The Internet is a surveillance state

[A Guy]

I'm going to start with three data points.

One: Some of the Chinese military hackers who were implicated in a broad set of attacks against the U.S. government and corporations were identified because they accessed Facebook from the same network infrastructure they used to carry out their attacks.

Two: Hector Monsegur, one of the leaders of the LulzSac hacker movement, was identified and arrested last year by the FBI. Although he practiced good computer security and used an anonymous relay service to protect his identity, he slipped up.

And three: Paula Broadwell,who had an affair with CIA director David Petraeus, similarly took extensive precautions to hide her identity. She never logged in to her anonymous e-mail service from her home network. Instead, she used hotel and other public networks when she e-mailed him. The FBI correlated hotel registration data from several different hotels -- and hers was the common name.

The Internet is a surveillance state. Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we're being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads. One reporter used a tool called Collusion to track who was tracking him; 105 companies tracked his Internet use during one 36-hour period.

Source

A Guy

 

[Britton30]

Good read Bill bot hardly news.
I tell people this and they think I'm crazy. It's all about money in the end, but I never clicks links in ads that are served up on pages I visit, so all they get is the few cents-per-click that's generated. It's funny when some site tell you they are placing a cookie "to enhance your browsing experience". :sarc:

 

[A Guy]

Good read Bill bot hardly news.

I agree...but I'm not a bot :roflmao:

A Guy

 

[Layback Bear]

Another way you are tracked and people don't even think of it.
Go buy something at a place like Walmart and pay with a credit card.
They track who you are and what you bought. They also know the time of day or night. Every product you bought with that credit card has a bar code they can match to your credit card therefor to you.
Let's guess; your buying habits are for sale.

 

[HarryHusker]

I think all of this surveillance stuff is going way to far...
And these methods discussed above are only the ones that we normal citizens know about! That my friends, is the scary part...

:shock:

 

[Britton30]

Good read Bill bot hardly news.

I agree...but I'm not a bot :roflmao:

A Guy

ACK! I missed the spelling by two keys.

Jack, aside from the card purchase tracking many items, mainly big ticket ones, TV, Ranges, etc., have a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag in it or the packaging. These can be read remotely to track where the item goes.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Is this meant to be NEWS !! -- As soon as you walk on to the street in most large cities you are on zillions of CCTV cameras, every time you make a Financial transaction it's recorded by some un-accountable credit reference agency and goodness knows what capabilities are available with the latest high tech cameras and surveillance satellites.

However the GREAT thing about all this which really saves most places from becoming a Police State is just the SHEER volume of data.

I'm sure we all have our own horror stories to tell of dealing with typical public servants who are essentially OUR employees -- we PAY THEIR wages via tax etc. --Most Govt depts. are INCREDIBLY inefficient so there's no way a normal specific individual can be monitored unless something has been specifically flagged.

WE have a semi decent govt organisation -- but it took me nearly 8 weeks to get an issue over a State Pension being queried and eventually paid (although still working I have reached State Pension age in my country so can collect it) -- and I am here talking about a reasonably well run democratic country with a TOTAL population of only around 300,000 -- so I would imagine in other places like the USA for example they would just be OVERWHELMED by the sheer volume of data they would have to handle -- or if not every 2nd person would be working for the State. !!!

Even the old KGB in the Soviet era couldn't handle quickly a lot of data it got hold of and they had it easy - as they were a total monopoly and could get any resources from the state they required.

Honestly just don't get paranoid over this stuff. I'd really pity any agents that had to listen to my total burblings during an 8 hour session --even these people are "semi Human" at least.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Faladu]

I really have nothing to hide about what I buy, if these huge companies didn't angle shoot for $, a lot of them would be out of business, I figure.

If you are that paranoid about privacy, what do you NEED to hide? :huh: ....and was it worth it?

I do recall that a large amount of Internet commerce involves porn..... :devil:

Muhahaha to you pervs who now want that info protected... yeah yeah your SO is so at you already, yadda yadda yadda

 

[A Guy]

I too have nothing to hide, but it is the principle of the thing. Just because I have nothing to hide doesn't mean it's ok to spy on me. It's like saying a cop could stop you and search you any time they want. I'd be ok, as they'd find nothing, but it's about rights and privacy. A Guy

 

[Britton30]

I too have nothing to hide, but it is the principle of the thing. Just because I have nothing to hide doesn't mean it's ok to spy on me. It's like saying a cop could stop you and search you any time they want. I'd be ok, as they'd find nothing, but it's about rights and privacy. A Guy

Precisely, that's why I have doors on my house with locks and windows shades.

