InfoSphere™ Business Alerts And Intelligence

2014-04-07T15:40:00.000-04:00

Hello. If you’ve not yet joined “Colleagues Of Douglas E. Castle” on Sgrouples, you’re invited to do so by creating an account (ultra private inmail/email and Discussion Group, being run like a private club or community) at http://bit.ly/CODEC8. If you’ve already established your account, be certain to go to your Dashboard Page, go to “My Privacy Email” and click on (and choose) your “Notification Preferences”. Our group is a combination of the most secure email that you can access (check you inbox daily, or have your notifications forwarded to you) from member to member, combined with a Discussion Group [voluntary] which will have a completely practical focus: Members discussing specific business needs with other members. No theory. No selling or spam. Just requests and responses. It will be a great group -- I promise that much! Discussion posting guidelines will be posted within the next three days, so that we’re all of a similar mind. Thank you. - Douglas E. Castle

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Intelligence Versus Timeliness - How Much Information Is Required For Decisionmaking?

2013-08-30T23:27:00.002-04:00

Intelligence Versus Timeliness - How Much Information Is Required For Decisionmaking?

In making management decisions the issue of intelligence versus timeliness is a central one. Some leaders believe in acting rapidly based upon less data and more instinct, while others, being more conservative, will hesitate to take precipitous action until they have collected what they consider to be "adequate" intelligence. In the first case, the action might be either tragically wrong or right on target. In the case of the second leader, by the time he or she has gathered what he or she regards as "adequate intelligence," the time for taking the proper action might have passed.

Although the article is titled "Intelligence Versus Timeliness - How Much Information Is Needed For Decisionmaking?", the answer to the question "How much do we need to know before we act?" reflects more about a subjective personal command style than anything quantitative with a calculated solution. My thoughts follow:

Gathering and confirming the best intelligence requires time -- but for intelligence to be useful, it must be acted upon timely. Often, this balance requires the perceived importance of taking action with immediacy -- and in these cases, ironically, actions with vast consequences are often taken with less than adequate intelligence. The course of action chosen when time appears critical and action is taken based upon the equivalent of a coin toss will very often be more of a gamble than a calculated risk.

The trick is to utilize intelligence constantly and consistently so that a possible threat or potential opportunity can be predicted significantly in advance, and a probability assigned to it [as well as an actionable timeline], and the appropriate move taken at the optimal time. Intelligence should be used first and foremost for its prediction power, instead of as a problem-solving tool to be used for damage control. As I have stressed repeatedly (although in different words)in The Global Futurist Blog, "Use your prognostication tools to predict the time and likelihood of an asteroid's intrusion into Earth's atmosphere so that you will have the necessary time to gather further intelligence about how to either change the projectile's trajectory, or to blow it up before it actually makes entry into the atmosphere."

Apply intelligence 1) predictively, and also 2) technically, i.e., for damage control as well as for the harvesting of rare and valuable opportunities.

- Douglas E. Castle

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For My Readers

2013-08-01T21:03:00.004-04:00

I'm Not Jealous Of Alec Baldwin. I'm Just Jealous Of His HAIR.

Friends, Colleagues, Clients, Readers And The Occasional Paper Clip Thief:

I should be back to my usual pattern of obsessive blogging on too many subjects by August 8th, and I thank you so kindly for your patience while I'm rapidly on the mend.

In the meantime, would you please do me a great kindness and 1) visit my new blog at http://douglasecastleblog.com, and then 2) follow me (please...this only takes a quick moment) on my brand-new Twitter account at http://twitter.com/DECastleAdvisor?

Thank you, and I'm hoping that you've missed me.

Until then, please be healthy, safe, of good spirits and prosperous -- or on your way to prosperity.

Faithfully,

Douglas

LinkedIn: http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle

p.s. Kindly look at the image below. When I've looked at it (in a darkened room) for more than a minute or two, I have found that simultaneous with my body relaxing, my mind starts to wander in a fascinating way. I recommend it. It's wonderful, easy meditation, and you don't need any dangerous drugs. Seemingly silly exercises like this one have made my "comeback" much quicker. You can click on the image to see it at its full size, which is considerably larger.

The fascinating shape is actually an impossible recursive pattern wrapped around a doughnut-like shape called a toroid. Really. Look it up if you like.

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Sponsored By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC
CFI Business Growth
Douglas E. Castle On LinkedIn - Join Me!

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Banks Discriminating Against Increasing Number Of Customers

2013-07-31T20:19:00.001-04:00

HE MIGHT NOT BE AWARE THAT THERE IS A UNIVERSAL HAND GESTURE IN RESPONSE TO HIS...

Banks are discriminating against an ever-increasing group of prospective depositors.

This excerpt from a New York Times article sums it up nicely, but without too much detail:

The NEW YORK TIMES July 31, 2013

DealBook: Over a Million Are Denied Bank Accounts for Past Errors

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Mistakes like a bounced check or a small overdraft have effectively blacklisted many Americans from the financial system, leading to fees for paying bills, cashing checks and wiring money.

