Bill Gates Speech during Mix ‘06 - Web Design convention in Las Vegas

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Mix ‘06Bill Gates Speech Mix 06

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With the advent of electronic methods for transferring cash, small denominations can be moved quickly outside the view of watchful law enforcement officials (ergo Drug dealer can text in a payment from the privacy of a bathroom stall).

Transactions can be traced but the transaction when removed from a public street corner becomes more difficult physically to monitor. How does a law enforcement agent get permission to monitor a bank account or cell phone account when they have not witnessed a potentially illegal transaction?

here is an example of how the process could become more electronic (click to enlarge)

The image shows that a Drug Addict can text a payment to a seemingly innocent source, that of someone selling a baseball card on an auction site. The Drug Dealer can utilize a courier to transfer the drugs to the addict.

Drug addict has now become the frontline money launderer. They must put small denominations into a bank account that can be transferred to Dealer.

Drug Dealer can aggregate the funds in a bank account, and then appear to make innocent purchases or expense payments through an online bill payment system wiring money via ACH. (In a future article, we’ll look at how identity theft becomes a related problem in this process.)

Law enforcement must find a way to track and monitor potential illegal activity without having the ability to see a transaction occurring on a street corner. The courier becomes the weekest link in the transaction. Children or minors have long been targeted for this type of role even since the age of prohibition of alcohol, and might be utilized even more heavily in a more electronic age.

Electronic WalletsMoney LaunderingAnti-Money LaunderingPaypal Texting Money

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Ebay/PayPal have anounced their projects to offer the ability to transfer money via instant messaging and PayPal’s confirmation process. The concept of beaming money around is not a new idea, but it has been a long time coming in the form of a trustworth implementation. PayPal in fact created a low tech way to do this several years ago, when it allowed people to email money. Mobile devices with email capabilities could take advantage of this, but the perceived risk (real or not) of email messages from a mobile device delayed the take off.

Now PayPal intends to offer a process where a user would text a PayPal number, identify an amount and identify a destination phone number. PayPal then has an automated service call the user back to verify the transaction and enter a pin. In theory about as safe as an ATM transaction. The point is that it does not have to be 100% safe, but as safe as the status quo is perceived to be.

We’re going ot explore the dark side of this process and look at the challenges that this new technology will create for the law enforcement communicty at large. The bottom line, an electronic wallet makes it both easier and much more complicated to track criminal behavior whether it be a drug deal, money launderer or terrorist.

Improvements for Law Enforcement
Cash provides people with an anonymous method for exchanging something of value. Switching to an electronic transaction provides an electronic trail of evidence.

Today if no one witnesses a cash transaction and the serial numbers of the bills are not know and the bills are not marked, a transaction can be difficult to trace. For purposes of this article I’m going to use the example of a drug deal to illustrate the potential and pitfalls.

Simple scenario
Drug Dealer offers drugs for $100
Drug Addict Agrees, hands dealer 5 x $20 bills
Drug Dealer hands Drug addict package containing drugs
Drug Dealer repeats over and over again all day, all night, all week all month
Drug money piles up & Drug Dealer senses need to launder money (too dangerous to have a house full of money with so many Drug addicts around)
Drug Dealer finds organization to clense money by running it through business that appears to be legitimate - Business charges dealer a fee

See next Issue for the complications that come up for law enforcement when this transaction can be performed electronically. . .

EBay Plans Payments Using Cell Phones - Yahoo! News
Electronic WalletsMoney LaunderingAnti-Money LaunderingPaypal Texting Money

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Igor Polyakov has taken inspiration from several sources and applied some very imaginative insight to come up with a product concept that is very interesting and a little ahead of its time.

“Glooo” is a crystal ball mixed with an atlas styled browser and laser keyboard. One part InfoGlobe and one part laser keyboard “Gloooed” together with a bit of computer.

The design would inlcude:
- browser
- skype phone
- MSN messenger
- a laser keyboard (reminiscent of the laser keyboard for palm devices that were designed in 2000) will project on any flat surface
- built in video camera for video conferencing

The concept is that a user would use the crystal globe to navigate the web and other programs.

So if you can’t quite put your finger on what’s going on in the Middle East, touch the area and you can get the latest news and weather. Have business problems in China, scratch the Hong Kong itch a bit and get updated Business news.

The form factor is an interesting concept and shows that there’s more to life than a flat panel. It also gives us a taste of the future being more three dimensional both in view and in manipulation and interaction. There is no suggestion as to how this might be tied in with Google Earth, but I suspect the two could make an intersting arrangement.

Glooo, World Browser & Communicator by Igor Polyakov
GloooGlooo World BrowserInfoGlobe

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