Not sure if you guys even understand what the CIA's purpose is. This isn't the FBI whose job is to go after American criminals. It's not the NSA who spends a lot of time on Americans. It's the CIA, whose job is to focus on foreign countries. Like they have time to blow listening to your conversation about how you feel about The Walking Dead. Also, why didn't you guys care that hackers have been doing this shit ever since the technology came out in the first place? Because it was individuals doing it and not big brother? Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
Any tools developed by any governmental entity anywhere are likely to be cross-pollinated to other services that might find them of interest. In the US they're likely to be cross-pollinated to the private sector. Snowden was an employee of a private contractor.
It may be a good idea to: turn off any "wake on lan" options. Also completely power down your computer when you're not using it. Going on a trip? Turn off your wireless router and/or cable modem. In other words, go "dark" when you're not using your computer.
I doubt that any of these things will matter much. They're good for peace of mind but I'm guessing we are nearing the point where the powers that be can turn a standard electrical outlet into a full audio surveillance device using the electrical grid as their network. Not much further down the road is turning those outlets into full imaging devices capable of giving live streaming "video" of the action in LOS of the socket. The only precaution that I take at this point is to disable the camera in my laptops by covering it with a permanent obstruction. That's not to stop government snoops, just the more common hackers that exist. The device most likely to spy on you at this point is your phone. Figuring out what to do about that conundrum is a headful.
People have two choices. One is don't use a phone. The other is don't care because the government has no interest in them.
FYI, powering down isn't enough. Hackers can turn them right back on. Only way to prevent your electronics from being remotely turned on is to remove all power. Unplug it, remove batteries.
Not good enough. In the future hackers will be able to power unplugged devices remotely using electromagnetic waves. Fortunately tinfoil never gets old.
Shit - that one's easy. Just add up all the information that exists for everybody in the country and divide by 350 million.
Ultimately the government is not what you should be worried about at the moment. The worry is all about how the private sector farms data and what they retain and for what purposes because someday soon the government is going to sweep up all that data and centralize it and that's when you get Big Brother in your life. The GOP is trying to push legislation through as we speak that legalizes the collection of genetic data from employees by private companies. This is a back door to giving the government access to all that data. If the GOP was trying to get a government program funded to do this the response would be an avalanche of hatred directed towards them from all sectors in the political arena. So instead they are trying to get the data into private hands from where it will be easy to collect it later on in a central repository. From your standpoint the worry in this type of sampling is that you are genetically predisposed to alchoholism or drug abuse or any number of risky behaviors that will affect your costs and privileges moving forward. The worry is that your family is predisposed to early heart disease or schizophrenia or depression and so you will not be eligible for positions and privileges that people with cleaner histories have access too. This is a real thing. If that bill passes we're going to be living in a Gattacca world before you know it because as the GOP has told us over and over again, nothing is better at creating sweeping change than the free market, creative destruction and all.
They use fluoride. Private citizens and private companies have been hacking and data mining for ages. Perfectly reasonable. Government does the exact same thing for less nefarious purposes, it's a God damned tragedy.
Your credit score effects many different areas in your life including employment opportunities, housing, interest paid on credit cards and loans, etc. There's good news though. By moderating your behavior over time you can improve your credit score and increase your opportunities in a system that is largely governed by it, in which people are slotted and turned into a basic number for other people to evaluate without ever dealing with the person in question. Good luck changing your G-score.
Okay, that's enough of smarmy liberals kissing each other's asses. I'm reading though the idiot thread that RON created, and I just can't get past the hundreds of references to Russian hacking without looking at this turd of a thread and laughing. Some of the most prominent people in this thread are also some of the most prominent people in that thread. The funny part is that the biggest apologists in this thread about our own government surveilling our own people are some of the angriest voices complaining about supposed Russian hacking in the election. This line of logic is easily the most daft and empty partisan garbage I have ever seen. Russia was the devil in the 80s for doing exactly what the US govt is now proven to do. Why is this not only acceptable but now necessary in your minds?
Somebody is defending government surveillance? I must have missed that. Usually, but not in this thread, it is the Conservatives defending the surveillance using "if you didn't do anything you have nothing to worry about" logic to defend their position.
