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On Internet Privacy, Be Very Afraid (harvard.edu)
Cybersecurity expert and Berkman Klein fellow Bruce Schneier talked to the Gazette about what consumers can do to protect themselves from government and corporate surveillance. From the interview: GAZETTE: After whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations concerning the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance operation in 2013, how much has the government landscape in this field changed?
SCHNEIER: Snowden's revelations made people aware of what was happening, but little changed as a result. The USA Freedom Act resulted in some minor changes in one particular government data-collection program. The NSA's data collection hasn't changed; the laws limiting what the NSA can do haven't changed; the technology that permits them to do it hasn't changed. It's pretty much the same.
GAZETTE: Should consumers be alarmed by this?
SCHNEIER: People should be alarmed, both as consumers and as citizens. But today, what we care about is very dependent on what is in the news at the moment, and right now surveillance is not in the news. It was not an issue in the 2016 election, and by and large isn't something that legislators are willing to make a stand on. Snowden told his story, Congress passed a new law in response, and people moved on.
GAZETTE: What about corporate surveillance? How pervasive is it?
SCHNEIER: Surveillance is the business model of the internet. Everyone is under constant surveillance by many companies, ranging from social networks like Facebook to cellphone providers. This data is collected, compiled, analyzed, and used to try to sell us stuff. Personalized advertising is how these companies make money, and is why so much of the internet is free to users. We're the product, not the customer.
SCHNEIER: Snowden's revelations made people aware of what was happening, but little changed as a result. The USA Freedom Act resulted in some minor changes in one particular government data-collection program. The NSA's data collection hasn't changed; the laws limiting what the NSA can do haven't changed; the technology that permits them to do it hasn't changed. It's pretty much the same.
GAZETTE: Should consumers be alarmed by this?
SCHNEIER: People should be alarmed, both as consumers and as citizens. But today, what we care about is very dependent on what is in the news at the moment, and right now surveillance is not in the news. It was not an issue in the 2016 election, and by and large isn't something that legislators are willing to make a stand on. Snowden told his story, Congress passed a new law in response, and people moved on.
GAZETTE: What about corporate surveillance? How pervasive is it?
SCHNEIER: Surveillance is the business model of the internet. Everyone is under constant surveillance by many companies, ranging from social networks like Facebook to cellphone providers. This data is collected, compiled, analyzed, and used to try to sell us stuff. Personalized advertising is how these companies make money, and is why so much of the internet is free to users. We're the product, not the customer.
dam thing is just a horror story
It shouldn't come as any surprise that nothing has changed.
I do think we need to make more of a distinction between the activities of the TLAs and advertising companies. One is in it for profit and the other for whatever they fancy doing at the time, which one do you trust more?
Advertise away as far as I care as long as it doesn't detract from the content I'm viewing. As long as I haven't done anything illegal I'm unsure why my content viewing matters...
If internet companies and cell phone providers are tracking me and know every thing about me, why do they think I'm a middle aged lesbian.
In this day and age of ads that track what you do to custom provide ads for you- why are 3/4 of the ads I see ads either targeted for older women, or ads encouraging me to date older women.
All I can conclude is that the great google in the sky thinks I'm a middle aged lesbian.
The other 1/4 ads I see are actually on point, IT based, etc... but that constant ads for "don't use makeup do this if you're over 50" get me confused.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Remember that you assholes who disparage ACs. You registered users are the morons.
Time to change my IP again ..... suck it LOSERS!
People willingly give up all of their privacy millions of times a day for no good reason at all. The vast, vast majority of people don't give a shit about privacy.
I don't respond to AC's.
I am ugly and can't sing, so I am just going to dance naked and sing.
Hope they enjoy watching.
naw dawg, don't be educated stupid. just maintain the purity of you four-dimensional HOSTS file an you're good.
What should we be very afraid of ? No, really.
