Seriously thoughtful Shoppers who can't have secrets.

[SameOldStory]

On cnet - Shoppers who can't have secrets

"Enter the post-privacy society, where we have lost track of how many entities are tracking us. Not to mention what they are doing with our personal information, how they are storing it, whom they might be selling our dossiers to and, yes, how much money they are making from them."

If we buy anything on the internet it leaves a record. Even if we use PayPal it leaves a record.

We can't know who or what is watching us.


ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill

"One bill, announced by Van Loan, would require telecommunications and internet service providers to:

•Install and maintain "intercept-capable" equipment on their networks.
•Provide police with "timely access" to personal information about subscribers, including names, address and internet addresses, without the need for a warrant."

The Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act

"The proposed amendments to the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act would widen the scope of assistance that Canada could provide to its treaty partners in fighting serious crimes, including computer and computer-related crime, at an international level"

Have you downloaded any copyrighted books from that .ru site? Have you used the internet to talk to anybody about how to remove drm? Did you download "Gone With The Wind" from Project Gutenberg Australia? No copyright there for Gone With The Wind. But if you're in the US or Canada then you are a cyber criminal.

This place even has a fictitious address for me that was used by people setting up credit card fraud 20 years ago.

If I can get on the internet and find out about you just think what a company, employer, or the government can do.

I may want some privacy but the only way to get it is to live off squirrels deep in the woods.

Does anyone think that privacy is attainable any more?

I can just see a book about someone trying to “disappear” by creating an assumed name. Only to find that the made up name has a really bad “past”.

[SneakySnake]

You can still sneak up to the back door of the local sex shop in a trench coat and pay with cash? Surely

[Fat Abe]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Does anyone think that privacy is attainable any more?

No. But even if it were, you could be ratted out by an ex or a disgruntled colleague.

http://www.bsa.org/country.aspx?sc_lang=en

There is a link on the Business Software Alliance's web page to report software piracy. Tunnel through the links on their page to view case histories of busts. Right now they go after big fishes, but the minnows are coming soon.

Any excuse to snoop on potential criminal activity leaves the door open to a carte blanch search of everything on your computer. If you follow the news on the seizure of Jason Chen's computers and servers, then you can be sure that the Feds have already taken a peak at all the files on his hard drives. Chen works for Gizmodo, and was part of the iPhone-gate caper. Why would the Feds be interested when only the local police department was involved? Call it professional courtesy.

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I can just see a book about someone trying to “disappear” by creating an assumed name. Only to find that the made up name has a really bad “past”.

Fat Abe has an excellent reputation as a squeaky clean chump. Having lost hundreds of poker games, I cannot see anyone stealing my moniker.

[ChrisC333]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

I may want some privacy but the only way to get it is to live off squirrels deep in the woods.

This seems to be working reasonably well for me. Plus my SneakySnake model trench-coat for those rare but necessary public appearances.

Does anyone think that privacy is attainable any more?

Total privacy was pretty much always next to impossible. You show up on birth records, electoral rolls, school records, tax records etc and most of us are known to some extent in our local communities (where we don't have any control over what people tell each other about us, accurately or not). The sort of 'privacy' that we can expect now is some version of the general anonymity of being just one drop in a vast ocean of data.

The best disguise is probably just being too bland to attract outside interest. (In conjunction with the squirrel diet and trench-coat of course.)

Cheers,

Chris

[Sweetpea]

A local ISP here got the request to monitor illegal downloading. And block certain illegal (aka Pirate Bay) sites. They refused. And I applaud them. If you want to censor people, go live in China...

[astra]

You have to read Broken Window

[Ralph Sir Edward]

The odd thing is that so many people (even here) seem to be totally unconcerned about the lack of privacy.

Can you have privacy in these times? First, it's a spectrum, from totally open to completely private. You can shift where you are on the spectrum, although you'll never achieve total privacy. it becomes "at what level of paranoia are yiou willing to function at. Here's some privacy enhancers. (They all cost money and time.!)

1. Two computers. One for internet and one never hooked up (the private machine), with a KMV switcher. What's on the private machine stays on the private machine (with a nod to Vegas adverts). Aspire Revos go for $200 US.

2. WiFi hotspots. A little more expensive and tricky. A free email address set up to a false name and address, set up on a netbook that you bought over-the-counter at a store for cash. Only use it at public WiFi hotspots. Track to who?

3. Only buy gadgets without any 3G/WiFi hookups. No instant gratification, but nobody able to track you either.

Just some samples. It's like burglary, it's impossible to stop it completely, but you can harden the target. but like all security/insurance, it cost money/time. Choose your own level of paranoia....

[GeoffC]

4. Buy a deserted island, no wi-fi, no harbours for shipping, no landing area for planes, no flat ground for helicopters......grow own food and vegetate !

[astra]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

4. Buy a deserted island, no wi-fi, no harbours for shipping, no landing area for planes, no flat ground for helicopters......grow own food and vegetate !

[beppe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

4. Buy a deserted island, no wi-fi, no harbours for shipping, no landing area for planes, no flat ground for helicopters......grow own food and vegetate !

No MR?

[GeoffC]

one may have to make many sacrifices ..... :gulps:

[beppe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

one may have to make many sacrifices ..... :gulps:

I'll rent the desert island near by, and signal to you with those flags they have on the ships of the line.

[GeoffC]

brilliant idea - two birds killed with one stone ....

[beppe]

The original man-of-war

[GeoffC]

don't forget the need for a lantern at night ....