POSTED BY: MIKER
UPDATED: Sunday, June 1, 2025 23:25
VIEWED: 10086
PAGE 2 of 7
MIKER
Hubby and I are privacy advocates, hubby much more competent than I because he's a computer expert for a major southern CA university.
So, we build our own. (No NSA-embedded hardware hacks, unless they're done by the manufacturer.) We run Debian at home, which is the most secure and stable Linux distro available. I run my bowser in the most private mode possible. (Check your browser options, they're usually under something like EDIT>PRFERENCES. You can choose to delete cookies, to not accept redirection, etc.)
I haven't created a Google account. Unfortunately, our email provider was recently acquired by gmail, so we're going to switch to Fastmail, which is a secure mailer. I'm not on FB or LinkedIn. I don't use Google to search if I can avoid it. I used to use Giburu, until it was hacked and taken down a week ago. Now I use Startpage.com and Ixquick.com, and sometimes duckduckgo.com.
I DO, however, have an active online purchasing life. I'm sure all of the vendors have and trade information about my purchases. I check my bank account online. And ALL of your health information... the private stuff, like your doctor's notes etc... are insecure, as Obamacare has mandated that everyone go electronic, and all of the doctors' office that I've been to are clearly running Microsoft (as is our bank), and Microsoft sucks on security, partly by accident (because they write shitty code) and partly by design (on request of the NSA).
I also carry a smart phone. (I used to use a stupid phone until about two months ago, until it broke) Now, if you think you want privacy, DON'T carry a smart phone!
I sign every goddamn petition on privacy and net neutrality that comes my way. I've written to my representatives, to the newspapers, and to the FCC.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has 5 pro-business droids, who signaled their intention to swing everything in the way of money and power when they selected GWB for the Presidency in 2000, and every major decision since has been in favor of big business and monied interests (think Citizen's United).
A Constitutional Amendment is in order. Maybe two. One amendment to restrict rights to real, authentic people, not corporations. Another to protect people's privacy, not just from intrusion by the Federal government, but from intrusion by ANYBODY. This is an issue that both the left AND the Tea Party could unite on
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I thought this was funny...
Meet The Woman Who Did Everything In Her Power To Hide Her Pregnancy From Big Data
Quote:More at
Janet Vertesi, assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University, had an idea: would it be possible to hide her pregnancy from big data? Thinking about technology—the way we use it and the way it uses us—is her professional life’s work. Pregnant women, she knew, are a marketing gold mine; a pregnant woman’s marketing data is worth 15 times as much as the average person’s. Could Vertesi, a self-declared “conscientious objector” of Google ever since 2012, when they announced to users that they’d be able to read every email and chat, navigate all the human and consumer interactions having a baby would require and keep big data from ever finding out?
Here’s what she found: hiding from big data is so inconvenient and expensive that even Vertesi doesn’t recommend it as a lifestyle choice. (She presented her findings at the Theorizing the Web conference in New York last week.) So what does that mean for companies who say users can just “opt out” if they aren’t happy with (so-called) privacy policies? Can you be a person on the internet without sacrificing all your data to the Google Powers That Be? I talked to Vertesi about her experiment, its implications, and why hiding from big data can make you look like a criminal.
http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/04/29/3432050/can-you-hide-from-
big-data/
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Also- NOT so funny...
Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks--With Me Behind The Wheel (Video)
Quote:
Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop–or even slow down–produces a unique feeling of anxiety. In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV’s chassis. The more I pound the pedal, the louder the groan gets–along with the delighted cackling of the two hackers sitting behind me in the backseat....
As I drove their vehicles for more than an hour, Miller and Valasek showed that they’ve reverse-engineered enough of the software of the Escape and the Toyota Prius (both the 2010 model) to demonstrate a range of nasty surprises: everything from annoyances like uncontrollably blasting the horn to serious hazards like slamming on the Prius’ brakes at high speeds. They sent commands from their laptops that killed power steering, spoofed the GPS and made pathological liars out of speedometers and odometers. Finally they directed me out to a country road, where Valasek showed that he could violently jerk the Prius’ steering at any speed, threatening to send us into a cornfield or a head-on collision. “Imagine you’re driving down a highway at 80 ,” Valasek says. “You’re going into the car next to you or into oncoming traffic. That’s going to be bad times.”
MORE AT
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-na
sty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/
There was a reporter recently who was getting very paranoid about a story he was working on, wouldn't reveal it even to his close friend. Apparently, just before he was going to do the big reveal, he drove into the only big tree on the road at high speed.
Journalist Michael Hastings dies in L.A. car crash
Quote:
“I was just coming northbound on Highland and I seen a car, like, going really fast and all of a sudden I seen it jackknife,” Luis Cortez said. “I just seen parts fly everywhere, and I slammed on my brakes and stopped and tried to call 911."
MORE AT
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/18/local/la-me-ln-michael-hasting
s-dies-car-crash-20130618
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Seriously now, who needs drones?
(I love my OLD car.)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I love my old car too! (2001 Honda Civic. Kwicko would approve.)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Last week I was telling one of my co-workers who has a really new car how it could just be shut off by remote control given the proper code & she didn't believe me...
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Drat. I am in need of a new car (95 Toyota feeling its age). Well, if I end up in a car wreck ...
OONJERAH - We are too dumb to live and smart enough to wipe ourselves out.
"You, who live in any kind of comfort or convenience, do not know how these people can survive these things, do you? They will endure because there is no immediate escape from endurance. Some will die, the rest must live."
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME