Do Not Go To Cars.Gov!!!!

I was working on a graphics project on my computer and had Glenn Beck program going in the background for noise and heard something that made my hair stand up. They were talking about cars.gov and why you should not ever go to that site. They showed the following screen when you click to use the site -

"This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

I think it is self explanatory. If you use the government site, they own your computer and everything on it.

The more I think about this the angrier I get. They don't even try to hide what they are doing anymore.

How many people do you suppose just click "accept" without reading this? I'm betting lots of people do and have already.

You didn't even try the site? I didn't get anything out of the ordinary. Just another website.

Try it....nothing bad or scary happened to me.

reply to post by Blaine91555


I just browsed there and got zero in the way of warnings or use policies. Have you tried it?

I'm not finding it. Nothing popped up when I went there. I even looked at all of the policies at the bottom. Didn't see that anywhere. I tried it in Chrome, Mozilla, and IE. I didn't get any popups. They might have taken it down or something.

On the show, they accessed the site. Then when they went to use it this came up with the option to accept the terms or not.

Perhaps you have to actually use a function on the site?

Check for tracking cookies or malware?

Interesting...

The thing is that agreement is required for access to the system, by agreeing you give them permission to access, use, and monitor your computer. Also, the access is temporary. According to that, they only have rights to your computer when you are on the CARS system.

So I guess it boils down to this: if you have something to hide, keep your clunker.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

OK, I had it recorded. They go to the dealers section and click on "Submit Transaction" then this pops up. He was allerted by a radio listener.

This is what I have found on their site. It appears they data mine you much like facebook... or so they say.

"What we automatically collect from you.
We collect information about your visit that does not identify you personally. We can tell the computer, browser, and web service you are using. We also know the date, time, and pages you visit. Collecting this information helps us design the site to suit your needs. In the event of a known security or virus threat, we may collect information on the web content you view."

And

"


Home > Privacy Policy DOT Privacy Program

DOT PRIVACY POLICY
Content updated on August 8, 2006



Our Commitment
We respect your right to privacy and will protect it when you visit our website.

This Privacy Policy explains our online information practices only, including how we collect and use your personal information. It does not apply to third-party websites that you are able to reach from this website, nor does it cover practices of other areas within the Department of Transportation. We encourage you to read those privacy policies to learn how they collect and use your information.

What We Automatically Collect Online
We collect information about your visit that does not identify you personally. We can tell the computer, browser, and web service you are using. We also know the date, time, and pages you visit. Collecting this information helps us design the site to suit your needs. In the event of a known security or virus threat, we may collect information on the web content you view.

Other Information We May Collect
When you visit our website, we may request and collect the following categories of personal information from you:

Contact information
IDs and passwords
Why We Collect Information
Our principal purpose for collecting personal information online is to provide you with what you need and want, address security and virus concerns, and to ease the use of our website.

We will only use your information for the purposes you intended, to address security or virus threats, or for the purposes required under the law. See “Choices on How We Use the Information You Provide” to learn more.

We collect information to:

Respond to your complaints
Reply to your “feedback comments”
Manage your access to restricted areas of the website
Fulfill requests for reports and other similar information
Register you for a member account
Sharing Your Information
We may share personally identifiable information you provide to us online with representatives within the Department of Transportation’s Operating Administrations and related entities, other federal government agencies, or other named representatives as needed to speed your request or transaction. In a government-wide effort to combat security and virus threats, we may share some information we collect automatically, such as IP address, with other federal government agencies.

Also, the law may require us to share collected information with authorized law enforcement, homeland security, and national security activities. See the Privacy Act of 1974 below.

Choices on How We Use the Information You Provide
Throughout our website, we will let you know whether the information we ask you to provide is voluntary or required. By providing personally identifiable information, you grant us consent to use this information, but only for the primary reason you are giving it. We will ask you to grant us consent before using your voluntarily provided information for any secondary purposes, other than those required under the law.

Information Practices for Children
We do not intentionally collect information from children under the age of 13. If in the future we choose to collect personal information from children, we will comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Cookies or Other Tracking Devices
A “cookie” is a small text file stored on your computer that makes it easy for you to move around a website without continually re-entering your name, password, preferences, for example.

We only use “session” cookies on our website. This means we store the cookie on your computer only during your visit to our website. After you turn off your computer or stop using the Internet, the cookie disappears with your personal information.

Securing Your Information
Properly securing the information we collect online is a primary commitment. To help us do this, we take the following steps to:

Employ internal access controls to ensure the only people who see your information are those with a need to do so to perform their official duties
Train relevant personnel on our privacy and security measures to know requirements for compliance
Secure the areas where we hold hard copies of information we collect online
Perform regular backups of the information we collect online to insure against loss
Use technical controls to secure the information we collect online including but not limited to:
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
Encryption
Firewalls
Password protections
We periodically test our security procedures to ensure personnel and technical compliance
We employ external access safeguards to identify and prevent unauthorized tries of outsiders to hack into, or cause harm to, the information in our systems
Tampering with DOT’s website is against the law. Depending on the offense, it is punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

Your Rights Under the Privacy Act of 1974
The Privacy Act of 1974 protects the personal information the federal government keeps on you in systems of records (SOR) (information an agency controls recovered by name or other personal identifier). The Privacy Act regulates how the government can disclose, share, provide access to, and keep the personal information that it collects. The Privacy Act does not cover all information collected online.

The Act’s major terms require agencies to:

Publish a Privacy Act Notice in the Federal Register explaining the existence, character, and uses of a new or revised SOR
Keep information about you accurate, relevant, timely, and complete to assure fairness in dealing with you
Allow you to, on request, access and review your information held in an SOR and request amendment of the information if you disagree with it. "

Yadda yadda yadda.

reply to post by anonymouse876


He has one of FoxNews people on who is an Attorney and another person who spoke with his attorney and from what they are saying, once you click accept, they own your computer from that point on.

I'm not a very big fan of datamining on websites.

I may not want my neighbors on facebook to know I'm into knitting...

Or whatever.

reply to post by JayinAR


Does that not mean they are planting malware or a tracking cookie? Also look at the list of who can have access.

Do I trust them this much, NO!

The other thing they discussed is that this is currently legal and they can do it on any government site.

I think this is a sign of how arrogant they have become. Connect to a government site and they own your computer! I don't think I'm overreacting and if Facebook is doing the same? Do they also say in theirs they own your computer?

That is crazy....

I give you guys/gals props for trying the site anyway.....

"This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

I'm going to take this literally as I don't think the government puts things like this up unless they mean it.

It says "Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed". The key here is they first say "your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government." So, if you click accept they own your system and everything on it. I don't see any other way to take this.

Here!
www.youtube.com...

reply to post by cranberrydork


Yeah I just went there now and the site failed to exist.

Actually, the policy in general makes sense. For instance, if someone attaches to the network at my workplace....I can freely consider that computer part of our system and treat is as such.

So the Sys Admins of the Federal Government's network are a group of no-nonsense professionals......

Big friggin' deal.....

This is just more of the "sky is falling" kinda' crap so prevalent on the Internet nowadays.

Originally posted by Scooby Doo
reply to post by cranberrydork

 

Yeah I just went there now and the site failed to exist.

Doesn't surprise me in the least. Glenn Beck just exposed them and they sneak out like cockroaches.

BTW. Starred and Flagged

reply to post by sad_eyed_lady


Thank you. It says Dealer Support at the top but I can't locate that page so you must have to register? I'm not sure anymore. Perhaps they altered the site?

Ahh, yes. I see this as no big deal, it happens all the time, the government isn't evil they only want what is in our best interest.

I have to honestly say there are some very naive people on this site.