strict privacy laws by failing to obscure people’s identities.

“Numerous faces and license numbers weren’t blurred or were done so inadequately,” said Thuer’s statement, adding that he “demands that

Google immediately take its Google Street View online service off the internet” until it can ensure that public images respect Swiss law.

Google’s Street View mapping service offers detailed street-level images. Since launching in 2007, it has expanded to more than 100 cities worldwide but has faced privacy complaints from many individuals and institutions that have been photographed.

Greece’s Data Protection Authority rejected Google’s bid earlier this year to roam Greek streets with cameras mounted on vehicles, while the Pentagon barred Google from photographing US military bases for the service.

Residents of a small English village formed a human chain in April to stop one of Google’s camera vans, while in Japan some complained that the service provided a view over the fences around their homes, prompting Google to agree to re-shoot all photos in the country.

Thuer said he would meet with Google early this week, and the company responded by saying it was looking forward to sharing views.

“We are excited about the discussion with the commissioner to hear his thoughts and to respond by demonstrating how we protect the private sphere with Street View,” said Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel.

“Since the launch last week the product has proven to be very popular with the Swiss people,” he said. “Google Maps had an 80 per cent increase in volume and only a small number of requests to erase pictures.”

Google Switzerland spokesman Matthias Meyer said these problems needed to be understood in the context of millions of pictures. When complaints have been made, Google has responded.

“In cases where a deletion or further blending was demanded, we have shown that our technology works very effectively,” Meyer said. “In most cases, the pictures are deleted within hours.”

One Swiss image made news over the weekend as it clearly captured national parliamentarian Ruedi Noser on the street walking with a woman.

The woman has been identified as his assistant, but the weekly NZZ am Sonntag quoted Noser as demanding the “instant shutdown of Street View” until Google can guarantee that it properly hides the identities of people in 100 per cent of cases.

“There is probably no problem for my wife, as you could also recognize my companion in the picture,” the paper quoted Noser as saying.

The Swiss media has been littered with negative reactions to the images, but the pro-business NZZ urged a cautious regulatory response.

“Shutting it down would be wrong,” it said in an opinion article. “The people in the pictures are coincidental extras and not victims of paparazzi.”

By KATHERINE NEWTON – The Dominion Post

A fake driver’s licence might make it past the guy behind the liquor store counter but it won’t fool a new machine designed to catch out the fakers.

Lower Hutt company MillenTech has developed an ID authentication system that uses infrared to scan driver’s licences and 18+ cards and tell the bogus from the bona fide.

The Passmate, which is about the size of an eftpos machine, can read security features such as watermarks and near-infrared ink, displaying the information on a laptop screen and alerting shopkeepers if anything is missing.

Because it could detect things invisible to the naked eye, it could pick out even the most sophisticated of fakes, MillenTech spokesman Brent Ching said. “When someone’s trying to create a fraudulent ID, [infrared ink] is very difficult to do.”

The technology is based on passport readers that are already used at airports around the world, but the card scanner is more compact, making it “nice and easy” for bouncers, supermarket cashiers and other shopkeepers to use.

The scanner solved the problem of staff not always feeling confident about declining somebody’s ID, Mr Ching said.

“If you transfer that responsibility on to a machine, there’s no arguing. We seem to be programmed that if a machine tells us something, it’s just accepted.”

The Passmate is having trial runs in the next fortnight at two Karori liquor stores Super Liquor and The Cellar Room. After the trial period, MillenTech will iron out any kinks and then hopes to begin marketing the system, Mr Ching said.

The final retail cost of the scanner had not been decided but he said it would be about $3500. However, he expected that most businesses would prefer to rent the equipment.

Alcohol Advisory Council chief executive Gerard Vaughan welcomed news of the scanner, saying fake IDs were a big problem for the hospitality industry and stores.

“Anything that can assist them to uphold their responsibilities under the Sale of Liquor Act not to sell to people under 18 would be helpful.”

He looked forward to hearing the results from the trials of the Passmate in the two Karori liquor shops.

By Evan Ratliff, August 13, 2009  | Wired

For Matthew Alan Sheppard, all of the anxiety, deception, and delusion converged in one moment on a crisp winter weekend in February 2008. From the outside, he hardly seemed like a man prepared to abandon everything. At 42, he’d been happily married for 10 years, with a 7-year-old daughter and a comfortable home in Searcy, Arkansas. An environmental health and safety manager for the electrical parts maker Eaton, he’d risen in three years from overseeing a plant in Searcy to covering more than 30 facilities throughout North and South America. A recent raise had pushed his salary close to six figures. To his coworkers and hunting buddies, he seemed an amiable guy with a flourishing career.

To Sheppard, though, that same life felt like it was collapsing in on itself. With his promotion had come the stress of new responsibilities and frequent travel. He had been steadily putting on weight and now tipped the scale at more than 300 pounds. Financially he was beyond overextended. A gadget lover whose spending always seemed to exceed his income, he had begun shifting his personal expenses to his corporate credit card — first dinner and drinks, then a washer and dryer, then family vacations. In early February, when an Eaton official emailed to inquire about his expense reports, he felt everything closing in. He began devising a plan to escape.

So on a Friday two weeks later, Sheppard drove with his wife, Monica, their daughter, and his mother-in-law to a rented cabin in the foothills of the Ozarks on the picturesque Little Red River, an hour from Searcy. He called it a much-needed last-minute getaway for the family, and for most of the weekend, it was.

Then, in the fading Sunday afternoon light, with his daughter and mother-in-law occupied in the cabin, Sheppard walked down to the dock with Monica and their black lab, Fluke. When Monica looked away, Sheppard helped the dog — always eager for a swim, just as he’d counted on — off the platform and into the Little Red River’s notoriously deadly current. His wife looked back just in time to see Sheppard heave his own 300-pound frame into the river after their beloved lab.

Thrashing in the 39-degree water, Sheppard managed to hand the leash up to Monica, who hauled the dog to safety. But he struggled to swim back to the dock. Flailing desperately, he gasped that he was having trouble breathing. A moment later, as the current pulled him downstream, his head dipped below the surface and didn’t reappear.

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Does anybody remember PowerPrivacy? Archive.org sure doesn’t seem to…

They were an outfit that wrote reports about, reviewed and sold memberships to privacy services… they dissapeared one day this year, rather suddenly, it seemed to me anyway. And just when I was going to buy a membership too. It was only like $30 / year or something.

I remember thinking of signing up before, but they did not have a non-credit card / PayPal way to pay. How stupid is that? That’s not private at all!

Anyway, if you’re the PowerPrivacy proprietor, or if you know what happened, won’t you e-mail me? Contact details are on the About Privacy Oriented page up above.