CARS.gov Site Accused of Government Takeover of PC's

Where is the "Privacy Czar"?

The US Federal Government's Cars.gov site, which facilitates the Cash for Clunkers program, lets the government take over the using dealer's PC and everything in it. The dealer actually has to deem his PC government property, and assign its content. Does the consumer know his info has been turned over to the Treasury?

Few would take seriously anything reported by Glen Beck or Fox News, but they broke the story. Beck tries to make it seem like this applies to consumer use of the site, which it does not, but if you are a dealer, you are in danger for two reasons.

First, the feds have control of your computer and all of its content. Files, passwords, downloads, emails, web site surfed - theirs.

Second, the consumer surely isn't noticed that they are turning over all info given to the dealer - credit, references, income, deposits, etc. - to the feds. This will surely lead to privacy violation lawsuits from the consumers against the car dealers.

Here's Beck's story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy8wgS69xjI

US Rates Poorly in Corruption Index

Transparency.org has issued its latest Corruption Barometer, whereby citizens polled rate various categories of corruption in their countries.

In the categories of Political Parties, Legislature, and Private Sector the US rated worse then Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia, among others.

See the entire report at:

http://media.transparency.org/fbooks/reports/gcb_2009/

Feds at DefCon Alarmed After RFID’s Scanned | Threat Level | Wired.com

Those following the privacyauthority.org entry http://privacy-pimp.blogspot.com/2009/07/chips-in-official-ids-raise-privacy.html will be interested to in this update.

Feds get a taste of their own Medicine in Las Vegas annual hacker summit.

Feds at DefCon Alarmed After RFID’s Scanned Threat Level : Wired.com

The security risks of RFID use have been visited on the very federal agent proponents of such devices. Fortunately for the feds, this surprise took place in the somewhat safer environment of the DefCon hacker convention in Las Vegas.

The amiable individuals who scanned the feds were nice enough to destroy the data in front of the feds, causing heartbeats to resume their regular rythm.

Another lesson in Las Vegas.