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Some of the "offenses" which can make it very difficult for you to open a checking or savings account at a commercial bank or a savings and loan association:

1) A bounced check during the past several years;

2) An outstanding unpaid fee or penalty on a bank account that was forgotten about or abandoned;

3) An overdraft (whether or not you had uncleared funds adequate to cover the amount, and whether or not the bank paid the check when it was presented);

4) A check (in a significant amount) which you deposited in your account, but which bounced;

5) An ongoing criminal or legal investigation of your finances or of your life;

6) Outstanding judgments or liens (of any sort);

7) Dealing extensively in cash transactions;

8) Wiring significant sums of money out of the country (USA) in the past, or receiving wires from any number of foreign countries in any amounts;

9) If you've had significant credit card problems relating to exceeding the limit, arguments about the return of merchandise, even significant discourse about your card being stolen or cases of identity theft and the fraudulent use of your card;

10) If you've never had a bank account before;

11) If you have a particularly bad credit history (significant negative credit bureau reporting);

12) If you are on a "target list" compiled with law enforcement and the government at the federal level -- you may not be guilty of anything, and you probably don't know that you've been blacklisted.

A bank denial can sometimes be remedied by having an immaculate soul open the account, and then having that person go to the bank with you and fill out the very simple paperwork adding you as a second signatory several weeks afterward. This is the easiest and best method of circumventing the system, although it works only most of the time -- not all of the time.

In the interim, more and more Americans are being forced to pay incredibly high rates to use the services of check cashing bureaus, Western Union and other transfer services, third-party wire services, and e-commerce merchant payment services like PayPal. The expense associated with completing a large number of relatively small dollar amount transactions using these methods takes any user well above the usury statute ceilings.

Not only are banks largely unwilling to lend (except in the curious cases of car loans and large bank-to-bank loans), but they are literally squeezing out a great deal of the lower-income population from having any relationship with them at all.

If you quality, try to find a good credit union, or have an angel friend (someone whom you really trust) open an account for you and bring you in after the account is established.

This trend, and the expenses borne by the excluded population will continue to increase without oversight or regulation. And remember that banks neither need nor want your business -- they would rather receive bailouts from the U.S. government... these require far less work, and far less compassion.

Also read through THE HIDDEN REPORT THAT SHUTS PEOPLE OUT OF THE BANKING SYSTEM.

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Tablet Growth Exceeding SmartPhone Growth!

2013-07-12T12:10:00.002-04:00

According to The American Press Institute, tablet growth (including such techno-goodies as Chromebooks) in terms of order deliveries, is beginning to overtake smartphone growth. An article follows, with my commentary following that:

OFF THE TOP
You might have heard: Worldwide PC shipments are down; tablets areup (Voice of America)

But did you know: Few tablet users are using cellular plans,perhaps as low as 1 in 20 (Nieman Lab)
Only 20 percent of tablets are sold with cellular chipsets, according to data by Moffett Research, fewer are initially activated and analyst Craig Moffett guesses half of those subscriptions are probably discontinued at some point. For media companies, that affirms the tablet strategy of “shifting news and other offerings from the on-the-go model of the phone to something that lets readers lean-back or catch up,” writes Justin Ellis.

+ Google’s simple Chromebook also growing incheaper “laptop” sales (9 to5 Google)

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The likely reasons for this are physiological, ergonomic and cultural. More and more consumers of information want to be able to 1) view their information (presumably news) in a manner that does not impose eyestrain and the resultant headaches, and 2) sit still and be physically relaxed when they read articles or other information of substance and length.

This is not so much about communications and the virtual office concept as it is about reading for reference and leisure.

Those of us writing and reading The InfoSphere Business Alerts And Intelligence Blog expect this trend to continue, for a while. Please read the related articles below for more information on this consumerism shift and its technological and economic implications in the near-term and in the longer-run.

Thank you for forwarding this article to your connections and colleagues via your social media sharing tools!

Douglas E. Castle

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Greenmail Returns: Dell Versus Icahn

2013-07-05T16:35:00.001-04:00

Let's review our notes about greenmail, a subject that was very popular in the 70s and early 80s, and was used by Ivan Boesky , Carl Icahn and others to make fortunes for themselves just by being persistent and bothersome. In the pending Dell shareholder buyout, Carl has brought us back to the adventurous days of greenmail, bullying and masterful negotiation strategies -- the type often described in The Taking Command Blog. Greenmail is a legal variant on blackmail. It's a wonderful way to make money without (arguably) contributing any value whatsoever. Let's consult with Wikipedia, BP's occasional partner
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"Greenmail or greenmailing is the practice of purchasing enough shares in a firm to threaten a takeover, thereby forcing the target firm to buy those shares back at a premium in order to suspend the takeover.
The term is a neologism derived from blackmail and greenback as commentators and journalists saw the practice of said corporate raiders as attempts by well-financed individuals to blackmail a company into handing over money by using the threat of a takeover.

Corporate raids aim to generate large amounts of money by hostile takeovers of large, often undervalued or inefficient (i.e. non-profit-maximizing) companies, by either asset stripping and/or replacing management and employees. However, once having secured a large share of a target company, instead of completing the hostile takeover, the greenmailer offers to end the threat to the victim company by selling his share back to it, but at a substantial premium to the fair market stock price.

