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Tag: US Government Benefits

  • Scamming US Government Benefits

    Nobody likes to work. Too much time, too much headache. Also, one may be unlucky to find oneself at the mercy of a boss who derives pleasure from oppressing his grunts. Also, TAXES. Nuff’ said. This little guide will introduce you, the lucky reader, to the wacky world of GOVERNMENT BENEFITS!! We will cover:

    • EBT (Food Stamps)
    • TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), AKA Welfare
    • Government Grants and Loans

    Part 1: Food Stamps

    Nobody likes paying for food, especially in this economy. Swallow your pride, get FOOD STAMPS!!! You may say: “But Mr. Tach, my family makes too much money to get those!!!” Well, worry no more.

    First, households can get food stamps if their gross monthly income (total amount of money a household brings in in a month) is 130% or less of the federal poverty level, which is $1,800 per month for a family of three. So, you may qualify without even knowing! Also, if you meet certain conditions, you automatically qualify.

    http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10100.html#foodstamps

    If you don’t meet any of these conditions, you aren’t out of luck. Go to an inner city grocery store. Outside, people often sell their benefits for cash. Buy them. You save half of the value of the card. For example, if Tyrone’s been saving his stamps on his EBT card (the card that the benefits are stored on, it’s like a debit card) and has $900 on it, he most likely will sell you the card for $450. You go in, buy $900 worth of food for only $450. Give Tyrone his card back. Leave. It’s not as good as having your own benefits, but it’s better than paying full price.

    If you have family members who are drug addicts or have other nasty habits that cost LOTS of money, yet have very low social skills, take them to the local benefits office and have them apply for food stamps. They will get them. Since they are not likely to use the card, you can broker transactions for them in which you sell the stamps to others on their behalf. For example, if Jimmy gets $225 in benefits per month, find one of your friends whose in a pinch. Sell the stamps to the friend, pocket $112.5 (half, remember?). If you feel generous, split the proceeds with your druggie kin.

     

    Part Two: TANF (Welfare)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempora…Needy_Families

    Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is the successor to the AFDC program, the goal of which was to give needy families with children financial support.

    Here’s the work requirements for TANF.

    1. Recipients (with few exceptions) must work as soon as they are job ready or no later than two years after coming on assistance.
    2. Single parents are required to participate in work activities for at least 30 hours per week. Two-parent families must participate in work activities 35 or 55 hours a week, depending upon circumstances.
    3. Failure to participate in work requirements can result in a reduction or termination of benefits to the family.
    4. States, in FY 2004, have to ensure that 50 percent of all families and 90 percent of two-parent families are participating in work activities. If a state reduces its caseload, without restricting eligibility, it can receive a caseload reduction credit. This credit reduces the minimum participation rates the state must achieve.

    Applying for TANF

    Each state has its own TANF program. Here’s a link with telephone numbers and names of programs for all 50 states.

    http://singleparents.about.com/od/fi…/find_TANF.htm

    Here’s a copy of an application. Every state has a different application, TANF is a state-administered, federally funded program.

    http://www.hsd.state.nm.us/pdf/AppFo…eRev013004.pdf

    Remember, the less income and assets the applicant claims on the application, the more benefits they will be eligible for. Also, the more children they “have”, the more money they will receive. Nieces, Nephews, younger cousins, all come into play here. Offer to give their parents a piece of the money if they allow you to claim their kids on your application. You won’t regret it.

     

    Part 3: Government Loans and Grants

    The Federal Government has a myriad of loan and grant programs out there to stimulate growing businesses. Yeah.

    Take a look.

    If one is privy to another’s personal information, such as their Social Security Number, applying online is a snap. Also, one could set up a shell business with the information to receive government business loans and grants. There are so many opportunities here, be creative!

    When dealing with stuff from the government, never, ever use one’s own personal information. This is common sense. Proxies come into heavy play here when applying online. Bank accounts are to be opened with the applicant’s information, not yours.

    http://www.grants.gov/search/category.do

    This site lists all government grants. Note that most of these require that one meets strict eligibility requirements. Since they are the federal government, they can be expected to perform thorough, pain in the ass investigations and examinations.

    http://pellgranteligibility.net/fafs…t-application/

    This links to a website that gives information about filling out the FAFSA, or Federal application for Student Aid. This opens up so many opportunities, one of them being the Pell Grant, which is need based. As long as the applicant can SHOW that he/she is indigent (poor), they’ll qualify for it. The poorer you are, the more money you get. The money is given to the school, and then the school deposits the money in the student’s account. To get maximum benefits, one should have as few assets under one’s own name as humanly possible. Have your parent’s names on your automobile, bank accounts and the like. Once the feds see that you’ve begun to accumulate assets, they’ll shut off that cash like clockwork.

    http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

    This links to the actual FAFSA website.

    Also, DON’T give out PI to anyone who calls/emails you out of the blue claiming to be a government representative who’s just “found out that you’re eligible for a FREE government grant/loan.” They’re trying to phish you, and many college students have been conned into giving out their personal information this way. The government won’t contact you about matters like these unless you APPLY. Online, don’t fuck with anything that’s not .gov.