As a person with political opinions and a life philosophy considered "radical" by the mainstream, I'm about ready to drop out. Not only is it dangerous for a person like me to speak his mind, it's quickly becoming pointless. Ultimately, if the destiny of the human race is to become the Borg, then I honeslty don't care about the future of the human race anyway.
Seriously, "be very afraid"? Of what, seeing a poorly-targeted ad?
This kind of sky-is-falling rhetoric is usually accompanied by some hysterical but hypothetical situation - what if we are denied jobs for our political stances? What if our employer found out we watch pee-pee porn? What if the jack boots come and...yadda yadda yadda. This post doesn't even bother with that anymore, which I think is what the real threat is in modern times - mindless, shrieky fearmongering about abstract threats. That's basically Fox News's business model, and it gave us Trump.
We've been living with these "dire threats" for a long time now, and nothing has materialized. I don't care if my employer knows my adult entertainment preferences, because they still need my skills. If I'm denied a job for my political stances, they were probably doing me a favor anyway. And if the jack boots aren't at my door under Fuhrer Trump, they aren't coming. Plus, the jack boots probably have their own porn preferences to hide.
I'm not saying it's not an outrage that our government is disregarding the Fourth Amendment, along with most of the others by now. Of course it is, and that's worth discussing. But how, concretely, bad are those things in our everyday lives? Can we at least remain civilized enough to not sound like a bunch of damn conspiracy nuts, long enough to consider that other priorities might be more worth our "fear"?
The only thing to be afraid of or alarmed over is the possibility of getting caught doing something illegal, unethical, or otherwise with negative consequences if people find out you're doing it.
Irritated, annoyed, miffed, yeah, sure, it's all those things. I make a point of avoiding companies to whatever degree I can, when they do things like that. But afraid? Alarmed? Hardly. Just another hand-wringing outrage monkey with a book to sell.
Frankly, I do not see, how this is automatically wrong.
As long as I'm not prosecuted for visiting certain cites or posting certain comments...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
It is just phenomenal what the tech leaders have done on a global scale. Almost breath taking. I was there in 1999 when EVERYONE stood their ground. No way are they giving up their personal information to big brother. Orwell's 1984 references were an every day topic. "I'll live off grid before I sign up to MySpace (the social preference at the time)". Here we are a mere 18 yrs later, the entire globe are standing in line to give anyone whatever they ask so they can have access to the next popular thing. I have come to find out this is a generational change. Each generation will submit to giving up their privacy so they can be part of the crowd. Privacy won't even be an issue the next few years. Only us old farts living off the fat of the land will be safe from all the online scourge. Only to be spied on by a multitude of satellites and some future distance scanning devices. Where has all the aluminum foil hat folks gone?
No Caitlyn For That Bruce, Ay?
That's why they don't put privacy in the news. They get some great dirt on people thanks to the NSA,etc. and then turn around and report on it. Whatever you think about Trump, most of the Russia news came via leaks from government spy agencies. That should be concerning to everyone.
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you!
"Google has half of my email because you all use Gmail."
Don't do this. For those who insist on using freemail, send them a link to a strong public key and maybe a tutorial. Tell grandma to fuck off and die.
If you "can't because MY JAHHHHHHB requires blah blah", then you're just a bottom-rung peon and there's a good chance your spineless doormat attitude is why you have no standing in life and deserve to be data-raped.
I live in Canada, and all our documents are encoded in UTF-EH, making them incompatible with other systems on the planet.
#DeleteFacebook
I started using Tor for everything possible about two months ago, mainly because Comcast are such lying cunts.
:-/
Guess what? Companies like Cloudflare punish you for using Tor, put up barriers, make it difficult or even impossible.
Then there's websites themselves that detect you're on a Tor exit node, and block you completely.
Then there's websites that just plain won't function, because your Tor exit node is in the wrong country. Try ordering a pizza from Dominos using Tor; you can't, it runs you in circles, always ending back at their corporate website.
You can't use VPNs because you can't trust them to not collect data on your internet usage either.
Using anonymous proxies? You may as well just hand over your data, in person, then bend over and accept being buggered with a smile.