From the viewpoint of the target, the ransom payment may be referred to as a goodbye kiss. The origin of the term as a business metaphor is unclear. A company which agrees to buy back the bidder's stockholding in the target avoids being taken over. In return, the bidder agrees to abandon the takeover attempt and may sign a confidential agreement with the greenmailee, guaranteeing not to resume the maneuver for a period of time.

While benefiting the predator, the company and its shareholders lose money. Greenmail also perpetuates the company's existing management and employees, which would have most certainly seen their ranks reduced or eliminated had the hostile takeover successfully gone through.

Greenmail proved lucrative for investors such as T. Boone Pickens and Sir James Goldsmith during the 1980s. In the latter example, Goldsmith made $90 million from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in the 1980s in this manner. Occidental Petroleum paid greenmail to David Murdock in 1984.

The St. Regis Paper Company provides an example of greenmail. When an investor group led by Sir James Goldsmith acquired 8.6% stake in St. Regis and expressed interest in taking over the paper concern, the company agreed to repurchase the shares at a premium.

Goldsmith's group acquired the shares for an average price of $35.50 per share, a total of $109 million. It sold its stake at $52 per share, netting a profit of $51 million. Shortly after the payoff in March 1984, St. Regis became the target of publisher Rupert Murdoch. St Regis turned to Champion International and agreed to a $1.84 billion takeover. Murdoch tendered his 5.6% stake in St. Regis to the Champion offer for a profit. (Source: J. Fred Weston, Mark L.Mitchell J. Harold Mulherin -- Takeovers, Restructuring, and Corporate Governance: page 529)"

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Here's a fresh media example culled courtesy of SmartBrief regarding the return of the greenmail tactic, Carl Icahn's weapon of choice. The results are usually 1) a wopping profit for Carl, who is paid a huge premium over their market value for the private repurchase of his shares just to "get him out of the way,"; 2) a management upheaval at the C-Suite and Director level within the targeted company (i.e., Dell), and 3) the target company is purchased or taken over for an inflated price -- assuming that the deal isn't scuttled entirely.

It is indeed a game of "liar's poker" which invariably plays to the benefit of the loudest, boldest stakeholder who gains the attention of all of the existing shareholders. Some would call it extortion:

Committee tells Dell to up his offer as shareholder vote looms
Michael Dell needs to up the ante on his $24.4 billion proposal for the struggling PC maker in light of Carl Icahn's latest announcement that he's got $3 billion to fund an alternative buyout scenario. That's the word from Dell's special committee evaluating potential takeover bid proposals. "It's a game of chicken," a shareholder said. "Icahn's going for the bump." The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/DealBook blog (7/2), Reuters (7/3)

Be assured of these things:

1) If Icahn actually does finance a deal, the terms for the servicing and retirement of the debt component (i.e., most if not all of the deal) will be terminal for the Company, and for its stakeholders, who will then be held hostage by predatory creditors;

2) If Icahn is bought out by Michael Dell in a typical short-run greenmail play, Icahn will walk away with a huge payday, and the stakeholders will be demanding a higher price for their shares from Michael Dell, who will then appear as if he had deliberately low bid his offer on the company.

Greenmail, or a hostile takeover with debt financing will prove very expensive for Michael Dell, and possibly the shareholders as well.

I believe with a number of outdated tech-oriented firms losing market share and revenues, we'll be seeing many more greenmail attacks, as well as attacks from hostile takeover artists. It would be great material for a game show...we could call it "Dealing For Dinosaurs." I'm certain trend-spotters and Futurists would be very much in agreement with me on this much: the economic environment in the united States is ripe for Greenmail and hostile takeovers.

Douglas E Castle

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Dangerous Media Monopolies - Gannett Mainstream MegaCorp

2013-06-13T17:30:00.000-04:00

It is, in my view very dangerous to have one mainstream newspaper with wide readership and great influence over the mainstream population purchase another chain of newspapers, news aggregators, or digests. It makes them larger and more powerful in terms of prevalence of influence and of promoting an agenda (if they have one), be it political or be it financial.

As we have all come to know, what we call "news" nowadays tends to be less about reporting facts, as it is about commentary regarding events, people and the like, with a strong slant in favor of the owners' (or the most financial influential advertisers) subjective point of view.

More newspapers and an increased geographical locus breeds more broadcasting of this subjective journalism -- in some cases, newspapers are so closely aligned with government interests, that certain matters remain unmentioned (treated as confidential or suppressed), while other diversionary trending stories (pop culture, the weather and the like) are used to replace them.

When newspaper chains become multimedia conglomerates, like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., or like Gannett, which is acquiring more and more radio and television properties, this effect of news "skewing" is further enhanced by the addition of new audience members who prefer to get their news by morning drive shift radio or by television. Multimedia conglomerates are as powerful as Big Oil, but more subtly so. They work on the minds, and do not attack the wallets, of consumers quite so directly. And their influence and subtlety makes them a more dangerous foe. Ther are only about five or six major multimedia broadcasting conglomerates in the United States today, with Gannet (symbol: GCI) about the fourth largest.

The article below comes to us courtesy of SmartBrief, on of my favorite vertical industry newsletters, and a great aggregator of news regarding any given major industry:

Gannett, in $2.2 billion deal, will buy Belo Corp.
Gannett plans to acquire Belo Corp., which owns and operates 20 TV outlets, including nine in the top 25 markets, in a deal worth $2.2 billion. The acquisition will result in Gannett owning or operating 43 stations, making it the fourth-biggest owner of top network affiliates and extending its reach to almost 1 in 3 U.S. homes. USA Today

Can you imagine the pure power of being able to influence one in every three (on the average) households?

That is one of the reasons I chose to read many unaffiliated "fringe" papers, and why I listen to public and small private radio. I want to know as much as I can. I do not wish to become one of the Sheeple, nor will I inflict that type of brain freezing on my blog readers, In fact, independent blogs might be one of the best sources of news and commentary left to those who are not operating in a state of sleep walking and following the unidentified stranger in front of them, be it the Grim Reaper, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or Donald Trump [I'm choking -- I'll be back after I've had a glass of water].

The fringe, the unaffiliated papers, radio stations and blogs are the last stronghold of truly independent news and commentary which is actually called commentary. The growing media monopolies are mind eaters. Enjoy them, but don't count upon them for the data necessary to render an intelligent decision -- for that, you'll need both above ground and "underground" sources.

Douglas E. Castle

My Blogger Profile (And Listing Of My Published Blogs)

My Linked In Profile (Who I Am And What I've Done In My Life)

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Yahoo! Stinks - Time To Leave

2013-06-09T15:30:00.000-04:00

I have used several Yahoo! email accounts and related functions over the past six years, with very little trouble and great success. But that's all gone now. Yahoo's "Classic" email has been forcibly eliminated, and their new (beta-tested on the public!) email has caused many people, including myself, horrible problems. These are not just the "come-to-be-expected" problems with privacy, data mining, unsolicited marketing. These are truly mechanical and measurable problems interfering with critical functions and dependencies.

Before I outline these 'issues' please let Douglas E. Castle (that's me) the author of many an article and an expert at a shockingly large number of areas within the fields of business, communications and behavioral psychology suggest that you transfer your address books, contact coordinates, saved files, calenders and all information to another provider at your most immediate convenience. When you have finished doing this, delete all of your information from your Yahoo account prior to closing it; further, if you are using a Yahoo! email address as your principle communications medium, switch to another free or paid service now.

Some of the problems reported (especially during these past six months of changeover at Yahoo! Central, located - this is merely rumored - in an abandoned, rat-infested subway tunnel somewhere under New York City), include the following, a number of which I have experienced repeatedly myself:

Increasing volumes of spam;
Decrease in the speed of outbound email deliveries;
Loss in cyberspace of outbound mail deliveries;
Increasing number of inbound deliveries never arriving;
Increasing number of inbound email deliveries arriving as much as several hours after being sent!
So much advertising on the homepage and on the email page that it has become laborious to navigate;
Spoofing of my address to send emails to me;
No customer service problem-solving response to any queries or complaints;
Constant requests to change my password;
Increased system failures and downtime;
Increased incidence of hacking at the user and at the server (or ISP) level.

And I am certain there are more.

Here is a recent extract from a telling article by WebProNews author and pundit (or is it Guru?) Chris Crum, who writes exceedingly well, but who should consider changing his alliterative but less than serious-sounding name. It reminds me of Christmas for some reason.
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Yahoo Mail Classic is now dead. Yahoo Mail users, as of Monday, no longer have the option of using the old version, and must instead use the new version, which Yahoo reminds them, serves ads based on the content of their emails, much like Google’s Gmail has always done. As one might imagine, a lot of users are less than thrilled about this.

“Beginning the week of June 3, 2013, older versions of Yahoo! Mail (including Yahoo! Mail Classic) will no longer be available,” wrote Yahoo in its help center fairwell (via TechCrunch). “After that, you can access your Yahoo! Mail only if you upgrade to the new version. You should have received an email from Yahoo! letting you know that your account required an upgrade.”

Yahoo noted that when you upgrade, you are accepting its Communications Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which includes the acceptance of “automated content scanning and analyzing of your communications content, which Yahoo! uses to deliver product features, relevant advertising, and abuse protection.”

“If you prefer to opt out of interest-based and contextual-based advertising resulting from your scanned and analyzed communications content, you can change your settings at any time using our Ad Interest Manager,” Yahoo said.

So, it’s even letting you opt out of ads, but that doesn’t mean they won’t scan your mail. You still have to accept Yahoo’s terms.

Those who don’t want to use the new Yahoo Mail were directed to download their mail using IMAP or close their account.

Yahoo’s mention of scanning email to serve ads comes as search partner Microsoft has been campaigning against Google for doing just that, despite the fact that Google has always done this, and has always been quite clear about it.

To many people this really isn’t a big deal. Gmail hasn’t had any shortage of users, and it’s not as though humans are reading users’ email to try and determine which ads to show. It’s all automated. Those who are concerned about this practice, however, could play right into Microsoft’s hands.

Suddenly the timing of Microsoft’s campaign seems a lot better from a marketing standpoint. It seemed odd that Microsoft would attack Google suddenly for something it had been doing for nearly a decade and made not efforts to hide. But now we have the previously announced Yahoo Mail redesign, which engages in similar practices as Google, being forced on users.

Could Microsoft users have made enough Yahoo users uneasy about this practice in general to get some of them to switch over to its own Outlook.com (the focal point of that particular “Scroogled” campaign)?

