<div dir="ltr"><div>Actually, now that I think about this some more, the UVA/UVB face shield is often illuminated from the backside --- in the Infrared spectrum. So maybe that particular piece of hardware won't work so well in disguising people's faces when they are confronted with IR cameras. It still might be effective against IR cameras most of the time during daylight hours when there is lots of reflected sunlight around to confuse the situation, and as long as indoor security systems are not yet equipped with IR cameras, but not so well at night. Fortunately there is a company that makes IR shielding hoodies and body suits. These are much more expensive than the visors ($35 vs $300+) so it is not clear how the masses will be able to adopt using those. Maybe someone can come up with an IR resistant film (and one way optical mirror?) to put on the inside of the visors. That would keep the cost factor within reason and also allow polite society to continue to function inside of buildings where the face shield can be partly lifted to reveal your face to someone you have to communicate with while not revealing your face to the overhead security cameras.<br>
<br></div>John Thielking<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 11:31 PM, John Thielking <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peacemovies@gmail.com" target="_blank">peacemovies@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Spencer,<br><br></div>I hope you read my entire piece, though it was a bit long. I read your entire piece on the Peace Center Blog. I do care how much data is collected on me and I make it as hard as practical for the people doing the collecting to do their jobs. I don't use a VPN to anonymize my web surfing as I'm sure there is probably a back door to that program that is being used by any data collector worth their salt. The Torr system itself was developed by the US govt, so I need not explain any more about that. But if there is a way that uses basic physics such as aluminum foil blocking all signals to and from a cell phone or RFID chip I will certainly use that idea to its best advantage. To the best of my knowledge, God did not design a "back door" that lets the US govt send or receive electromagnetic signals from the interior of a Faraday Cage! Similarly, God did not design a "back door" that lets the US govt see through the reflection of a one way mirror while not illuminating the back side. It is these types of very basic techniques that I am referring to in my piece. Like I said in my piece, all that matters is that people are able to make an anonymous shopping trip between the first Flash Mob and the second one, or between the time they exit the disco building the first time and the time they enter it the second time. The license plate readers, drone cameras and the cell tower trackers can data collect on me all they want at other times and they will never figure out where it was that I went shopping in between those two points in time that I mentioned, if I'm doing the procedure correctly. And the procedure doesn't have to be done perfectly every time for it to work most of the time if there are enough people doing it with me. If my disguise is penetrated one day, it likely will not be penetrated the next day, assuming there are many others using the exact same disguise. This failure tolerant method is superior to encryption, which works only until it is penetrated the first time. And of course at the beginning it is necessary that it not be too obvious that I'm the only guy in CA or Oregon with a full UVA/UVB face shield, especially one worn at night time. I have until 2015 to fix that, before the drones overhead can follow me all the way home while I'm looking conspicuous even if I am "anonymous", Hah! That point I hope to change by pointing out the cultural shifts regarding surveillance that happened or are happening in China and how we can occasionally and temporarily defeat the data collection process if we all work together. Of course, I'll bet that the Chinese are also in love with their new fangled cell phones and are quite content to be tracked all over the place even while they try not to be noticed by the security people who are tailing them by continuing to wear Olive Drab. Just because they are content doesn't mean that I am.<br>
</div> Thanks.<br><br></div>Sincerely,<br><br></div>John Thielking<br></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 10:05 PM, Spencer Graves <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spencer.graves@structuremonitoring.com" target="_blank">spencer.graves@structuremonitoring.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div> For my thoughts on this, see the
blog of the San José Peace & Justice Center on "Restrict
secrecy more than data collection"
(<a href="http://sanjosepeace.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://sanjosepeace.wordpress.com/</a>). <br>
<br>
<br>
In brief, I believe the most important reform we can get
would be to make it practically impossible for the government to
oppose democracy anywhere in secret. This won't happen unless the
public demands honest protection for people who expose information
classified in violation of such a policy and major penalties for
government officials who try to punish whistleblowers. <br>
<br>
<br>
1. Doing this will almost certainly increase the US
national security, defined in terms of the well being of the 99%.
