Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

I am aware than some of you readers—despite my pleas over the years—still do not have a passport. Perhaps you figure that, if you ever decide to cross a border, you can order your passport at that time.

But if your passport application is refused, what then?

When I first heard about a proposed new application names the DS-5513, to be used in some but not all cases, it was so shocking that I suspected it to be a hoax. It requires, for example:

• Mother’s residence- 1-year before your birth, time of birth and 1-year after your birth. Complete address required.

• Name of Mother’s Pre-natal doctor and dates of appointments.

• Documents your mother used, if any, to enter the country before your birth?

• Describe the circumstances of your birth (as well as names, address and phone number, if available) of those in attendance at your birth.

Several months have since passed. It turned out not to be a hoax. I cannot imagine that this requirement will ever go into effect, but then I once assumed the Consitution protected us all. That was prior to the Patriot Act.

For all you folks who do not yet have a passport:

Google “Form DS 5513.”
Read about DS 5513 yourself.

Then order your passport.
TODAY.

Labels: Form DS-5513, passport application, who have a passport

By “emergency cash” I mean at least $2,000. The first problem is that less than five percent of U.S. families have at least $2,000 cash on hand in the first place. In fact, half of the families could not even come up with the cash within 30 days. So says the Dayton Daily News:

In a pinch, half of U.S. families can’t find $2,000

[Dayton, OH, June 11, 2011] Half of American families — including a growing portion of the country’s middle-class — would not be able to cope with an unexpected expense that required them to come up with $2,000 within 30 days according to a study that illustrates both the fragile nature of family finances and the depth of the nation’s financial crisis …

Actually, even those who say they can come up with $2,000 in 30 days are assuming the banks will be open. They will not be open in a flood, an earthquake, or an attack on the banking system.

Further, what if a problem comes up on a trip? Emergency cash will not help you if you’ve left it at home. Here’s a classic example—a few details have been changed but the facts are true:

Our good friends Jim and Grace Weston, both in their 70s, left Wells, Nevada in their 1999 Range Rover last March 20th. They were en route to attend their son-in-law’s funeral in Las Vegas. Early that evening, the transmission started making odd sounds. They barely made it to a gas station in a small town when the transmission gave up.

“We called AAA,” said Jim, “and a tow truck driver showed up, but he was shorthanded and therefore unable to tow us back home, or on to Las Vegas. I then tried to call a car rental agency in the next town. They were closed, so I tried the one taxi company there. They wanted $180 to come pick us up and then take us on to Las Vegas but said it had to be cash only, no credit card.”

Although Jim had two credit cards in his wallet, he had only $52 in cash. His wife had $33 and some small change—far from the $180 they needed. (In desperation, they contacted members of their religion who were willing to help, but how many travelers are able to do that?)

Back to the subject of keeping some emergency cash. If you haven’t got it, get it. (I tell you how to obtain it in my e-book “How to Survive.”

Labels: cash on hand, emergency cash, failure to have cash on hand

In Australia, yes. Will this soon be coming to a city near you?

“. . .at least one couple has been served legally binding foreclosure documents via Facebook. A Canberra couple defaulted on a ‘six-figure loan’ and was untraceable via physical address or email.

"The lawyer for the lender was able to locate them on Facebook, however, and verify their identities through matching names, dates of birth and the fact that they listed each other as friends."

This is from http://realestate.bryanellis.com/4607/foreclosure-via-facebook/

This classic example comes from the back in the Cold War days, when the Stasi ruled East Germany with an iron fist. The president, Walter Ulbricht, received a picture of himself in the mail. It was clipped from East Germany’s major communist newspaper. Written across Ulbricht’s picture were the words “BIG FAT PIG.”

From then on, almost every time his picture appeared in the newspaper, Ulbricht received a copy of the picture with the same words, “BIG FAT PIG.” The only clue to the location of the sender was that the letters were all postmarked from Dresden.

Ulbricht ordered the Stasi to track the culprit down. But think for a minute. How could the Stasi track down a man who just mailed newspaper clippings from various locations in a large city? To the sender, it seemed impossible but the Stasi went to work.

1. An article was planted on the front page of the party’s newspaper with Ulbricht’s picture featured prominently.

2. Then the entire shipment of newspapers destined for Dresden was trapped by printing a unique number, in invisible ink, on the reverse side of Ulbricht’s picture. Each number was then linked in a database to an individual recipient assigned to receive that specific paper.

3. When the next “BIG FAT PIG” clipping arrived, it was turned over to the Stasi.

4. When the secret ink was developed, the number was matched to the address of the local secretary of the communist party in Dresden—and one of Ulbricht’s political rivals.

So before you start mailing clippings of Obama to Washington, or of Bush to Texas, remember Ulbricht. If the government decides to get you, you will be found.

[The above account is from page 49 of The Spy’s Guide: Office Espionage, by Keith Melton and Craig Piligian— Quirk Books, 2003.]

Labels: office espionage, run but can't hide