Trust a Website?

 When you decided to sign up for a new website, did you somehow have trust in it before you even joined it? Your buddies were there. So it must be okay. Maybe it was YouTube or Spacedout.url or Tweeter.org or PeanutButter.com etc. But as you sign up, they ask for an email address, which you go ahead and give yours to that new website. So let's say your regular personal email is - billAdams2@gmail.com - and you have the expectation that they will send you messages to your email address. The first one you will get is always a 'welcome' message. So you're in.

Not quite, as soon as you type in your email URL, they ask you for a password. So you expect to make up one that will be your password to the site you are joining. So you think of one, like maybe Bill2guy, and suggest it.

But wait, now they say the email and password are not correct. What? The screen blinks with fake honesty waiting for you to try again. Try again.

Now you realize the email you use for your private email communication is the one they want, your PASSWORD and all. But how did they know your password to your personal email was incorrect if they didn't try using it? So you try another random password and type that one. Nope, they want you to put in your PRIVATE email password which is all they will accept. 

So the site you are trying to join, now has info that may be incriminating, or embarrassing and PRIVATE to you and your family. At least not for vicarious viewing. WTF? All your friends who send you greetings or info about your job, church, neighbors, relationships, funny jokes, political comments etc are now compromised by a new site you know nothing about. And the email addresses of all those friends and associates are in YOUR email folder. Anyone associated with that new site who now has access can READ YOUR EMAILS from everywhere and anyone and can do what they will with them.  Of course you are using the standard answer - 'but I'm not doing anything wrong.'  Does that mean you believe it is okay for strangers to see and record you communications? But you trust Tony Soprano don't you?

 

While the web is full of warnings about email phishing and hacking you just violated the first rule of web safety: DO NOT GIVE ANYONE YOUR PASSWORD! Ever.

You trust their technology not to tell on you? That's feeble. Oh they wouldn't do anything bad. That's idiocy. Google owns Blogger and gmail, they are famous, (notorious) for tracking you, mostly all of them do. Big money in selling info. Don't trust them!

You trust the 'Cloud' too? Sure, and if that website goes down so does your information!  How many times have you read about the Cloud being compromised? How many Clouds have been compromised that they don't tell you about? Your info is secure 'in the Cloud'. Sure it is because someone wrote that in the sign-up page. lol

I joined a website once where you could express opinions about certain events. Yes, gave them an email address (only used for signing up to websites) And I posted an item which expressed an opinion (politely) about a certain event, but the administrators didn't like it. And kicked me off! But they still have my email and password! See, in spite of the warnings we are so desperate to join something we willingly give up our privacy! And we can't make them erase it forget it, unsee it, or not USE it.

You can get a separate hard drive, not too expensive, (I paid $74 for 1 Terrabyte USB drive!) to attach and ONLY plug it in when you want to save something and NOT leave it lingering tantalizingly on your main computer. Copy and unplug.

So here is what I do; Set up a NEW email with whomever, one that you will NEVER use for personal messaging from your friends or anyone else! Use it to ONLY sign up to any new site, and give them that password!  Not the best but at least you haven't given them a fun afternoon of browsing through your most intimate online communications. Let them get their vicarious thrills from elsewhere! 

I know, I know, your IP address on your specific computer is out there first, and anyone can see where you are by Geolocation co-ordinates and unless you're using Tor and a VPN it isn't hidden.  But that's for another time, at least here's a start.

And if you're using social media sites and chattering about your life ... well you're on your own.

Smile, GCHQ is watching you

Even doing sexy things in front of your webcam?
No, not me, don't worry I turned it off.
Yes, worry, that doesn't make a difference, they can turn it on again without the little telltale light! They ARE watching you!

 It used to be that encouraging someone to tape up their webcam to keep the government from watching would sound like the paranoid advice of a conspiracy loon. Well, it might be time to bust out that tinfoil hat. In another discomforting development concerning governmental snooping, the Guardian has revealed that British Intelligence agency GCHQ, in cooperation with our friends at the NSA, have been watching and recording the webcam images of millions upon millions of users of Yahoo’s video chat service.

