Lauren Weinstein

Biography:

Lauren Weinstein is one of the "old" men of the Internet. He created the PRIVACY Forum in 1992, and has been involved with Internet and other technology issues for well over 25 years, starting in the early 1970's at the first site on the Defense Department ARPANET (the ancestor of the Internet), which was located at UCLA. Weinstein is quoted as an expert on a wide range of technology topics and issues of technology's impact on individuals and society, by a wide range of newspaper and magazine articles, and participates in numerous local and network radio and television news programs, talk shows, and other venues where these issues are under discussion.

Past Shows:

	Internet, Privacy, & Control
	Sunday October 19, 2008

Privacy and technology expert Lauren Weinstein discussed the current state of the Internet, and possible ways it might be altered in the future. A kind of "network of networks," the Internet was originally developed as a research project rather than for commercial purposes, he explained. There'll be gradual increases in bandwidth and other changes over time, but we're unlikely to see a dramatic or sudden cutover of the public Internet to a new network like the "Internet2" research projects, he said. One problem he cited is that most email and web browsing is unencrypted and this data is "open to all comers," such as a user's ISP. If the data was encrypted, then ISPs wouldn't be able to spy on consumers, he noted. One proposal, which could be established in an attempt to protect children, would require the identification of all Internet users in order to visit various sites-- this would greatly hamper privacy and anonymity, he warned. More than a large compa ... More
Host: George Knapp

	Chinese War Principles
	Saturday April 12, 2008

America's leading authority on Sun Tzu's 2500-year-old book The Art of War, Gary Gagliardi discussed the principles contained in the ancient Chinese military treatise and how they can be applied to the shifting situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to the War on Terror in general.Gagliardi outlined five basic principles that make up Tzu's philosophy of strategy (mission, climate, ground, leadership, and methods), and summed up the work in the concept of "winning without conflict." According to Tzu, it is much better to replace conflict with information, he noted.Gagliardi suggested Tzu would see folly in America's current positions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as Tzu saw trying to win long-distance, long-term wars as problematic. For Tzu, movements should be kept small, local, quick, and always moving steadily toward a goal, Gagliardi continued.Gagliardi, who believes the United States is involved in a "legitimate war against a real enemy," said the real b ... More
Host: Ian Punnett

	John Lennon & Rock and Roll Stories
	Saturday December 22, 2007

Bill Harry, the founder of Mersey Beat magazine and one of John Lennon's best friends, joined author R. Gary Patterson to discuss Lennon, reports that he is composing songs in the afterlife and channeling them through psychics, as well as mystical occurrences associated with The Beatles and other Rock and Roll stories. ... More
Host: Ian Punnett

	The Warfare Comet
	Monday October 8, 2007

Historical detective Graham Phillips presented his thesis that a comet, which came close to Earth around 1500 BC, had global effects on civilizations. ... More
Host: George Noory

	Spiritualism & Magic
	Saturday August 25, 2007

Ian welcomed writer Christine Wicker, who discussed her work as a religion reporter for The Dallas Morning News as well as her research into spiritualism and magic, which she defined as "all those things that science will not allow us to believe anymore." ... More
Host: Ian Punnett

	Robert Kennedy & The JFK Assassination
	Saturday June 23, 2007

Ian welcomed Salon.com founder David Talbot, who discussed Robert F. Kennedy's secret search for the truth about his brother's assassination. ... More
Host: Ian Punnett

	FBI Spying Violations
	Saturday March 10, 2007

Filling in for Art Bell, Ian Punnett welcomed technology and privacy expert Lauren Weinstein, who discussed a recent government audit that revealed spying violations committed by the FBI under the auspices of the Patriot Act. ... More
Host: Ian Punnett

	Internet & Privacy Issues
	Saturday August 5, 2006

Art Bell welcomed technology expert Lauren Weinstein, who discussed a variety of Internet- and privacy-related issues. He called censorship of pornographic and other objectionable material on the Internet a "slippery slope" that could easily "spin out of control," resulting in the censorship of other kinds of information. Still, Weinstein believes children should be protected from harmful Internet content, but thinks the answer lies with responsible parents and not with technological solutions, which can easily be circumvented.Weinstein talked about points of vulnerability on the Internet (specifically, domain name servers), but insisted that major technological failures were unlikely due to the distributed network design of the Internet. He was, however, more concerned with political and legislative changes that could render the Internet much less functional in the years to come. Weinstein detailed the ongoing battles in Congress between large telecommunications companies and ... More
Host: Art Bell

	Afterlife Encounters
	Saturday February 11, 2006

Author Dianne Arcangel discussed life (consciousness) after death and shared several stories from her book Afterlife Encounters. Arcangel said she wrote the book to help her deal with the loss of her husband as well as to change the world's skeptical view of after death communications.According to Arcangel, afterlife encounters bring comfort to the bereaved and occur when a person feels "any sense of being connected to or in the presence of a discarnate personality." In one of the accounts from her book, a mother helped police solve her son's murder after an afterlife encounter with him. In another anecdote, two people located in two different states received a vision from a recently deceased man about money hidden in a wall. Arcangel believes such stories provide evidence of an afterlife. Arcangel, who has looked into more than 10,000 case studies, is convinced that "afterlife encounters are normal and healthy" and said they can bring healing to everyone involved in th ... More
Host: Art Bell

