I just saw the pop-up ad for the Tiny Wireless Spy Camera for about the zillionth time on the Internet. If even 1% of the people who have seen that ad have purchased the camera, we're being spied on far more than I care to think about.

What is up with that? Can that company really have such a bottomless pocket as to be spending that much money on advertising?

You can deactivate those pop-under ads from X-10. Click on the link to deactivate it:
http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=http://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

It only works for 30 days, so the ad will appear again eventually. For more information look to http://www.x10.com/x10ads.htm

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

Mary Beth, I'll bet they're selling a gazillion of those things. Makes me wonder too just who's doing all the spying these days. Need we ask why the general public is getting so worked up about privacy over the last few months. It's not just fallout from GLB. It's cameras at traffic intersections and facial recognition software scanning the Super Bowl crowd. Now for the soapbox... we thought KYC was dead in response to public outcry. But it's resurrected in the new BSA/AML exam procedures under the guise of monitoring "high-risk" accounts for "suspicious" activity. What would your biggest commercial customers say/do/or think if they knew their bank may, first, identify them as associated with a trade or profession in which the federal government has said money laundering occurs, second, begin watching their cash transactions and funds transfers over periods of time for "suspicious" activity, and then, third, be able to ex parte file a detailed report with the federal government when the bank thought something was suspicious? Whew! It looks like there are two trains heading down the same track towards each other at full throttle with an imminent collision - - the public's interest in their own privacy and the government's so far unbridled desire to gather more and more information about us. I think I've had more moral reservations about implementing these AML procedures than anything else in my compliance career. Anyone else feel the same? There - I said it - I'm done. Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Ken Holmes (edited 08-02-2001).]

Who knows what is being done with all those cameras. By the way, Mary Beth, you and Ken both look very nice today. Is that a new outfit. I haven't seen you in that before.

Smile.

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

Considering your propensity for going on-line and posting to BankersOnline in the wee hours of the morning, Andy, you'd better make sure there are none of those "spy" cameras in your home office. Those Snoopy PJs are just SO out of style!

Andy,
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the link! I'm going to access this discussion from my home computer so I can turn off those *&%$ pop-up ads!

Although - I suppose those cameras could be usefull.....

With respect to the government's ever increasing invasion of privacy - this is another area where I think we bankers will get toasted by the media and the public (since we've been "deputized" by the government in all of this) and there won't be a *&%$ thing we can do about it.

I had turned off those ads a couple of weeks ago. Guess what? It worked, I stopped getting the camera popup ads. But, it didn't stop the popup ads. Now I just get different popup ads at the sites that were previously triggering the X-10 ads.

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Jim Bedsole, CRCM, CBA, CFSA

Opinions expressed are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

John, time to refresh the picture. The Snoopy PJs were last week. This week I've updated to Cowboys.

To help get rid of the other pop-ups, go to hotfiles.com and do a search on Popup Killer. At over 140M downloads it is one of the most popular eradicators of these annoying things. I am told none gets them all, but this gets most. But remember, these ads and banners also help keep the Net free. You should be careful what you wish for.

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

Andy, since I telecommute, I shudder to think of a spy cam broadcasting me and my velcro rollers, leaning back -- feet on desk, typing like a demon, sipping on a big Diet Coke. Not a pretty site.

I'm going to download the Popup Killer and see what it's like to experience surfing without pop-ups -- at least for a while. I might end up wondering what I'm missing. . .

Folks:

If we can just return to the spy camera for a minute . . . they really DO have a valid security purpose for bankers. They're cheap, movable and effective. I've used the term "silent witness" in other security posts and potential uses include the monitoring of:
* Delivery/receiving areas;
* ATMs (in addition to the in-machine camera);
* Vault, including the safe deposit area (not the customer viewing area); and
* Any other location that either poses special concerns or where suspicious activities are occurring.

Please, oh please -- don't put one in a restroom. Retail chains are still paying off "peeping" awards delivered by the courts . . .

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Dana Turner
Security Education Systems
danaturner@bankersonline.com
830-535-6500