The program, called Optic Nerve, was started in 2008 and remained active into 2012, according to documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The bulk images include many of a sexual nature, which the documents reveal were hard to keep GCHQ staffers from gawking at. The NSA has restrictions (for what that’s worth) on the kind of data they can gather on American citizens, but the GCHQ has no such restrictions, meaning these images very likely include the private conversations and interactions of British and US citizens.

The program was apparently meant to develop new techniques and algorithms for facial recognition and picking targets. (Targets? Really?) It gathered (gathers?) one image every five minutes, possibly to avoid violating certain privacy statutes, but more likely to keep from crashing GCHQ servers. It’s one more in a long string of uncomfortable realizations about the deeply invasive spying apparatus Western governments are pointing at their own citizens.

The revelations are likely to get worse, and it seems very unlikely that programs like this one are limited to just Yahoo or the UK — since Snowden’s documents only go up to around 2012 at the latest (that’s when he divulged them to reporter Glenn Greenwald), it’s also very possible this program is still up and running. (Duh, like really?)

And if you just bought a new TV set? It might be that a hidden camera is planted somewhere behind your TV screen too, watching you watching it. Throw a whole blanket over it if you don't want to end up in the 'lust' room deep in the bowels of GCHQ.  I wonder what would happen if someone published pictures of a Senator or Parliamentarian's wife or daughters, for instance? Would that even wake the public outrage?

And you must know by now if you live on Earth, that the spy-on-you technology is exponentially growing and someday it might be your refrigerator that notifies the Stasi that you cheated on your rations.

But of course, YOU are not doing anything wrong, then what could it matter?
Sure. Go to the front of the gullible line and be respectful.


Still think Snowden is the bad guy?





*based on Pete Brook's article in Wired.

While we're on the subject ...

VERY important reading. Even if you think you don't care, or you're not doing anything wrong.

This was published by Eric Limer on Gizmodo, 22, June, 2013.  Don't be afraid, read it!

exactly-how-the-NSA-is-getting-away-with-spying-on-us

My Pericles quote on the sidebar is apropo.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your Personal Web

I wanted to tell you about my web browser and how, through managing the settings of it, I hope to have a little privacy on my web meanderings. 
But first ....

We have the huge furor right now of the NSA and other secretive agencies monitoring and reading your private files, searches and web activity. Unless you live on another planet you know about this. You can't call mother-in-law a bitch in an email to your sister without the possibility it could come back to haunt you! Just like she haunts your marriage! 


So because of these NSA scandals, various talking heads, political and even military are saying it ain't so. Reassuring?  No.
Usually, on careful listening, you'll hear these experts tell you they need a court order to listen in to your phone chat. But that court order is obtained from a SECRET court. (FISC) And it may be true, but no reporter I have watched zeros in to the differences between a phone chat and web searches, emails, social media posts, blogs or other internet activity. 
My understanding is that under the Patriot Act, FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the NSA or Homeland Security need NO court order or warrants to read whatever you do on the internet through your web servers. And your ISP, under that post 9/11 law, MUST turn over data to them and CANNOT tell you that you have been inquired about.

[And this makes one wonder if SIRI users are under scrutiny without a warrant to their voice messages because they go to a cloud base for decryption into digital and text before forwarding to the intended recipient. So it is no longer a phone voice message, but text, and subject to peeking without that legality?] 

There are several choke points on the World Wide Web in North America that virtually ALL information travels through. And in virtually all of those points, a certain government agency has installed splitters that siphon off copies of everything going through the web. To and from virtually everywhere in N.A. and beyond.
So your Facebook posts, Tweets, emails, websites, searches and everything else you do while connected are available for scrutiny. This is what the panic is all about from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T, et al. These companies have been made to look like they are betraying your privacy. Why? Because their search engines store whatever you search for, and browsers record and store whatever you do on the web. Like where you go. How often, how long you stay there, and perhaps what forms or info you pass into that website. All browsers do it and it remains on their servers.