     

    Part 4: SSI (Supplemental Security Income)

    SSI is a good thing to get in the US. My friend got it in just a few months by working with a homeless action center, you may have something similar near you. Fortunately he had a history of seeing a psychologist for about 1-1/2 years and a psychiatrist for a few months and BS’ing about stuff and not holding down a job for more than a few months. All this was done with the help of a transitional housing program he was using; free food, rent, utilities, and access to other programs and benefits in exchange for going to very lax meetings 2-3 times a week (house meeting, group therapy(sit around and talk with other members for an hour and with a therapist, just regular shooting the shit), sometimes a work shop about some BS (currently cooking, not that bad, won a $20 gift card), and meeting with a therapist for 15-30 minutes). He currently gets $920 a month because he’s still getting unemployment, which he got after quitting his job by appealing the denial and telling them at the appeal meeting that he did it because he’s been diagnosed with Asperger’s and the job was causing him too much anxiety, talked about meeting with a therapist, didn’t ask for any proof or nothing. Then when he stops getting unemployment he’ll only be getting about $820 total, but it’s enough; gets it via direct deposit too, tre pratique.

    I tell you, it’s not easy being this lazy.

    The best thing to do would be to work with an agency. Get certified as mentally ill, physically disabled, or homeless and you should be able to get an agency that helps those kinds people to help you get SSI, if there’s one near you. For me the actual amount of work I had to do, not counting meeting with a psychologist an psychiatrist, was very little. I’m sure there are many programs that give the homeless or disabled free access to mental health services, psychologists/therapists and psychiatrists, and getting diagnosed with something is easy. Programs are the key to getting it done cheaply/free and quickly.

    Part 5: Earned Income Tax Credit

     

    Summary:

    The US Earned Income Tax Credit is a refundable tax credit for individuals and couples with qualifying children. For tax year 2010, the maximum EITC for an individual or couple WITHOUT qualifying children is $457, with ONE qualifying child it’s $3,050, and with TWO qualifying children it’s $5,036, and with THREE or more qualifying hellspawn it’s $5,666.

    How to claim:

    When you claim EIC with one or more qualifying children, you need to fill out and attach Schedule EIC to your 1040 or 1040A. This form asks for the child(ren)’s name, social security number, year of birth, whether an older ‘child’ age 19 to 23 was classified as a student for the year (full-time status for at least one long semester, or equivalent time period), whether an older ‘child’ is classified as disabled during the year (doctor states one year on more), your relationship to the child, and the number of months the child lived with you in the United States.

    To claim a person as your qualifying child, the child must meet the following requirements of relationship, age, and shared residence.

    Relationship

    You must be related to your qualifying child through law, marriage, or blood. Your qualifying ‘child’ can be:

    • Your daughter, son, stepchild, foster child, or any further descendant (such as grandchild, great grandchild, etc.),
    • Or your brother, sister, half sister, half brother, stepbrother, stepsister, or any further descendant (such as niece, nephew, great-nephew, great-niece, great-great-niece, etc.).

     

    A foster child not in your extended family as above must be officially placed by an agency, court, or American Indian tribal government. An authorized placement agency includes a tax-exempt organization licensed by a state, and also includes an organization authorized by an Indian tribal government to place Native American children.

    Adopted children can be in the process of being adopted provided they have been lawfully placed.

    A child might classify as the qualifying child of more than one adult family member, at least initially. For example, in an extended family situation, both a parent and an uncle may meet the initial standards of relationship, age, and residency to claim a particular child. In such a case, there is a further rule: If a single parent or both parents, whether married or not, can claim the child (residency and age) but choose to waive the child to a non-parent, such as a grandparent or uncle or aunt, this non-parent can claim the child only if they have a higher adjusted gross income (AGI) than any parent who has lived with the child for at least six months.

    This still remains the parent’s choice. Provided the parent has lived with the child for at least six months and one day, the parent can always choose to claim his or her child for purposes of the earned income credit. In a tiebreaker situation between two parents, the tiebreak goes to the parent who lived with the child the longest. In a tiebreaker between two non-parents, the tiebreak goes to the person with the higher AGI. These tiebreaker situations only occur if more than one family member actually files and claims the same child. On the other hand, if the family can agree, per the above and following rules, they can engage in a limited amount of tax planning as to which family member claims the child.

     

    Age

    You must be older than your qualifying child unless this person is classified as “permanently and totally disabled” (physician states one year or more), in which case this person can be any age and still classify as your qualifying child as long as the other requirements are met. More fully, the definition of “permanently and totally disabled” is that a person has a mental or physical disability, cannot engage in substantial gainful activity, and a physician has determined that the condition has lasted or is expected to last one year or more, or can lead to death. If the person is so classified, the age requirement is considered to be automatically met.

    The standard age requirement is that your qualifying child must be under the age of 19 at the end of the tax year. That is, the person can be 18 years and 364 days old on December 31 and still classify as your “qualifying child” as long as the other requirements are met.

    A qualifying child who is enrolled as a full-time student during some part of five calendar months can be up to and including age 23. That is, this older student can be 23 years and 364 days old on December 31 and still classify as your “qualifying child,” as long as the other requirements are met (relationship and residence). The standard Fall semester of a university, in which classes start in late August and continue through September, October, November, and early December, counts as part of five calendar months. And a similar conclusion applies to the standard Spring semester. However, the five months need not be consecutive and can be obtained with any combination of shorter periods. A full-time student is a student enrolled for the number of hours or courses the school considers to be full-time attendance. Schools also include technical, trade, and mechanical schools. High school students who work in co-op jobs or who are in a vocational high school program are considered to be full-time students.

    Shared residence

    You must live with your qualifying child(ren) within the fifty states and/or District of Columbia of the United States for more than half the tax year (per instructions, six months and one day is listed as 7 months on Schedule EIC). U.S. military personnel stationed outside the United States on extended active duty are considered to live in the U.S. for purposes of the EIC. Extended active duty means the person is called to duty for an indefinite period or for a period of more than 90 days (and this is still considered to be extended active duty even if the period ends up being less than 90 days).