About the same time I started withdrawing some cash to pay for everything I buy in person with cash instead of plastic, so purchases can't be tracked. Unfortunately with cameras all over the goddamned place and facial recognition being cheap and easy think the best that does is make it more difficult for them.
The only way to win this game is to not play. Stop using the Internet entirely. Paper bills mailed to you via USPS, then paper checks sent to pay them. Don't use cable or even satellite TV, get an antenna and watch free OTA broadcast. Redbox for DVDs/Bluray movies. Pay cash for your gas and groceries and whatever else you buy in person. Don't give out your phone number or real name when asked.
Of course if you're an IT person you'll never get a job again. So it goes with many high-tech jobs. "What do you mean, you don't use the internet, have no social media, no email? LOL get out of here, next candidate please!". Reduce your 'Internet footprint' as much as possible. Use cash for things. Avoid paying with plastic. Don't use the Internet for anything you can use an alternative for instead. Tell people to not post pictures of you on social media or mention your name (real friends will comply; kick the rest to the curb for disrespecting your wishes). That's what you have to do if you want to maintain some level of privacy anymore. Good luck.
Do you think a totalitarian government that will use the data provided by these vendors as a means of culling the population as an impossible thing?
You're ignoring the last 200 years of history, then. Imagine what 19th century monarchs or 20th century totalitarians might have done with such a treasure trove.
Do you really think it will never happen again? Think again.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Water is wet.
Have gnu, will travel.
The Internet tries to sell me stuff. So what? Most of it is stuff that I don't need. I just bought a fancy tool for rebuilding my car's engine. And NOW the ads pour in to sell me that tool. And if it's something I don't need, ignoring the ads is pretty easy. I don't feel pressured to buy useless shit.
What I try to avoid (and have been successful so far) is to get pigeon-holed into a market segment that 'they' think has bundles of money. I'm a tight-wad who has an eye for value. So don't run out and slap that higher price tag on your shit when I come browsing your site. On the other hand, I'm an opinion leader in a wealthy and influential group. So having me seen driving one of your cars around will pay off in the end.
Have gnu, will travel.
Your post carries a very surprising statement : that the risk on you is only if you do some criticable activities.
(it also denotes a specific way of seeing life)
Most of the people don't do criticable activities, so, as you say, there is no frightening around this.
But they *buy* things on internet -so they can be stolen. (I personally was, twice)
But they *publish* personal info on internet -so this can be used (you really are on holidays all next week, and you even published a picture of your front door with its GPS location? Really? And you have a friends subgroup specifically titled with your political preferences, over there in Gmail cloudy memory? Really?)
And all of the above has nothing to see with criticable activities. We all have holidays.
I, for one, believe these things are critical : I say critical, and not 'potentially dangerous', because it should be obvious the thing already happened.
There is no need to consider some new laws -the opening *has* happened.
What didn't happen yet is some government using it systematically.
It's not new laws that we need, nor actually more prudence -it's way too late.
What we need is think about how to behave when some powerful institution starts exploiting internet seriously.
How to prepare ourselves.
I have *very few* ideas, and I believe if we don't think about it, when we need it we won't react properly.
Herve S.
If I get targeted ads, I'm ok with that. Seeing things that may actually be interesting or relevant is somewhat useful. It's not 'scary'. You go to sites, that gets saved in a database, people query the database. It's not some 'magical' or 'evil' thing occurring. Now if that information is curated and used by someone who has less capitalist plans for it (government, agencies, Someone Bad (TM)) then I get worried, and that is where the problem could be. We have no idea on who/when/how it's being accessed to complain or worry.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
The intertoobz and computers on it are inherently not secure. By nature and purpose, they are not secure. Security is the opposite of the internet's basic design. If you demand security, this ain't the place to get it.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I googled something, eflite timber, checked some videos and rcgroups forum. 10 minutes later in my facebook feed I had an ad placement for the e-flite timber offered by some store...
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
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