Internet privacy, my concerns, and what I'm doing to protect myself

ursus262 said:

If those agents had broken the law by revealing the atrocities of their respective regimes, what would you say about them? Traitor or Hero?

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Generally, that is determined solely on who comes out on top in the fight. Had America lost the Revolutionary War, we'd refer to them as the Terrorist Insurgents rather than the Founding Fathers. The victors get to tell the story as they see fit, and history records it as such.

cloud privacy

Completely understand your concern over privacy issues online ... however, if you're not doing anything wrong, hardly anyone will really care what you're doing. In saying that, I too want my privacy and not one to want my data accessible to just anyone; iCloud, GoogleDocs, even some of the "Private" cloud/data storage companies out there. Recently I've gone over to MacStadium in the U.S. ****! Good company. What is interesting is that they have clients in the U.K. who are pretty happy with them (saw their tweets of recommendation). Mostly I like that they have live chat all the time for my random questions, are SUPER reliable and private, and mostly saves me $$. Now I can but more gadgets! Good luck keeping your data private; I'd go without all the hassles and get w a company who can secure your privacy.

itekgeek said:

however, if you're not doing anything wrong, hardly anyone will really care what you're doing.

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It's a little troubling how pervasive this adage is. Everyone, and truly everyone, has something they'd like to keep private that isn't wrong. On top of that, it doesn't matter if people care. For instance, even if someone doesn't care, I'm not going to give them the PIN number for my debit card.

vansmith said:

It's a little troubling how pervasive this adage is. Everyone, and truly everyone, has something they'd like to keep private that isn't wrong. On top of that, it doesn't matter if people care. For instance, even if someone doesn't care, I'm not going to give them the PIN number for my debit card.

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. . . but you give all kinds of specific personal and financial information every time you purchase something on line or make a bank transaction.

It isn't the information per se that is the issue, but what use will be made of it and whether or not you trust the individual/institution you are giving the information to.

I do not believe my government (or any government for that matter) is inherently benign and uniformly stocked with well-intentioned and competent individuals, But, I do not see any inherent risk to me in the info being gathered. If tat changed then I would join the objectors. Until it does I belong to the Snowden is a traitor crowd.

RavingMac said:

. . . but you give all kinds of specific personal and financial information every time you purchase something on line or make a bank transaction.

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Absolutely but I do so of my own volition. The idea that "you've done nothing wrong so why worry about privacy" has little to do with choice and more about the character of the information. In other words, that adage or belief doesn't address choice but addresses the nature of the information.

vansmith said:

Absolutely but I do so of my own volition. The idea that "you've done nothing wrong so why worry about privacy" has little to do with choice and more about the character of the information. In other words, that adage or belief doesn't address choice but addresses the nature of the information.

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In this case I am willing to give my permission (though I wasn't asked) for exactly this kind of information to be gathered in order to help safeguard me and mine from those who wish me ill.

Honestly, I would be upset and complaining the govt wasn't dong it's job if it didn't run programs like this. I have no problem with anyone else disagreeing or not wishing to participate in the security net, I just happen to believe their priorities are not the same as mine.

Internet Privacy

One of the things that gets lost in all of the revelations is that if the governments just grab ALL the data that's out there, the sheer amount of information is so overwhelming that sifting through it all would take many years for a large array of computers, so it's a matter of searching for specific stuff and somehow correlating it to some useful intelligence that can be acted upon..

At the end of the day, if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.

I hope that the above shows up as a quote. If it doesn't I'll go back and try to see that I can fix it. I can't remember to originally posted it.
My original reaction was like that of many others if I have done nothing wrong I should have nothing to worry about. However in retrospect
should I not fear a government that can target any member of what it feels may be its enemy, like journalists say for example Woodward and Bernstein. And while I'm not sure whether people like this can be singled out as stated above I am not so sure they can't. The following link and hopefully I can copy and paste here.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...network-that-runs-the-world.html#.UcD0cRaL9JV

The science used here, and this was in October 2011, may be able to do indeed just that. And even though we are not aware of a way to do it
that doesn't mean there isn't, the only reason we know why there's a challenge to our privacy now is because a whistleblower exposed us to it.
Perhaps there's technology capable of doing the unknown that is so top-secret we are not aware of it. I agree that in many cases as an individual is really quite silly to worry about these things. But it is important to guard our freedoms so that we may not be misinformed.

RavingMac said:

In this case I am willing to give my permission (though I wasn't asked) for exactly this kind of information to be gathered in order to help safeguard me and mine from those who wish me ill.

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Not everyone does though which is where we diverge. In the grand scheme of things, it's all relative - you can be fine with it and I'll continue to resist it. You're wrong but that's okay.

Internet privacy

Pardon me but I truly don't mean to be rude, but to just say that I am wrong seems rather flippant to me. All I am stating is that why I agree with the premise that the average person has nothing to fear from this technology. That doesn't mean that the average person cannot be affected by this technology. Do we not want whistleblowers, journalists, authors et al to not be free to challenge our government. Our government is not always right. If people are not free to challenge their claims then what government does can indeed affect us as individuals. To quote Benjamin Franklin "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".You it seems to me are willing to obtain a little temporary safety to give up a basic freedom. Freedom comes at a high price and we must always be willing to pay for it.

XJ-linux said:

Once you just get over it and assume you are on whatever "lists" they have, life gets simpler. Assume you are buggered and prepare to respond accordingly. The well-intentioned people wishing you to give them stewardship of your freedom and choice will eventually, through attrition, be replaced by others. Many of them will have no interest in your having either freedom or choice.

"When you are mad as **** and can't take it anymore, grab your rifle and head out into the street. If you are the only one there... it isn't time yet."

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Quite right !!