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Re: [LUG] surveillance

 

On 15/04/13 16:41, Simon Avery wrote:
You're a commodity, any information about you is bought and sold legally,
what is known about you will be surprising to most, and the conclusions and
models based about what they do know, and what they can predict about you
will surprise even more. Facebook and Google didn't get rich out of
providing free services without any catches. Tesco doesn't give you loyalty
cards out of loyalty. Starbucks doesn't give you free coffee for free.

I don't doubt the government, MI5/6, the police and others have far more
information about you and me than I could expect. We're tracked in a
hundred ways every day and if nobody's pulling together these strings in
some huge Orwellian system already, then it won't be long. And if it's not,
I would put it down to the incompetence usually shown by any contract
involving the government and computers, especially when it comes to gluing
different systems together. Yes, the Human Rights laws may prevent what's
legally tracked about us, but I don't doubt laws are broken every day at
this level. And if you've got a healthy skin tan and a beard, well, almost
anything can be justified under the "what if..."

So you have three choices, as I see it:

1) Sacrifice the ease of modern living and the comforts associated and live
truly off grid. Good luck, and you shouldn't be here at all if that's the
case.

2) Know it's going on and spend your life worried and feeling... Well, I
was going to say paranoid, but it's not if they really are out to get you,
is it?

3) Accept it and get on with life, knowing you're monitored to a greater or
lesser degree. (That crime still happens and goes unsolved suggests I'm
painting an overly pessimistic view - unless that's what you're *meant* to
think! Maybe "crime" only exists to disprove suggestions like this?)

I even think the time has passed where an investigative journalist could
"expose" the system. It's already accepted, here, and doing very well.

(If you never hear from me again, I might just have been onto something)




I think Simon has pretty much nailed it here - I'd argue that the only realistic option to pursue is an enlightened mix of options 2 and 3, that is to say, accept the situation as it stands (and worry about it, because it's decidedly non-ideal), do NOT go out of your way to make things any easier for them and try and set an example by trying to make things better. Even if it's hopeless, it's a noble goal to not accept the status quo when it sucks and try to improve the situation for everyone.

Unsurprisingly, I don't have Twitter/Facebook or any other kind of social media accounts. Unlike everyone else here, I only use my real name in the few situations that actually require it - typically IRL stuff. Technically, I use adblocking, proxies, encryption, disposable accounts and most of the other tricks in the book to stay untrackable on the internet: even now, googling my real name has zero results (except for some conspicuous false positives, I share a name with a vet in New Zealand apparently). Where possible, I try to educate other people about these options as well, and show them how to effectively deploy them: it's not much, but it's something real and concrete I can do myself to try and help change the surveillance society we have sleepwalked into. I am under no illusions about this magically changing everything though.

Generally speaking, I carry cash and very rarely use a trackable plastic form of currency - I'm about as below the radar as is possible for a normal, functioning member of society. However, medical records, tax returns, my cell phone and ISP contracts and a whole mass of other data out there does exist on me, and there's nothing I can do about it. The only thing stopping MI5 or whomever compiling a terrifyingly accurate and complete picture of my life from my multiple discrete data trails is an easily obtained warrant and as Simon rightly pointed out, the inherent incompetence of monolithic governmental agencies.

We are all very much in the same boat here, just don't give up and roll over no matter what. As the famous Burke quote goes:

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

I am totally open for suggestions as to what we 'good men' should actually be doing, I'm not even going to pretend I have all the answers. But to directly reply to Neil's original only direct question "should I use GPG" the definitive answer is yes, yes you should. Use encryption *everywhere*, and teach other people how to use it as well, properly. One of the few things that can protect against governmental and corporate over-arching snooping into our lives is the awesome power and beauty of cold hard maths and solid cryptographic principles.

Regards
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