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Online, You're Being Watched At All Times; Act Accordingly.
An anonymous reader writes "Kaspersky Lab's Internet security expert Costin Raiu discusses internet surveillance claims that you should assume that you're being watched at all times. The article reports that Raiu conducts his online activities under the assumption that his movements are being monitored by government hackers. Raiu: 'I operate under the principle that my computer is owned by at least three governments' ... 'this is not meant as a scare tactic, but a rather as a statement of fact that should now be the default setting for everyone.'"
Anyone accused of using a computer for illegal purposes now has a perfect defense. After all if credentialed experts believe that computers are controlled by the numerous people of several governments then there has to be hard proof that the doer was the one who took those actions on his PC.
Exactly. It's not the fact that you may or may not be watched right now, it's the fact that everything you do and say can and will be used against you in the future whenever it's convenient, politically or otherwise. I keep quoting this, maybe one day people will actually realize what it means: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." --Richelieu
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
"They set out to build something even the government wouldn't want to watch! Mission accomplished."
I think this is accomplished already. They could not possibly want to "watch" everybody. You'd have more watchers than watched.
I think OP erred in saying everyone is "watched". That's simply not so. Their data may be collected, and it may be looked at later, but that's not QUITE the same thing as "being watched".
Having said that: I still despise the current situation and it does need to change.
If governmental institutions have the ability to retain the data indefinitely, and you have no way of knowing whether or not you're one of the ones being actively watched, is there a significant difference?
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You miss the point. It does not MATTER if you are "important" or not.
Seriously consider the implications of a total surveillance state.
As someone that grew under a totalitarian regime in Eastern Europe, I can tell you it's ugly like hell.
It doesn't matter that:
* then, you wouldn't know if the other person would snitch on you; and...
* now you wouldn't know if the computer/phone of the other's person or the ones you own/use would snitch on you (might as well add the nowadays almost ubiquitous CCTV-es to equations, possibly all equipped tomorrow with microphones);
in time - quite quickly - the entire fabric of society evolves to "by default, don't trust anyone".
Can you imagine a life where, no matter what you do, you need to use "steganography" (even when talking face-to-face)? Well, this is how it is in a total surveillance state.
What are the consequences, you ask? The most immediate and with the highest impact:
* one is likely to spend enormous amount of effort in balancing between "getting a message across" and "flying under the radar" (expressing the message in an innocuous way).
* the sense of community is broken down (can't build meaningful relations while in a permanent "don't trust" state of mind)
Even letting aside the economy mismanagement, the two above alone would be just enough to explain why the former "communist" regimes failed: too much effort wasted in "being paranoid" by everybody and too less "organic social efficiency".
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