 

[legacy7955]

I too have nothing to hide, but it is the principle of the thing. Just because I have nothing to hide doesn't mean it's ok to spy on me. It's like saying a cop could stop you and search you any time they want. I'd be ok, as they'd find nothing, but it's about rights and privacy. A Guy

Exactly.


The internet itself isn't the issue, it's the men that created it that is.

Honesty, honor, integrity, and altruism are very rare traits in the human being.

 

[lehnerus2000]

First they came ...

The internet itself isn't the issue, it's the men that created it that is.

I'm not sure that I'd blame them.
Apart from actual criminals, most of these issues are caused by Governments and Corporations.

Honesty, honor, integrity, and altruism are very rare traits in the human being.

Agreed.
Especially when money and power are at stake.

This old verse sums it up:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

[Britton30]

The internet itself isn't the issue, it's the men that created it that is.

Honesty, honor, integrity, and altruism are very rare traits in the human being.

I heartily disagree. Under this logic General Motors or Ford are responsible for drunk drivers killing people, baseball makers for all broken windows, Hammer makers for a man's split thumb, etc.

 

[Fantail]

Amazon and Newegg follows me around with their adds like spiders.

 

[Gary]

It has been this way since 9.1.2001. I have nothing to hide.

 

[Cr00zng]

It has been this way since 9.1.2001. I have nothing to hide.

I'd venture to say that members of this board have nothing to hide. Well, at least as far as law enforcement is concerned...

Most, if not all tacking identified by Collusion (FF plugin) can be stopped by browser plugins. The script based tracking is relatively easy to block and the solution is to track without scripts. One such method that tracking companies may already use is the browser unique profile based tracking. While at the current time browser plugins do not account for this type of tracking, it is possible that they could in the future. Here's a link for testing your browser's uniqueness:

https://panopticlick.eff.org

The webserver can easily add the IP address the browser accessing the site from, correlate the collected information to the available offline data, and depending on the offline data, positive ID can be made within seconds. Based on the result of identification, the appropriate advertisement is included in the webpage that the browser has requested, and the company being advertised is billed for. The whole process can be simplified, if the browser has cookies enabled, both text and LSO based.

While this is pretty much accepted as "normal" and actually is a big business ($40-50B in the US alone), I just don't like people snooping on me. My system has been configured as disable cookies, block tracking scripts, etc. While I understand that these efforts are comparable to fighting the windmill, it doesn't mean that I should stop.

This old verse sums it up:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Just as true as it had been in the mid-1900s...

 

[Bearcatrp]

I don't care for being tracked as much as the next person but not much anyone can do about it. Paranoid government, businesses trying to make a buck, etc.. Just think how easy it was for the government to tie a name and picture together, camera phones and your picture with your contact number on your friends phone. Government got that information real cheap courtesy of us.

 

[Borg 386]

Being under surveillance is an inescapable fact of life nowadays. Not just on the net, but almost everywhere. You can try to use filters & blockers when you're on the net, but, inadvertently some information will leak though. You have to think very carefully about what information you decide to put out on the web.

 

[Layback Bear]

I have nothing to hide.
The fact that I have nothing to hide should be hidden if I so choose.
Realistically you can't hide if you are on the net especially if you use a cloud for anything.

 

[SIW2]

"Just as a social balance favoring disclosure and surveillance over privacy is a functional necessity for totalitarian systems, so a balance that ensures strong citadels of individual and group privacy and limits both disclosure and surveillance is a prerequisite for liberal democratic societies.

The democratic society relies on publicity as a control over government, and on privacy as a shield for group and individual life."

Why We Care About Privacy

Privacy can simply be defined as the right to be left alone. 'It is a comprehensive right and it is the right most valued by a free people. It is a fundamental human right.

The UN Declaration of Human Rights defined Privacy as this:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone had the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Without privacy life would be hell.

What is privacy and why is it important? » CraigBellamy.net(.au)

Privacy is Important for Everyone Because it’s a Right

A common misconception about privacy is that only people that have something to hide need to be concerned with it. But privacy is for everyone, even you and it’s not only necessary and important but it’s also a privilege.

Why Privacy is Important for Everyone Including You - IPVanish