[109322] in Cypherpunks
RE: PC Computing Online: Bombshell
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Adam Wagman)
Thu Mar 18 12:53:24 1999
From: Adam Wagman <wagman@cognex.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 12:08:21 -0500
Reply-To: Adam Wagman <wagman@cognex.com>
Before anyone goes ballistic over that article: It's an April fool's joke
(as you'll find if you follow the links).
-Adam
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> To: cypherpunks@toad.com
> Subject: FWD: PC Computing Online: Bombshell
>
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> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This article is from PC Computing Online (http:www.pccomputing.com/).
> Visit this page on the Web at:
> http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/stories/all/0,6605,391688,00.html
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Bombshell
> Paul Somerson
> April, 1999
>
> A shocking revelation in a little-known Minnesota legal case is about
> to throw the entire PC industry into turmoil. And unless privacy
> advocates are successful in a court challenge, everyday users may be
> in serious danger of being sued or fired. The trouble started when
> Lydia Profaslo, a 24-year-old sales associate at Polar Foil, a
> manufacturer of thermal insulating material, posted a photograph on
> her firm's Web site taken at a company picnic. In the photo, Profaslo
> is wearing shorts and a bathing suit top.
>
> A coworker of hers, Eve Wolensky, testified that she was walking past
> the office of a sales manager, Roger Jeffries, and happened to notice
> Jeffries looking at the photo and making an inappropriate remark.
> Wolensky informed Profaslo, who left the office in tears, and later
> brought a sexual harassment suit against Jeffries and Polar.
>
> In the ensuing trial, her attorneys asked Polar executives a routine
> question about the existence of any recordings that could shed light
> on the case. To their surprise, company officials reluctantly revealed
> a secret that may shake the PC industry to its roots.
>
> It turns out that virtually every computer system purchased after
> March 1996 contains a microphone, and that the IT departments at Polar
> and other companies had routinely been using special sound-activated
> software to record and collect conversations.
>
> Microphones, which cost manufacturers less than a quarter, had been
> mandated in the 1996 IEEE RFC 0401 PC/Telephony spec, but few users
> have taken advantage of them. However, Polar's attorneys admitted that
> most IT departments, and even major Internet providers, have been
> running special SCP (Speech Collection Port) software that uses the
> microphones to bug conversations as a "protective measure."
>
> The software can harvest all speech within a five-foot radius of an
> average PC, compress and store it, and send it over LANs or Internet
> connections to a central collection server.
>
> Witnesses who have listened to the recording say Jeffries was
> allegedly heard to whistle and say to himself "Nice bazongas."
> Jeffries, who was subsequently fired, directed all inquiries to his
> lawyer.
>
> Profaslo's legal team has argued the episode has caused her "serious
> depression, anorexia, and sleeplessness." She has filed for
> disability, and is suing Polar for $30 million in damages.
>
> So how do you know if you're at risk for something you might have said
> innocently over the past three years? Here's the sure-fire trick: If
> you've ever noticed that your hard disk "in-use" indicator light
> periodically goes on for a few seconds even when you're not typing, or
> saving files, it is almost certain that SCP software has been
> surreptitiously collecting and sending your conversations either over
> your network or via the Internet.
>
> It's possible to safeguard yourself against such big-brother corporate
> snooping by disabling the microphones, according to Jim Sumner, a top
> electrical engineer at Compaq. Some microphones are easy to spot--they
> usually sit behind nail-sized recessed grilles. Other more sensitive
> ones are hidden on motherboards.
>
> Privacy advocates are predictably upset at this, and have brought suit
> to end the practice. Developers at one such organization, the Computer
> Freedom Foundation, have created a pair of useful freeware programs.
> The first detects whether snooping has occurred, and deactivates the
> microphone. (It also lets you play back any temporary speech files
> still hidden on your hard disk.) The other replaces any untransmitted
> conversations with a .WAV file of actor E.G. Marshall reading the text
> of the First Amendment.
>
> Have you said anything while at your PC that could haunt you? For
> instructions on disabling your microphones, copies of the two freeware
> programs, and a patch that adds a blinking light to your taskbar
> whenever your microphone is active, go to www.pccomputing.com/snoopfix.
> Hurry.
>
> E-mail somerson@zd.com
>
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