As Declan McCullagh at CNET points out, Yahoo actually adopted the policy that lets it scan emails and serve ads back in 2011. He writes:

It’s not clear why Yahoo felt the need to remind existing users of language in its 2011 terms of service. One possibility, though, is an effort to head off privacy lawsuits brought by class action lawyers hoping for a million-dollar jackpot. (If there’s ever any litigation, defense counsel would surely prefer to rely on informed consent rather than implied consent.)
It’s not merely a theoretical possibility: Google was sued in 2011 by a Massachusetts AOL user who sent e-mail to a Gmail account and then claimed her privacy was invaded. Near-identical lawsuits were filed in Marin County, Calif., (PDF) in June 2012, British Columbia (PDF) in October 2012, and Florida (PDF) in November 2012. On April 29, two college students filed yet another suit (PDF) seeking class action status in San Jose, Calif.

The shuttering of Yahoo Mail Classic also comes on the heels of a separate Yahoo Mail privacy-related story. Last week, a BT made some headlines when it said it would no longer make Yahoo Mail the default email service for its six million customers because of concerns that accounts are vulnerable to getting hacked.

Gerry Smith at The Huffington Post writes, “The shift of BT’s 6 million customers to another email service represents just a small fraction of Yahoo’s overall email customer base of about 280 million people worldwide. But the loss of clients could be a troubling sign for a company that relies heavily on maintaining its email users to generate advertising revenue. Yahoo is now the third-largest email provider after Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook.com.”
Meanwhile, the top dog, Gmail, continues to make efforts to stay ahead of the competitive curve. Last week, Google announced the launch of the new inbox for Gmail, which introduces a new tabbed organization interface.

Privacy concerns aren’t the only thing bothering users, however. Business Insider conducted a survey, finding that 57% of users are unhappy with the new Yahoo Mail. Nicholas Carlson lists a few of the specific complaints users shared:

“The mail message frame is not fixed. If you read a new message, and scroll down to the bottom and decide you don’t want to keep it, you can no longer access the delete button. Yes, obviously you can just close the email and then choose it again and delete, but that is a total waste of time and key strokes.”

“Yahoo disappears emails sent between legitimate and active Yahoo accounts.”

“I used Yahoo mail as a central box for most of my domain emails. After switching a couple of weeks ago and sending 30 test mails over three days to make sure it was all working, 6 never arrived. I even have specific filters set-up within Yahoo mail to make sure certain mails do not get put in the trash or spam by mistake.”

“It’s very laggy, and that pause of a second or two between commands makes it extremely frustrating.”

“The new version of Yahoo mail makes all my messages older than a week or so unreadable. I get “Error 45″ and the messages fail to load. There are numerous reports about this on the net; so far Yahoo hasn’t managed to fix it. So, I have to launch the classic version of Yahoo mail just to read old messages. Fail.”

“Right after the switch I was hacked and my contacts all 500 plus were gone without a trace.”

We’ve seen further complaints in the comments of our own coverage.

Users have had since December to get accustomed to the new Yahoo Mail. More on the redesign here.

Yahoo has been engaging in a lot of redesigns across its various properties. This week, Yahoo also rolled out a new look for its search results pages to go with its recently redesigned homepage. A big Flickr redesign was also recently launched.
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All I can say is remember the "rollout" of "New Coke," with its exciting new packaging and slightly changed and cheapened recipe? The damage control marketing campaign was "Classic Coke."

Thank you as always for reading me, and for sharing my articles with your colleagues, connections, co-conspirators, cohorts and concubines via your social media through the use of your ever-increasing arsenal of social media sharing tools. You are deeply appreciated.

Douglas E. Castle for The InfoSphere Business Alerts And Intelligence Blog, The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog and The Business And Project Planning And Management Blog.

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NSA Spying On US Citizens - With Verizon's Cooperation

2013-06-06T17:15:00.003-04:00

Indeed - the NSA in conjunction with other intelligence agencies and Verizon, i spying on U.S. Citizens and businesses. This is how a police state is created over time.

The Patriot Act is like a cancer that is eroding away the Constitutional Freedoms that Americans used to take for granted and enjoy every day. While it was invoked during Former President George W. Bush's "wartime presidency," current US President Obama has not only failed to seek to nullify this abomination to the American way of life, but has further allowed and encouraged its exploitation and increased and de facto broadened the use of its insidious and virtually unlimited power. An article from ZDNet, a wonderfully informative technologically-oriented newsletter which I am privileged to receive regularly. When you've finished reading this regulatory update, you'll switch from Verizon to any other carrier if possible:

NSA 'top secret' spying order affects millions of Americans: FAQ

Summary: The U.S. government is vacuuming up millions of Verizon customer records on a daily basis, according to a leaked "top secret" court order. Here's everything you need to know.

By Zack Whittaker for Zero Day | June 6, 2013 -- 17:25 GMT (10:25 PDT)

The Guardian newspaper revealed exclusively on Wednesday that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has and continues to vacuum up millions of Verizon customer details, including information on phone calls both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.

Read this

Verizon records vacuumed up by NSA under 'top secret' Patriot Act order

Under the order, Verizon is ordered on an "ongoing, daily basis" to hand the NSA the information on all of the call data in its systems.