    Temporary absences, for either you or the child, due to school, hospital stays, business trips, vacations, shorter periods of military service, or jail or detention, are ignored and instead count as time lived at home. “Temporary” is perhaps unavoidably vague and generally hinges or whether you and/or the child are expected to return, and the IRS does not provide any substantial guidance past this. If the child was born or died in the year and your home was the child’s home, or potential home, for the entire time the child was alive during the year, this counts as living with you, and per instructions, 12 months is entered on Schedule EIC.

    Unlike the rules for claiming a dependent, there is no rule that a qualifying child for the EIC not having supported themselves. A child who supports himself or herself can still qualify as a your qualifying child for purposes of the EIC. There is an exception, as there often is in tax law. If your qualifying child is married, you need to be able to claim this child as a dependent or be waiving this dependency to the child’s other parent.

     

    Other requirements

    Investment income cannot be greater than $3,100.

    A claimant must be either a United States citizen or resident alien. In the case of married filing jointly where one spouse is and one isn’t, the couple can elect to treat the nonresident spouse as resident and have their entire worldwide income subject to U.S. tax, and will then be eligible for EIC.

    Filers both with and without qualifying children must have lived in the 50 states and/or District of Columbia of the United States for more than half the tax year (six months and one day). Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and other U.S. territories do not count in this regard. However, a person on extended military duty is considered to have met this requirement for the period of the duty served.

    For persons without a qualifying child, there is an age requirement in that the person must be from age 25 to 64. For persons with a qualifying child, there is no age requirement per se, other than the fact that the filer themselves must not claimable as a qualifying child (which can happen in some extend family situations, including up to age 23 if the filer is enrolled as a full-time college student for at least one long semester).

    All filers (and children being claimed) must have a valid social security number. This includes social security cards printed with “Valid for work only with INS authorization” and “Valid for work only with DHS authorization.”

    Single, Head of Household, Qualifying Widow(er), and Married Filing Jointly are all equally valid filing statuses for EIC. In fact, depending on the income of both spouses, Married Filing Jointly can be advantageous in some circumstances because, in 2009, the phase-out for MFJ for begins at $21,450 whereas phase-out begins at $16,450 for the other filing statuses. A couple who is legally married can file MFJ even if they lived apart the entire year and even if they shared no revenues or expenses, as long as both spouses agree. However, if both spouses do not agree, or if there are other circumstances such as domestic violence., a spouse who lived apart with children for the last six months of the year and who meets other requirements, can file as Head of Household. Or, for a couple that is split up but still legally married, they might considering visiting an accountant at separate times and perhaps even signing a joint return on separate visits. There is even an IRS form that can be used to request direct deposit into up to three separate accounts. In addition, if a person obtains a divorce by December 31, that will carry, since it is marital status on the last day of the year that controls for tax purposes. In addition, if a person is “legally separated” according to state law by December 31, that will also carry. The only disqualifying filing status for purposes of the EIC is married filing separately.

    EIC phases out by the greater of earned income or adjusted gross income.

    A married couple in 2010, whose total income was just shy of $21,500, but who had more than $3,100 of investment income, would have received the maximum credit for their number of qualifying children, but because of the rule that for any claimant—whether single of married, with or without children—that investment income cannot be greater than $3,100, will instead receive zero EIC. This is an edge case, but there are income ranges and situations in which an increase of investment dollars can result in a loss of after-tax dollars. (Instead of $21,500, the beginning of phase-out for Single, Head of Household, and Qualifying Widow(er) is $16,450. And, EIC phases out relatively slowly, at 16% or 21% depending on the number of children.)

    Refund Anticipation Loans

    These, simply put, are loans in which the collateral is one’s anticipated tax refund, hence the name!

    Criminals often use infants’ stolen personal information which enables them to claim them on fraudulent tax returns and get RALS.

     

     

    Discuss http://www.totse.info/bbs/showthread.php/10217-Scamming-US-Government-Benefits

  • The CIA linked to Internet Privacy Watchdog!

    The thread is labeled text file because its a wall of text…In the following posts I will provide diagrams and more information on this subject.

    Note: This is a repost made by an amkon member mojo, and sheds a bit more light on intelligence agency operations on the internet.

    The CIA linked to Internet Privacy Watchdog!

    The CIA and your Online Privacy.

    In-Q-Tel is a venture capital firm set up by the CIA to fund technologies and business’s that they believe can further their intelligence gathering capabilities.
    There are some disturbing links between In-Q-Tel and many other online businesses some of which are involved in protecting your online privacy.

    At first glance TRUSTe seems to be just another privacy protection agency without any links to the CIA.
    The first part of this post will deal with TRUSTe and previous privacy concerns dealing with TRUSTe and their member companies, their acceptance of investment and their move to a “for profit” organization and finally the links connecting TRUSTe, Accel Partners, In-Q-Tel and the CIA and other intelligence gathering and Government arms.

    TRUSTe is an online privacy firm that certifies many sites on the internet.

    The TRUSTe site.

    http://www.truste.org/

    And a description of them on Wikipedia.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRUSTe

    Quote:
    TRUSTe is an independent, privately held[1] organization best known for its Web Privacy Seal. TRUSTe runs the world’s largest privacy seal program, with more than 2,000 Web sites certified,[2] including the major internet portals and leading brands such as IBM, Oracle Corporation, Intuit and eBay. TRUSTe states its purpose is to establish trusting relationships between individuals and online organizations based on respect for personal identity and information in the evolving networked world.

