Staying private on internet.

[Fzero]

Just see this interview article, which seemed relevant to this thread...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/an-interview-with-duckduckgo-ceo-on-the-future-of-anonymous-searching-8666369.html

 

[ekianjo]

Steve Wozniak on privacy :

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130617/11133123507/steve-wozniak-speaks-out-against-nsa-spying-this-is-not-my-america.shtml

 

[Wally]

That site in the first post is just a Big Ad for Linux .

I don't care if people try and track me.. I've got nothing to hide.

 

[_wb_]

I also have nothing to hide, but that doesn't mean that I don't mind being tracked or that I don't care about privacy.

It's a big misconception that privacy is only needed by criminals or other people who have something to hide.

For example, I happen to be a political activist and a trade-unionist. I have nothing to hide, in fact the opposite is true: I want to spread my opinions as widely as possible. But I am quite worried about how malevolent governments or organizations could use 1984-style methods to attack me or (more realistically) my friends in other countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria, and so on. I can tell you a couple of stories of how people who I consider to be my political or trade-unionist friends in those countries get intimidated, imprisoned, physically attacked or even murdered by regimes or by paramilitary groups unofficially supported by governments or big companies. In those countries it is not safe to express your political opinions. You and/or your family can be seriously at risk if you dare to organize a political opposition against some regimes.

In my country (Belgium), at least at the moment, it is safe to express opinions - at least you're not risking your life or health. But I can't trust my government and companies (like ISPs) to not keep track of everything I do, and to not collaborate with other, less "friendly", governments and companies by providing them the information they collected. So it still is a problem for me, even if I am not myself in any actual danger. For example, I could very well imagine that the USA would like to support some right-wing political party in some third world country, and one way for them to do that, is by helping them to eliminate left-wing activists (which could be my friends), which they could do by getting those left-wing activists tagged as "terrorists" by whatever corrupt government is in power over there at the moment, so they can then use whatever advanced data mining methods they have to use a.o. my personal data (handed over to the USA by the Belgian government) to help identify and locate my friends in those countries, so they can get them killed or intimidated or whatever.

This scenario may sound far-fetched but I can assure you that in some countries this kind of stuff is a daily reality for political activists and trade-unionists.

 

[Askarus]

^

I also hate being tracked.

It's not right .

Does anyone here want me to track everything he does?

 

[TrashyMG]

^Only if you do it?

 

[Binky]

Is there any data on how many terrorist plots have been foiled by institutional wiretapping?

 

[Askarus]

I don't care about that.

I don't want it.

It's too much freedom they take away.

 

[Binky]

Freedom is not the same as privacy.

Privacy ensures freedom.

The problem here is not that the US government has taken away freedoms unfairly*, but that they have have the facility to do so on a broad and unsupervised basis.

*Government removal of freedoms is a vital part of a civilised society, but only when according to published law.

 

[Exophase]

Every organization listed in the leaked slide has pretty unequivocally denied that they've granted the US government automatic and unfettered access to their data. They have all said that they will only provide data when a proper specific legal request is made. This would apply to any US-based organization or individual, unless they can think they can just tell the government no; but it's worth noting that the bigger companies will have more legal resources to review the legal validity of requests. The problem is with the government laws and policies, not these corporations. Hardly seems fair to condemn and suspect everything they make over this (although there's probably other nefarious things they do)

It would seem to me that these big companies would value their own privacy enough to not be enthusiastic about giving the government unrestricted access to their data, which can then be outsourced to private companies contracting for the government..

The problem is really with the US government's paranoia and the legal freedoms they've granted themselves.

 

[thatgui]

Has anbody any experience with the mentioned (at prism-break.org) social network alternatives ? I interested in setting up something like that on my nas - but I would like to know what to expect of them => do they look/feel like google+/facebook in terms of functionality ?

 

[elwing]

Freedom is not the same as privacy.

Privacy ensures freedom.

The problem here is not that the US government has taken away freedoms unfairly*, but that they have have the facility to do so on a broad and unsupervised basis.

*Government removal of freedoms is a vital part of a civilised society, but only when according to published law.

it's already quite bad that they choose to do that to their own habitant but how should that be seen for foreign country? an act of war?

