Google Office in Seoul Raided by Police

I do not think anyone should be surprised by this anymore.  If you own a smart phone or tablet, then your service provider and the government knows where you are at all times and everything that you do on that device.  The information exists, and corporations and governments cannot help themselves but collect and exploit that information.

Last week a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple for their location tracking technology in the iphone.  Another class action lawsuit has also been filed against Google for their location tracking technology in the Android phone.  South Korea is following up on this information and made a visit to Google South Korea's main office in Seoul.

Source:

SEOUL (MarketWatch) -- South Korean police raided Google Inc.'s local office on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether the U.S. search giant's local unit has been illegally collecting individuals' private location data through its mobile advertising platform. 

The police said it is looking into allegations that Google's AdMob platform was used to illegally collect private data about people's geographical locations. It didn't elaborate. 

A Google Korea spokeswoman confirmed that the police visited the Seoul unit to investigate how cellphones and tablets that run on Google's Android operating system collect information about users' location. 

"Google will fully cooperate with the investigation," the spokeswoman said. 

In November 2009, Google purchased mobile advertising start-up AdMob Inc. for $750 million as part of a push to extend its dominance in Internet advertising to mobile phones. 

Tuesday's police action is the latest in a number of investigations of Google in South Korea to determine whether the company has broken local regulations. 

South Korea is the most wired country on the planet and has some of the most complicated and strict internet enforcement and privacy laws.  South Korean internet police have already picked fights with Youtube and Facebook.  They aren't scared to go after Google either.

In August last year, the National Police Agency launched an investigation into whether the U.S. company collected and stored private information illegally while it prepared for the South Korean launch of its "Street View" mapping service, which provides panoramic views of streets for Internet users. 

Separately, two South Korean search portals--Naver and Daum Communications Corp. (035720.KQ) -- filed a complaint last month with the country's Fair Trade Commission against Google for allegedly limiting their access to Android smartphones. 

No further announcements have been made by regulators about the status of these investigations, which Google Korea has said it will co-operate with. In the latter case the company has said Android is an open platform and carrier partners are free to decide which applications and services to include on their Android phones. Google also told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday that neither the policy agency nor the antitrust regulator has further contacted the company about these issues. 

The latest probe into Google came just a few days after South Korea's telecommunication regulator, the Korea Communications Commission, said it sent a list of inquiries to Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) Korea unit to clarify how it collects location data from iPhone and iPad users, reflecting concerns about the collection and storage of private information gathered from smartphones and tablet devices.

TSA Security Made Miss USA Cry

I personally have not flown back to the United States in the last two years... but I am dreading the day I will have to go through security and get my nut sack pat down.

The full body scanners take a full body image of your front and back.  All of your bio-metric specifications are then recorded on a computer.  The government claims they do not keep this information... but the government does not have the best record of being honest about respecting the privacy of Americans (or non-Americans passing through our airports).  Another reason is money.  These machines are very expensive and former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff personally is profiting from the sales of machines he says are absolutely essential to preventing terrorist attacks.

Now, in order to persuade people to willingly stand in line and use the full body scanners to get a naked picture taken of them, the TSA has invented a pat down procedure more invasive and offensive than any regular police pat down.  TSA employees have to perform a procedure to be invasive and to make the person feel uncomfortable.  They have to otherwise nobody would ever choose to go through one of the full body scanners, thus making them pointless.  It is a comfort battle for passengers between the lesser of two evils.

Miss USA 2003 Susie Castillo is a frequent flyer and recently passed through the Dallas Airport and felt like TSA went too far.  We need more celebrities to make these videos and speak out, because nobody listens when average people complain...

Susie then went on the today show.  She made some great points.  How come these TSA screening procedures are not being used at the White House or the Pentagon?  If this is the best way to screen and catch terrorists, why is it only happening in airports and not all government buildings?  What about foreign airports?  They have other methods that have worked for them just fine.  There is no evidence that the TSA enhanced pat downs do anything to protect passengers more than metal detectors, behavioral profiling, and dog units.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

South Korean Man Arrested for Using Twitter to Support North Korea

A first of its kind.  Beware what you post on your twitter or facebook accounts.  The South Korean government has set the precedent that people can and will be arrested for being supportive of North Korea or at least critical of the South Korean government's handling of the North.

Source:

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the South Korean authorities have arrested and filed charges against a man for posting Twitter and other internet messages praising North Korea.

The 54-year-old South Korean man, identified only as Cho, is said by the South Korean government-affiliated Yonhap news agency to have posted 100 messages and video clips in support of the regime in Pyongyang.