    TRUSTe member list.

    http://www.truste.org/about/member_list.php

    There are many instances that can be easily found using search engines that are not quite so complimentary of TRUSTe and their practices, heres just a few.

    http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2002/04/51624

    Quote:
    But Yahoo’s recent announcement of sweeping changes in the way it will use customer data collected under previous policies has many calling Truste’s seal as meaningless as an Andersen audit.
    Even Esther Dyson, the high-profile technologist who played a major role in Truste’s launch five years ago, says she is “disappointed in what ended up becoming of it.”
    By its own account, Truste was conceived at Dyson’s industry-leading PC Forum conference in 1996. Dyson credits others with the concept, but she pushed both publicly and privately for the establishment of the nonprofit company and adoption of its “trustmark,” which certifies that online companies comply with their own stated privacy policies.
    Truste makes no attempt to set privacy policies. It merely ensures that companies clearly state their own rules for handling customer data, and then adhere to them.

    nytimes.com

    Quote:
    Is the best way to protect the public good to go private?
    That is the view of Truste, a 10-year-old nonprofit organization that certifies that Web sites meet some minimum standards to protect the privacy of their users. The group is converting to for-profit status and selling the bulk of its newly created stock to Accel Partners, the venture capital firm that backed eBay and Facebook.
    Quote:
    The amount of Accel’s investment was not disclosed, but people involved in the transaction said it is around $10 million.
    In many ways, Truste has already been run like a business. Most of its $6 million in annual revenue comes from charging site owners for the right to display the Truste seal. This has long raised questions about whether the organization is appropriately tough on the companies it certifies.
    For example, it does not always tell the public if it discovers violations of its principles, even if the violations are so egregious that it kicks a site out of its program.

    http://www.benedelman.org/news/031808-1.html

    Quote:
    To this day, Coupons.com is in breach of TRUSTe’s rules, and TRUSTe knows it. Yet Coupons.com remains listed on TRUSTe’s whitelist as if its practices are beyond reproach and as if the company is in good standing vis-a-vis TRUSTe’s rules. That’s outrageous, and users should demand better.

    Coupons.com is still on the TRUSTe member list now.

    Here are some of TRUSTe’s sponsors, many of them have serious privacy concerns.

    http://www.truste.org/about/sponsors.php

    Quote:
    Sponsors of the TRUSTe® program recognize the vital importance of customer trust to their businesses. Sponsors provide critical support for the development of new programs such as wireless, email, and other privacy initiatives. Some of our valued sponsors include:
    · AOL
    · Intuit
    · MAXAMINE
    · Microsoft
    Benefits of sponsorship include:
    · Seat on an advisory panel or initiative
    · Joint press release announcing our joint commitment to privacy advocacy
    · Company logo displayed throughout TRUSTe Web site and all appropriate marketing collateral
    · Rotating sponsorship of one of TRUSTe’s newsletters
    · Marketing exposure at key industry events
    · …and much more!

    TRUSTe sponsors.

    www.searchenginestrategies.com

    Quote:
    MAXAMINE satisfies the diverse and dynamic requirements across the enterprise with a single, coherent and fully integrated solution. With MAXAMINE, you can ensure the quality of search engine implementations, compliance with privacy, accessibility, usability, link integrity; screen for offensive content and inappropriate links; verify traffic and advertising tags, and analyze your site using custom search criteria, and quality standards, alerting, and issue management capabilities.
    Quote:
    MAXAMINE serves leading commercial and government clients around the world, including AOL, EDS, Intuit, KPMG, WebMD, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Wal-Mart, Legal & General, and Cadbury, as well as the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Department of Homeland Security, GSA, FAA, EPA, FDIC, IRS, the Victorian Government of Australia and many more.

    Accenture Completes Acquisition of Maxamine

    Quote:
    Maxamine, a privately held company founded in 1997, provides testing and optimization services to help companies improve the marketing effectiveness and financial returns from their websites and other digital marketing investments. Maxamine’s services include evaluating websites to identify implementation problems that undermine online marketing performance, as well as providing guidance to help clients improve the optimization of their websites, enhance the customer experience and decrease privacy-related and other risks.
    Quote:
    Stephen Kirkby, Ph.D., a founder of Maxamine, said, “We’re very pleased with the opportunities that this acquisition affords the talented people of Maxamine and the greater breadth of online marketing services that the companies with which we’ve had the pleasure to work with over the years will have available to them now via Accenture.”

    The closing of the Maxamine acquisition follows Accenture’s recent acquisition of Memetrics, which helps companies improve the impact of their online marketing campaigns by identifying which content will deliver the best results for targeted customer sets.

    Here’s just one of the products that MAXMINE provides.

    wareseeker.com/Web-Development

    Quote:
    Maxamine Web Analyst Professional is a complete web site management solution that can scan any publicly accessible site, visualize site structure, and perform a complete site analysis and intuitive mapping of traffic log file activity. This product will enable small and medium enterprises to conduct extensive analysis of their Web sites and those of their competitors.Maxamine Web Analyst is much more than just a link checker or log analyzer – it offers comprehensive navigation structure visualization and site reports, site search and complete traffic analysis (traffic reports and visualization on web maps). At a glance, you will see most popular pages and major traffic corridors in your site, as well as problem areas such as slow site navigation, broken links, non-returning and hard-to-reach pages, and much more.This product is ideal for scanning web sites up to 500 pages in size, which makes it an invaluable tool for small and medium enterprises, consultants, Web integrators and ISPs.