This follows, because the world is less safe today because of
secret opposition to democracy at home and abroad by US government
officials in the past. <br>
<br>
<br>
2. We're not going to be able to keep people from
collecting data. There are already massive private databases of
the times and license plate numbers of all vehicles that drove
through a point covered by any of thousands, perhaps millions, of
surveillance cameras. In Colorado, that technology is used to
send you a monthly bill for your use of toll roads. Beyond this,
a reporter for Al Jazeera recently wrote that a company developing
face recognition software got a photo of her from a place like
Facebook and programmed their door to recognize her and open for
her. Soon, private security companies will be taking photographs
of crowds and matching names to faces of everyone attending a
public rally. <br>
<br>
<br>
I'm currently working on a 60-second video to advertise this
blog. For a preliminary version of this, see
<a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1bTqmKWlWxhQzZZbUpibXBrMk0&usp=sharing" target="_blank">"https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1bTqmKWlWxhQzZZbUpibXBrMk0&usp=sharing"</a>;
comments welcomed. <br>
<br>
<br>
Spencer <br><div><div>
<br>
<br>
On 4/7/2014 9:11 PM, John Thielking wrote:<br>
</div></div></div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div><div>
<div dir="ltr">
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">Can Flash Mobs And Olive Drab Clubs
Defeat The NSA?</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">By John Thielking</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">4-7-2014</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">For the past few days this author
has
been brainstorming about how to regain some small pieces of
his
privacy in the face of continuing (and progressing) NSA and
other
alphabet soup organizations' blanket surveillance. The goal is
to
find a way to preserve or at least momentarily regain privacy
without
using methods that require that they be secure from
eavesdropping
(such as by not using encryption or much of any electronic
hardware
which has been proven to have numerous back doors in both
hardware
and software).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">Up to this point, this author has
been
content to merely take the simple countermeasure of leaving
his cell
phone at home and seldom if ever taking it with him when going
to any
place in public such as a shopping trip or a political
protest. Going
on vacation out of town is the exception to this and the
author has
found it necessary to submit to surveillance while on
vacation. Most
recently, this prohibition on carrying his cell phone in
public has
been extended to include leaving his electronic wristwatch at
home
and covering up his VTA bus pass/Clipper Card which has an
RFID chip
in it with tin foil and keeping it in his wallet in case the
fare
inspector wants to see it while he is riding the light rail.
Various
sources have indicated that blanket radio surveillance of a
city can
reveal what is being typed on various people's computer
monitors and
cell phone signals can carry for up to 20 miles. So based on
that
information, it is likely that radio surveillance can reveal
the
locations of various people's electronic wristwatches. All
modern
wristwatches have batteries in them powering the watch (even
the
quartz ones that look like the old kind that you used to have
to keep
wound up to keep them running) so all modern wristwatches can
likely
be tracked this way. It is possible to carry a cell phone in
public
and not be tracked, at least not in real time. To do this do
the
following: If your cell phone is a smart phone, put it in
airplane
mode and then turn it off. If it is a feature phone with no
airplane
mode available, turn it off and then take the battery out.
Then place
the phone inside of a paper envelope. This prevents the
conductive
parts of the phone such as various external metal extrusions
that
penetrate the case and the conductive touch screen from
contacting
the aluminum foil and defeating the Faraday Cage effect that
will be
formed by the aluminum foil in the last step. Then take a
sheet of
tin foil and cover the outside of the envelope that contains
the cell
phone. With the cell phone in airplane mode, it will not try
too hard
to signal the nearest cell tower nor will it use a lot of
energy
trying to connect using WiFi so the rapid battery drain that
happens
when covering up a turned off feature phone that still has the
battery installed will not occur, at least not significantly,
so the
battery life will be up to a week or more when covered with
tin foil.
