Military版 - insider: godogle, facebok, puppies |
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发帖数: 901 | 1 Your government is spying on your life. And as I learned last week, it wants
to know a lot more about you…
Before 9/11, you just had to worry about hackers accessing your family's
personal data and using it against you… like stealing $32,000 out of your
online bank account (which happened to a family member of mine).
But after 9/11, your government can now know everything about you… under
the guise of Homeland Security… completely ignoring the Fourth Amendment to
the Constitution. (The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable search
and seizure, requiring a warrant for a search).
I was shocked when I saw last week on Eliot Spitzer's Viewpoint show just
how far the government wants to go to know everything about you…
To me, this is not right, at all… Law-abiding citizens have privacy rights
protected by the U.S. Constitution.
I don't know how much of this is true or not… But the "experts" on Spitzer'
s show sure had the right credentials… Thomas Drake, a former senior
executive of the National Security Agency (NSA), said:
… just getting access to incredible amounts of data, for people that have
no reason to be put under suspicion, no reason to have done anything wrong,
and just collect all that for potential future use or even current use, it
opens up a real danger – and to what else they could use that data for,
particularly when it's all being hidden behind the mantle of national
security.
With access to all your e-mails, phone calls, and everything you've ever
done with Google and Facebook, the government can know your whole life… And
it could probably find something in there to build a case against you of
some sort. That's scary.
The government has access to this stuff… typically without your permission.
For example, in the second half of 2011, U.S. law enforcement officials
requested data on 12,243 Google accounts. Google complied with 93% of those
requests.
The government doesn't have to notify you if it wants to check out your
Google activity. It just has to ask Google.
And it's not just the search-engine giant… News came out a month ago that
Microsoft has filed an application to patent "Legal Intercept." This
technology is designed to "secretly intercept, monitor, and record Skype
calls."
The list goes on… The technical tools to spy on larger numbers of ordinary
citizens are becoming more sophisticated every day. We have to protect
ourselves.
This isn't a "criminal" or "noncriminal" thing. It's about privacy, plain
and simple. History shows that when governments take steps to get involved
in every aspect of citizens' lives, bad things can happen.
So what can you do? You can attempt to "anonymize" more of your life…
starting with your online activity.
One simple way to do this online is to use a service like Cryptohippie's "
Road Warrior." It connects your computer to the "Cryptohippie anonymity
network," which then encrypts your Internet traffic so no one can see who
you are. "Once you connect to our network, you will not only surf the web in
privacy, but everything you do on the Internet becomes private, including
things like Skype."
You can visit www.cryptohippie.com for the details. It is not cheap… but it
gives you some degree of control over your own privacy. Other services
exist, but I have used this one myself. I trust the guys behind it, and it
works.
You can also STOP putting all the details of your life on Facebook and such
… You can use the Startpage search engine instead of Google's. (Note: Gmail
users have to be logged out of their accounts for searches through
Startpage to be private.) You should use your credit/debit cards less, and
use cash instead. The point is to have less of "you" out there…
You see… taking these precautions makes it much harder for anyone to create
a profile of you to use against you.
I know, I know… giving up or reducing use of some of these things is hard
to do.
It is your call… How much information do you want out there about yourself
that could potentially be used against you in the future?
Again, it used to be just hackers that you had to protect your personal data
from… Now, you may have to protect your data from your own government as
well.
So the next time you want to vent about something or someone online, just
imagine if someone from the government was reading it… Because it appears
we're heading toward a world where someone from the government could access
it… and use it against you someday.
I don't know what the government really knows or wants to know. I don't
think we will ever know exactly what they're tracking. We can't control that.
But we do have some control of how much of our lives we make "digital." We
have some simple ways to keep more of our personal information away from
prying eyes…
Remember, this has nothing to do with whether or not you're a criminal. It's
about privacy and protecting your right to it.
These days, it's a smart thing to do… |
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