Difference between revisions 36214872 and 36215136 on enwiki

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'''Daniel Leslie Brandt''' (born [[1947]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[activism|activist]] and frequent commentator regarding [[privacy]] issues and the [[World Wide Web]]. In 1989, Brandt and Steve Badrich cofounded [[Public Information Research]], a non-profit corporation that "specializes in monitoring privacy violations on the web." [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/gifs/rush1.gif] In 2002, Brandt launched [[Google Watch]], a website offering general criticism of [[Google]], and he later launched [[Wikipedia Watch]], a similar site focusing on [[open-source]] [[Wikipedia]].

==Background==
Brandt was born in [[China]] to [[missionary]] parents.{{ref|Chasnoff2005}} He was an anti-[[Vietnam War]] activist while at college at the [[University of Southern California]] (USC). According to the ''[[Daily Trojan]]'' ([[January 12]], [[1971]]) Brandt was the editor and creator of ''Prevert'', a monthly student activist newspaper, and the ''[[de facto]]'' leader of the student activist movement at this university in the late 1960s. On [[October 4]], [[1968]], he was one of three members of [[Students for a Democratic Society]] who burned what they said were their [[conscription|draft]] cards in front of television cameras following a speech by [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Edmund Muskie]] at USC.{{ref|NYT68}}

When Brandt's [[student]] deferment classification was withdrawn by the local [[Selective Service System]] in December 1968 due to his public non-cooperation with his draft board, Brandt was [[conviction|convicted]] of failure to report for a pre-induction [[physical examination|physical exam]] and refusal to submit to induction. Brandt [[appeal]]ed and his convictions were reversed on the grounds that he was entitled to student status as an [[undergraduate]] at USC (see ''[[U.S. v. Brandt]]'', [[Case_citation#Lower_federal_courts| 435 F.2d 324 (9th Cir. 1970)]]).

Brandt currently resides in [[San Antonio, Texas]] and works as a book indexer.{{ref|Chasnoff2005}}{{ref|NYTDec2005}}

==Activism==
===Political activism===
Starting from the 1960s Brandt collected [[Clipping (publications)|clipping]]s and [[citation]]s pertaining to influential people and [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] matters. In the 1980s, through his company [[Micro Associates]], he sold a database of citations of these clippings, books, government reports, and other publications. He told the ''New York Times'' that "many of these sources are fairly obscure so it's a very effective way to retrieve information on U.S. intelligence that no one else indexes."{{ref|NYT87}}

These prior efforts were the basis of his Namebase website. Currently the names are drawn from over 800 books, serials, and other publications.

===Online activism===
====Government cookies====

In [[March 2002]], Brandt was credited with finding [[HTTP cookie]]s on the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s website that could be used to track its website visitors' Internet habits for approximately 10 years, apparently in contravention of [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] rules. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/20/tech/main504131.shtml] On [[December 25]] [[2005]], Brandt found that the [[National Security Agency]]'s website was implanting two HTTP cookies, which were not set to expire until [[2035]], in people's computers without their knowledge. U.S. law forbids the government from placing persistent cookies in people's computers. Brandt contacted the NSA to remind them they were in violation of the law and the cookies were removed. The event has gained worldwide publicity. [http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,16559,1675273,00.html]

====Criticism of Google and Yahoo!====
{{main|Google Watch}}

In [[2002]], Brandt started [[Google Watch]], a website where he documented his many concerns about Google and [[Gmail]], including privacy, long-living [[HTTP cookie]]s and advertising policies. Brandt has also highlighted the issue of "made for [[AdSense]] pages"—[[spam (electronic)|spam]] pages with content often scraped from other sites that sometimes enjoy high rankings in [[search engine]]s due to sophisticated [[Search engine optimization|optimization]] techniques. Brandt also maintains an anti-[[Yahoo!]] website, Yahoo Watch. His principal complaint is that the Yahoo! feature [[Site Match]] embeds paid links into the main index and search results.  

