Archives > Real Life Discussion
Concerning recent discoveries about the US government
Pacman Syu:
Let's have a discussion about our privacy, because this is a serious topic.
Over the last couple of days, we've learned about Verizon, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! Facebook, PalTalk, Youtube, Skype, AOL, Apple, and Verizon sharing vast amount of data with the government in ways that should be driving our country nuts right now. All of this started under George Bush under the Patriot Act in an attempt to secure our nation. It has since been expanded under Barack Obama in his "most transparent presidency".
Here are the slides that were leaked originally about PRISM which have been confirmed by the United States government to be true: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/prism-collection-documents/
According to the document, the NSA can tap into our Email, video chat, voice chat, videos, photos, stored data, as well as other social networking details. These important tech companies have been sharing your data whether you're an American or not.
Since the problem stems from digital sources, I urge you to protect yourself by being a more responsible internet user. Some of these things are harder than others, and I understand that many are too lazy/complacent to do anything about it. Shame on you. Here's some ways to start:
Ditch your Facebook/Instagram account. Twitter seems relatively safe...for now.
Host your own mail server or rent out a cheap box. Encrypt your emails.
Don't get NEAR Skype. Skype is infamous for being completely loose with user data.
Don't have Verizon phone/internet/TV.
Using Yahoo!, Google, or Bing? Sorry. Use Duckduckgo instead.
Not using Youtube is a rather hard thing to request, but thankfully unless you're uploading your own videos or you're not connected via your GMail account, you are a little better off. There's not much of an alternative here.
Don't use Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari. Firefox with some security addons or some obscure Linux browser protects your data much better.
Encrypt your hard drives.
Don't use Windows/iOS operating systems. Switch to Linux/BSD (steer away from Ubuntu though), where people aren't actively grasping for your information.
I'm sure this sounds irrational to...all of you. It's sad that there's really no rational way to avoid all of this. I know you have people begging you to write/call your local politicians all the time, but I beg you to do it this one time.
To non-US residents: Sorry our government sucks and that they spy on you too.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/us/nsa-verizon-calls.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=2&
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/obama-administration-nsa-verizon-records
http://pastebin.com/MPpT7xaf
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/07/us-apple-nsa-idUSBRE9551EU20130607
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order
JC:
While I understand why there has been a large amount of drama recently regarding the invasion of privacy by NSA and all the above major corporations who are supporting this 'PRISM' initiative - I can't help but think all of the above suggestions need to come with a free tinfoil hat.
Yes the US government could do all of the above technically, but what the hell are you doing that they would want to do any of the above?
If the NSA want's to know what porn I watch, what games I play, what websites I commonly visit and what I do with my spare time they are entirely welcome to it - I honestly couldn't care what information they hold about me because at the end of the day I am sure there are many people out there who that they would be much more interested in than me - that's not about to change.
I'm not going to live in a pile of cotton wool and tinfoil, afraid to browse the internet, unable to keep in touch with my friends and family, resorting to using an incapable operating system just because there is the potential for the NSA to find out a bit of information about me.
I get the concern around this, but ultimately, I don't do anything worth spying on.....
Mister Kyle:
Al:
Well I read about how recently the US big-time judge person ordered Google to allow them to user information, but I didn't know it was that serious, that widespread. I was concerned after I found out reading this, but then I read JC's reply...
Yeah lol, there's nothing bad that they could be spying on. If my information was too available to the PUBLIC, then that would be something to be really concerned about.
It's like that joke, 'if robbers came to my house looking for money I'd laugh and search with them'. I have nothing to hide lol.
On another topic of spying...I hear the Chinese spy on US companies all the time lol, and a US security firm did this whole research thing and traced it back to a government/army office. So brings me to my point now...where exactly is the line for spying? What defines as spying? And then there's the whole thing about what you put on social networks..."stalking" people. If you make it available to the public, then if someone stumbles on your profile...and see's your PUBLIC information, is that stalking? So say if we didn't switch to Linux, Firefox, and etc. in this case, would it be justified as spying? I don't think so. I think that things are changing, and more and more information is becoming available to people. It's like the narrative of the information age, but I sure don't think everything should be available to the public. Maybe this is where the line is drawn, this is the brink.
Josheh:
--- Quote from: JC on June 09, 2013, 06:23:12 am ---While I understand why there has been a large amount of drama recently regarding the invasion of privacy by NSA and all the above major corporations who are supporting this 'PRISM' initiative - I can't help but think all of the above suggestions need to come with a free tinfoil hat.
Yes the US government could do all of the above technically, but what the hell are you doing that they would want to do any of the above?
If the NSA want's to know what porn I watch, what games I play, what websites I commonly visit and what I do with my spare time they are entirely welcome to it - I honestly couldn't care what information they hold about me because at the end of the day I am sure there are many people out there who that they would be much more interested in than me - that's not about to change.
I'm not going to live in a pile of cotton wool and tinfoil, afraid to browse the internet, unable to keep in touch with my friends and family, resorting to using an incapable operating system just because there is the potential for the NSA to find out a bit of information about me.
I get the concern around this, but ultimately, I don't do anything worth spying on.....
--- End quote ---
First they came for the hackers.
But I never did anything illegal with my computer,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the pornographers.
But I thought there was too much smut on the Internet anyway,
so I didn't speak up
Then they came for the anonymous remailers.
But a lot of nasty stuff gets sent from anon.penet.fi,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for the encryption users.
But I could never figure out how to work PGP anyway,
so I didn't speak up.
Then they came for me.
And by that time there was no one left to speak up.