Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

The above was the message on the subject line of an e-mail I received today. I’ve seen that promise many times before. The e-mail itself starts out, “Six months from now, you could have your own beachfront bungalow… even a housekeeper and gardener… and plenty leftover for dining out, theater, travel…In the right places overseas, you can live not just comfortably – but well – for as little as $30 a day. No kidding.”

Do not believe this

Look, $30 a day is $10,950 a year. The lowest-cost places I know of are in rural Mexico and in rural Ecuador. By “rural” I mean living like natives, with few if any expats in sight. I know some married couples in both those countries who do live on that amount per year but they are volunteer missionaries experienced in self-sacrifice. Not one of them would dream of referring to their standard of living as “paradise.”

For the average couple who wish to live in a city with expat communities, $60 a day is a more realistic goal, and $90 a day is my recommendation.

Permanent residency will be required

First, forget about privacy. Second, you’d better be able to prove you have at least a certain guaranteed income each month. Third, you may have to invest in a business or —as in Ecuador — deposit at least US$25,000 in an Ecuadorian bank and leave it there as long as you are a resident. And fourth, you will not be allowed to take a job in your new country, with the possible exception of teaching English. (A friend of ours in Jocotepec, Jalisco, Mexico earns $5 an hour teaching English.)

However …

I am not saying you shouldn’t move to a foreign land—far from it! It’s a great experience —especially for couples with small children—but you must be willing to endure the culture shock, and not expect to live in paradise “on $30 a day.”

Labels: expats in Ecuador, expats in Mexico, get outta Dodge, moving overseas, retire on $30 a day

The time has come to prepare for a possible economic collapse. If there is indeed a financial meltdown within a few years, then at least we won’t be caught unawares.

FOUR STEPS ABOUT PREPARING FOR AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE.

Cash on hand

This means as many $20 bills as you can put together—hopefully a hundred of them. For Americans, if you live near a border, you might wish to have some Canadian dollars or Mexican pesos on hand as well. Don’t plan to get the cash at the last minute from a bank or from an ATM because a global financial crisis could shut down banks overnight.

Silver bullion

Why silver instead of gold? With silver rounds (.999 percent pure silver in a round shape similar to a silver dollar), you are dealing with a volatile unit that bounces up and down with a value between $30 and $50 dollars—just the right amount for filling your gas tank or loading up a small shopping cart with groceries during a global financial crisis. What would you do with a one ounce gold coin, which may be worth anything from $1400 to $1900?

Food and water

Although we do not keep a year’s supply of food on hand, as do some survivalists and religious groups, we do keep enough food on hand in our basement to feed ourselves and friends for at least a few weeks. (Since most of our friends are Latinos, this includes many liters of olive oil and large bags of rice and beans from Costco.) We mark the dates on each item and from time to time bring them up to use in our kitchen. Then we replenish the food stores downstairs.

Gasoline

We have two cars, an SUV, and a pickup. When any of them get even close to the half-full mark, we fill them up. Thus, should gas stations run out of gas during an economic collapse, or fail to work due to a power outage, I figure we can keep on driving for some time.

If you have only one vehicle, I suggest you keep an extra 20 gallons in five-gallon cans. I know it’s a bother, but gas doesn’t age well, so you need to rotate. Fairly often, pour the cans into your car’s gas tank and then refill the cans and mark them with the date.

Living off the grid

In the past, I’ve bought cargo trailers, converted them for camping, and then sold them. I no longer do this but you might wish to check out OFF THE GRID: Living and Traveling in a Van, Truck, or Converted Cargo Trailer.

First, go to this site to see what the unit looks like, and what it does:
http://www.detectigo.com/commercial1.html

Next, read this (from a review):

"DetectiGo can track someone anywhere in the world and listen to what they're saying. It's small enough to be hidden in a backpack, a briefcase or in a glove compartment … Legal expert David Milian says it's not breaking the law to track someone. "

For the complete review, go to:
http://www.gpsreviewsworld.com/view/145509/New_GPS_device_allows_you_to_track_people

No, the above is not a misprint! As for what started it all, it seems that the family wouldn't give back three cows and their calves that wandered onto their 3,000-acre farm this summer.

The same aerial vehicles used by the CIA to track down and assassinate terrorists and militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan are now being deployed by cops to spy on Americans in their own backyards.

For details, go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073248/Local-cops-used-Predator-drone-arrest-North-Dakota-farm-family-stealing-6-cows.html#ixzz1gTglLioS

Labels: predator drones used on Americans

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45604732/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/supposed-spyware-may-be-stealing-your-money/#.TuaeWUrO_Ys

"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Now you can find out the truth."

That's a banner on the website for SMS Privato Spy, which advertises smartphone spyware that allows customers to secretly monitor a spouse or co-worker's phone and collect that person's calls, texts and GPS locations.

According to security experts, however, the truth is that customers have been getting nothing for the $50, $75, $100 or $125 they paid for one of Privato Spy's four packages.

"There is no such product as SMS Privato Spy," Symantec security expert Peter Coogan said in a blog posting.

