Aug 15, 2018
Is someone spying on your through your computer? Listen in as Ken, Matt and I discuss how it can happen.
Omarosa! Yes, Matt asked me about this and we discussed how these recording work and the problems with them.
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Is anyone spying on your computer? How do you know?
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Transcript:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
Airing date: 08/15/2018
Computer Spying. Does Recording Conversations Kill Free Speech?
Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] Hi, Craig Peterson here. I don't know. Did that get political, this morning? I guess you'll have to decide. I don't think every discussion where people disagree is political, right. You could agree or disagree with me on economics. You could agree or disagree with me on policing strategies. Does that mean that it is political? I don't think so. I think we've gone far too far on the political realm. This morning when I was talking to Matt, it was interesting because he was asking about technology and some of its effects here. And I took all of that and I really ran with it this morning. So, there were a couple of quick, one actually kind of quick question before that where Ken Altshuler was asking a little bit about the computer spying on us. So, I did talk a little bit about that at first but then, Matt Gagnon and I talked about a subject that is going to change the world. Has changed the world. Does that make it political? Am I wrong for having brought this up, or what do you think? Let me know 8 5 5 3 8 5. Fifty-five fifty-three. Am I wrong doing this, right? So, many people, you know I get fed up, when you get Hollywood or you get musicians out there with political stands and there are obviously political, right. You're going out against President Obama or President Trump, and you're just slamming them for things that are where there is nothing to it. That's political. Where is that line? This is a really interesting problem, and something obviously I'd thought about because I was able to respond to Matt and I love to know what to think. Anyhow here we go this morning with Ken Alschuler and Matt Gagnon then up in Maine on WGAN a.m. 560 and FM 1 0 5 5 and I guess there's a couple of repeaters as well. Anyhow here we go. Thanks, for listening.
[00:02:12] It's that time again. It is a Wednesday at 738 which means Craig Peterson is joining us, as he typically does. Give us an eye on technology, Sir. How are you this morning?
[00:02:20] Hey, that's me, doing good.
[00:02:23] So, I'm sitting here working on my laptop and sometimes it's a little light up, on the top and I keep thinking somebody is looking at me. Am I just being paranoid?
[00:02:34] Braggers, somebody play that somebody still looking at me.
[00:02:39] Well, in your case, yes, your just being paranoid. Who would want to? Exactly, yeah spying on computers is a problem.
[00:02:47] You guys remember the L.A. Unified School District and the problem they had with their laptops.
[00:02:54] I actually do not. No, what was it?
[00:02:57] Ok. Well, it turned out that the laptops were issued by the school district two students had spyware on them and some of the young ladies would have their laptops open in their bedrooms, while they were getting changed et cetera. And apparently, some of the IT people in the L.A. Unified School District decided that it might be kind of fun to watch. And that's kind of the long and short of it. That happened maybe what now a couple of years ago, and the whole thing obviously backfired, and I think they pulled back all of these laptops. But, Ken it's not unreasonable to be concerned about that. You've got the actual spying where you're talking about a camera that might be on. And, even though the computer has a little light that comes on when the camera is activated, that's not 100 percent positive indication that light that the camera is in use or is not in use. In other words, there are ways particularly with Windows computers, not so much with Macs. There are ways to have the camera active, but not have a light on. And, we're not going to go into details here but it is a concern. There is a lot of people that are concerned about it. The employers may be spying on them while we were at work or in the case of an L.A. County unified. Maybe these school district people spying on the kids while they had their computers at home. Now, in both cases usually what you end up seeing, is people are are saying, hey listen we're just trying to track these laptops so, we know where they are. So, they don't get stolen. But, there are some real privacy concerns there.
[00:04:45] So, there's a great article that I found on Popular Science that posted it up on my Web site, that talks about how to secure your systems, not just from the camera watching you but all of the software that might be on your computer that might be spying on you. Because we know we've got more and more activity by the Chinese the Russians the North Koreans and others to try and get into our computer. So, this article goes through and talks about the layers of security that you have to have. Bottom line, this is not the world that was even just five years ago. Things are getting more complicated. You and I are getting caught in the crossfire, between these countries that are out there trying to come after the United States, and just having an anti-virus isn't enough. So, this article goes through talks about some of the different layers of software you should have, A it gives you some links so you can buy some of the software. But bottom line, if you're a home user it's going to cost you two to three maybe four hundred dollars a year for the software, that you should have on your computer. Now, that's a huge jump from you know where we were before where you were using free anti-virus although it does have a link to some free antivirus software. There's more to it than that. And if you're a business you should be spending about a hundred fifty dollars, a month on software and services to keep your computers up to date and to keep them secure. It's a much, much, different world out there, Ken.
[00:06:26] Craig Peterson, our tech guru, joins us at this time every Wednesday to give us an eye on technology. So, Craig, I'm going to go a little rogue here and I'm going to ask you about Omarosa because I'm not sure if this is even a question, Craig but I just want to talk about it. So, she's recording, secretly people in the White House, not just the president, but you know aides, who are having certain discussions and she's clearly you know running around just trying to get as much leverage as possible, in the event she got fired, which she did. It's kind of weird new world we live in, isn't it? I mean you know I have an app on my phone. I almost never use it. But just in case I have an app on my phone, that will record my phone calls, right. So, that I can have that kind of thing recorded. Usually, I would use it for something, I want to keep notes or something but, I mean I can absolutely see that being you know almost a weapon when you call somebody up in hope that they say something crazy, that you can then have on recording and then use it against them later. Then you know you can have a pen that has a recording device on it, you can have you know any number of devices now, that have this type of thing on it.
[00:07:30] How do we live in a world like this, especially if you live in the White House and work in the White House? And, be secure that anything can ever be, sort of, private, ever.
[00:07:43] Matt, That's is a good question right? We just had the governor on, you know you've got senators on, you've got all kinds of people on the radio, when you're calling into a radio station, There is a basic assumption you are being recorded, but you're right the rest of your life isn't. And we mentioned that whole two-party consent thing before on the show, I think it was even last week, there's 15 states in the country. I think it is about 15, that have two-party consent laws, which means you can not record the other party if they are in a two party consent state. Now, let's get to an interesting way to look at it. For instance, Washington D.C. is a single party consent for that district area, which means that all would have to happen as one person says I'm going to record this conversation by themselves and they start recording, and it's all legal. But let's say Omarosa is there in Washington D.C. and the President is in Florida. Well, Florida is a two party consent state. So, what happens to them is she has committed under Florida law a felony by recording the president.
[00:08:57] So, if he was calling her from the golf course in Mar Lago or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:09:03] She's in serious trouble if that was the case. But what we're talking about is a little higher level than that. You know Omarosa, he brought her into the White House. I was a huge fan of The Apprentice. It was just so much fun. It was fascinating seeing how they approach marketing problems and things, right. She was the villain on The Apprentice. And, from what I've heard on these tapes you know I think the White House is certainly just fine. They're in the clear. But I don't know that Matt. What do you do? You could potentially have a device that is set up to make sure there's nothing around you electronic, you could go that far. There are some devices that are out there. There is a case for your phone for your iPhone and that iPhone case monitors what your iPhone is doing as far as the broadcast goes, or the electronic sounds, if you will coming out of it so talking to the data on the cell towers talking to the voice on the cell towers. So, you know hey listen wait a minute, there's something going on with my phone but Matt you can't be certain anymore. Now, you have to be careful and you know what that's going to do. This is the same problem we have with the fascist movement. Where you have fascists out on the street beating people who disagree with them. And, that is people just are watching what they're saying and that means you can't have an honest discussion. You and I cannot disagree on some subject.
[00:10:42] You can never I can never risk saying something offensive anymore so everybody's so guarded that nobody's actually exploring any issues, anymore. Nobody's, actually getting into depth on anything.
[00:10:52] Yeah, the opposite is what we need right. Exactly. We need we need to protect the type of speech that offends us more than any other type of speech. And when we're talking about one party or two party consent laws and states under the federal government any federal agency it's always considered to be one party so they can prosecute in the federal system with one party. So, what can happen is the police are investigating. They've got an informant they say Mr. informant, I want to call up your drug supplier and let's get them on tape. So, the feds can do that in any state. However, in a two-party consent state, they can use that, in court, if it goes down to the state courts. Law enforcement prefers a single party because they really don't have to get much permission when it comes to recording. You know my feeling on this I think that in the performance of their public duties that officers, you know police officers all the way down through town clerk et cetera, it should be legal to record them. But, in this day and age shouldn't you should assume you are being recorded, right. How many times have we seen a news broadcast, and there's 50 people with their iPhone and Android smartphones up videotaping something that's going on? Even in a two-party consent state. That has to be the assumption, and I don't know what to do. It's bad, it's not good. I think, frankly, to have a single party consent in most cases I think both parties should consent. And, I think we've got to stop saying all speech is political because it's not. We have to stop beating people with medieval weapons like clubs with nails coming out of them when we disagree with them.
[00:12:51] The left has gone, far too far, and when we're talking about this whole thing, we know when it comes to the right when it's when it's too far. When someone is being racist it's too far. When someone is like David Duke it's too far. But there's very few of those people, and everyone on the right rejects that type of speech. And, we see that every week. When is it too far on the left? When they cross the line? You know the Antifa movement is out there. They're wearing black masks and black clothes et cetera. And, they are shutting down free speech whenever possible. They're breaking windows, cars, setting fires. Is that too far? I don't hear most of the media talking about that. And because they are stopping the free speech we are in a sad, sad, position in this country. So, this I put this all in one bucket Matt because I think it's all very, very related. We're concerned now, about what we say back in the day someone could be yelling the N word all day long and assuming they weren't a rapper. You could reasonably assume that they were racist. Right now the racist can hide. And they do hide and the free speech is certainly still, kind of there. But I think everyone's being careful. You have to watch it. You know you can be a teenager, teenagers do stupid things, right. You're not an adult really until you're well into your 30s, most people. Those stupid things you said, are going to show up when you apply for a job because people the first thing the hiring managers get to do is search for you online. So, this is a huge problem and I don't know where it's going to end up.
[00:14:44] Matt, Craig Peterson, our tech guru joining us every Wednesday. We'll talk to you next week.
[00:14:51] Take care gentlemen. Thank you, sir. All right, we're going to a quick break here.
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