Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Jamming UK Metadata Collection?
AmiMoJo writes: It looks likely that the UK will try to require ISPs to collect metadata on behalf of its security services, and various other agencies will have access to this vast, privacy- and security-destroying database.
How can individuals resist? Some metadata is trivial to hide, e.g. much email is encrypted between the user and server, but a record of an access will still exist. Would there be much benefit to creating fake traffic, say by sending dummy emails to yourself? What about fake browsing, or keeping TOR running 24/7 (not as an exit node, just a client)?
The goal is to make the data less useful and harder to tie to an individual or separate from fake data, and to increase the cost of collecting and storing such data. Don't worry, I'm already on the list of known dissidents anyway.
How can individuals resist? Some metadata is trivial to hide, e.g. much email is encrypted between the user and server, but a record of an access will still exist. Would there be much benefit to creating fake traffic, say by sending dummy emails to yourself? What about fake browsing, or keeping TOR running 24/7 (not as an exit node, just a client)?
The goal is to make the data less useful and harder to tie to an individual or separate from fake data, and to increase the cost of collecting and storing such data. Don't worry, I'm already on the list of known dissidents anyway.
Seriously, don't do it. Don't even try. I understand how you feel, about 10 years ago I would have been just as passionate. I would have suggested encryption by default, darknets, anonymizing proxies, whatever. Hell, at the time I would have written software myself to that end.
But now? I'm married, I have my own house, a job. It's largely an uneventful life, far from the adventures I dreamed in my youth, but it's a good one. One that I intend to keep on living. Going against the government would endanger all of that.
Encryption? You end up on a watchlist, then you get summoned to a police station and are interrogated. When you're working, it's just a nuisance the first time. Then, after the third time, your employer will simply let you go. And then you won't find anyone hiring you, not in this economy, not with such "precedents". Yes, you didn't commit any crime but neither did many youths hit with ASBOs. It doesn't matter anymore if you didn't do anything illegal: if you displease the State, you will pay.
Darknets? Proxies? Forget it. Running a TOR exit node may end up getting your computer confiscated. In the eye of public opinion, confiscated computer = pedophilia and child porn. You're as good as dead. Enjoy the divorce. Enjoy not seeing your kids anymore. Enjoy being an outcast.
Let it go. The State has won. We cannot resist. Getting older is a blessing: you learn how much you have to lose and how far you're willing to go to protect what you hold dear. You will understand this as well. I hope you will before you do anything foolish.