Is there any hope of keeping your web thoughts and travels private? Maybe a little. So to get back to the settings feature of the Chrome web browser, and others, you CAN change a few settings so the movement of your info is not under automatic review.

In Chrome,  they want you to sign up and sign in to see your page as do Microsoft and Firefox. By having a home page, your interests are revealed as you set it up. I know, you have nothing to be afraid of, you're not a terrorist. But you can use the speed of Chrome without having a home page. Signing up is the usual process of telling them everything. 

Look at the settings in the Chrome browser - 

Sign in - just don't.
On startup - your choice.
Appearances - do you really need a theme eating up bandwidth? The others are your choice.
Search - now we get critical - You can set your preferred search engine here, from Google, Bing, Yahoo, CNN etc. And under Manage Search Engines, you can add any other search you would like to use. Two that are secure, are ixquick, and DuckDuckGo. To add either of these or others to the mix, you need to put in the correct URL for them. These two search engines, simply do not store your search requests, and should they be asked to reveal them, they have nothing to share with anyone who may be interested.  (in contrast, you may have searched two years ago for something on Google and it could be still there!)
The key to a secure website is the https:// instead of the http://.

Users - this goes to whomever you were when you first downloaded and started the browser. In the case of a PC and Apple, your Microsoft Internet Explorer and Safari were already there, with settings. And you should have lied to begin with. Your true information and identity is NOT necessary for you to surf the web. You COULD delete the present user and do a whole new one. A nom de guerre if you like, a safe pseudonym. (But remember that you do have a unique ISP number) However you can change the default settings in MSIE and Safari easily.
Default browser - up to you, might as well be this one if you are making all these changes. 
Privacy - ah, this is the one, look at those buttons. Content Settings are more about cookies. You could disable the setting of cookies but that would be a hassle and slow down everything. Better to instruct your browser on what to do and the search facility NOT to save anything. 
But the buttons below could betray you too, they are probably already checked. Use a web service to resolve navigation errors, you are basically sending out your search requests to a third party, who then CAN save it somewhere. Same with prediction service and automatically send usage statistic to Google. Really?

I only have Enable phishing and malware protection checked.

Passwords and forms - Wow, did you ever fill out a job application on the web? Mmm juicy information probably still on your ISP server!  (if you have your own domain name, you can go to your host and see the info)
Further down we have HTTPS and SSL. And investigation of this one leads to a part where the words authority and trust are used a lot. Well I never trust authority, so you probably need someone smarter to tell you what these actually do. But keep in mind that the programmers who invented all these inherent programs were only trying to help you have a seamless web experience. Nothing nefarious. It's only that others could use the information too. And do.
Google Cloud Print - Well, it seems to me that the whole idea of so called cloud computing has come under suspicion with the latest revelations on surveillance and monitoring. I can't believe that companies trust their private information outside of their own computers, just to use the newest program updates. And companies must now consider that if leaks to media can happen for ideological reasons, then leaks to other companies can happen for money.
System - UNcheck that first box, that says continue running background apps when browser is closed unless you want your computer still doing stuff even when you're back to your FreeCell game.  

So. You're not a terrorist, you have nothing to hide. You're not in the 80% of web users who surf porn. You have no opinion about HSBC laundering crime money. It's only your crazy Uncle Harry who sent you a note that could incriminate you about believing two planes could crash on the same day without leaving crash evidence. And when you searched for IMDB as the Internet Movie DataBase and you typoed BDSM by mistake, you got out of there right away though, didn't you? Well, didn't you?

Wait, you say you joined facebook a year ago? OMG, forget everything above and just go hide under your bed.  Too late for you.

NSA's Utah data center

And none of this will help you if 'they' come looking for you. Maybe give you enough time to get out the back door and halfway down the lane .... Michael Hastings never had a chance.



