Every search you make, email you send, text message, voice chat, location, and most likely the conversations you have in your own home are monitored and stored in a database for whoever knows how long (probably forever). When I hear land of the free, I immediately think bullshit. We are slowly losing our freedoms, what can we do to prevent this? I mean, when Edward Snowden dropped the leaks, people protested, but barely anything changed. What can we do? This post not only applies to Americans, your own government in another country may possibly does the same thing. Feel free to comment!
Entire world, how do you feel about being stored in a database by US government agencies like the NSA?
Feels bad, man.
Our government has completely lost its way. The Founders would be both appalled and ashamed.
They had slaves.
Can’t agree more. As a former member of the military, the state of affairs pretty sad to see.
Also, happy cake day :)
Thanks! My wife is a Soldier. We sometimes have interesting conversations about stuff like this.
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Every search you make, email you send, text message, voice chat, location, and most likely the conversations you have in your own home are monitored and stored in a database for whoever knows how long (probably forever).
This is most likely incidental.
As in, to successfully show text messages to people, somewhere at the ISP, someone has to have a database that shows what messages were sent off from which tower and need to be routed where. Maybe they’re retained for a while for re-send reasons, too. Yeah.
But the point is, that’s not the same reason why your home address is retained at the motor license department.
We humans love to see patterns in things, but we do so even when none exist, as our brains want to desperately simplify information to save space, essentially. But we should not let that fool us into thinking the world is simpler than it actually is: We have a host of reasons to retain data, and this existed long, long, loooong before digital databases. And for good reason. After all, if it cannot be verified that you are you in context X, the state can hardly offer you service Y or protection Z (such as those are in the US in particular, granted).
Your city has to know who you are and where you live. Your motor dep needs to know which license belongs to whom and is attached to which vehicle. Amazon needs to know where to send your parcels. Your phone provider needs to know which phone belongs to which number in their network and where it is right now. Etc, etc, etc. They all do so for individual reasons.
Not a big fan.
Frankly though I think Snowden gets way too much credit. Anyone with any sense that looked at the Patriot Act knew what was going to happen, and people were raising alarm from the beginning. He just confirmed what already should have been very obvious.
Yes. Anyone over the age of like 12 who didn’t know the government was keeping all this data, was incredibly naive.
I honestly think it’s everyone’s responsibility to make their job as hard as possible. Use providers that prioritize privacy and that are located outside the US. Don’t ever use telephony or sms always use end to end encrypted services for conversations, leave your phone at home or turn it off, use a rom without Google play services. Really drive them nuts and use cash for most purchases. This by no means stops everything but it makes it harder. You can’t stop all data collection but you can reduce it and every reduction helps.
I feel about the same as every European citizen should, since their governments are obviously doing the same but without the public fanfare.
We have Ursula… and other trumpets… the noise is so loud in EU
How do you feel about being stored in the NSA database? Personally, I’m not a fan.
The only real option worthwhile is to get nerdy and play the same game. Change up how and what you connect online as well as running security and privacy based open source firmware + software on your devices. Aside from that, protesting would be another option with some teeth too!
Agreed! It takes a lot of resources, but saying “Fuck You!” my way feels so good…
having my main “phone” unmoved in the same place for the last 3 years and with the lowest interactions possible on it… No SIM, No eSIM, nothing… (plus many other hard tricks)
Measure that you bloddy data horders!
One drop in a full bucket may mean a lot of it is the last drop!
It’s not like my opinion will make any actual difference, so I’ve made my piece with it.
Poison the data as often as possible. I’m getting kicked off more and more services because my data doesn’t match their fingerprinting. I don’t verify any identity. Even the private databases with addresses, cars, employers, etc are all filled with random junk data making them useless. I can’t “pass verification” because the source is stupid. I take that as a small win.
Biggest part was getting tf out of that shithole country. Life is much better now.
I don’t worry about it, currently.
I know any country I’d want to live, they are doing the same thing. Just perhaps not as effectively.
That’s no excuse, it sucks. But it doesn’t disturb me outright that the US gov is doing it.
I feel about it the way I feel about the weather. I don’t think it’s realistic to live under a government that has the ability to exert some form of power, then have that government not exert that form of power.
Mostly I’m just hoping to be reincarnated during the next major outward expansion. During the current phase of history the individual is just a unit to be used by this or that collective.
It sucks, but so does being allergic to milk. Don’t have much choice about either one.
I feel I overestimate such people who only take heed to alphanumericals and not what one might call backdoor communication. Case in point.
how is the image related?
It’s an example/jab/whatever you want to call it at the fact only certain communications matter to those who “are said to eavesdrop… but at face value” which is relevant to the people described. Imagine a message existing in any picture that uses shades and it’s beyond them and the original inquiry still comes up.
what does this mean mate? have you read to much 50 shades of gray or please tell me what should I get out of your comment… Thanks!
I’ll respond by saying what you say kind of proves my point. The sky is the limit when it comes to communication, it never was any different, but the stereotype with the NSA is that they sit down and think “alright, let’s see what this person has said today” while taking it at face value. The picture is a sort of example/jab at that stereotype. If I were to communicate in a way the NSA would call “covertly”, it would be beyond them, I would be “hiding in plain sight”.
There’s literally nothing we can do. Those in power will always abuse their power eventually and now with modern tech, they abuse that too. Yeah there is really no reason for it and it sucks but they just do it because they fucking can. I’ve had my fill of power tripping assholes who don’t deserve it.