On Thursday, ZDNet obtained a copy of a note sent by Verizon chief counsel Randy Milch to employees. In the note, he did not confirm or deny the story, but in describing it as an "alleged" court order, he stressed that the text "forbids Verizon from revealing the order’s existence."

"If Verizon were to receive such an order, we would be required to comply,” just as any other company would be forced to.

Milch added that the company "continually takes steps to safeguard its customers’ privacy," but warned that the "law authorizes the federal courts to order a company to provide information in certain circumstances."
A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment when ZDNet contacted the company by phone on Thursday.
This is a developing story and will be updated with notes below, when appropriate.

What is the deal here? Is the U.S. government spying on U.S. residents?

A "top secret" order by a U.S. secret court — known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which was set up in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 following the Watergate scandal — forced Verizon to send the U.S. National Security Agency the records relating to tens of millions, if not all of its customers' phone calls and text messages.

FISA has been amended numerous times since, including the Patriot Act in 2001 following the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City, and in 2008 with the FISA Amendments Act, following the NSA's widespread unwarranted wiretapping campaign.

This order, published by The Guardian, applies to all calls created by Verizon between the U.S. and abroad, or within the U.S., including local calls. Only Verizon calls that are located outside the U.S. and connect with a non-U.S. number are excluded from the order.

There is no doubt that this is a massive domestic spying campaign by the U.S. government — it's clear from the document — through its intelligence services. But unlike previous cases involving the NSA and AT&T, this time around it has been warranted by the aforementioned secret court.

Why has this order been issued?

That isn't clear. The FISC court order itself does not state why. For good reason: if the document is leaked, at least it doesn't dish out any more secret intelligence than is necessary.
The White House said, via a Reuters wire, that the "ability to gather information has been critical tool in preventing terrorist threats." Officials also said there is a "need to balance security with civil liberties."

There may be something going on that we don't know about. An imminent terrorist threat, potentially something on a scale that requires everyone's civil liberties to be halted or diminished to save lives? It's speculative. That said, the U.K. government is actively pushing through this kind of surveillance into law — rather than using Patriot Act-like laws that it currently doesn't possess (see below).

What does the order actually say?

It says a number of things, most of which are described in this FAQ. Verizon is forced to hand over "on an ongoing daily basis" an electronic copy of "tangible things." This is a provision given to the FISC under on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, otherwise known as 50 U.S.C. § 1861, which is commonly known as the "business records" section.
Verizon is also gagged from disclosing "to any other person that the FBI or NSA has sought or obtained tangible things" under the order. The order only permits Verizon to seek legal advice or assistance "with respect to the production of [tangible] things."

This is why Verizon is neither confirming or denying the order, and is not commenting on the record. It simply isn't allowed to.

The cellular giant is not allowed to appeal. Such appeals are rare anyway. The first appeal was in 2002, more than two decades following the introduction of the FISC.

What is Section 215 of the Patriot Act?

Section 215 of the Patriot Act relates to "business records." It also removes the normal requirement to meet the legal standard of what is known as "probable cause," according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a fact sheet [PDF].

Read this

Section 215 supersedes any legally binding privacy guarantees between businesses and their clients or customers, such as a privacy policy or a contract. If a company is served with a court order under Section 215, they are not allowed to contest the order, or even disclose the order to a lawyer — unless legal counsel is used to help hand over the "things" that the U.S. government wants.

Such things are anything "tangible." This includes business, financial and even medical records, as well as papers, documents and books — or anything you can physically hold.
But "tangible" is a broad term that has been interpreted by the U.S. government, which now allows it to include company databases, computers, hard drives, and in some cases cloud-stored files.

How long has this been going on for? Is the Verizon order indicative of an ongoing practice?

According to the Associated Press, the Senate Intelligence committee chairperson Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said the "top secret" court order for telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon is a three-month renewal of an "ongoing practice."

What can be collected under the order?

Communications data, dubbed "metadata," can be collected under the order. The actual contents of the calls are not available to the U.S. government — that would require a different warrant that enables wiretapping. That uses a different section of the law.

The sort of data collected includes "call data," such as the caller's and the recipient's phone number. Also, routing data, such as the IMEI unique device identifier, and the IMSI number used to identify calls on cell networks, will be recorded. The time, date and duration of the call is also recorded.

It's also possible for the NSA to collect location data of Verizon customers, following a 2005 court ruling that determined cell site location is also considered as "metadata."
This effectively means that foreign nationals and non-U.S. residents are being specifically targeted for widespread warranted domestic surveillance.

Is this order in breach of Fourth Amendment rights to "unreasonable" searches?

This one is tricky. Arguably yes, but also perhaps not. The Fourth Amendment protects U.S. residents from the U.S. government — not private companies — conducting "unreasonable" searches.

However, the FISC has ruled before that similar NSA surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment. According to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said that the court has ruled that the intelligence it collected was "unreasonable" under the law.

Despite being held in secret, the FISC is accountable, albeit to a small number of select politicians on the Senate Intelligence Committee. No records are kept and the ones that are will be treated with the highest security classification possible.

Can the U.S. government use the order to listen in on calls, or read my text messages?