Try not to scream, you'll wake all those other people who have nothing to hide and are sleeping peacefully.



 

You need to download any of these and install into your browser -

ixquick safe search 

duckduckgo.com

startpage search 

You need to go here to scare yourself -

NSA cyberspying

Utah spy center

Tell Canada to quit spying on you! Sign here ...

secretspying

What is the plan?

When you were not paying attention a couple of years ago. All analog TVs in North America ceased to exist. Your new flat screen TV is incapable of receiving an analog signal. Your local TV station is no longer able to broadcast one. Rabbit ears won't find a program. Everything is cable now, so what's the big deal?

No big deal except that one of the first steps to controlling a whole population is to control all information getting to them. If some nefarious government agency wants to control your every thought and action, it isn't that hard to do if they can manipulate the cable providers' output. By getting rid of the possibility of a television set receiving a signal through the air, they totally eliminate what could happen in a big crunch. 
What's a big crunch? It's when a shadow government finally makes itself known by an action, like a coup, and tells you what you are going to do and why it is good for your own protection. They use a Bogey man to scare you. Terrorists.
The government has been doing this since 9/11. (example of a prearranged message is the British newsgirl reporting on the fall of WT7 when it was still standing right behind her in the shot!) To keep the people safe, they say, against Saddam, and then Bin Laden, and now al Qaeda. Your own government, at this moment, is eavesdropping on every single email, telephone conversation and text message within North America under the pretense of keeping you safe. Anyone who pays attention might begin to wonder just who the terrorists really are.

If the whole of North America is in a turmoil, by that I mean a state of panic and perhaps Martial Law, maybe because of a false flag operation, there will be no one who could set up an independent broadcast to tell you what is really happening. You will be fed messages and images through your cable TV system to show you that there is nothing to worry about. And yes the web will be just like the TV information, controlled and directed by only a few cable service providers passing on prearranged news bulletins. 

For years now we have had Homeland Security monitoring the web, under the guise of preventing terrorism, to keep you safe. The Patriot Act forbids your ISP from even telling you that you have been targeted for surveillance! But every message sent within North America can be read and red-flagged by a government agency. And every TV could be fed a program intended to set your mind at ease while certain things happen.

So in the future scary world, there won't be a movie where the rebels set up their own broadcasts to urge the people to rise up against tyranny, because there will not be a TV set that could capture that signal. You will simply get a message through your cable provider that tells you to stay in your home until the terrorist threat is neutralized. There might be police patrolling with loudspeakers. Those ominous buzzing black choppers overhead, with thermal imaging cameras. Army personal with weapons on the street corners. Curfews. City passports. East Berlin mentality.

It is already known exactly who you are, what your political thoughts are, exactly what you look like, compliments of Facebook, and what color your front door is, compliments of Google Street View. (Which gives your latitude and longitude right now to minutes and seconds and elevation!) And it won't be a polite knock, it will be a swat-like team battering down your door and slinging you into a black van while your kids scream in terror. Kick and yell all you want, that is the image they want your neighbors to see and hear too. They'll stay nice and quiet while the thought dawns on them that it may be too late for them as well. Be nice lil' people and don't talk.

So now we have a new internet protocol shaping up, where the content will again be carefully monitored. Search words set off alarms now! To prevent terrorists from operating within Fortress America. You'll be safe. Go to work tomorrow. Be productive. Don't think. Delete your facebook account? Haha, way too late for that. With all the cross-referencing, they'll know exactly where to find you. Perhaps the only temporarily safe ones are those survivalists hiding in beaver lodges in the woods. And maybe a few gun advocates who have basements full of weapons and ammo.