Note that since most smart phones have at least 1GB of
available
memory, it is quite possible/likely that the microphone of the
cell
phone is recording sounds (and the times that the sounds were
recorded) for broadcast to the NSA later when you exit
airplane mode
to make a call or surf the web or answer e-mail. To prevent
this
from doing anything significant to compromise your privacy, if
you
are a girl person, you can place an activated white noise
generator
(about the size of a small radio, available from your local
anti-spy
equipment web site --- I bought mine about 15 years ago, so
sorry but
I forgot exactly where I got it ) put this in your purse next
to your
envelope and tin foil encased cell phone. This way, it will be
much
more difficult for the NSA to piece together where you were
based on
recorded background noises.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">Now for the part that has something
to
do with the title of this article. This author, in talking to
one of his relatives who had visited China recently, was
inspired by the
relative's story of how the Chinese have been dealing with
their own
surveillance state. It seems that a widespread phenomenon in
China
is that everyone tends to dress the same so that they will
blend in
to the crowd of people in their surroundings. This author did
a bit
of research online to try to find a way to defeat facial
recognition
software used by drones and various city-wide security cameras
that
are either connected to the Internet directly or that at least
have
TV monitors which can have their signals monitored by blanket
radio
surveillance. During this research, this author came across
various
references to the fact that some people in China and Australia
are
now using full face covering black visors in place of
sunscreen. It
seems that these full face visors are being marketed as being
superior to sunscreen, since sunscreen only blocks the burning
UVB
rays and not the skin wrinkling UVA rays, while the visors
block up
to 99% of both UVA and UVB rays. It could be argued that these
visors
are “medically necessary” and thus they might even be exempt
from
laws in various places that seek to ban the wearing of masks
at
political protests. The desireable feature of these visors is
that
they may defeat facial recognition software. At least in the
case of
a human viewing the catalog pictures showing the models
wearing these
visors, the facial features of the models appear to be
completely
obscured. It is not clear if software used to enhance images
could
penetrate the low contrast “image” of the models' faces that
may
be allowed to show through by the dark plastic of these
visors. This
author was unable to find a mirrored version of one of these
visors
for sale that certainly would not be able to be penetrated by
image
enhancing software, but he was able to find a picture of a
Chinese
person wearing a mirrored version.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">Now for the “plan” of how to defeat
the NSA surveillance using an Olive Drab Club and/or a Flash
Mob.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">On some Sunday afternoon or
other that is convenient, have people come together in a
specific open space inside of a shopping mall such as the
food court at a specific time. Ask them to all dress the
same such as by wearing black pants and blank white
shirts. Ask them to wear the UVA/UVB blocking full face
visors over their full faces for the duration of the
event. Ask them to not carry any electronic devices with
them on the final leg of their trip to the location inside
the mall. They can leave their cell phones and watches in
their cars. Any ID cards or other things with RFID chips
in them should be covered with an envelope and a sheet of
tin foil if they are to be carried with the person. The
use of license plate readers and other tracking methods by
the police and NSA while protestors are traveling to the
mall or on their way home after the event will not affect
the success of this protest.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">When the people are all
assembled, this will form the first “Flash Mob”. The goal
is to get as big a mob of people all milling around as
close together as possible to confuse any tracking
software that may be attempting to follow individuals
through the images broadcast over the mall security
cameras. If the Flash Mob is done inside the mall building
during the day, any really high tech drones circling
overhead outside will not be able to use their infrared
cameras to penetrate the walls of the building as they
will be blinded by reflected sunlight. Thus the enhanced
software that may be able to track individuals buried
inside the Flash Mob should be much harder if not
impossible for the NSA to use to tease apart who exactly
went where inside the Flash Mob.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">While people are buried inside
the Flash Mob, they are all handed regular wristwatches
that can be used to help keep track of the exact time to
be ready to reassemble in the second Flash Mob at the end
of the event. It is not important that the individual
watches may have their locations tracked during the event.
