Transit Police will only inspect areas of bags that are capable of concealing explosives. Police will not be viewing the content of papers or other reading material. But if illegal items such as drugs are found, they will be confiscated as evidence, and police will cite or arrest the individual. Those who refuse to have their bags searched will not be allowed to enter. Transit Police will not arrest people who refuse to have their bags inspected.

The key here is that you have the right to refuse which most people probably wouldn't know about or exercise. If you don't know, ask. Ask "do I have the legal right to refuse the search and what are the consequences if I do so?" I have no idea if asking such a thing could create legal problems in some circumstances, but it's what I would do. Never submit to authority asking you to do things you don't think are right without at least questioning it (in my personal, non-legal, non-professional, opinion).

(H/T to Privacy.org for the link)

Maybe there's no meaning to a political candidate who will stand in the rain to speak to people. Maybe it's just a gimmick. Maybe after he's elected, he won't do things like that anymore. But you gotta admit, that's pretty classy.

Oh, and this:

"$150,000 for clothes and they apparently didn't buy her a raincoat."

Made me laugh

(H/T to Digg.com for the link)

While making it very clear that he wants to stay out of the politics, Schneier pointed out that Obama seems to get the point that security needs to balanced with the over-all goals of our country. In other words, Obama understands that security doesn't trump everything so one more point for Obama.

Not surprising at all. Diebold isn't the only one who screwed this up.

Touted as a "touchscreen validation error", a West Virginian retiree was "miffed" to find that his vote had been recorded incorrectly.

Life imitates life does it not? (Homer Simpson Tries to Vote for Obama on E-vote Machine)

It's so weird though… How come no one realized that E-voting machines could be a problem?

Oh wait….

http://www.jeremyduffy.com/category/e-voting/
Florida E-Voting Study
New e-voting study shows it's really easy to steal an election
Researchers reveal 'extremely serious' vulnerabilities in e-voting machines

How would you like to be paid $50 a month to carry a cellphone that can be remotely activated as a listening device by the company that provides them?

The scary thing is, this is just software, it's not a special phone. If you have software like this, what's to stop you from installing it in your girlfriend's phone or a business contact. Where's my "phone only" phone?

You would think that Bush would try to do something to help his popularity at the very end in a desperate and mostly futile attempt to make people, the world, and history hate him a little less. Instead, he's busy at work further eroding our privacy, liberty, and the balance of power between gigantic unfeeling corporations and the little guy. He signed into law a piracy act that was not needed and gives more power to the RIAA to do their dirty work.

Thanks Bush!

(H/T to Digg.com for the link)

I finally got around to watching most of the first debate this weekend and I was very disappointed to learn that there are good qualities in McCain. I know that sounds stupid, but the reason is that I want Obama to win (even though I would have preferred Ron Paul), and any positive point for McCain is by default a negative for Obama.

In this case, McCain talked about one thing that is very important to me: vetoing pork legislation.

I have always said that if I were President, I would hold Congress hostage by vetoing ANY bill that had unrelated items attached to it (such as pork spending). McCain said he would do the same. Not only that, but Obama is a horrible porker. The idiot refers to it as the "Earmarks system" and defends it as "necessary". Their records reflect these statements as well (according to Citizens Against Government Waste - CAGW). Obama is one of the worst pork spenders and McCain one of the most consistent opponents of the same. Ouch.

I still can't support McCain for his stance on regulation, for his constant negative and deceptive ad practices, and his ludicrous choice of running mate, but this definitely raised my opinion of him substantially. If he'd only picked Ron Paul as a running mate, this election would go very differently for him.

Is it too late for him to switch?

I reported before about the large amount of bogus Lifelock review sites and blogs that are everywhere on the net and they just won't quit. I set up some web alerts to tell me whenever a new site or post is created mentioning Lifelock and that led me to this article:

Lifelock and Melaleuca

First of all, it's highly insulting to our collective intelligence to suggest that Lifelock is actively pursuing the "cure" to ID theft just like it was insulting when OJ Simpson claimed to be actively looking for the "real" killer. The answer is already out there and they are either ignoring it on purpose or they are unaware of it. That makes them incompetent at best, and dishonest at worst.

But my feelings for Lifelock aside, the real issue here is that the company they name in the article is Melaleuca, an Amway-like direct sales company that has a fairly decent line of products that I buy from time to time. I have always liked their philosophy and assumed that they were one of those companies who was run by real people who actually care about the world, their customers or both.

I'd like to think that they just don't know anything about Lifelock which disappoints me in that they clearly didn't do their homework. Alternatively, perhaps they don't care and it's only the bottom line that counts. Either way, I'm not thrilled by this partnership and I'm sending Melaluca corporation an e-mail to that effect. I expect a similar response to all the other e-mails I've sent in the past, but at least I can hope for the best.

At least it will give me the chance to use the skills I've been reading about in one of my new favorite books: How to Complain for Fun and Profit.

But will anything be done this time? That's the question.

Carnegie Mellon University has released a report that privacy policies are too long and too complicated and regulation might be necessary to force companies to stop screwing around with people.

Now that a report has been produced saying what we knew all along, will anything come of it?

A little translation for the rest of us.

All I can say is "good". There needs to be consequences for companies that manipulate people for greed.

And just for gigles: Sarah Palin's Debate Flow Chart.

Just great.

(H/T to Slashdot for the link)

Simply put, media should be media, programs should be programs. Putting code or commands into media like movies, music, e-mail etc allows for viruses or worse and no one should have to worry about that. Well, worry.

If you put the new Blu-ray Iron Man movie into your computer it will try to connect to the Internet and download something (some horrible DRM program probably?).

The Hacker's Choice, a non-commercial group of computer security experts, has released a video showing a cloned passport being approved by a security scanner at a Dutch airport. When the reader scans the passport it is revealed to belong to one Elvis Aaron Presley, complete with picture.

RFID is not ready. Every country that has tried to use it for identification has failed and miserable.

(H/T to Slashdot for the link)

From the "well freaking duh!" department comes a news story that Washington state (and Microsoft) are suing companies that use those fake security alerts to trick people into downloading and using their products. You know the ones. They usually say something like "Warning! Your computer is infected with viruses and you must download a quick security update to stop it".

Your first warning should be when they ask for your credit card number, but I don't hold that mistake against anyone. The real problem is the scumbag companies who utilize this kind of manipulation. It makes you wonder how they've gotten away with it for so long in the first place.

(H/T to Schneier's Blog for the link)

Last week, I received an e-mail from someone (who I won't name) asking to advertise on my site. While very flattering, I told her that I would only consider it if I could honestly recommend whatever it was she was pitching (per my ad policy). I also told her that no matter what she wanted to advertise, I wouldn't allow banner services or anything else that uses web bugs or cookies that can be used to violate the privacy of my page's visitors.

I've not heard back from her yet.

Well I pretty much shot the content for this post out in the title. Well, I guess I'll just say, "Way to go Cali!" and "It's about time".