Re:Americans, Everything You Do Is Monitored
by orthecreedence on Friday May 06, 2011 @03:19PM
(#2522134)
I'd like to point out that although I believe my arguments stand, it is very important that people do realize that monitoring is there, so if they do have a problem they can take steps to prevent it.
Mac, I think it's a valiant cause to create awareness, and I admire that you're doing that. However, I feel that you are using scare tactics more than factual evidence. That's not to say you don't have factual evidence, but you are also writing to invoke a feeling of fear, which isn't necessary, and in most cases causes more harm than good.
This isn't a hopeless situation, we just need to be aware of how we communicate and who's listening...and also be aware of the fact that although some of us may be extremely privacy-conscious, most people (at least in America) just want to buy shit off Amazon and browse Facebook and they don't care who's watching.
It's like monitoring a fish tank ;).
Also, even having access to my home network (which is firewalled once by my router, and again by my computer) there is still no way to just "flip the switch" and monitor my webcam. I would have to
a. have a port available PUBLICLY through both firewalls that allowed someone to connect and view a live stream of my cam (which would require streaming software running in the background, AKA I'd have to purposefully turn it on) or
b. have a trojan installed unbeknownst to me that somehow figures out, in every model of laptop, how to turn on the camera but disable the "camera is on" hardware light, connect to a remote server (without the operating system knowing about it (not bloody likely)) and send a stream of everything happening. There would have to be a standard API implemented by all PC/camera manufacturers that allows this trojan to do this, which has also been kept entirely secret (impossible, if more than one organization is involved) and also the trojan would have to be installed on all computers and ignored by all virus scan software. The trojan would also have the ability to open a hidden connection that the operating system would allow but not report as an active connection.
Like I said previously, this is ridiculous. Perhaps this could MAYBE happen in Windows/Mac (good luck keeping this secret), but not an open-source OS like linux. So yes, maybe you don't know how to do it, but I do...and I'm telling you that I would have to purposefully allow it to happen. Please don't spread misinformation just because you think it may be possible or because you saw it in a movie.
Also, note that at no point did I call you paranoid or mention a tinfoil hat. I simply stated my disagreement to your main points, which you have still not argued against:
1. You are on public networks here. Your computer is connected to the largest public network in the world...consider it a free for all. Your cell phone transmits information using radio waves...meaning anybody (anybody) can listen in.
2. Nobody cares what you are doing or saying. You'd have to actually be planning some sort of attack to become any sort of priority on a keyword monitoring system. Which brings us to
3. If you really do want to hide something -- from the government, from corporations, from anyone -- you have to encrypt it if you are going to send it over public channels. Airwaves are public, the internet is public. Don't expect free privacy.