But how long those gun folk can hold out and can they actually threaten authority? You saw it at Jonestown with the FBI raid. When they want you gone you'll be gone. No handgun or even a Bushmaster is a threat against Rocket Propelled Grenades and fire bombs. Yes, they are those same guys you hated because they wanted to retain their AK47s and AR15s. And all that practice the private contractors are doing in the Middle East with tactical weapons will come to the fore. Depleted uranium bullets disintegrate you. Cremation powder is all that remains. No DNA, no evidence you ever existed. Try searching 'depleted uranium' on YouTube and see what happens.

Blackwater  =  Xe  =  Academi

Who will take charge?  Blackwater who control a private army changed their name to Xe, then recently changed it again, to, would you believe, Academi. Woo. Less menacing, sort of sounds like a wholesome university group, how innocent they must be, yet the mercenaries charged with following whatever rules are in effect are no less scary. Blackwater was kicked out of Iraq for controversial killings of 17 civilians. You saw the start of their role in domestic society during Hurricane Katrina, when they prevented families escaping to safety at gunpoint. FEMA was in charge. Google that too.  Academi, as Blackwater or Xe, have provided more than 60 thousand protective missions around the world. And they don't ask questions first!


The only question remaining is if a shadow government stealth movement takes control of North American society without interference from real armed forces sworn to uphold the law, who will protect you? You saw how confusion reigned during 9/11. The greatest defense system the world has ever seen was totally overwhelmed by four small groups who stole airplanes and not a single air defense squadron lifted into the skies to protect you! 
Well I lied, it's not the only question remaining, there are thousands more, like why did the Social Security Administration order 750,000 rounds of hollow point bullets? And why does the Department of Homeland Security need 750 MILLION rounds of hollow points? One can only speculate what they are going to kill with that kind of lethal weaponry. (hollow point bullets kill because they expand and fragment within your body, tearing apart your organs) And I think a lot of law abiding policemen and honest US troops are wondering and trembling with the thought of exactly who they are to be used on?

The Second Amendment. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was meant as a final check for a government that grows out of control. Thomas Jefferson said it simply; "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."

Will real police and army forces who respect the law and the US constitution actually attack or kill their own citizens? That remains to be seen, and may be the ultimate jigsaw piece. A new 'rebel alliance' may only have Ham radio or smoke signals to communicate. The original Minutemen are disbanded, the new ones are just old rednecks concerned with border sneaking Mexicans. 
Will you be heading to your neighbor's farm house for protection? Or into the hills? Can you trust the NRA? Who will be on your side?

Will you continue to scoff at the warnings or begin paying attention? Maybe you should be asking questions now? Is what you are being told good enough? There might be no later.

Meanwhile, you might want to check out Ted Nugent and force yourself to like him. Some think he won't want to be controlled either. He might be on your side. 

Worse still, you might WANT him on your side.

Apple emerging as an arm of the FBI?

We all know now that the system installed in Apple iPhones called SIRI is suspect by a number of organizations, including IBM which has banned it from their networks. The reason? Siri ships everything you say to Her to a data center in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to all of your Siri launched searches, email messages and inappropriate jokes disappears into a virtual black box. With your reality name on it. 

Apple's iPhone Software Licence Agreement spells this out: "When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text." Siri collects a bunch of other information too; names of people from your address book and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job. How long does Apple store this now plain-text information? And who gets a look at it? 

The company doesn't actually say. But again, from the user agreement: "By using Siri or Dictation, you agree and consent to Apple's and its subsidiaries' and agents' transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of this information, including your voice input and User Data, to provide and improve Siri, Dictation, and other Apple products and services."  Subsidiaries and Agents? Who ARE these agents? The DEA? NSA? CIA? FBI? Homeland Security? Fema? Private corporations? Your high-tech brother-in-law?

Well, if I am paranoid then so are a lot of other legitimate companies in the technology business besides IBM.  
Because some of the data that Siri collects can be very personal, the American Civil Liberties Union put out a warning about Siri just a couple of months ago. For corporate users, there are even more potential pitfalls, like having it known that you're at a certain customer's location might be in violation of a non-disclosure agreement, and of interest to spying competitors. Or your boss. Or anyone else who happens to perk and have interest in where you go and what you do there.
So if you are telling Siri where you want to go, your iPhone is not only storing that info, but the GPS info showing how you got there and how long you stayed!