Yes, the FBI and CIA can read your email. Here's how

"Petraeus-gate," some U.S. pundits are calling it. Here's how the head of the CIA (and you) can have his emails read by a friendly U.S. intelligence agency, which led to his resignation.

Communications data does not include the contents of phone calls or text messages, such as emails or the recordings of phone conversations, rather it instead includes all the details about everything that's sent and received online.

Names, addresses, and financial data are also not collected. With inter-agency co-operation, it would not be difficult for the NSA or the FBI to work out who is who.

Are consumers affected, or businesses, or both?

A person familiar with the matter, who declined to be named, told ZDNet on Thursday said that business and enterprise customers are most affected. Consumers are also affected because the division of Verizon, known as Verizon Business Network Services, serves residential and business customers, as well as local, state, and federal government entities.

What can the NSA do with this collected "metadata"?

The U.S. government doesn't believe metadata, the collected information, isn't private or sensitive in nature. The U.K. government used a similar analogy, which explained that while the contents of such communications are the "letter," the metadata is the "envelope."

The NSA could do almost anything it likes with the data it receives. It can work out who you're contacting, when you're likely to contact them, links with other people and "social networking analysis" that determines who may know other people via a mutual friend. The government agency can also determine where you've been.

Above all else, it can be used to spot what the NSA would consider "suspicious" activity. Considering it's already used the law to scrap the legal standard of what is considered "probable cause," it could probably widen the scope of what it would consider "suspicious" in the first place.

A specific Verizon division is named in the order. What is Verizon Business Network Services?

When Verizon acquired MCI Network Services in May 2007, the company was spun into the telecoms giant's business unit. It was renamed Verizon Business Network Services. It provides local and long-distance voice and messaging services, as well as Internet and data access.

For business clients, Verizon offers virtual private network (VPN) services and firewall technology. According to Bloomberg, the division also provides "network infrastructure, including network design, implementation, and customer management solutions; and data, dial, asynchronous transfer mode, digital subscriber line, and dedicated and bundled services, as well as security products."

If Verizon has been slapped with a "top secret" order, have others also?

AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile may have been hit with the same order, or one with almost exactly the same wording. It's possible and likely, but we cannot confirm that. It's safer to assume that if the U.S. government has forced Verizon to hand over the data of more than 98 million wireless customers and around 21 million residential and commercial lines — if not more — then other cellular firms may have been as well.

What does "top secret" actually mean?

The document markings at the top of the document say: "TOP SECRET//SI//NOFOR," which likely means very little to the vast majority of readers.

Read this

Breaking this down, it means the document is of the highest level of security clearance in the U.S., and also fellow allied countries such as the U.K.

The term "SI" relates to sensitive compartmented information relating to communications intercepts, such as wiretapping.

"NOFORN" essentially means "no foreign nationals" are allowed to view the document, such as allied nations in which the U.S. government shares intelligence with.

For this reason, The Guardian based in London, U.K. may evade U.S. sanctions or prosecution as a result. It's certainly safer for a U.K.-based publication than a U.S.-based one.

Isn't this "communications data" collection similar to what the U.K. government is currently trying to push into law?

Very much so. The U.K. government is struggling to get this into a debate stage, let alone law and signed by Royal Assent, due to opposition in the Cabinet of the Conservative-led coalition government.

The government wants its intelligence agencies to be able to tap into in near-realtime the communications data of any given person in the U.K. at any time. This involves forcing the Internet providers in the country to install "black boxes" to enable the server-side data collection.

###

----------------

As I write this, I quietly lament the loss of some many of the freedoms that once constituted the very foundation of the democracy that was America. As an American Citizen and as an Internationalist as well, I am profoundly ashamed at what I see as a pattern of converting the country of my birth into a police state, reminiscent of "The Handmaiden's Tale" or "The Matrix".

Thank you in advance for circulating this article to all of your comrades, colleagues, associates, friends and connections via social media to keep them informed, and vigilant about what is going on all around us without our knowledge, consent or right to question.

Douglas E. Castle

Tags, Labels, Search Terms, Categories, And Keywords For This Article:
big data, cell phones, CFI, constitution, Douglas E Castle, FBI, FISA, limiting freedoms, martial law, NSA, Obama-Bush, Patriot Act, police state, privacy, spying on US citizens, terrorism, texting, Verizon

***

Risk Assessment: Reality Check - Yourself.

2013-04-15T20:19:00.000-04:00

Nobody likes to talk about risk assessment and pre-emptive measures as well as counter-measures. It simply makes us feel all the more vulnerable to think about it. But for the safety of all -- the general public, the workplace, our schools and in any areas where groups of people are likely to gather, as well as those places (power plants, and the like) which would be highly probable terrorist targets from a strategic point of view.

In addition to writing The InfoSphere Business Alerts And Intelligence Blog, I am an officer of the Global Edge Technologies Group LLC, a private entity which deals in risk assessment, threat measurement, damage control and containment and executive protection and security.

While it might cost a sum of money and require an additional investment of time, you might find it wise to have a security professional review your facility to find areas of vulnerability, to create preventive and tracking resources (mounted cameras, alarms, backup power generators, special "safe rooms") and other proactive countermeasures in the interests of protecting lives, property and information.

