October 22, 2007

Comcast Wiretap Rates Only Slightly More Expensive Than Basic Cable

We all know the government spies on us. They probably know when you've commented on this very blog, even though the political discourse here never really raises above "Give me those photos of George Bush in a bikini!" Well, apparently the government spies on us so much, Comcast has a special rate for wiretapping!

For the low, low price of $1,000, Comcast will let the government put a wiretap on your phone and perhaps the other parts of the "triple play" package. A blog called Secrecy News obtained a copy of Comcast's manual, which does make it seem like the cable behemoth does comply with the law.

With your $1,000 fee, you get the first month of "intercept service" for free! No, really, you do. That sounds like a joke but the handbook actually says that. It's $750 for each additional month of spying, so basically it actually only costs $250 to get the wiretap. Oh, and an FBI agent has to hand-deliver the National Security Letters to Comcast HQ in Philadelphia, so the black vans with guys in suits really are following you around town.

Comcast Cable Law Enforcement Handbook [Secrecy News]
Implementing Domestic Intelligence Surveillance [Secrecy News]

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September 18, 2007

Hot New Trends In Spying

A story in Saturday's New York Times detailed the new hot trend in divorce: Installing tracking software on your spouse's PC in order to catch him or her cheating. Most likely, both spouses do this, and then sue each other into oblivion for ever and ever. Some lady even had a tracking device placed on her SUV!

Here, in the capital of litigation, there are quite a few couples who have done this. Here's the best one:

Most of these stories do not end amicably. This year, a technology consultant from the Philadelphia area, who did not want his name used because he has a teenage son, strongly suspected his wife was having an affair. Instead of confronting her, the husband installed a $49 program called PC Pandora on her computer, a laptop he had purchased.

The program surreptitiously took snapshots of her screen every 15 seconds and e-mailed them to him. Soon he had a comprehensive overview of the sites she visited and the instant messages she was sending. Since the program captured her passwords, the husband was also able to get access to and print all the e-mail messages his wife had received and sent over the previous year.

What he discovered ended his marriage. For 11 months, he said, she had been seeing another man — the parent of one of their son’s classmates at a private school outside Philadelphia. The husband said they were not only arranging meetings but also posting explicit photos of themselves on the Web and soliciting sex with other couples.

Awesome! But what did they do after Club Kama Sutra closed?

Tell-All PCs and Phones Transforming Divorce [NYT]

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