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We can probably answer that question in the other thread - re: "why is there a stigma about self-sufficiency?" - with this one.
"The government" does not turn on your devices at their whim. There has to be a reason, such as law enforcement agencies getting a warrant for the cell phone data of someone who is committing a crime. But even if they did, I seriously doubt they have the personnel (or desire) to go steal a few MRE's and 100 gallons of water from Joe Citizen after the zombie attack.
Yes, your personal information is out there if you've ever used a credit card or paid a utility bill. But these are public records and their use is not as nefarious as some people may think.
Dude, your tin foil is a little tight.
(Mind you, I am not saying you are wrong, just wound a little tight.)
Sometimes it is helpful to take off your pink glasses.
I am the sanest and the most pragmatic person you would ever meet: every FACT I mentioned is true- look it up. Nothing I can do about these new realities of our life- just help to spread the information.
I’d like to be aware of things around me. Hope some of the people appreciate that as well.
Sometimes it is helpful to take off your pink glasses.
Can't do that. Don't own any
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I am the sanest and the most pragmatic person you would ever meet: every FACT I mentioned is true- look it up.
Good that you are sane, but pragmatic? Well, the way you posted that list of facts makes you come across as paranoid. (And thanks, BTW, for the list of links) Just want you to relax a bit. As for all that stuff being true, I agree with you. In fact I know the capabilities, and more importantly - the limitations, on virtually every system you mentioned.
Quote:
Nothing I can do about these new realities of our life- just help to spread the information.
I’d like to be aware of things around me. Hope some of the people appreciate that as well.
We all need to be aware, but relax. One of the limitations is how many of us they can do any detailed spying on. I know their limitations on that as well, since I used to work for the Government, and I have studied their surveillance systems for about 25 years.
If you are interested in government surveillance, there are places you can learn about it and discuss it at length, but really this thread is more about routine hackers that are more bent on mischief, and on corporations with employees who are bored and voyeuristic, rather than government hackers that are breaking into the Kremlin.
Most of us are OK, because there aren't enough hours in the day to scrutinize all of us. That's pretty much what it comes down to. If you're a "person of interest", someone will be assigned to your case. They don't earn much, so it depends on their level of interest.
Most of us are OK, because there aren't enough hours in the day to scrutinize all of us. That's pretty much what it comes down to. If you're a "person of interest", someone will be assigned to your case. They don't earn much, so it depends on their level of interest.
That is true. I know from my own history of dealing with intelligence gathering, that, for instance, I am of interest, but only to a small degree, for them (due to my special knowledge and skills, some acquired at their own schools). At my level, if they run across anything interesting that I write, such as this message, they will drop it into my dossier. But they don't expend any time, money or manpower looking for info about me, they just collect stuff that they run across, because I am not really very interesting (to them).
Exactly! That's one of the things people can do. And they should.
Another is to paste electrical tape or duct tape over the microphone. After all, if you are not taking videos or using Skype, why do you need the cameras and microphone exposed? You don't. Taping won't harm it.
If I ever rent a car or truck now, I tape a piece of black paper over the back-up camera. I remove it before I return the vehicle. And if I had a smartphone (which I don't), I certainly would not connect it to the car!
Pueism Librem makes laptops that have features that allow turning off the camera and microphone. They also do not have the the Infamous Intel Management engine. (The other hidden computer on your Intel chip-set motherboard) that gives full access to your computer regardless of OS or password protection.
BTW - Firefox version 55 and better have a little known feature called "First person isolation" It's an add-on in Quantum (v57) but you have to change some parameters in about:config in prior versions.
Yes, your personal information is out there if you've ever used a credit card or paid a utility bill. But these are public records and their use is not as nefarious as some people may think.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRex2
We all need to be aware, but relax. One of the limitations is how many of us they can do any detailed spying on. I know their limitations on that as well, since I used to work for the Government, and I have studied their surveillance systems for about 25 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerania
Most of us are OK, because there aren't enough hours in the day to scrutinize all of us. That's pretty much what it comes down to. If you're a "person of interest", someone will be assigned to your case. They don't earn much, so it depends on their level of interest.