Now a BC woman is suing Apple because she says the installed GPS system tracks you even when your iPhone is turned OFF! Then it updates periodically and sends that info to Apple including where you have been!  You can be back-tracked from D to C to B to A!
Your iPhone 4 contains location data, going back approximately one year, which is now easily accessible using free tools readily available on the internet. And it is revealed that a simple black box which fits into an attache case, can access all this info to track you exactly. By masquerading and behaving as a cell tower. It doesn't even have to ask you for it, your phone sends it automatically! The police are already using this technology but it is available to anyone! 

Well now the, I've got nothing to hide, wigglies come out. I've done nothing wrong, they argue, laughing at your paranoia. But perhaps they haven't been exposed to an zealous investigator who only needs to know YOU attended that same Bible Camp that John Wayne Gacy went to or coached childrens' football in Pennsylvania, or sent a humorous email message through Siri about marijuana to your friend who smokes it but you don't. And that friend happened to be in Mexico when you sent the joke! Perk!

This doesn't mean that Google, Samsung, Microsoft et al aren't building in the same technology to their systems and that your ISP isn't telling on you. But it means the technology is there to listen, record geographic co-ordinates and the time stamp to track everything you do, have done, when you done it and even anticipate what you MIGHT do. Yes, that techno is coming too.

It might mean that you shouldn't visit that favorite used book store anymore, because of the Mexican drug dealer hanging in the next doorway, and that the store is now run by an Iranian immigrant, and you'd better not be carrying your iPhone when you go there. Not to mention the fact that if you're reading a real life paper-paged book that doesn't let them know what you are reading is suspicious already!  A SWAT team could crash in as soon as you pick up that antique issue of Lady Chatterly's Lover.  

OMG, the scandal of it all. Drugs, foreign intrigue with terror implications, secretive actions and sex too!

And now you're in GITMO still dazed and shackled, dressed in orange while the interrogators try to figure out the jargon codes used in your iPhone transmission when your wife asked you to bring the 'bread' home.

There's no 'bored' in waterboard.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/04/iphone-tracking-do-you-trust-apple-with-your-location.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/30/bc-apple-location-lawsuit.html?cmp=rss

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/23/tech/mobile/ibm-siri-ban/index.html

Suspicions confirmed?

Soon to be conspiracy theory confirmed? Do certain agencies need to destroy RIM to get its patents?
A new article from Reuters feeds a little more information to us about the threat RIM presents to spy agencies, including Homeland Security et al.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/29/us-rim-options-idUSBRE85S04J20120629

The idea, is that RIM being a Canadian company with products using its own operating system, accessed from its own world-wide network, using unbreakable encryption, is a threat to spy agencies that want to do their usual spying, that is of course, as they are doing now; to hear everything you say while making a cell call, and read every email and see every photo you send from that smart-phone.

from Reuters -
One of the options for RIM is to abandon its own operating system and adopt Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had approached RIM in recent months, looking to strike a partnership similar to the one the software giant has with Nokia Oyj. Under that partnership, Nokia will use Microsoft's latest Windows operating system on its smartphones.
 
 The suspicion of course, is that Microsoft, having sold out years ago to the US Government, (read #2 below) wants to help their controllers get rid of RIM's encrypted operating system and replace it with one more friendly to surveillance by governments. Like Windows 8.

Reuters again -
RIM could also look for Microsoft to buy a stake in the company and fund marketing and other expenses, the sources said. However, this option is not attractive to RIM because it would mean the end of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's technology independence, they said.

Yes, an end to unspyable software. And here is the real clue -

the meat -
Microsoft could also be interested in RIM's wireless patents, the sources said.

