Bettie: More casino countermeasures you probably don't know

[Bettie]

Okay, so clicking on the link below will get you to a Washington Post story about how casino countermeasures against theft, counters, collusion, etc. are being applied to catching terrorists. If you read carefully, you'll learn some interesting things, like facial-recognition software actually is NOT helping the casinos very much, as paranoid as many are of it.

What you should really be worried about is NORA, a software system that stands for "Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness." It seems more tuned to catching acts of collusion, but I know a lot of people who just provide difefrent names to casinos when they need a new identity, and don't do anything about their address or contact number (especially when checking in to a hotel). From the article:

"Every time a player registers for a loyalty card or a hotel room, ... the player's name, address and other data are sent to NORA. Also in the casinos' NORA database is information about employees and vendors. NORA can spot links that a casino employee probably would never discover, such as a phone number shared by two different names, Jonas said. It once identified a casino promotions director who picked a winning ticket that belonged to her sister, he said."

Click the link below for more information.

Bettie

From Casinos to Counterterrorism

[jblaze]

Forget about this 'card counting' business. I'm just going to get me a nice little RFID reader, pinpoint who's carrying around the most money, then meet them in the parking lot.

> Okay, so clicking on the link below will get you to a
> Washington Post story about how casino countermeasures
> against theft, counters, collusion, etc. are being
> applied to catching terrorists. If you read carefully,
> you'll learn some interesting things, like
> facial-recognition software actually is NOT helping
> the casinos very much, as paranoid as many are of it.

> What you should really be worried about is NORA, a
> software system that stands for "Non-Obvious
> Relationship Awareness." It seems more tuned to
> catching acts of collusion, but I know a lot of people
> who just provide difefrent names to casinos when they
> need a new identity, and don't do anything about their
> address or contact number (especially when checking in
> to a hotel). From the article:

> "Every time a player registers for a loyalty card
> or a hotel room, ... the player's name, address and
> other data are sent to NORA. Also in the casinos' NORA
> database is information about employees and vendors.
> NORA can spot links that a casino employee probably
> would never discover, such as a phone number shared by
> two different names, Jonas said. It once identified a
> casino promotions director who picked a winning ticket
> that belonged to her sister, he said."

> Click the link below for more information.

> Bettie

[Norm Wattenberger]

Over 30 years ago a friend and I were chatting about writing a book about the privacy dangers of technology. Of course it wouldn't have sold back then as no one would have believed it. But that's when the very first scanners started showing up in grocery stores. The point was to eventually create massive databases of everything you buy. Of course you can still use cash. But nearly 20 years ago; I was in a meeting with banking execs looking at replacing cash with smart cards. The point was to close the cash loophole and to add all cash purchases to the database.

Fortunately industry has been slow to use such data. But as computers continue to increase so dramatically in price and capability; what might the future look like? Imagine buying a rib roast at the grocery or having a steak dinner at a restaurant, returning home and getting a call from your health insurance company to talk about your purchase and your cholesterol.

I don't want to sound paranoid and I love technology. But I really wonder about the use of technology in the next 20 years considering the changes in the last 20.

[jblaze]

That's not the worst of your worries. How about an implanted chip monitoring HR, BP, blood glucose, etc. Something that can be tampered with, or even less criminally but equally devastating, something that can malfunction - send glucose at the wrong time, don't provide insulin, give too much diuretic. How about the health care costs of having doctors education (elderly) patients on how to use this new technology when they can't even keep their current meds straight. The fun that will come about when insurance companies get all this information.

Did you know EZ Pass data has been used in divorce cases? Yup, prove he/she was cheating, check their EZ pass. It actually holds up in court. Frightening.

> Over 30 years ago a friend and I were chatting about
> writing a book about the privacy dangers of
> technology. Of course it wouldn't have sold back then
> as no one would have believed it. But that's when the
> very first scanners started showing up in grocery
> stores. The point was to eventually create massive
> databases of everything you buy. Of course you can
> still use cash. But nearly 20 years ago; I was in a
> meeting with banking execs looking at replacing cash
> with smart cards. The point was to close the cash
> loophole and to add all cash purchases to the
> database.

> Fortunately industry has been slow to use such data.
> But as computers continue to increase so dramatically
> in price and capability; what might the future look
> like? Imagine buying a rib roast at the grocery or
> having a steak dinner at a restaurant, returning home
> and getting a call from your health insurance company
> to talk about your purchase and your cholesterol.

> I don't want to sound paranoid and I love technology.
> But I really wonder about the use of technology in the
> next 20 years considering the changes in the last 20.

[Norm Wattenberger]

> That's not the worst of your worries. How about an
> implanted chip monitoring HR, BP, blood glucose, etc.
> Something that can be tampered with, or even less
> criminally but equally devastating, something that can
> malfunction - send glucose at the wrong time, don't
> provide insulin, give too much diuretic.

That's acceptable IMHO. All modern techniques can and will fail with some percentage of the population. Question is, do they save more lives than they cost?

> Did you know EZ Pass data has been used in divorce
> cases? Yup, prove he/she was cheating, check their EZ
> pass. It actually holds up in court. Frightening.

Clearly EZ Pass info is used. There are arguments on both sides of this. And I'm not saying that law enforcement should not use obvious sources. But this pales with new cars that have built-in GPS recorders indicating everywhere they go.

Officers of the law must be able to perform their duties - given constraints like those signified 800 years ago in the Magna Carta. What bothers me is the collection of other data - like our choice of toothpaste, library book checkouts, magazine purchases, website views, observations on the street, choice of music. I don't care whether it's corporations or government collection the info. One's a scary as the other.

[Bettie]

> What bothers me is the
> collection of other data - like our choice of
> toothpaste, library book checkouts, magazine
> purchases, website views, observations on the street,
> choice of music.

Sometimes I think about what my library book checkouts look like to someone, and it makes me laugh because 95% of what I check out is VERY political in nature. The other 5% is the stuff I check out to read on planes because I'm afraid of what will happen if I take one of the political books to read and some idiot security agent has a different point of view. Even some the titles are pretty inflamatory, so I prefer fluff for reading in public.

Bettie

[BJinNJ]

95% of my reading list this year has been BJ books!
I need to spend more time memorizing BS and practicing
with CVBJ, now, rather than read more books and message
boards.

I think I can, I think I can...

BJinNJ