Mr Cho's alleged offences took place between 2009 and October last year and involve content on his own blog, Twitter and other websites.

Postings said the sinking in March of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors and was widely blamed on North Korea, was faked by South Korea and the United States. Messages also blamed South Korea for provoking the shelling in November of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea, in which two marines and two civilians died.

That makes me nervous... I posted on my own blog to a degree something similar.  In July I posted about the Cheonan Conspiracies and felt myself that the Korean government was deliberately misleading the public in some way about the sinking (or were just being incompetent with their investigation).  At the time, 20% of Koreans did not believe that North Korea was responsible for the sinking.  That number is probably much lower now after North Korea admitted to the November artillery attack.

Mr Cho, who had 3,000 followers on Twitter, is said to have posted material from the official North Korean Uriminzokkiri website. He also praised the likely transfer of power from the current leader, Kim Jong-il, to his son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-un.

Okay... that is where it comes in that he is crazy.  But is he a criminal?  How do you arrest him for just being delusional?  Was he making threats?  Was he advocating violence?  If not, then he should not have been arrested.

Activity such as this, which falls foul of South Korea's national security law banning activities or the publication of material supporting Pyongyang, is viewed as "subversion", said Alan Chong, an associate professor in the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Under the previous government, which promoted a "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea, similar offences might have been dealt with by a "stern warning", suggested Mr Chong.

However, under the current conservative administration of the president, Lee Myung-bak, despite there being "a very vibrant opposition", pro-Pyongyang material "cannot be tolerated", said Mr Chong, especially following the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents.

"Those voices who might take a more left-wing view - 'Let's be nice to them, hopefully they will be nice to us' - this has become politically risky in the current climate," he added.

Charges were pressed against Mr Cho on Monday, two days after a separate incident in which North Korea's official Twitter account was hacked.

Messages posted on Saturday, Kim Jong-un's birthday, did not contain the usual praise for the country's leaders, but instead accused them of living comfortable lives and said they should be killed "with a sword", Yonhap reported. The official YouTube account was also reportedly hacked.

Pyongyang set up Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts in August last year, apparently to attract international support, since internet access within North Korea is heavily restricted. About 1,300 messages have been posted on the North Korean government Twitter account – @uriminzok – which has more than 10,000 followers.

It never ceases to be ironic that North Korea would setup internet propaganda channels and then have no way for any of their people to access it.  It might be designed for foreigners, but probably more people follow and read it as a joke or out of curiosity than as a real source of news or propaganda.

If Mr. Cho loves North Korea so much, then the South Korean government should fly him up there, give him a parachute, and push him out of an airplane.  If he wants to join them, let him go.  If he doesn't want to join them, then he must know it is all a lie, and he is just doing all this because he is either crazy or seeking attention.  He is not a criminal either way.

'Good Old Fashioned Line War'

Monday's episode of the Daily Show covered the Wikileaks dump and the bombing of Yeonpyeong Island.  Check it out...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Il Communication
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor The Daily Show on Facebook

"North Korea is a hostility based economy."  It's true...  The best part was the picture of Kim Jung-un being compared to the kid from Pixar's UP.

TSA Touches Your Junk So Chertoff Can Make Money

A viral Youtube video of an American traveler who refused a TSA full body scan and a pat down of his groin area has ignited a debate about airport security in the United States.  (More Info Here)

I like NMA World Edition's summary...

The simple answer for why these full body scanners were installed and are being used is for corporate profit.  The federal government has already spent 360 million dollars worth of tax payer money to private contractors to build all these machines.  That is just the beginning.

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has been the main person pushing for these full body scanners, but he also the cofounder of the Chertoff Group, a security and risk management group.  They consult with the manufactures of these ridiculously expensive machines.  He directly profits from every one of these machines that are built.  He is abusing his relationship with the public for personal profit.  It is upsetting that nobody in the mainstream media will attack him for his obvious conflict of interest.

The reason why the TSA rules and regulations for pat downs now include TSA agents having to repeatedly touch your junk is because they want you to be uncomfortable.  If it were a simple pat down, then nobody would choose the full body scanners.  Everyone would ask for the simple pat down and the machines would not be used.  Changing the TSA pat down procedures to include repeatedly touching breasts and genitalia is for the purpose of making people feel like the full body scanning machines are less invasive.  They want you to use these machines every time to justify having them.

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Democracy is Dead in America

I am not talking about the fact that Democrats were in power, and it was a Republican wave year. It officially no longer matters which political party is in power, private billionaires and billion dollar multinational corporations win either way.

Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010) was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court earlier this year.  It basically reaffirms the offensive argument that corporations are people too, and have equal protections under the law, including freedom of speech.  The US Supreme Court actually believes that a corporation having and wanting to spend money is the same thing as a human being needing to exercise free speech.

So now it is so, any corporation in the world can now spend unlimited amounts of money in any election they want in America.  They do not have to be American companies, and they do not even have to disclose who they are or where they get their money from.  How can a real democracy survive with this much concentrated power in the hands of so few corporate executives shrouded in absolute secrecy?

The proof of this disastrous supreme court decision was that over three billion dollars were spent this election cycle just on TV advertising.  Forget ideology.  It does not matter what you believe or who you support.  Unless you have tens of millions of dollars to spend in TV adverting for the candidate of your choice, your voice (and subsequent vote) no longer matters.  Whoever spends the most will win.  Whoever best serves the interests of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world will get the most money.  It is as simple as that.

The 2010 election cycle has set the record for most spent ever on TV advertising.  That is more than all the presidential, federal, and state campaigns combined from 2008 in the general election.  The year of 2012 will only be worse.  This will blow up in everyone's fast very quickly and it will not be able to be undone.

and...

FBI Background Check Walk Through For E-2 Visa Holders

*** Update *** - As of March 2011, I have my completed FBI Background check and you can follow the link to see what it looks like.

E-2 visa applicants from The United States who want to either start teaching in South Korea as of January 1st, 2011, or currently teach in South Korea and want to renew their contract after this date, must submit an FBI criminal background check to Korean immigration.

The reason for this change in policy is obvious.  Example, if an American lives in the State of California their whole life, commits numerous crimes, maybe even serves time in jail, then moves to any another state, they then have a clean criminal background check in that new state.  Up until now, Korea has been accepting criminal background checks from any state, regardless of how long a person has lived in that state.

I actually have heard about several past E-2 visa holders (gone now) who have had criminal backgrounds in one state that would have kept them from teaching in South Korea, and they simply moved to another state, waited a month to establish residency, then applied to work in South Korea with their new state's criminal background check.  Nobody in Korean immigration could have possibly known they committed crimes in the United States and were able to teach here by way of this loophole.

The downside of FBI criminal checks is that they do not include everything.  Any time you are fingerprinted after being arrested, it is supposed to show up in your FBI background check.  However, state and local authorities have some discretionary authority on what to report to the FBI.  Likewise, the FBI might get a report and choose not to include it for whatever reason.  Then, there is also just the gauntlet of paperwork involved and stuff slips through the cracks and does not make it on.  Whatever...

If you have ever been fingerprinted for anything ever in your life, the only way to know what is on your FBI background check is to ask for a copy and see for yourself.  There is a process to dispute what is on there if you feel like a mistake has been made.

*********************************************************************************

BEFORE STARTING:

This process takes between three and four months.  Do not underestimate it because it could end up costing you your job if you do not get it done.  No other English speaking countries have a process that takes this long to get an equivalent national background check.  Additionally, numerous things could go wrong in this process causing further delays.  Americans are put at an extreme disability in applying to teach in South Korea from now on.

STEP 1:

If you are living in the United States now, then simply go to a local police station and request to be fingerprinted.  Let them know it is because you need to apply for a FBI criminal background check to work abroad.  They should be able to help you no problem.

If you are living in South Korea right now because you want to stay another year, then you need to make it to a local Korean police station to be fingerprinted.  You need find a Korean police station that has a CSI crime lab.  It looks like this.  The bigger the station, the more likely they will have one.  You can ask a Korean to help you call around to learn where they have CSI departments.  Going with a Korean is preferable, but you can also just go on your own with a written note.  I suggest trying to get time off work during the day to go get this done.

Before you go...

1) The website with the information on requesting a criminal background check is here. (LINK)  Read it.

2) Fill out and print off the application form. (LINK)

3) Print off five copies of the standard fingerprint form (FD-258) and fill each of them out.  Printed on a color printer is preferable.  (LINK)  You should get a full set of prints on three of them to mail in, but if the officer or you makes a mistake, it is good to have two extra blanks to start over if needed.  You need to send in three in the event the FBI rejects one because of smudging and wants a new one.
4) Print one copy of an example of a completed fingerprint card.  (LINK)  The officer who took my prints had never used an FBI print card before and really appreciated the example I brought him.
5) Fill out and print off the credit card payment form.  (LINK)  They do not accept personal checks.
6) Bring with you to the station your passport and alien registration card.  You actually should not need to provide them, but they will want to see them to confirm your identity and make a copy for record keeping purposes.