Just today, there was a hideous tragedy at the Boston Marathon which I suspect could have been prevented had the area been searched and patrolled along the entire marathon path. Think of the lives that might have been saved, and horrors averted had someone in a position of power had the vision to assess and prepare for risk. It doesn't matter whether it's a deranged, vindictive individual (we've all known a few...perhaps you've even dated one for a short period) from the next town, or an internationalist terror cell, we, as a people remain oblivious to the real nature of the threats increasing all around us. This merely makes us more vulnerable.

A world in a continuous state of war, and the economic crises which challenge us make threat assessment and preventative measures essential, both personally and professionally.

To punch the point further, here is a news excerpt from today's New York Times:

| BREAKING NEWS ALERT

NYTimes.com | Video

BREAKING NEWS Monday, April 15, 2013 4:29 PM EDT

Two Dead and at Least Two Dozen Hurt in Boston Marathon Blasts

A series of explosions was reported near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday, leaving two people dead and at least two dozen injured, according to the Boston Police Department.

A third explosion was heard just before 4 p.m., about an hour after the first two blasts. The police were apparently aware of that device before the explosion occurred.

The blasts took place about four hours after the start of the men’s race, which meant that there were still several thousand runners yet to finish the race. One senior counterterrorism official said it was too soon to tell whether the explosions were related to terrorism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/us/explosions-reported-at-site-of-boston-marathon.html?emc=na

---------------

We are all busily debating over gun violence, which is all well and good; but we should be talking about all acts of bullying, violence and terror against persons, as well as the corruption and theft of data and intellectual property, and the measures which we must, as individuals and as a society take in order to protect ourselves. We cannot realistically expect to dial 911 for a rescue, or for local police patrols to protect us and those whom we love or care about. Sadly, by the time the police get to the scene, it is generally to interrogate witnesses and collect evidence. That's not prevention, in the same way that a chalk line silhouetting my crumbled body is not art.

When it comes to protection, we each and all must do much, much more.

Thank you once again for reading my articles and for your kindness in sharing them with your colleagues and connections through your social media outlets. I truly appreciate it.

Douglas E. Castle

Sponsored And Assisted By:
CFI - CrowdFunding Incubator LLC
ICS - International Connection Services
Global Edge Technologies Group LLC , and
The Late Commander Elron ("Ronnie") Arvis, whose spirit lives on in those he taught.

Special thanks to Headmaster and US Martial Arts Hall Of Fame Inductee
Soke Joseph Droual of New York Martial Arts, Huntington, NY, to whom I bow.

***

InfoSphere™ Business Alerts And Intelligence

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By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Tablet Growth Exceeding SmartPhone Growth!

Greenmail Returns: Dell Versus Icahn

Dangerous Media Monopolies - Gannett Mainstream MegaCorp

Yahoo! Stinks - Time To Leave

NSA Spying On US Citizens - With Verizon's Cooperation

NSA 'top secret' spying order affects millions of Americans: FAQ

Read this

What is the deal here? Is the U.S. government spying on U.S. residents?

Why has this order been issued?

What does the order actually say?

What is Section 215 of the Patriot Act?

Read this

How long has this been going on for? Is the Verizon order indicative of an ongoing practice?

What can be collected under the order?

Is this order in breach of Fourth Amendment rights to "unreasonable" searches?

Can the U.S. government use the order to listen in on calls, or read my text messages?

Related story

Are consumers affected, or businesses, or both?

What can the NSA do with this collected "metadata"?

A specific Verizon division is named in the order. What is Verizon Business Network Services?

If Verizon has been slapped with a "top secret" order, have others also?

What does "top secret" actually mean?

Read this

Isn't this "communications data" collection similar to what the U.K. government is currently trying to push into law?

Risk Assessment: Reality Check - Yourself.

READ MORE »

InfoSphere™ Business Alerts And Intelligence

Intelligence Versus Timeliness - How Much Information Is Required For Decisionmaking?

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For My Readers

Banks Discriminating Against Increasing Number Of Customers

DealBook: Over a Million Are Denied Bank Accounts for Past Errors

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Related articles

Tablet Growth Exceeding SmartPhone Growth!

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Dangerous Media Monopolies - Gannett Mainstream MegaCorp

Related articles

Yahoo! Stinks - Time To Leave

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NSA Spying On US Citizens - With Verizon's Cooperation

NSA 'top secret' spying order affects millions of Americans: FAQ

Read this

What is the deal here? Is the U.S. government spying on U.S. residents?

Why has this order been issued?

What does the order actually say?

What is Section 215 of the Patriot Act?

Read this

How long has this been going on for? Is the Verizon order indicative of an ongoing practice?

What can be collected under the order?

Is this order in breach of Fourth Amendment rights to "unreasonable" searches?

Can the U.S. government use the order to listen in on calls, or read my text messages?

Related story

Are consumers affected, or businesses, or both?

What can the NSA do with this collected "metadata"?

A specific Verizon division is named in the order. What is Verizon Business Network Services?

If Verizon has been slapped with a "top secret" order, have others also?

What does "top secret" actually mean?

Read this

Isn't this "communications data" collection similar to what the U.K. government is currently trying to push into law?

Related articles

Risk Assessment: Reality Check - Yourself.

READ MORE »

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