    Intuit.

    http://www.intuit.com/

    http://www.intuit.com/about_intuit/profile/

    Quote:
    Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) is an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software

    http://www.crn.com/software/18830883

    Quote:
    Hoping to win back alienated customers, personal software maker Intuit (NSDQ:INTU) Inc. is formally apologizing to users of its popular TurboTax program who rebelled against an anti-piracy feature the company introduced last year.
    “I’ve talked one-on-one with quite a few customers, so I know this caused some of you considerable hassle and inconvenience,” TurboTax general manager Tom Allanson wrote in an open letter of apology.
    Mountain View-based Intuit plans to publish the letter as an advertisement in Thursday’s editions of USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. The letter also will be posted on several Web sites.
    Intuit is seeking forgiveness as it prepares to sell the 2003 edition of TurboTax , a program that generated $423 million, or 26 percent, of the company’s revenue in its last fiscal year.
    The unusual step serves as another reminder of the aggravation Intuit caused with the anti-piracy measure, known as “product activation,” which was designed to prevent buyers from giving the tax program to people who hadn’t paid to use it.
    Intuit hoped to boost TurboTax sales with an activation code that chained the program to a single computer. The company instead faced an angry backlash from customers who abhorred the restrictions and feared product activation might allow Intuit to spy on their computer hard drives.

    AOL.

    http://www.grc.com/downloaders.htm

    Quote:
    As you will see on the page below, if you use the RealNetworks RealDownload, Netscape/AOL Smart Download, or NetZip Download Demon utilities in their default configuration . . .

    EVERY TIME you use one of these utilities to download ANY FILE from ANYWHERE on the Internet, the complete “URL address” of the file, along with a UNIQUE ID TAG that has been assigned to YOUR machine, and — in the case of Netscape’s SmartDownload only — YOUR computer’s individual Internet IP address, is immediately transmitted to the program’s publisher.

    This allows a database of your entire, personal, file download history to be assembled and uniquely associated with your individual computer . . . for whatever purpose the program’s publishers may have today, or tomorrow.

    Does AOL spy on you

    networks.silicon.com

    Quote:
    A game distributed with new versions of AOL Instant Messenger does not respect users’ privacy, critics say.
    AOL began offering games along with the latest version of its instant messenger, and now some customers are worried that the company is playing with them, too.
    People who use AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) have started complaining on AOL message boards after software bundled with AIM 5.5 began showing up in “spyware” scans. The popular chat application includes games from WildTangent, which has a tool that reports back to the company every time someone uses its products.

    www.spywareinfo.com

    Quote:
    An investigation by noted privacy advocate Richard Smith found proof that once again, the rumors were true. Using a port sniffer, Smith found that each time a DVD movie is played on a computer which is online, Media Player 8, which ships with all copies of Windows XP, contacts a Microsoft web server to get title and chapter information for the DVD. In violation of Microsoft’s stated privacy policy, the server was setting a cookie with a unique identification code that enabled Microsoft to track what DVDs were being played on that particular computer. Rather than acknowledge that they had violated the privacy of their users, Microsoft merely shrugged and said “oops” before updating their privacy policy to include the behavior that they had been caught engaging in.
    This wasn’t the first time Microsoft has been caught lying in its privacy policy. Last year, an FTC investigation concluded that Microsoft made false promises about how secure it kept the consumer information it collected. The Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC, Howard Beales, said that Microsoft had been collecting information about the day and time consumers logged into participating Passport Web sites without their knowledge, and storing data for longer than it claimed.

    Here’s another company I pulled from the TRUSTe member list.

    Nebuad.

    http://www.nebuad.com/

    First here’s Nebuads Company page, with link to their privacy policy, it makes for interesting reading.

    http://www.nebuad.com/company/company.php

    And this report regarding a senate hearing into privacy issues of online advertising. This is from July 2008.

    www.fiercetelecom.com

    Quote:
    On the eve of a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on the privacy issues raised by online advertising, yet another cable company has pulled back from using NebuAd to track its customers. Wide Open West, a Denver-based cable provider that’s been using the NebuAd since March, is ending its test of the controversial software.

    Tomorrow’s hearing on the Hill will give critics, who say the software and others like it violate wiretap laws because it allows carriers to track customers’ communications, an opportunity to publicly air their grievances.

    Cable companies and telcos say they need software like NebuAd-and it’s British comrade-in-arms, Phorm-to help them develop targeted advertising for subgroups of Internet and television service users. The ad dollars, they say, are critical to their growth. Check out this Wall Street Journal story for a different look at the controversy.

    And the Wall Street Journal chimes in.

    online.wsj.com/article

    Quote:
    In the past few weeks, phone operator CenturyTel Inc. and cable provider Charter Communications Inc. shelved plans to use ad-targeting technology from Silicon Valley start-up NebuAd due to privacy concerns raised by their customers and lawmakers.
    Last week, another cable company, Denver-based Wide Open West, pulled the plug on NebuAd’s software, which it had used since March to track its customers on the Web and subdivide them by their …

    http://www.jiad.org/article8

    Quote:
    Apart from procedural difficulties in filing a complaint against a website, TRUSTe has not removed a seal once in more than three years for privacy violation (Hunter, 2000). There have been orders to remove the seal for those who have not renewed payment of fees. An email from the author querying how many members it had and how many have had their seals revoked was not answered.
    TRUSTe’s difficulties have been highlighted in the case of Real Audio and AOL. In AOL’s case, a complaint was filed about the company passing information to third parties. AOL’s answer was that the TRUSTe seal applied only to the http://www.aol.com site, not the members.aol.com site (Hunter, 2000).
    In the case of Real Audio, the company’s software, RealJukebox, surreptitiously monitored and collected data about the listening habits and some other activities of its users (Robinson, 1999). The company apologized but was never punished by TRUSTe because this activity was not covered by the terms of the TRUSTe seal.