STEP 2:

You need to write a cover letter for your application form to the FBI.  On it, you are going to need to add several important things.

1) Include any kind of contact information you have.  Your e-mail, your phone number, your mailing address and possibly a mailing address in the United States or a person and contact number in the United States if they need to contact someone about the processing.
2) Include a request to the FBI asking them to use their official seal for the document and have a division officer sign it..  You can say something like this:

"Please include with the background check a FBI seal and signature from a Division Officer.  The purpose of this document is to be sent next to the US State Department for a Federal Apostille."

Mail your cover letter, your application form, the three copies of your finger prints, and your credit card payment form to the following address:

FBI CJIS Division – Record Request
1000 Custer Hollow Road
Clarksburg, WV 26306

The FBI contact number for the FBI Office in West Virginia is 304-625-5590 if you have any questions.

STEP 3:

Once you have received your FBI criminal background check with official signature and seal.  You then must mail it in to the Office of Authentications for the US Department of State.  (LINK)

Part 1:

Effective as of March 1st, 2012, the US Department of State has altered their paper work process in the Office of Authentications. Before, there was just a regular PDF to download, print off, fill out, and then mail in.

That has changed and now "copies of the DS-4194 form are not permissible!" The new instructions for filling out the form to get an Apostille Seal placed on your FBI background check are as follows:

1) - Download form DS-4194 using this link (HERE)
2) - Install Cerenade Visual Reader Application (HERE)
3) - Open Cerenade Visual Reader Application
4) - From within Cerenade Visual Reader Application open DS-4194.FAR
5) - Complete the entire form for the finalized barcode to appear

For more information on this form and program click (HERE)

Part 2:

1) Include a personal check or money order for the processing fee made out to "The US State Department".  They do not accept credit cards.  The amount you owe can be found in the estimate cost section of the form.

2) Include the FBI background check and be certain that the signature and seal of the agency is present.

On the notes and special instructions, be certain to mention you need a Federal Apostille for this document for the purpose of obtaining a work visa in South Korea.  It is important that they know which country wants this and why they want it.

The State Department explicitly says this:

Please include a cover-letter ( see example) with your name, telephone number, address and email address. Please indicate the name of the country where the document will be used. We suggest using a self-addressed stamped envelope for faster return of your documents. Documents received without a return envelope and postage will be returned through the State Department regular mail, which can result in a 2-3 week delay. You can use Fed/Ex, UPS, and express mail services for faster receipt/return of your documents. However, you must enclose a prepaid airbill and envelope.

Mail to:

U.S. Department of State
Authentications Office
518 23rd Street NW SA-1
Columbia Plaza
Washington, DC 20520

 STEP 4:

Bring this document with you to the immigration office when you renew, or else supply it to your recruiter when you apply.  Congrats!

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Uh-oh... China Looks Pissed

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Who is he?  I did not know last week, but now I and everyone else who reads a daily newspaper in the entire world knows.  The Chinese government is also in an unwinnable situation as to how to react to this choice.

Here is some more reflection from an editorial from the New York Times.

China warned the Norwegian Nobel Committee not to honor the democracy activist Liu Xiaobo. The committee didn’t listen. On Friday, Mr. Liu — who is locked in jail on an 11-year sentence for spurious subversion charges — became the first Chinese to win the Peace Prize.

Mr. Liu and the Chinese should be proud. Beijing should be ashamed. On Friday, it said the choice “desecrates” the prize, compounding that shame.

Beijing is used to throwing its weight around these days — on currency, trade, the South China Sea and many other issues. Too many governments, and companies, are afraid to push back. Maybe someone in China’s leadership will now figure out that bullying is not a strategy for an aspiring world power.

Mr. Liu represents China’s best potential future. The 54-year-old scholar, writer, poet and social commentator is an unfaltering advocate of peaceful political change. During the 1989 pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square, he staged a hunger strike, then negotiated a peaceful retreat of student demonstrators as thousands of soldiers stood by with rifles drawn. He has been harassed and detained repeatedly since then.

His most recent arrest — in December 2008 — came a day before a pro-democracy manifesto he helped author began circulating on the Internet. Charter 08 affirmed the importance of freedom, human rights, equality as “universal values shared by all humankind” and endorsed direct elections, judicial independence and an end to Communist Party dominance. The manifesto was on the Internet only briefly before it was pulled by censors, but it still garnered 10,000 signatures.