While Brandt's site has been criticised by writer [[Farhad Manjoo]] and webmaster [[Chris Beasley]], his concern about Google's privacy violations were echoed by thirty-one privacy/civil liberties organizations, including [[Consumer Federation of America]], [[Privacy Rights Clearinghouse]], and [[Katherine Albrecht]]'s [[CASPIAN]], who warned of "the unlimited period for data retention that Google’s current policies allow". [http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/GmailLetter.htm]

====Criticism of Wikipedia====
{{main|Wikipedia Watch}}
On [[October 13]], [[2005]] [http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=www.wikipedia-watch.org], Brandt launched a new website [[criticism of Wikipedia|criticising]] [[Wikipedia]] called  [http://wikipedia-watch.org/ Wikipedia Watch] in response to the Wikipedia article that was made about himself, which he stated violated [[Florida]] state statutes on [[invasion of privacy|privacy]] (the Wikimedia Foundation is based in Florida). He has both emailed and written (via [[facsimile|fax]]) to the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] and [[Jimmy Wales]] personally demanding that this article on him be deleted from the Wikipedia; a copy of the faxed letter has been posted on his Wikipedia Watch site. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Daniel_Brandt#I_object_to_this_article]  Brandt was blocked from editing Wikipedia for over a month for engaging in conduct that many Wikipedia editors considered to be violations of Wikipedia policy or otherwise inappropriate, especially compiling personal information about Wikipedia editors on his website. [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/hivemind.html]

=====Role in the Seigenthaler controversy=====
In [[December 2005]], Brandt became involved in the [[John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy]].  [[John Seigenthaler Sr.|Seigenthaler's]] ''[[USA Today]]'' column criticizing Wikipedia over the affair had generated considerable publicity.

Brandt found that the [[IP address]] used by the poster of the allegedly [[slander and libel|defamatory information]] was also used to host a website, with the text, "Welcome to Rush Delivery." There was also a company in [[Nashville, Michigan|Nashville]] known by that name, and the IP address on the email they sent back to Brandt matched that in the edit history of the Seigenthaler article. He first made this information widely known on ''The [[Wikipedia Review]]'' public forum[http://wikipediareview.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1133920035&page=1], then contacted the company, Seigenthaler and the media. Within the week, [[Brian Chase (Wikipedia hoaxer)|Brian Chase]], a manager at Rush Delivery, resigned and personally confessed to Seigenthaler.

==References==
# {{Note|Chasnoff2005}} Brian Chasnoff, ''[[San Antonio Express-News]]'', [[11 December]] [[2005]]. [http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA121105.01B.wikipedia.320ce32.html "S.A. man is chasing the secret authors of Wikipedia."]
# {{Note|NYT68}} Douglas E. Kneeland, ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[October 5]] [[1968]], "Muskie Urged Raid Halt; Muskie Confirms He Appealed To Johnson to Halt the Bombing".
# {{Note|NYTDec2005}} [[Katharine Q. Seelye]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[December 11]], [[2005]], "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/business/media/11web.html A Little Sleuthing Unmasks Writer of Wikipedia Prank]".
# {{Note|NYT87}} Jeff Gerth, ''The New York Times'', [[October 6]] [[1987]], "Washington Talk: The Study of Intelligence; Only Spies Can Find These Sources".
# {{note|BeasleyIntro}} Beasley introduces himself [http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2005/10/14/an-introduction/ here]
# {{note|BrandtOnBeasley}} Daniel Brandt ([[October 12]] [[2005]]), [http://www.google-watch.org/gaming.html#case3 "Template spammer Chris Beasley"], ''[[Google Watch]]''.
# {{note|ManjooOnBrandt}} Farhad Manjoo ([[August 29]] [[2002]]), "[http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/29/google_watch/ Meet Mr. Anti-Google]", ''[[Salon.com]]''
# {{note|CounterPunchInterview}} Mark Hand ([[January 3]] [[2003]]), [http://www.counterpunch.org/hand01032003.html "Searching for Daniel Brandt"], ''Counter-Punch''
# {{note|SlashdotUsername}} "Everyman" ([[December 11]], [[2005]]), "[http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=170868&cid=14233678 I am Mr. Cyber-Sleuth]".
# {{note|cent}} Daniel Terdiman [[15 December]] [[2005]]. [http://news.com.com/In+search+of+the+Wikipedia+prankster/2008-1029_3-5995977.html?tag=st.num "In search of the Wikipedia prankster"]
# {{note|brandtonprivacy}} [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/hivemind.html "The Wikipedia Hivemind"], ''wikipedia-watch.org'', accessed December 16. 2005.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
===Sites run by Brandt===
* [http://www.namebase.org/ Namebase]
* [http://www.cia-on-campus.org/ CIA on Campus]
* [http://www.scroogle.org/ Scroogle]
* [http://www.wikipedia-watch.org/ Wikipedia Watch]
* [http://www.google-watch.org/ Google Watch]