 

[Morn]

Also, even Edward Snowden mentioned encryption worked.

Well, it didn't work in his case. He tried to convince Glenn Greenwald to use PGP but the Guardian's reporter failed to set it up as it was too complicated for him.

 

[2bit]

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I also have nothing to hide, but that doesn't mean that I don't mind being tracked or that I don't care about privacy.


It's a big misconception that privacy is only needed by criminals or other people who have something to hide.


For example, I happen to be a political activist and a trade-unionist. I have nothing to hide, in fact the opposite is true: I want to spread my opinions as widely as possible. But I am quite worried about how malevolent governments or organizations could use 1984-style methods to attack me or (more realistically) my friends in other countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria, and so on. I can tell you a couple of stories of how people who I consider to be my political or trade-unionist friends in those countries get intimidated, imprisoned, physically attacked or even murdered by regimes or by paramilitary groups unofficially supported by governments or big companies. In those countries it is not safe to express your political opinions. You and/or your family can be seriously at risk if you dare to organize a political opposition against some regimes.


In my country (Belgium), at least at the moment, it is safe to express opinions - at least you're not risking your life or health. But I can't trust my government and companies (like ISPs) to not keep track of everything I do, and to not collaborate with other, less "friendly", governments and companies by providing them the information they collected. So it still is a problem for me, even if I am not myself in any actual danger. For example, I could very well imagine that the USA would like to support some right-wing political party in some third world country, and one way for them to do that, is by helping them to eliminate left-wing activists (which could be my friends), which they could do by getting those left-wing activists tagged as "terrorists" by whatever corrupt government is in power over there at the moment, so they can then use whatever advanced data mining methods they have to use a.o. my personal data (handed over to the USA by the Belgian government) to help identify and locate my friends in those countries, so they can get them killed or intimidated or whatever.


This scenario may sound far-fetched but I can assure you that in some countries this kind of stuff is a daily reality for political activists and trade-unionists.

Right wing , left wing , as long as you are on a spherical planet ( Belgium is in Europe , which is on Earth , which , unless I miss my mark or you're writing from an alternate parellel dimension where planets are shaped differently , is round ) whichever ever way you head you land in the same spot . Don't forget we ( Americans ) hate our government as you do - we must live with it . Also governments are just a means of regulating the mind .

 

[peelie]

I also have nothing to hide, but that doesn't mean that I don't mind being tracked or that I don't care about privacy.

It's a big misconception that privacy is only needed by criminals or other people who have something to hide.

For example, I happen to be a political activist and a trade-unionist. I have nothing to hide, in fact the opposite is true: I want to spread my opinions as widely as possible. But I am quite worried about how malevolent governments or organizations could use 1984-style methods to attack me or (more realistically) my friends in other countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria, and so on. I can tell you a couple of stories of how people who I consider to be my political or trade-unionist friends in those countries get intimidated, imprisoned, physically attacked or even murdered by regimes or by paramilitary groups unofficially supported by governments or big companies. In those countries it is not safe to express your political opinions. You and/or your family can be seriously at risk if you dare to organize a political opposition against some regimes.

In my country (Belgium), at least at the moment, it is safe to express opinions - at least you're not risking your life or health. But I can't trust my government and companies (like ISPs) to not keep track of everything I do, and to not collaborate with other, less "friendly", governments and companies by providing them the information they collected. So it still is a problem for me, even if I am not myself in any actual danger. For example, I could very well imagine that the USA would like to support some right-wing political party in some third world country, and one way for them to do that, is by helping them to eliminate left-wing activists (which could be my friends), which they could do by getting those left-wing activists tagged as "terrorists" by whatever corrupt government is in power over there at the moment, so they can then use whatever advanced data mining methods they have to use a.o. my personal data (handed over to the USA by the Belgian government) to help identify and locate my friends in those countries, so they can get them killed or intimidated or whatever.

This scenario may sound far-fetched but I can assure you that in some countries this kind of stuff is a daily reality for political activists and trade-unionists.

countries like the UK track "activists" http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/25/undercover-police-domestic-extremism-unit so you can bet Belgium does too.