So long as the face shields are kept covering people's
faces, the individual watches will not reveal people's
individual identities. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">Then for the next 2-3 hours the
people go on various shopping trips. They are all careful
to always pay with cash and they are encouraged to wear a
particular type of backpack to carry the stuff they buy,
so again, everyone tends to look the same. They can go
anywhere in town to go shopping, not just shop at that one
mall. If they are traveling large distances that can not
be covered on foot, they should pay cash to use public
transportation and not use their own vehicles. They are
encouraged to remove any deactivated RIFD/antishoplifting
tags that may be on the merchandise that they purchased
prior to reassembling for the second Flash Mob. It is also
recommended that people talk as little as possible or not
at all during this part of the event in case security
cameras or their loaned watches are recording/transmitting
and/or analyzing their voices.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">After 2-3 hours of shopping,
everyone checks the time on their borrowed watches and
reassembles at the appointed time inside the shopping
mall. The Flash Mob is repeated with everyone trying to
get as close as possible together while dropping off their
loaned wristwatches. </p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">Then people disperse and go
back to their homes. They can get to their homes any way
that they wish with as little or as much of their faces
and identities exposed to surveillance as they desire.
License plate readers, etc won't be able to figure out
what stores they went into or what they purchased during
the event unless they start talking about their
experiences that happened at the event. </p>
</li>
</ol>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">The End.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0in">PS Individuals can attempt to
duplicate
the anonymizing effect of the Flash Mob on their own by
modifying a
bit what they do while inside of a building out of sight of
any drone
IR cameras outside the building during the day or security
cameras
inside the building, such as by using a bathroom stall to
change
clothes. Start by traveling to the building in question on
foot or on
public transportation or if the building allows all day
parking for
non-customers you can drive your car there. Be undisguised in
regards
to your external appearance. Let any facial recognition
software or
license plate readers figure out that it is you going there.
You
won't be able to keep the tracking software from following you
to and
from your residence anyway, at least during the times after
2015 when
surveillance drones are going to be everywhere over every
city. Keep
your face covering visor and a change of shirt concealed
inside of a
backpack. Leave all electronic devices at home or in your car.
Inside
the building and inside the bathroom stall, change your shirt
to a
different color and take out a different colored but similar
sized
backpack that was concealed inside the first backpack. Put the
first
backpack inside of the second backpack along with the original
shirt
you were wearing. Put the visor on over your entire face. Exit
the
bathroom stall and exit the building and go shopping on foot
or using
public transportation, paying with cash always. While shopping
you
can optionally lift the visor enough while indoors to reveal
your
face to the cashier and other people who it would be polite to
reveal
your face to while communicating with them, but don't lift the
visor
high enough for security cameras, usually mounted in the
ceilings, to
see your face. To go home, go back into the same building and
a
bathroom stall and reverse the process so that you exit the
building
wearing the first t-shirt and displaying the first backpack
and
concealing the second t-shirt and face covering visor and
second
backpack inside the first backpack. Hopefully you have enough
room
in the backpacks for the backpacks and the items that you
purchased
at the stores you visited. Be sure to pay cash and not talk
much if
at all while shopping. If you need to travel at night, to
remain
anonymous using the above procedure, be sure to go into a
crowd
inside of a building such as a disco dance floor that will
remain
crowded late into the evening. Do some dancing on the dance
floor
while entering and exiting the building and make it look like
the
“real you”, identifiable by the drones circling outside the
building, which can see some limited detail using IR cameras
and have
limited ability to track individuals inside the building from
a
viewpoint outside the building, make it look like you spent
the whole
time dancing during your shopping trip. Good luck and have
some fun
and retain your sense of humor while attempting to defeat the
NSA
surveillance, at least for a few hours. :>). If more people
adopt
these methods as the surveillance state expands and more
people begin
to feel inconvenienced by it, it should get easier and more
reliable
to use these methods to temporarily defeat the NSA
surveillance. For
instance, if enough people all dress the same, then it will
only be
necessary to hide your visor inside one backpack when going to
the
disco building and it won't be necessary to change your shirt
or
backpack, just whip out your visor while inside the disco
building
out of view of any cameras. This last stage is when, like the
Chinese, we will all become members of the Olive Drab Club.</p>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset></fieldset>
<br>
</div></div><pre>_______________________________________________
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</font></span></blockquote><span><font color="#888888">
<br>
<br>
<pre cols="72">--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: <a href="tel:408-655-4567" value="+14086554567" target="_blank">408-655-4567</a>
web: <a href="http://www.structuremonitoring.com" target="_blank">www.structuremonitoring.com</a>
</pre>
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