===Media coverage===
* [http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/06-Trade/06-04-Disk/NameBase/brandt.incorrect "An Incorrect Political Memoir"] by Daniel Brandt, ''Lobster'', December, 1992
* [http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2002/03/031902.html "CIA cookies exposed and eliminated"] by Steven Aftergood, ''Secrecy News'', 19 March 2002
* [http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/29/google_watch/ "Meet Mr. Anti-Google"] by Farhad Manjoo, ''[[Salon.com]]'', August 29, 2002 with Brandt's response here [http://www.google-watch.org/gaming.html#case3] (down the bottom)
* [http://www.alternet.org/story/14001/ "Conspiracy Researcher says Google's no good"] by Farhad Manjoo, ''[[Salon.com]]'', 30 August 2002 with Brandt's response here [http://www.google-watch.org/gaming.html#case3] (down the bottom)
* [http://www.counterpunch.org/hand01032003.html "Searching for Daniel Brandt"] by Mark Hand, ''CounterPunch'', January 3, 2003 
* [http://www.marketingsource.com/articles/view/2026 "Paranoid or Prescient?"] by Jim Hedger, ''Concept'', 2003
* [http://battellemedia.com/archives/001178.php "Scraping Google to see what's happening"] by John Battelle, ''Searchblog'', 11 January 2005
* [http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/05/15/anti-google-campaign-by-lenz/ "Anti-Google campaign by Lenz?"] by Keith Oibermann, ''Blog news Channel'', 15 May 2005
* [http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2005/10/30/whats-in-a-wiki/ "What's in a Wiki?"] by [[Philipp Lenssen]], ''Blog News Channel'', 30 October 2005
* [http://www.webpronews.com/enterprise/enterpriseonline/wpn-13-20050112GoogleLibrariesandPrivacy.html "Google Libraries and Privacy"] by Daniel Brandt, ''Web Pro News'', 1 December 2005
* [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/online/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001612839 "Wikipedia Founder, Readers Respond to Seigenthaler Article"] by Jay Defoore, ''Editor & Publisher'', 1 December 2005
* [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/06/wikipedia_bio/ "Who owns your Wikipedia bio?"] by [[Andrew Orlowski]], ''The Register'', 6 December 2005 
* [http://smh.com.au/news/technology/cyber-vandal-confesses-his-sins/2005/12/12/1134235996862.html "Caught red handed"] ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 12 December 2005

===Sites, blogs, and forums===
* [http://wikipediareview.proboards78.com/ Wikipedia Review], an open forum about Wikipedia subjects on which Brandt has posted.
* [http://www.google-watch-watch.org Google Watch Watch] an article by Chris Beasley, with Brandt's response [http://www.google-watch.org/gaming.html#case3 here]
* [http://www.aaronwall.com/archives/000365.html Daniel Brandt: A "Fan Page"] - anti-Brandt site, with Brandt's response here [http://www.google-watch.org/gaming.html#case2]
* [http://danielbrandtblog.blogspot.com/ Blog from the anti-Brandt hoaxer]

<!-- Categories -->
[[Category:Living people|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:1947 births|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:Activists|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theorists|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:People from Texas|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:Search engine optimization|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:Wikipedia critics|Brandt, Daniel]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni|Brandt, Daniel]]

<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME=Brandt, Daniel Leslie
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Activist
|DATE OF BIRTH=[[1947]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[China]]
|DATE OF DEATH=
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}

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[[es:Daniel Brandt]]
[[eo:Daniel BRANDT]]
[[fr:Daniel Brandt]]
[[hu:Daniel Brandt]]