 

[ekianjo]

Right wing , left wing , as long as you are on a spherical planet ( Belgium is in Europe , which is on Earth , which , unless I miss my mark or you're writing from an alternate parellel dimension where planets are shaped differently , is round ) whichever ever way you head you land in the same spot . Don't forget we ( Americans ) hate our government as you do - we must live with it . Also governments are just a means of regulating the mind .

I then noticed you have "gun owner" in your profile  

The advantage of Americans vs the rest of the world is that you do have access to guns in case you need to overthrow your government and defend yourselves. Not saying that I believe it would ever happen in the US, but I guess the possibility is there.

In other countries, whenever serious protests arise, they get massively hammered by the police and the military. 

 

[ekianjo]

Also, even Edward Snowden mentioned encryption worked.

Well, it didn't work in his case. He tried to convince Glenn Greenwald to use PGP but the Guardian's reporter failed to set it up as it was too complicated for him.

Encryption works only with the current state of the technology. Bring quantum computers in play and you never know if any of the state of the art encryption methods hold any water. And if the NSA stores everything forever they can then decrypt anything they like a couple of years down the road. 

 

[thatgui]

Encryption works only with the current state of the technology. Bring quantum computers in play and you never know if any of the state of the art encryption methods hold any water. And if the NSA stores everything forever they can then decrypt anything they like a couple of years down the road. 

Time is the important factor here, the longer an information lies dormant in their system the more invaluable it gets. If more people start using ecryption, more data has to be stored for future examinations which costs (even in intelligence service scale) expensive storage capacity, and more computing power has to be bought to compensate the time factor.

Regarding the "in case you need the overthrow the goverment" topic: works really well in Syria, oh wait .. no

 

[ekianjo]

Encryption works only with the current state of the technology. Bring quantum computers in play and you never know if any of the state of the art encryption methods hold any water. And if the NSA stores everything forever they can then decrypt anything they like a couple of years down the road. 

Time is the important factor here, the longer an information lies dormant in their system the more invaluable it gets. If more people start using ecryption, more data has to be stored for future examinations which costs (even in intelligence service scale) expensive storage capacity, and more computing power has to be bought to compensate the time factor.

Regarding the "in case you need the overthrow the goverment" topic: works really well in Syria, oh wait .. no

NSA is spending more than 20 billions a year. That's an awful lot of money that can be used for storage and all. Compare this with the running costs of Google or Facebook. And the NSA can always extend their budget from year to year, Obama has been very lenient to do so. 

Regarding Syria: people were not armed in the first place. They received weapons from outside. Then the government used the army directly against people. I am wondering if this kind of scenario occurs, whether the US army would fire directly on American people or not. Or whether the army would do a coup. Not sure. But it wouldn't look like Syria. And mind you, in Syria it IS working. Its just taking time. 

 

[thatgui]

NSA is spending more than 20 billions a year. That's an awful lot of money that can be used for storage and all. Compare this with the running costs of Google or Facebook. And the NSA can always extend their budget from year to year, Obama has been very lenient to do so.

Where did you get that number from ? Anything I could find is that the whole intelligence service "complex" (including the NSA and 14 other institions) has a yearly budget of 20 billions - and that the NSA budget is a secret.But even if it where so, these 20 billions aren't going directly into their computing divison. And don't forget, where are talking about a lot of data which is far more divers than what facebook and google usually handle, they also may have a lot more "users" than facebook and Co plus these companies don't need to filter that information out they got the data handed to them willingly.

Regarding Syria: people were not armed in the first place. They received weapons from outside. Then the government used the army directly against people. I am wondering if this kind of scenario occurs, whether the US army would fire directly on American people or not. Or whether the army would do a coup. Not sure. But it wouldn't look like Syria. And mind you, in Syria it IS working. Its just taking time.

Do you have sources to prove that? I doubt that a large scale insurrection like that can be pulled of with no weapons already in the country. And currently it is not sure that it is "working" in Syria, or what will come after it, if it works.
Regarding the US: Why are people (especially some part of the US population) so afraid that their goverment ist turning against them ? I know of no historical incident, that would even give a slightest hint, that something like that is more likely to happen in the US than in every other country of the "western" world.