The Nobel Committee rightly noted that the Chinese government has lifted millions of Chinese from poverty but political change has not kept up with economic reforms. China’s leaders can continue to repress their people or lead the way into an era of expanded freedoms.

No matter what Beijing says or does, the world will not forget Mr. Liu. It will not forget Gao Zhisheng and Hu Jia and all the other jailed dissidents. We honor their courage and their struggle for freedom.

China is trying to build a middle class.  This growing middle class will be educated and will demand more accountability and access to their government.  It is only a matter of time.  China cannot keep prolonging the inevitable and this Nobel Peace Prize might be the necessary spark to start fresh rounds of protests and riots demanding change.

More analysis from the PBS News Hour:

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Youtube and the Real Name Verification Law

If you are foreigner and new to Korea and possibly excited to start your own blog or post videos of your new life for family members back home to see, you might be confused why Youtube will not let you.



You might see a green error message when you try to upload a videao after creating your youtube account.  It states the following both in Korean and English:

본인확인제로 인해 한국 국가 설정시 동영상/댓글 업로드 기능을 자발적으로 비활성화합니다.

We have voluntarily disabled this functionality on kr.youtube.com because of the Korean real-name verification law.

Likwise if you try and post any kind of comment on Youtube, you will get a simpler error message with no explanation.  Well then... what is the "Korean real-name verification law"?

After Nine Years, More Than 900 9/11 Responders Dead

This is how I choose to recognize the anniversary of September 11th.  I am outraged by the lack of action by the government to help 9/11 responders and their families who have died or developed debilitating illnesses as a direct result from working in the rubble of the World Trade Center.

The government (EPA) less than two weeks after the attacks told these people that the air down there was safe to breath.  They guaranteed the responders and the clean up crews that it was safe to work down there.  They were wrong big time and have not been held accountable for this fatal mistake.  More than 70,000 responders worked around the clock for more than ten months cleaning up the rubble from the World Trade Center.  Now large numbers of these people are developing cancer and dying as a result of the bad information the government gave them.

The United States Congress has repeatedly failed to pass legislation to help these heroes and their families.  A bill to finally help them made it to the floor of the House last month, but was voted down for political reasons.  Democrats wanted it to just barely fail so they could scold Republicans on the campaign trail for not passing it.  And Republicans wanted to amend the bill so that illegal immigrants (maybe even Muslim Americans) could not claim any of the benefits.  Republicans also just do not give a shit about these people and think the money to pay for their medical bills is better spent as tax breaks for international corportations that avoid paying taxes.  Republicans failed for seven years in a row under President Bush to pass any kind of legislation to help these people.  Why Americans are so upset about and protesting an Islamic community center and not this legitimate outrage is a credit to the failure of corporate media.

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show actually looks like he has lost all hope because of this political insanity.  I share his outrage and indignation.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
I Give Up - 9/11 Responders Bill
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Suspicious Waygooks to be Fingerprinted

The Korea Times filed a report titled, "Suspicious visitors to be fingerprinted from Wed." last week.

Starting Wednesday, foreign nationals suspected of using fake identities to enter the country or whose purpose of visiting Korea is suspicious will have their fingerprints scanned and face photographed at all 22 international airports and harbors in the country.

The move is intended to tighten security ahead of the G20 summit to be held in Seoul in November. 

This is the first in a three-phased initiative to screen for “suspicious” foreign visitors by matching their biometric information with that of “blacklisted” people, the Ministry of Justice said Monday. 

With the third step to be completed by later next year, providing fingerprints and photographs to the ministry will become mandatory for all foreigners at immigration checkpoints, the ministry said. 

Every foreigner entering Korea for whatever reason or for any length of time will eventually have their fingerprints and a picture of their face taken.  Great, I feel safer already.

The legal grounds were reinstated early this month ― the law was scrapped in 2003 over fears of human rights infringement. 

...

Under the reinstated law, starting June next year, foreigners who stay here for more than 90 days will have their fingerprints and photographs registered with the government...

Well, either the definition and understanding of "human rights infringement" has dramatically changed since 2003 or else the South Korean government just said, "fuck it, these people aren't Koreans, let's just do it."  

If you have ever seen Koreans protesting in the streets or their own elected representatives break out in a massive brawl, I would say Koreans are the ones who should be having their biometrics systematically harvested and coalesced into a massive database.  I think there is a bigger threat from them making a scene during the G20 than native English teachers and migrant workers from China looking to find jobs.