	Surveillance & Privacy
	Wednesday December 28, 2005

Lauren Weinstein, an expert in privacy issues and technology, presented an update on such topics as secret wiretapping, Echelon, and camera surveillance. Much of the government's current wiretapping efforts may not meet "probable cause," (which had been used in the past to get a court order) and thus is raising controversy, he said. At this point, most of the targets for interception are international calls, he added.The system known as Echelon refers to an even wider umbrella of surveillance. Using advances in digital technology, voice and other data is remotely intercepted, said Weinstein. Yet such technologies may be increasingly less effective against terrorists and instead serve to invade the privacy of ordinary citizens. All three branches of government should get involved to watch what one another does in order to prevent falling down a slippery slope, he commented. For example, a judge might be more capable of making certain decisions concerning wiretapping than an NSA ... More
Host: George Noory

	Rebroadcast: Uri Geller/Lauren Weinstein
	Monday November 8, 2004

This show was a rebroadcast of Uri Geller from 3/25/04, with a first hour appearance of Lauren Weinstein from 10/14/04. Dr. Bruce Goldberg will be rescheduled. ... More
Host: George Noory

	Demonology & Exorcisms
	Thursday October 14, 2004

Lay demonologist, Dave Considine, the founder of Phantasm Psychic Research, shared accounts of his investigations of haunted houses and assisting at exorcisms. Over the years he has encountered many malevolent entities which he said are fallen angels from various hierarchies who exist in order to torment and destroy mankind. One case he worked on involved a woman who purchased a condo in Montreal and began having the inexplicable experience of having her hair yanked out of her head by an unseen force. A visiting dog also had patches of hair yanked out. In a case Considine investigated in Newburgh, NY, the family reportedly saw a disembodied head turned upside down looking down at them. While at the house he saw floating "ectoplasm" which looked like black human hair, but would disappear if you tried to touch it. Considine played audio clips of an exorcism he participated in, in which a woman became possessed with a demonic entity after dabbling in "candle magic." During the r ... More
Host: George Noory

	The Internet and Privacy
	Saturday June 12, 2004

Lauren Weinstein (vortex.com), thefounder of People for Internet Responsibility (PFIR), joined Art Saturday night to discuss privacy issues and the future of the Internet.Weinstein said the Internet was not originally designed for the things it's used for now, and this has resulted in many problems. One of those problems, according to Weinstein, is the increased traffic caused by junk email -- spam. He said more than half of all email is spam, and "unless it's dealt with through major changes fairly soon there's just not going to be anything left." Weinstein suggested that requiring payments to send email (an often touted solution in the anti-spam community) is not practical and would be ineffective in stopping spam. In order to implement such a system, Weinstein claims it would require a way to identify senders, accept micropayments, and control the end email applications. The cost of doing this would be highly prohibitive, thus Weinstein concludes that "pay per message sche ... More
Host: Art Bell

	Privacy & Technology
	Tuesday March 16, 2004

Privacy advocate Lauren Weinstein (vortex.com) expressed concern about balancing the needs of law enforcement and government with the civil liberties of citizens. He noted that since 9-11 the heightened pace of security has shifted the balance against people's privacy and civil rights. Weinstein was critical of new airline databases which use secretive methodologies for profiling passengers, because consumers can't judge the process. He also discussed how technological advancements have an "enabling function," where people become accustomed to the new convenience or speed and thus may be willing to overlook privacy concerns. Future computers may actually become more restrictive, as manufacturers seek out more control, said Weinstein. Right now some people's computers are acting as "spam bots" sending out voluminous amounts of email without them even being aware of it. Such issues will be addressed in a conference titled Preventing the Internet Meltdown, that Weinstein's group, ... More
Host: George Noory

	Visions of Planetary Destruction
	Monday February 23, 2004

Author Wayne Green (waynegreen.com) introduced David Booth (WhatDoesItMean), who had a series precognitive dreams that were documented by the FAA, in which he accurately foresaw a major plane crash in 1979. Last year Booth said he had a second set of dreams, foretelling a much greater disaster. Green pointed out that because Booth's prophetic dreams turned out to be true in the 1979 disaster, this lends weight and credibility to his current vision. What Booth dreamed in March 2003, on ten occasions, was a vision of seeing Earth from the perspective of space. He said he saw "a large dark planetary object" coming from under the Earth towards the South Pole. Then a huge decimating explosion took place over the western side of North America, followed by a "ripple" that traveled around the Earth. Booth added that the object was somewhere between the Earth and the Moon in size. By correlating cross-cultural, ancient and current data, he believes what he saw will take place in the 2 ... More
Host: George Noory

	Privacy & Technology
	Wednesday July 9, 2003

"We're probably living in a golden age;" people in the future, to us, "will be a slave civilization," said Lauren Weinstein (vortex.com), the creator of the PRIVACY Forum. Weinstein, who was the guest on Wednesday night, warned of the increasing erosion of privacy rights fueled by new technological developments and the post 9-11 climate. By themselves, the individual technologies that collect or transmit personal information such as tracking chips are "bad enough on their own," Weinstein said. But what he is really concerned about are the "meta-technologies" that tie all the smaller ones into "a massive system that could be quite suffocating in the end." While he said he has "a warm spot in his heart" for DARPA, the agency that created the predecessor of the Internet, he said their "Dr. Strangelove" tendencies with programs like T.I.A. (Total Information Awareness) could be approaching such a meta-technology. "The most powerful ally to those who would abuse these technologie ... More
Host: George Noory

	Privacy and the Internet
	Saturday December 28, 2002

Lauren Weinstein spoke about privacy concerns in relation to the Internet. He created the PRIVACY Forum in 1992, and has been involved with Internet and other technology issues for well over 25 years. Websites: www.vortex.com People For Internet Responsibility: www.pfir.org ... More
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