In our opinion,  there has been a world wide effort to sink RIM or at the least, get it under the control of Microsoft. Where all its hardware and software can be manipulated by certain factions of the FBI, NSA and CIA. As all of Microsoft's Operating systems now are. Remember after the Bill Gates Microsoft meeting with US Officials how that unique number was added to all computers running Windows? And there was an outcry? And it was then made turn-off-able. But they left the unique number of your hard drive there anyway. As if any spy agency needs it anymore with Facebook funneling your information straight into a cross referencing database.
And Microsoft Windows and Android are not alone. Apple owners using SIRI send every call through a central conversion house to make it text. Readable by whomever.

Canadian icon RIM is desperately trying to hold on and recover from its problems, however, when you have this much trouble, fomented by organizations secretly working against you, it will be very hard to do. And shareholders clamoring to feed their greed doesn't help either.

Jim Flaherty, Canada's Finance Minister has refused to be drawn into whether the United States has expressed any reservations about possible bids from outside North America, given the importance of RIM to communications security. The Pentagon is RIM's biggest customer.

That oughta tell you all you need to know about RIM's true value.




1 - Check our previous suspicions from this blog post about RIM  - - -
http://bitchesnbelches.blogspot.ca/2011/10/researching-motion.html

2 - And check out our how Microsoft fits into our conspiracy ideas - - -
 http://bitchesnbelches.blogspot.ca/2010/03/conspiracy-theory-3-microsoft.html

You really need to read this

Take some time, don't skip, read it all. Try not to cry.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/03/9808600-7-signs-were-living-in-the-post-privacy-era#.TwR_MqVEVBI.twitter

Microsoft buys Skype

What is Skype? This is what Skype says about itself - - - Skype is for doing things together, whenever you’re apart. Skype’s text, voice and video make it simple to share experiences with the people that matter to you, wherever they are. - - -
Skype has a free download version.

So what you can do, is get a phone number of your friend, wherever they are, then you start the program, click stuff and contact your friend. They can be across town, in Florida, or Nairobi and you suddenly can text talk, voice talk and SEE them live and in living colour!
Wonderful program for Grandmas contacting their grandchildren, or offices doing impromptu sessions about their contracts, or anyone else who wants a live contact look.

So here we go again with my slant on it. First you might want to review some of my previous posts about Microsoft, and the reasons I believe they are beholden to the CIA, NSA or Homeland Security. Once you digest that, you'll either go away shaking your head or begin to realize the same things that these watcher agencies would love: an in with Skype.

It is believed that Microsoft may include Skype with Windows 8.
Having it built into their operating system means they can tinker however they like with the intricacies of the program, meaning what it does and how it does it. Perhaps even when it does it.
Imagine Skype being controlled or reporting to 'someone' what it sees from the top of YOUR computer? A spy master's treasure trove. An intrepid innovation.

Lends another aspect to big brother watching you, doesn't it? Who needs a satellite looking down at you and seeing your rooftop when the watcher can be right inside your house!
Hmm.

Yikes.

UPDATE: Was I right or was I right? Today, May 27, it was just announced that a recent 'glitch' on Skype has been fixed! And even though you have not been able to use it for a few days, you can now download the updated 'fixed' software version and get right back on!
Skype blames overloaded 'supernodes' for the failures, and says they are fixing them, trying to reassure you that hackers were not responsible for the downtime. Right, always blame hackers. Concentrate your attention on the imagined bad guys so you don't notice the real bad guys at work.

Is this a suspicion confirmed? So Microsoft buys Skype, shuts it down while they and/or the US Government Sneak Department installs new spyware, then you load the update that could make your webcam record you in your home without turning on your little light.
Wonderful.

Will we need to turn off the lights and whisper within our own homes soon? Will this KGB like intrusion become the Stasi or the Tonton Macoutes one day?
We need to go back to the woodshed days when we had a place to talk privately. Or Tony Soprano's basement.