    An excellent article.

    Here’s the abstract.

    http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/8/6/1009

    Quote:
    There were few differences in the privacy practices between seal authorities: TRUSTe and BBBOnLine participants offered about the same degree of privacy protection assurances and they were equal with regard to the amount or depth of personal information they requested. Notably, unsealed sites offered nearly equal privacy assurances and made fewer personal information requests than the sealed sites. However, seal program participants did provide superior access to information and assurances of data security.

    And here, the complete article in PDF.

    http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/8/6/1009

    Now TRUSTe is moving from a “not for profit” organization to a “for profit” organization, how would this affect how they deal with privacy concerns.

    www.paidcontent.org

    Quote:
    TRUSTe, an organization that certifies websites for having good privacy practices, is turning into a for-profit enterprise, and has taken an unspecified investment from VC firm Accel. Saul Hansell at Bits cites sources putting the funding at $10 million. You’ve probably seen their seal of approval on some of the 2,400 sites they monitor. Like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, it’s supposed to convey a sense of, well, trust, to users, by showing certification from a third party. With the investment, the company plans to expand and being targeting emerging areas, like social networking and location-based services, each of which brings a whole host of privacy issues that are still just getting unpacked.

    Here’s TRUSTe’s press release.

    http://truste.org/about/press_release/07_15_08.php

    Quote:
    In response to increasing threats to consumer privacy, TRUSTe, the recognized authority on privacy best practices on the Internet today, announced the completion of its first round of financing from Accel Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture firm. The investment will enable TRUSTe to create state-of-the-art monitoring systems to stay ahead of technology advances with new tools, products and best practices that facilitate trust between businesses and consumers.
    Quote:
    “The Board of Directors is extremely pleased that Accel Partners has stepped forward to fuel TRUSTe’s future growth,” said Ralph Terkowitz, Chairman of the Board of TRUSTe. “We believe that Accel Partners, one of the most respected investors in venture capital, will serve as a perfect partner to guide and energize the success of TRUSTe as it expands to address new privacy frontiers.”

    Who are Accel Partners?

    Here’s there homepage.

    http://www.accel.com/

    And Accel backed companies.

    http://www.accel.com/company/index.php

    Remember Accel is the company that has effectively bought out TRUSTe.

    doyoufacebook.blogspot.com

    Quote:
    The second round of funding into Facebook ($US12.7 million) came from venture capital firm Accel Partners. Its manager James Breyer was formerly chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and served on the board with Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the CIA in 1999. One of the company’s key areas of expertise is in “data mining technologies”.

    How would you feel about being able to be tracked via your cellphone no matter where you are.

    Richard Wong from Accel partners doesn’t think it’s a big deal.

    www.mindfully.org/Technology

    Quote:
    Some in the industry think wireless carriers are being too skittish. Richard Wong, a partner at venture-capital firm Accel Partners, says “operators are sometimes too careful around this issue and are stifling innovation to some degree.” He says the industry isn’t taking into account that younger consumers have a much more relaxed view about what constitutes an invasion of privacy than their parents.

    So are you much more relaxed about privacy issues?

    Personally i like to have my privacy protected, particulalry from Government Intelligence Organizations.

    Accenture is the company that bought out MAXIMINE, one of TRUSTe’s sponsors.

    gov_sues_accent.html

    Quote:
    The Justice Department has joined three whistleblower lawsuits targeting Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and consulting giant Accenture, all of which prosecutors say defrauded the government of millions of dollars through kickbacks and rebates on massive government IT projects, according to an announcement Thursday.
    The suits center on Accenture, which the government hired to help it evaluate new technology and make sure the government got the right equipment at a fair price. But the government charges that instead Accenture made $4 million cash in kickbacks from companies who landed contracts with the government through Accenture’s recommendations.

    Pdf’s of the complaints filed available at the bottom of the page linked to above.

    So what exactly is Data Mining?

    wikipedia.org

    Quote:
    Data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but is increasingly being used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods
    Quote:
    There are also privacy and human rights concerns associated with data mining, specifically regarding the source of the data analyzed. Data mining provides information that may be difficult to obtain otherwise. When the data collected involves individual people, there are many questions concerning privacy, legality, and ethics.[5] In particular, data mining government or commercial data sets for national security or law enforcement purposes, such as in the Total Information Awareness Program, has raised privacy concerns

    TRUSTe’s management team.

    http://www.truste.org/about/management.php

    James Breyer was mentioned in an above quote as having served on the same board with Gilman Louie who headed up In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm.

    Associations between the CIA and Accel Partners, the firm who is buying TRUSTe.

    This is from the CIA website.

    www.cia.gov

    Quote:
    The media was drawn to a small corporation in Washington, DC that had just unveiled its existence and the hiring of its first CEO, Gilman Louie. Mr. Louie described the Corporation, called In-Q-It, as having been formed “…to ensure that the CIA remains at the cutting edge of information technology advances and capabilities.”

    Gilman Louie.