The remedy:

If you wish to download some software that is probably illegal, at least let a month or two go by. Then google the name. In this case, if you google "Review SMS Privato Spy" you will certainly be forewarned!

Labels: how to protect yourself, illegal offers, internet scams, Privato Spy

FROM CNN MONEY: “Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones. Some retail analysts say the new technology is nothing to be worried about. Malls have been tracking shoppers for years through people counters, security cameras, heat maps and even undercover researchers who follow shoppers around.”

Can you opt out?

Well … a clerk may say, “Here, give me the phone you don't want tracked. I'll pass it over this sensor on the counter; the information from your phone is now entered in this 'opt-out' database that would have been captured by the sensors throughout the mall - and now you can go about your shopping experience knowing your movements are anonymous….”

Does that sound to you like a way to trick you into giving out the information anyway?

A better option

Leave your cell phone at home when you head out to shop.

This just in from a law enforcement officer in Birmingham:

“I'm glad more than ever for How To Be Invisible and the advice you gave in it. Recently, Jefferson County and Baldwin County had their personnel databases hacked and someone got names and home addresses of all county sheriff deputies. (I'm with Birmingham city, not the county.) I'm okay because of the fake info I put into the Birmingham database.”

He adds, “NOW the guys are getting spooked. They should've prepared beforehand!”

So-called private information constantly shows up on the Internet. If you order a prescription and the information accidentally goes on the Net, will it show your home address? What about your driver’s license? Dental records? Place of employment? Or the address you use for your credit cards?

A variation of Murphy’s law is that any information about that can show up on the Internet will show up on the Internet.

The remedy?

Notify one and all that you’ve moved. Give them your new [ghost] address.

“Facebook's Privacy Issues Are Even Deeper Than We Knew” was the headline at forbes.com, just after the Black Hat Conference at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in August 2011. A research team at Carnegie Mellon University had showed that Facebook has become a worldwide photo identification database.

“Paired with related research, we’re looking at the prospect where good, bad and ugly actors will be able identify a face in a crowd and know sensitive personal information about that person.”

It turns out that CMU searchers didn’t even have to log into Facebook to get to the photos there. They relied on just Facebook’s public profile information and off-the-shelf facial recognition software, then accessed profile information through Facebook’s search engine APIs. Nevertheless, they matched Facebook users with their pictures on otherwise anonymous Match.com accounts.

“Drawing upon previous research, they were also relatively successful at guessing individuals’ Social Security numbers. From there, of course, it is just an automated click to your Google profile, LinkedIn work history, credit report, and many other slices of private information.”

Two months later, the following article appeared on nextgov.com’s website:

FBI TO LAUNCH NATIONWIDE
FACIAL RECOGNITION SERVICE

“The FBI by mid-January [2012] will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov … Often law enforcement authorities will ‘have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don't know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our case,’ said Nick Megna, a unit chief at the FBI's criminal justice information services division. The new facial recognition service can help provide that missing link by retrieving a list of mug shots ranked in order of similarity to the features of the subject in the photo....

“Using the new Next-Generation Identification system that is under development, law enforcement analysts will be able to upload a photo of an unknown person; choose a desired number of results from two to 50 mug shots; and, within 15 minutes, receive identified mugs to inspect for potential matches. Users typically will request 20 candidates, Megna said....

“The planned addition of facial searches worries Sunita Patel, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who said, ‘Any database of personal identity information is bound to have mistakes. And with the most personal immutable traits like our facial features and fingerprints, the public can't afford a mistake…."

The article goes on to say that large-scale searches may generate a lot of false positives. Hmmm … might that happen with your picture, taken from your passport, a travel visa, any government ID, your driver’s license, yours or someone else’s website, a dating site, or from Facebook (posted by you and/or your “friends”)?

That’s what the parents of three teenage girls in Indianapolis, Indiana thought. Nevertheless, at a party with a webcam, they visited an Internet chat room. One thing let to another, and the boys at the other end dared them to flash their breasts. They did, but no problem, right? The boys were in some other state, far away, and they’d never hear from them again.

A week passed. Then one of the girls received a series of threats by e-mail. She was told to either email more explicit pictures and videos of herself , “or I’ll post your pictures to all your MySpace friends.”

Did the girl then confess to her parents what she had done? No, she complied with his demand at least twice. (Police and federal authorities eventually became involved and indicted a 19-year-old Maryland man for the crime of "sextortion.”)

SEXTORTION IS INCREASING

Teens are more vulnerable to blackmail because they're easy to intimidate and embarrassed to tell their parents. The result is that they will do almost anything to keep naked pictures of themselves from getting out.

Alabama.
          Jonathan, 24, extorted nude photos from more than 50 young women who were on Facebook or MySpace.

Wisconsin.
          Anthony, 18, posed as a girl on Facebook to trick male high school classmates into sending him nude cell phone photos, which he then used to extort them for sex.

California.
          A 31-year-old man hacked into more than 200 computers and threatened to expose nude photos he found unless their owners (many of them juveniles) posed for more sexually explicit videos.