Here is the link -
http://www.pcworld.com/article/228880/skype_glitch_fixed_no_big_deal.html#tk.rss_news

Meanwhile, they're saying the Skype system is a little slow right now. Could that be because it is classifying and organizing the 25 million subscribers at the moment? Perhaps with face recognition software after taking all your pictures?

Paranoid? You tell me.

Spy Machine.

Julian Assange, in a recent interview, said facebook was a spy machine.
But of course you knew that when you signed up and revealed almost everything about yourself. Didn't you. Didn't you?

Assange believes - Facebook [sic] is a giant database of names and records about people, maintained voluntarily by its users but developed for U.S. intelligence to use. “Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies, and building this database for them,” Assange said.
While Assange doesn’t claim that Facebook is actually run by U.S. intelligence agencies, the fact that they have access to its records is — in his view — dangerous enough.

Well, you signed up. And filled out a profile, telling all about yourself.
Your place of work. Your DOB, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, which ALL police forces use for ID. Who your Mom and Dad are. Who Grandma is. You even entered in the maiden name of your Mom! Maybe what your first dog's name was. Where you live, work and play. What you like, perhaps that you like murder mysteries in your reading and movie preferences. That you still like Bob Dylan protest music. And under Philosophy, innocently tucked into the list, your religion and political views.
And then you put a nice clear picture of yourself up for all to see.

Then you started looking for your friends, close and long lost. And in doing that you gave facebook the actual PASSWORD to your email account. So they could get and use the names of all your contacts on that account. Friends, family, employers, business accounts. To help YOU of course.
Wow, cross referencing in the extreme.
And not only that, they can still access your email to see what you are sending to whom right now!

So if that buddy in high school, (remember Freddy that you thought was so funny at fourteen) had grown up and his third cousin on his uncle's side became a grandma killer, YOU are now associated with him. Remember, you typed HIS name into a search and found Freddy. And you asked him to be a friend.
And lo and behold, Freddy responded back to you and befriended you all over again! And he had a friend, who has a friend. And that third cousin is also in HIS database, from a prison cell. But of course you don't know that. And anyone looking at these kinds of records would KNOW that YOU are no grandma killer.
You love your grandma.

But wait. We assumed that a human would just look at these things and say it was only George looking for Freddy. They have nothing to do with creepy murderous cousin. But of course it is NOT a human surveilling you. Only a computer that constantly adds information to the database. That only searches for keywords and names. The computer that links you with murderers, thieves and highwaymen! And your picture. Nice head shot. Perfect for face recognition software to memorize.
Did you know that if you go to the big game, buy your tickets from a scalper when you get there, enter the gates, your face can be recognized going in. You are NOT anonymous. And even if you snapped a quickie from your built-in webcam, you allowed facebook to access the camera. But didn't set a NO access after the pic. You see how sneaky these things are? And it IS possible to hack into your puter and turn OFF the light that tells you your camera is active. Sorry if this is disturbing. Lends a whole new meaning to 'big brother is watching', doesn't it?

We all know that any social media, any ISP host, information storage, cloud storage, or any other databased web storage is subject to the Patriot Act and the scrutiny of Homeland Security. And here is the good part for the spyers: by law you cannot be told you are being watched. So any dark agency of the government or secret cell of the CIA can simply click in to everything you do on facebook, and record your entries, comments, opinions, private emails, and personal info. Anytime.

Too late. It isn't a reasonable logical sympathetic human being watching you. Only a computer that is building a labyrinth of webbing items about you. Damning contacts made up of those triggered keywords and alarmed phrases. Red flags to your personality. Betraying keystrokes.
This goes way beyond just recording your ISP number or the unique serial number of your hard drive. The conclusions of you being monitored by facebook are endless and dangerous.

What about Julian Assange? There is talk of charging him with treason in the US. Of course he is Australian, in Britain and he has yet to go to Sweden, but let's not let nationality into it.
Or truth.
They are watching you. You can't watch them.

http://mashable.com/2011/05/02/julian-assange-facebook-spy-machine/