    Now James Breyer from Accel Partners the VC firm investing in TRUSTe.

    http://pipl.com/directory/people/James/Breyer

    Quote:
    5 quick facts about James Breyer:

    Breyer is a Managing Partner of Accel Partners, a venture capital firm… Source: Mr James Breyer Profile – Forbes.com www.forbes.com]

    Breyer was a man who served on NVCA’s board with Gilman Louie, the CEO of In-Q-Tel… Source: currybear.com… [currybear.com]

    James Breyer has been a Director of RealNetworks since October 1995… Source: sec.edgar-online.com… [sec.edgar-online.com]

    Breyer has served as a General Partner of Accel Partners in Palo Alto, California since 1990… Source: RealNetworks, Inc. > Board of Directors www.realnetworks.com

    Breyer is an officer, 4321916 shares owned by… Source: REALNETWORKS INC www.shareholder.com

    Nevermind the privacy concerns of RealNetworks but James Breyer served on the board of NVCA with Gilman Louie CEO of In-Q-Tel owned by the CIA, with connections to DARPA, DOD and lots of other alphabet agency’s.

    Here’s a NY Times article in which James Breyer and Gilman Louie are both quoted.

    nytimes.com

    Quote:
    Mr. Louie said today that the purpose of the new company would be to move information technology to the agency more quickly than traditional Government procurement processes allow. The agency, he said, was struggling with many of the same aspects of the Internet that are vexing to other Web surfers, including privacy and security.
    ”The current model isn’t working,” Mr. Louie said. ”The technology world has totally changed, and one day the C.I.A. woke up and realized they needed to go through the same change.”
    The new company will supply venture capital in some cases, and in others it will hire contractors or partner with entrepreneurs in four areas: integrating Internet technology and applications into the C.I.A.’s work; developing new security and privacy technologies; nurturing data mining technologies to take better advantage of the agency’s vast storehouses of records, and modernizing the agency’s computer systems.
    Mr. Louie said that none of In-Q-It’s work would be classified and that the organization would not be limited to the four areas he outlined.
    Quote:
    ”There are a number of models on which the jury is still out,” said James Breyer, managing partner of Accel Partners, a venture firm in Palo Alto, Calif.
    Companies like Lucent Technologies and the AT&T Corporation have become venture investors in the valley in recent years, he noted, and SRI Research International had less success in trying to spin out its research projects with an internal venture arm.
    ”The most important aspect is to have an outstanding outside management effort overseeing the process,” he said. ”It appears in this effort the C.I.A. has chosen well.”

    It seems that rather than just passing aquaintances Mr Louie and Mr Breyer have a number of connections to each other.

    Jame’s Breyer is an Investor/board member of BBN Technologies.

    www.accel.com

    Quote:
    Jim is currently on the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (WMT), where he is the Lead/Presiding Independent Director, and Chairman of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee. He also serves on the board of Marvel Entertainment (MVL) where he is the founding Chairman of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee. Jim is currently an Investor/Board Member of privately held companies BBN Technologies, Brightcove, Etsy, Facebook, Global Grind Digital, ModelN, and Prosper.com.

    Jim is on the Strategic Investment Committee/Board of Accel-KKR, IDG-Accel China Fund, the Mail Room Fund (a joint venture with entertainment leader William Morris Agency), and Facebook Seed Fund.

    BBN Technologies has received investment from In-Q-Tel, the VC IT arm of the CIA which is run by his former collegue at NVCA Gilman Louie.

    www.iqt.org/technology-portfolio

    Quote:
    BBN provides advanced solutions to a wide variety of government agencies and commercial customers including DARPA, Army Research Labs, Boeing, and Verizon Communications to name a few. BBN is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company is lead by CEO Robert G. (Tad) Elmer, and was awarded the IEEE Technical Innovation award for its contributions to computer networking in 1999. In-Q-Tel initially invested in BBN Technologies in March, 2004.

    Now have a look at some of the companies owned by Accel Partners, its a pretty long list.

    http://www.accel.com/company/sector….or_view=124000

    What would most of those companies be able to provide. A massive database of user information from a diverse pool across the internet and technology, cell phones, satellites etc.

    Now some of the companies that In-Q-Tel have invested in. Takes some reading and surfing but there are a lot of similarities.

    http://www.iqt.org/technology-portfo…habetical.html

    Common denominator.

    Datamining.

    But for who and why, this might help to explain what government intelligence agencies would like to be able to achieve, albeit under a different guise.

    Information Awareness Office

    Quote:
    The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense, in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying information technology to counter transnational threats to national security. The IAO mission was to “imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness”. Following public criticism that the development and deployment of these technologies could potentially lead to a mass surveillance system, the IAO was defunded by Congress in 2003, although several of the projects run under IAO have continued under different funding.

    Since the IAO and the TIA program was disbanded due to public pressure and the removal of funding, some agencies have decided that this is an easier way to circumvent such intervention.
    In-Q-Tel is supposedly not for profit, yet there is nothing stopping them from making a profit.

    www.cia.gov/library

    Quote:
    The CIA had to offer Silicon Valley something of value, a business model that the Valley understood; a model that provides those who joined hands with In-Q-Tel the opportunity to commercialize their innovations. In addition, In-Q-Tel’s partner companies would also gain another valuable asset, access to a set of very difficult CIA problems that could become market drivers.
    Quote:
    To accomplish this, the Corporation will network extensively with those in industry, the venture capital community, academia, and any others who are at the forefront of IT innovation. Through the business relationships that it establishes, In-Q-Tel will create environments for collaboration, product demonstration, prototyping, and evaluation. From these activities will flow the IT solutions that the Agency seeks and, most importantly, the commercial opportunities for product development by its partners.
    Quote:
    As an example, it can effect the full range of business transactions common to the industry — it is venture enabled, can establish joint ventures, fund grants, sponsor open competitions, award sole source contracts, etc. And, because of the many degrees of freedom granted to it by the Agency, In-Q-Tel does not require Agency approval for the business deals it negotiates

    nytimes.com

    Quote:
    While In-Q-It will operate on a nonprofit basis, Mr. Louie said his intention was to invest in such a way as to make the organization self-sustaining.

