Spying on Americans has become big business

[PhilT]

It seems increasingly clear that abuse of the freedom of the Internet is increasing.

Take a look at this video clip
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/814.html

It seems that many companies like M$ are now increasingly using covert methods to obtain and sell personal data. Are we any less vulnerable if we only use Linux systems? Or is this a problem however you connect to the web?

I guess 1984 is just a bit late arriving!

[blobfish]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Orwell wasn't an author.....He was a prophet.

[Telengard]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Nineteen Eighty-Four was a good read, but Animal Farm and Brave New World seem like closer approximations of the modern world to me.

Alex Jones discusses a wide range of important topics, but having seen a number of his videos and listened to him on radio many times, I think he has an unfortunate tendency toward hyperbole.

<sarcasm>What? Giant corporations, in this case Micro$oft, are abusing the DMCA to silence whistle blowers? How shocking to think that government and big business would conspire to curtail freedom of speech on the Internet!</sarcasm>

[dibl]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Being a bit of a history buff, the modern American understanding of "privacy rights" is sometimes amusing to me. If you go back to the late 19th century, for example, and look at the "biographical sketches" that were commonly written about living folks, it was pretty standard to list their political affiliations, their church, the names of the parents, spouse and children, the person's trade, or if in agriculture, the characteristics of their farm and and a picture of their house. This was published contemporaneous material. It seems we've become much more bashful in the ensuing decades.

Not that anyone is getting my passwords, btw!

[blobfish]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

It seems we've become much more bashful in the ensuing decades.

and justifiably so. IMHO

[Jook_roberts]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Orwell is the man!

Is it just me or is Google getting just a little to big. I read the other day that they are getting a license to buy and sell energy and starting an ISP.
A company built on collecting personal information and moving into every business scares me. One corporation to control them all.

[Snowhog]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Not that anyone is getting my passwords, btw!

[pssssst. He has four. They are: ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ and ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ and ⚫⚫⚫ and ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫]

[Fintan]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

I read the other day that they are getting a license to buy and sell energy

Well, on the other hand if I had a trillion servers to run then I would want an energy license as well.

Besides you don't need google or yahoo / MS for the spying angle. The NSA knows all it wants to when it wants to anyway. :P

[Telengard]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

The NSA knows all it wants to when it wants to anyway. :P

Why do you think the government demanded broadcasters upgrade to digital, and then handed everyone vouchers for a new TV? The old analog broadcasts are one way communication. Any digital network, such as we now have with digital TV, is a two way network. Every digital TV sold has a camera and microphone built into it. You know how tiny camera and microphone can be, smaller than a fingernail.

Everyone who read 1984 should be sweating a little bit now.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Every digital TV sold has a camera and microphone built into it. You know how tiny camera and microphone can be, smaller than a fingernail.

If so, then the Chinese, South Koreans and Japanese are the ones putting the camera and mic into the sets we buy. I can't imagine the US government forcing them to put those devices into those TV sets and then keeping it a secret. IF there is one thing the US gov doesn't know how to do it is keeping a secret. The vouchers were not for a new TV, they were for digital to analog converters. I bought two. They were made in China too. My sole analog TV is too old to have a camera and mic in it.

Since I don't have cable TV, about the only way for a purloined video or audio signal to make its way back to any gov "watchers" would be if that converter had a camera and mic in it and it transmitted a signal back to some cell phone tower. Since there are millions of folks who watch only airborne TV signals picked up off their outdoor or indoor antenna, I suspect that the bandwidth consumed by so many spy devices sending back video and sound 24/7 would be enough to overload and collapse the cell phone tower amps.

[skunk]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story

[Qqmike]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

What's this I see on some sponsored TV ad flashing quickly about a move by lobbyists
to have Congress do away with regular, over-the-air-antenna TV?

[Telengard]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

@GG
I don't mind having my little conspiracy theories debunked, for there are many holes in the theory to be sure. I just want you to ask yourself a question. If they can do it, do you really think they won't?

[GreyGeek]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

What's this I see on some sponsored TV ad flashing quickly about a move by lobbyists
to have Congress do away with regular, over-the-air-antenna TV?

Ya. The "FCC seeking more spectrum for wireless broadband"

The phrase they use to describe the need seems to give away who the "lobbyists" are:

Although the potential of mobile broadband is limitless, its oxygen supply is not," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a speech at the New America Foundation in Washington. "Spectrum - our airwaves - really is the oxygen of mobile broadband service. Without sufficient spectrum, we will starve mobile broadband of the nourishment it needs to thrive."
...
Finding more wireless spectrum will also be an important piece of the FCC's plan to bring affordable high-speed Internet connections to all Americans, particularly in rural America, Genachowski said. That plan, mandated by last year's stimulus bill, is due to Congress next month.

It seems that the cable and teleco, or at least the telcos, are going to circumvent their responsibility to complete the laying of fiber optic cable they promised Congress 15 years ago, and replace it with 4G wireless towers, using the channels used previously by over-the-air TV signals. EVENTUALLY THEY PLAN TO STEAL 500 MHz of THE FREQUENCIES USED FOR WIRELESS ROUTERS, TOO.

Genachowski said broadcast television spectrum is particularly attractive for broadband because those airwaves are not being put to efficient use even though they contain "billions of dollars of unlocked value." TV broadcasters hold nearly 300 megahertz of spectrum, but use that spectrum mostly to serve the 10 percent of American homes that still rely solely on over-the-air TV signals.

The "New America Foundation" was started by Ted Halstead, who well left of center, a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, etc...

So, Telengard, maybe they ARE forcing everyone onto the digital networks to make watching them easier.

[Telengard]

Re: Spying on Americans has become big business

Gosh GG, you make a better Fox Mulder than me.


Truthfully I don't know for a fact that they secretly put cameras and microphones in TVs now. I don't want anyone to think I was only joking though. I just want people to think outside the box (borrowing the phrase used by the current US administration) and consider whether or not there is real cause for concern about individual privacy and the ever growing intrusiveness of government.

Seriously. Think about it.