"Selling Your Soul To FaceApp?"

Every move we make online is being scrutinized.

Don't believe it? Only a few years ago, we reported on a creepy website called 'clickclickclick', developed to demonstrate how our online behavior is continuously measured.

According to news.com.au: "Dutch media company VPRO and Amsterdam-based interactive design company Studio Moniker are the masterminds behind the site, which observes and comments on your behaviour in great detail."

Why would they do such a thing?

The designers claim it was an experiment done in a "lighthearted" way to prove a point: Big Data has destroyed your privacy.

"From the minute you visit the website, it begins detailing your actions on the screen in real-time."

And get this--there's a voice offering a running commentary about your behavior.

"What we do is just a little funny: we use a voice, a kind of psychologist who will assign properties" (to your behavior), they say.

While VPRO and Studio Moniker may just be conducting a funny little experiment to bring awareness, Big Data is busy tracking and analyzing our every move.

Nothing funny about it, especially when you consider:

news.com.au now reports the FBI has been called in to investigate the wildly popular FaceApp over privacy concerns that could pose "national security and privacy risks for millions of U.S. citizens."

A wise man once said: "Your web searches about sensitive information might seem a secret between you and your search engine, but companies like Google are creating a treasure trove of personal information by logging your online activities and making it potentially available to any party wielding enough cash or a subpoena." -- Electronic Frontier Foundation

"Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops" -- Luke 12:3.

Click here to find out How To Go To Heaven 

News:

• The Wall Street Journal: Facebook and Google Algorithms Are Secret--but Australia plans to change that; Government considers limits to big tech's power
• Daily Mail: AI experts: pre-crime algorithms more magic than reality; comes with consequences
• Business Insider: Hacker reveals how to create the best password; use a "pass phrase"

"Is Your TV Spying On You?"

Did you hear that noise? It was the sound of all the paranoid conspiracy theorists flinging off their tinfoil hats.

That's right gang--all those crazies who insist they're being spied upon are right!

Samsung admits (hidden deep within the fine print) that while we watch our TVs, our TVs are watching us--or more accurately, listening in on our personal conversations.

Yep--all that pillow talk you and your significant other are having in the "privacy" of your bedroom are not only heard, but recorded and distributed to mysterious third parties.

Outrageous? You betcha. Makes us so angry we just might turn the stupid thing off.

According to ABC News Australia: "The company is warning people as part of its privacy policy that anything they say around their television will be 'among the data captured and transmitted to a third party' because of a voice recognition feature."

Oh, and if the transmission is not encrypted? "A Smart Hacker could conceivably turn your TV into an eavesdropping device," Samsung warns. (Don't look now, but we're thinkin' Samsung already has).

Privacy advocate, Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D., cautions consumers on the impact new technologies have on their civil liberties: "The explosion of new technologies that enable the tracking and monitoring of individuals has moved faster than any legal system can adapt." It appears it's up to the consumers to protect themselves.

While TPTB might like us to keep this stuff under our (tinfoil?) hats, we believe you have a right to know.

Bottom line? Buying a 'Smart TV'  may be a dumb move.

A wise man once said: "Anyone who makes you choose between privacy and security wants you to have neither." -- Cory Doctorow, writer

"For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which you have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops"  (Luke 12:2-3).

News:

• Associated Press: Obama proposes war authorization against Islamic State; "militants could pose threat to US homeland," he says.
• KFI Radio: Boston, already struggling under record snowfall amounts, expecting two more snowstorms this week.
• Moscow Times: "Russia Would See US Moves to Arm Ukraine as Declaration of War; Could Spark Escalation of Conflict," Russian defense analyst says.

"Kiss Your Privacy Good-bye--Update"

Remember back in the day when airport TSA x-ray scanners capable of seeing through your clothes seemed unbelievable?

Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Apparently, street lights are going high-tech and they're not just for lighting anymore.

These new-and-improved street lights are now capable of:

• video surveillance
• emergency alerts
• tracking "RFID-equipped staff"
• data harvesting (huh?)

According to researcher Paul Joseph Watson, 

"The company behind the 'smart' street lighting system which is being rolled out in major cities like Las Vegas admits that the technology has the capability of analyzing voices and tracking people, features that will aid the Department of Homeland Security in protecting its citizens."

(In Europe, where a similar system has been in place for a few years, they actually debated whether or not to x-ray to detect what people were concealing under their clothes!)

Illuminating Concepts, the inventor of Intellistreets, is working with the government to install the street lighting systems in parts of Chicago, Detroit, Auburn Hills, Asbury Park, New Orleans, and Las Vegas. (Though Vegas denies they are going to use the surveillance functions, you gotta wonder--why have 'em?)

"The ability to record street conversations is merely one special feature of the Intellistreets lighting system, which is linked to a central data hub via an ubiquitous wi-fi connection," says Watson.

What happens if they record something incriminating, you ask?

Can these recorded 'street conversations' be used in a court of law?

Legally, if there's no expectation of privacy, they can.

(sigh)

Remember back in the day when the expectation of privacy seemed believable?

Las Vegas and the Intellistreets system

"Then those who feared the LORD spoke with each other, and the LORD listened to what they said. In His presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared Him and loved to think about Him.

""They will be My people," says the Lord Almighty. "On that day when I act, they will be My own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient and dutiful child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."" (Malachi 3:16-18)

A wise man once said: "This verse explains that every time you talk about the LORD with another, God is paying close attention. In fact, the phrase Malachi uses here means 'to bend down so as not to miss a word'." -- Pastor Greg Laurie

News:

• Washington Free Beacon: Iran announces development of ballistic missile technology just days after signing deal aimed at curbing nuclear activities
• Daily Caller: EPA preparing to unleash a deluge of new regulations in the coming New Year.
• CBN: A book of Psalms, published in 1640, sells for $14.2 million in NY auction. Believed to be first book published in what is now the U.S.