    In this case they are not reliant on government funding yet are still tied to the intelligence community via the CIA.

    So In-Q-Tel, along with some help from associates and network partners (Accel Partners and James Breyer) invest heavily in companies and technologies that are beneficial to the intelligence community, the gathering of data and information from various sources, which due to the apathy of many users does not in effect create public concern over privacy.

    So they have created a portfolio of businesses and technologies to help them compile a massive database.

    What would be their next step if you were in their shoes.

    The answer is pretty simple, they need to infiltrate or control the local privacy watchdog, which in this case is TRUSTe to limit any possible fallout that may arise from privacy advocates. How do they do this yet keep themselves at arms length, they use another company, in this case Accel Partners, to be the front.

    In-Q-Tel are able to operate pretty much as the IAO would have without reliance on government funding or concern from the public over their civil rights being eroded.

    Accel Partners are clean and have now in their own portfolio control of one of the largest privacy watchdogs on the internet which can only be of benefit to some of the other companies that are in their portfolio, among those being Facebook, RealNetworks, and others. .

    Would TRUSTe take action against a company owned by the company that has just purchased them?

    More about BBN Technologies which were mentioned earlier.

    http://www.bbn.com/sitemap

    On the board of directors at BBN Technologies we have Jim Breyer and Kevin Efrusy from Accel Partners and Dr Anita Jones.

    http://www.iqt.org/about-iqt/our-tea…-trustees.html

    Dr Anita Jones is also on the board of trustee’s at In-Q-Tel.

    So we have now shown a connection between the former CEO of In-Q-Tel, Gilman Louie and Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, now a connection between Jim Breyer and Kevin Efrusy of Accel Partners and Dr. Anita Jones who is on the board of Trustee’s at In-Q-Tel and BBn Technologies with Breyer and Efrusy.

    Are there any other connections?

    Howard Cox, who is on the board at In-Q-Tel was also a chairman of the NVCA along with Gilman Louie and James Breyer.

    http://www.iqt.org/about-iqt/our-tea…-trustees.html

    Quote:
    Partner, Greylock Venture Capital; former Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA); served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

    The CIA seem to have a vested interest in BBN Technologies.

    http://www.iqt.org/technology-portfo…hnologies.html

    Quote:
    BBN Technologies (BBN) is an advanced technology and research and development firm, providing services to government and industry. BBN is focused on solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. From information and infrastructure security, speech and language technologies, sensor and signal processing, to networking, BBN has been at the forefront of technological advances for over 50 years.
    Founded in 1948, the name BBN’s name has become synonymous with technical innovation. Since providing the acoustical design of the UN General Assembly Hall, to implementing and operating the ARPANET, the forerunner of today’s Internet, BBN continues to pioneer first-of-a-kind technical achievements. From the first packet switch, the first router, and the first network email, which established the @ sign as an icon for the digital age, to today’s innovations such as building the world’s first wide-area quantum cryptography network, and advanced processing of foreign language, BBN scientists and engineers are pioneering innovations to help our customers work better and smarter.
    BBN provides advanced solutions to a wide variety of government agencies and commercial customers including DARPA, Army Research Labs, Boeing, and Verizon Communications to name a few. BBN is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company is lead by CEO Robert G. (Tad) Elmer, and was awarded the IEEE Technical Innovation award for its contributions to computer networking in 1999. In-Q-Tel initially invested in BBN Technologies in March, 2004. For more information about BBN, please visit http://www.bbn.com.

    www.masshightech.com

    Quote:
    For almost 20 years, Heather Triplett Biehl has been an expert on bad guys. As an authority on counterterrorism, a former Middle East analyst for the CIA and a defense industry executive, she has briefed presidents, jumped out of helicopters and pitched technology to the country’s top intelligence agencies.

    Biehl’s occasionally covert career continues with her latest post as the vice president of the flagship intelligence programs office at Cambridge-based BBN Technologies Inc.

    That should read NVCA not NVAC, whoops.

    Is it all just coincidence?
    Or have the CIA found a way to initiate the IAO without the publics knowledge?

    Here is the PDF for Accelerating the Acquisition and Implementation of New Technologies for Intelligence:The Report of the Independent Panel on the Central Intelligence Agency In-Q-Tel Venture

    We all know that the largest conspiracy site on the internet, ATS, uses TRUSTe to protect their members online privacy, now if that wasn’t funny enough for you, it’s also come to my attention that another forum that advertises itself as a safe haven for “sources” uses Facebook to advertise irtself. Open Minds Forum!

    How any serious conspiracy theorists could possibly trust posting on either one of those sites after reading this deserves the attention that they might ultimately receive imho.

    (This thread has been reposted under a different moniker after it was mysteriously deleted along with hundreds of other threads during the great meltdown of 09)

    mojo.

    (This article may be freely reproduced anywhere without attribution) 😛

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