You are being monitored- how do you feel about it?

In medieval times, there was no personal privacy; the idea of personal privacy developed with the idea of a more advanced civilisation. But the wheel now appears to have turned full circle.

Log on to AATU, or almost any other internet site, and 'cookies' will attach themselves to your every keystroke. This was brought home forcefully to me a couple of days ago when I ran a routine anti-virus scan and, to my amazement, discovered that I'd picked up 35 cookies in the space of 3 days.

'Ah!', say its advocates, 'But you'd only be allowed to experience the delights of internet browsing with the support of online advertising- and all that goes with it'. Maybe so, but my doubts are starting to increase.

Maybe I shouldn't have watched Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil' the other night? In a slightly less fantastical style, the Bourne Trilogy seems to have had its fingers on the pulse of what is now technologically possible in terms of personal surveillance.

Buildings once made of stone are now made of glass. We are all being observed, at work and play.

I once worked with a London Underground Station Supervisor (let's call him Les, to protect his privacy) who had to be medically retired because he came to the delusional belief that Management had implanted a microchip under his skin and were monitoring his every move. But, given that England is the most cctv-scrutinised society on earth, I'm starting to wonder whether Les' delusions might one day soon have some grounding in reality.

^ All foretold in Revelations, mate. Without a 666 barcode implanted in your brow, you'll soon be nobody.. Heh heh.

In Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, anti-heroine Lisbeth Salander is able to destroy her friend Blomqvist's persecutor by duplicating (and robbing) his bank accounts.

Personally, I try to avoid online banking and bill-paying as far as possible. I figure that sending a cheque by snail mail, and investing in the price of a postage stamp to send it, reduces the possibility of being ripped off- to some degree, at least. I've read too much about criminal gangs duplicating websites to feel comfortable about posting bank account details online. Am I getting paranoid? Maybe, but perhaps that's no bad thing?

BTW- If you ever receive a phone call from someone claiming to represent Microsoft (or your computer's manufacturer) and offering "help" with a pc problem, they're almost certainly trying to rip you off. Never give bank account details to someone you don't know over a phone line. Obvious maybe, but people do get taken in by such scammers.

pinhedz wrote:unless I move to a cabin in the north woods

Hmm. Tell me more...

Anyone read EM Forster's short Sci-Fi story "The Machine Stops"?

pinhedz wrote:-- All of the people who knew how to fix the metro system have died.  The mending apparatus itself is in need of mending.

  

I'd be surprised if EM Forster's story weren't an influence, direct or indirect, on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qEsTCTuajE
Welcome to the Machine- Pink Floyd.

Cold callers have been bothering me recently, despite the fact that I've signed up for British Telecom's filtering service. Obviously, I've neglected to tick a box on some form stating that I don't wish to hear from such people- and now my name & phone number are on a database- which, in turn, will be sold to other cold-calling companies.

How many of us really read through all the "Terms & Conditions" before signing up for some online product/service? There aren't enough hours in the day.

I'd keep my answerphone permanently switched on, but this creates problems of its own.

Ho hum.

ad atop of this (previous) page showed cat moving at the sound of You've been hit by
You've been hit by - a smooth criminal

saw a hacker on tv that said it was good all the non-privacy (coming to light) because internet (and computers) wasn't designed as a secure thing to have all kind of personal information, so it would make people realise it.

And I guess for that it shouldn't grow as a "requirement" for life basics

pinhedz wrote:

pinhedz says they can watch you if they care but they don't (as if their business was gossips ...), but still it must be put with the words that they need to have massive access to people's privacy (which changes the term) for security, no? or it'll grow to vanish what was what

new tech requires new tech for security authorities? That sounds reasonable, but still not sure it's the same, a cop would need a special permission/order to register a house, no? it's really the privacy unrestrictedly accessed... on the internet, so I see, it probably comes from the first part of the post I made, that it was not meant for private affairs (but this also includes things as searching for a job, not just socialising activities)

But to define it as what it is I think is important, if the world changes and certain security methods has to change, what they become has to be said too

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investigative reporters, or just reporters, sometimes leave me wondering which authority they are (the times when apparently they behave as one more than just doing a good job)

edit: enaff with the editions!

pinhedz wrote:why do they talk into there cell phones all the time at the top of their voices in public places?  

the bigger the phone...