Here is a suggestion to any of you parents with a teen daughter. Have a dead serious talk with her about the danger of sexting. Explain that if, despite your warnings, she takes some revealing pictures of herself and sends them to anyone on Planet Earth, she may soon get a threat to take and send more pictures, or else. Kindly explain to her that she will at this point have two options:

Plan A. She can confess to you and ask for your help. There will be some consequences such as grounding involved, but this will pass and you love her and will help her.

Plan B. She can submit to the threats and send the blackmailer whatever he asks for. Explain that this will eventually come to light anyway and at that point, life as she’s known it will disappear.

Labels: nude pictures, sexting, sextortion, teen blackmail

The following quote is from Elsy in New York. She sent it to me as a post to one of my website pages. This was such an ingenious solution that I am passing it on to you.

"I purchased Invisible Money when it first came out. A friend was in trouble with the IRS and could not deposit his money in his own bank until he could work out a payment plan with the IRS.

"In Invisible Money you discuss older bank accounts. We brainstormed and came up with several ways to acquire an old bank account. My friend started looking for businesses for sale at dirt cheap prices. He really did not want the business; he wanted the business bank account. He found a one-man lawn service business looking to sell his client list.

"He purchased the business (client list) for approximately $3000. Included in the purchase was the business bank account which was opened in 1966. No social security number attached. Just a tax ID number

"Then he sold the business client list for his purchased price minus the bank accounts."

The following information comes from a Department of Justice document name “Retention Periods of Major Cellular Service Providers,” and is marked “Law Enforcement Use Only.” Here’s what they prefer the public not know:

Verizon keeps a list of everyone you’ve exchanged text messages with for the past year. Sprint keeps the list for 18 months, T-Mobile for up to five years, and it’s seven years for AT&T. That makes Verizon appear to have the most privacy-friendly policy, right? Not quite—Verizon retains the actual contents of text messages for five days.

Labels: cell phone dangers, cell phone records

I am flying to Europe at the end of October. There is still time to arrange meetings in these two locations:

Madrid
Canary Islands

If this is of interest, please tell me exactly what it is you need help with. If this is for a business consultation, perhaps your trip will be tax-deductible.

JJL {at} canaryislandspress {dot} com

Labels: privacy consultant, privacy consulting, Private consultations

Some of these I've mentioned before, but they bear repeating:

BEST PLACE TO REGISTER A CARGO TRAILER

Michigan. They have a "permanent" license plate that you never have to renew!

BEST STATE TO REGISTER A CAR, MOTORCYCLE, OR TRAILER

Washington state. If you are not a resident, the DMV allows you to register your vehicle in the name of an LLC with a foreign ghost address without listing any address whosoever in the United States.

BEST TOWN IN WHICH TO HIDE FROM A BILL COLLECTOR

Unalaska, Alaska. The city covers part of the island and all of neighboring Amaknak Island where the Port of Dutch Harbor is located. (Home of the TV program “DEADLIEST CATCH.") This is one of the most costly and difficult places to travel to, while still remaining in the United States. (Saint Paul, Alaska is even worse but you do not want to go there.)

BEST DAILY NEWS LETTER ABOUT INVESTING AND MOVING OFFSHORE

Simon Black (http://www.sovereignman.com). “In the last 3 months I’ve traveled to over 20 countries, met with a President and several diplomats … hitchhiked in Bogota … [and] lectured on entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe. I’m a student of the world, and I believe that travel is the greatest teacher.”

THE TWO BEST BOOKS ON PRIVACY

How to be Invisible is one, of course. The other is Mark Nestman’s “LIFEBOAT” three-volume set (copyright 2011). I asked Mark about a possible discount for my readers, but he says no. Nevertheless, if you order through the link below, I will offer a choice of any e-book free, or a $100 discount on any ghost address. Just e-mail me the receipt from Mark in order to claim your bonus. Offer ends September 30, 2011. Check this out at http://www.nestmann.com/catalog/lifeboat-strategy-legally-protecting-wealth-privacy-21st-centuryem-2011-volume-p-29.html?ref=21

You won’t be disappointed!
.

Gone are the days of "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!" If Sherlock Holmes were alive today, he would be sitting at a desk, just like so many other small-time PIs are doing at this very moment.

All your local PI has to do to find your home address is to run whatever data he’s been given, using paid national and international databases, common Internet searches, and social media site searches.

He may make phone calls to your family and friends or to church members if the client has provided that contact information, and he has an ample supply of “pretexts” up his sleeve to track you down in a matter of hours.

As outlined in How to be Invisible, the only way to protect yourself in such a case is to move. Once you do, never give out your home address again. A few close friends and relatives will know it, of course, but caution them against the possibility of a pretext call from a PI. They must either give him false information (“He moved to Alaska but I don’t know where”) or no information at all.

1. If there is some breaking news about privacy, you may be the first to hear about it.

2. Many brief discounts are offered via e-mail only. These include offers regarding e-books, ghost addresses, consulting, and ocassionally even NM LLCs with slow-selling names.

These e-mails are usually sent out just one or two times per month. To sign up, go to the forum and follow instructions.

At the bottom of each e-mail there is a link where you can unsubscribe. Once you do that, you will never hear from me again.

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Labels: discount e-books, discount ghost addresses, discount LLCs, e-mails on privacy, privacy tips