It is exactly thinking like this - along with the 'I'm not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?' point of view - that enables more of this technology to enter our lives.
There is something called "privacy" that trumps all of that. You don't have to be doing anything wrong. There don't have to be enough of 'them' to monitor us 24/7. The fact that the technology is in place, is enough to warrant concern. We are entitled to our privacy in this country, and it's exactly thinking like that quoted above, that leads to complacency and a lack of situational awareness. With such a mindset, consumers will not avoid purchasing those items that have the capability to spy on us. We need to spend our tech dollars wisely. Advertisers and manufacturers do pay attention. Complacency leads to more of this abuse of tech.
Even if all they collect is metadata, who says they have any right to do so?
It is exactly thinking like this - along with the 'I'm not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?' point of view - that enables more of this technology to enter our lives.
There is something called "privacy" that trumps all of that. You don't have to be doing anything wrong. There don't have to be enough of 'them' to monitor us 24/7. The fact that the technology is in place, is enough to warrant concern. We are entitled to our privacy in this country, and it's exactly thinking like that quoted above, that leads to complacency and a lack of situational awareness. With such a mindset, consumers will not avoid purchasing those items that have the capability to spy on us. We need to spend our tech dollars wisely. Advertisers and manufacturers do pay attention. Complacency leads to more of this abuse of tech.
Even if all they collect is metadata, who says they have any right to do so?
I agree with everything you say here.
The fact, however, is that 90% of the people neither know, nor care about all of this, so we aren't going to do much to change the course of technology. I just recently found out where a lot of their funding is coming from. Those idiots aren't just paying $50 - $100 for their multiplayer online game. They get on line and run up their credit cards paying for Down Loadable Content and stuff like "loot boxes." I always knew the video gamers were subsidizing the computer industry, but I didn't know the degree to which they were doing it, until lately. They love their voice commanded stuff and plastering their faces and grills all over FarceBook and Twiddler. They love their on board navigation and always being connected to the hive.
So, the tech companies and the intelligence agencies are going to do what they do. And I am not going to sweat it. I am just going to continue to study them, and to watch. And I am going to live my quiet life, where all of their tech goodies are uninteresting to me, and many of them cease to function after they come into my vicinity (I seem to have a lot of thumbs, when it comes to things that record me... )
Someday, you and I should talk.
But on a secure channel, of course
I doubt that the "IoT" is going to affect most Americans as they already post the details of the tuna sandwich they had for lunch, as well as their bathroom habits and sex lives, all over their FB and Instagram accounts already.
Personally, I try to protect my privacy as much as possible, but I think the NSA tracking me will aggravate me much less than the telemarketers, spammers, junk mailers, and Jehovah's witnesses who all seem to feel they're entitled to my time and attention for their crap.
According to the first definition, privacy is something that society—meaning you—gives the individual—meaning me. When privacy isn’t given and is thus not available, secrecy is something I can take for myself; secrecy is a functional backstop for the absence of the civil construct.
If privacy is a gift and secrecy is something that is taken, then the possibility of privacy is inversely proportional to the numbers of those who must do the giving for the state of privacy to prevail; hence, privacy is inversely proportional to interconnectedness. This is consistent with a view of risk as proportional to dependency in which dependency, in turn, is proportional to nonoptional interconnectedness. This is where the all-wired world’s “information wants to be free” is most robustly antiprivacy.
The second definition—“privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world”—means that in choosing what to reveal, however idiosyncratically, we demonstrate our liberty. As if that weren’t enough, “philosophical and legal analysis has identified privacy as a precondition for the development of a coherent self,” which asks the question of whether a person whose life has been without privacy can even comprehend the desire of those who prefer privacy. Raising the young to not expect privacy foreordains that when it’s their turn to run society, they will be just as happy despite privacy’s absence and will legislate accordingly.
In case anyone didn't already realize it, that last part means that,
in the facebook age, liberty will soon be lost.
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Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -- Louis Brandeis, Justice, US Supreme Court, 1928
The same should be remembered for those little governments we call corporations.
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