Reader Alan sent this video:
When it ended this next video started and dragged me in. Scary scary times..........
One thing that was discussed was Pokemon GO where a game was used for surveillance. I remember calling this out a long time ago. Another one that I this is a horrible idea when I found out about it is the app on the iphone called Measure. People are taking thousands and thousands of images inside their homes, businesses etc under the guise of "measuring". This video documentary below is a must watch:
Also discussed is the hidden microphone in Google nest >> story here<<
Updated.... as I put this post up I have had the above video playing in the background. There is so much information discussed regarding surveillance capitalism and how it works and who is involved.
Eye opening.....
It's horrifying.
ReplyDeleteTAKE THE TIME TO WATCH THAT!
The answer is no.
ReplyDeleteMy comment on video 2: this hasn't been widely publicized but isn't news. To me anyway.
Snowden is a smart guy and has some wise observations, which curiously or ironically are the result of his own life choices. Pity that he wasn't smart enough to know to keep his mouth shut (which he promised to do). Thus he lives in exile. I don't believe everything he says, and neither should you. Maybe if he'd kept his promises... ah well. He's not done clicking, either. Thats bullshit, clicking is all he has time for.
The lady in the 2nd video is called "the Karl Marx of her time." The 2nd alarm bell is, she's a professor at a Harvard. She's selling her book. Keep that in mind. That said, I agree with lots of what she says, I'm just not quite as ratcheted up about the whole supposed invasion of privacy aspect. I'm being anonymous here by choice for example, but I know if I had an ip address and some certain logs from an isp, I could figure out who subscribes to that line. That's the beginning of your info disclosure. So. Keep in mind anything you put on the internet from there can eventually identify you. If you put pictures on Facebook, Zuckerberg will do whatever he wants with them. Using any modern operating system, well almost any, implies the manufacturer can use how you use their products. Thats where the potential for evil shit starts. For example, her description of the systems using behavioral cues to you. Who knew Pokémon go was evil? Well, cue the obvious, its using your real-time location (GPS) and a map of behavioral cues in the form of cute cartoons, to make you dance wherever it wants. Including in the middle of a busy highway or the side of a cliff. People presume the game isn't evil, but clearly the inventors didn't initially build the brains into the game, to prevent people from coming to harm. Is that a design flaw, a failure of testing, or did the mofo's really want people walking off a cliff? I think clearly the first two are absolutely true, but I can't quite bring myself to think the authors want to hurt people. I think they were just effing stupid. Yes, stupid.
My takeaway is, be careful what you put into your computer. Dont use Facebook or use your real name on anything. Be damn careful with any program that tells you what to do in real life. Read the news, keep your virus / malware / firewall patched, ditto with all software. Dont click on links in email from people you don't know. Use the spam filter. Etc.
Life is good. I think I'll step outside.
Thank you for the comment. I will have to research her. The documentary was extremely captivating with the information presented and , like yourself, I’m aware of a lot of what they are doing. I just didn’t realize how deep and how pervasive it is.
DeleteThanks again.
You're welcome sir.
DeleteIf you assume she's a marxist, try to imagine what her objection to surveillance capitalism is? Can't be surveillance, Marxists love that stuff. So it must be the capitalism part. Is she upset that private industry has a grip on this shitload of data? And they're using it to make boatloads of money? Or is she truly worried people are being hurt, or at least taken advantage of? If she is, then she isn't the Karl Marx of her time. She actually came off as being rather centrist about the issue, to me anyway.
This is where the obvious rationale comes in for selling her book. "Smart professor tells world about evil capitalists putting your kids in danger..." good selling point. I haven't read it, but after today I might, lol.
Again, I think the important takeaway is, how much stuff that can identify you, that you put on a computer. Assuming you avoid using Facebook, your real name, don't upload your face or your family photo album, etc, then the rest is how much surveillance tech you can disable. Turning off location, especially Google maps for example, will go a LONG way towards disabling many surveillance features. I also put post-it notes over ALL cameras, front and back. If you want microphone privacy, it'll help to not talk(!), or at least play some kind of music or noise around all your computers (except maybe desktops that don't have built in mikes). Piss them off and play Trump speeches all day lol. Use a flip phone when you can .. yes you can still find a couple, I have one I use now and then. People will laugh, just tell them yours can't get hacked ;)
And whatever you do, don't play Pokémon go in a parking lot.
It's surveillance Marxism in China. Nothing like a social credit score that might be suboptimal. Wonder what Harvard would say about that?
DeleteFWIW, here's a review of Zuboff's book. They call it "surveillance captialism." I call it "hyper-marketing." Still, there's this feeling of being The Prisoner in The Village.
Deletehttps://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism-facebook-shoshana-zuboff
"I didn’t intend to provide people with a five-point action plan,” Zuboff says. “I intended to awaken that sense of outrage and injustice in all my readers – if the only solutions that we can produce is the solution of how to hide, then we’ve lost.”
Watch "Minority Report" starring Tom Cruise again. Twenty years on, two aspects of that fictional movie are uncomfortably close to being real:
Delete1) Computerized ad screens that do quick facial recognition, then instantly serve up exactly the right advertising, directed at you, just for you (Google does some of that now);
2) The concept of anticipating user behavior that Zuboff discusses... How far can those predictive models go, towards predicting your behavior? If it can predict when you want a cheeseburger, can it predict when you'll commit a crime? And to what degree of certainty?
Indyjonesouthere, China is a mix of capitalism and Marxism. Its their massive facial recognition, social scoring, and open air prisons that scare me. Bingo, minority report scores a hit in china.
Bunk, we can't hide. The only safe computer has no outside connections, no power, and is buried in 15 feet of cement. Best practices include minimizing your identity online. I also suggest Life Lock, Home title lock, putting credit freezes on your credit accounts, and the other stuff above.
But even if you do all that, some company or the USG will have a data breach that exposes all your info anyway (can you say, Solar Winds hack?).
The one thing Snowden says is all that needs to happen, "its simple". It is turn the damn machines off except late Friday and or Saturday morning. ha ha ha ha.
ReplyDeleteThe second video person is like the thousands on social media and the webz. I call them talking heads. Buy my book, subscribe to my youtube, like me on Facebook. It's all about the money and trying to stay relevant. The only way to end it is to turn it off.
Over the years of watching opinion personalities on Fox and now Newsmax, people appearing on these programs giving their conservative opinion on this and that topic are invariably selling a book that they've just finished giving "more in depth analysis" of whatever topic. You are correct sir, it's all about capitalism, not that there's anything wrong with capitalism. I just wish that these people, presenting their idea's, would more honest as to why they're appearing on TV blowing smoke up our asses. Why blowing smoke? Because 9 out of 10 don't know shit from shinola and the only reason they're on TV is to plug their book, no matter how bad it is.
DeleteNemo
The best courses of action are
ReplyDelete(1) Stay off social media for nothing else but mental health. (I'm on LinkedIn only because of work)
(2) Stop using Google products (I have started the transition away from)
(3) I am investigating the use of a private VPN, maybe Proton - any help on this is appreciated.
I wish these people could learn to bottom line stuff.
ReplyDeleteshocking. Kids are doing their schoolwork on Google Chromebooks. Every keystroke logged.
ReplyDeleteStop this insanity now!