The yokes on you (Red or Blue)

Well, I thought I might be finished with my little lectures on personal security, but I think I need to say a little more on the topic.

As a recap, we all know about our personal security that has been compromised by various NSA programs, a point that has outraged most people that are paying attention. The fact that this has been going on for a while has just come to light thanks to our friend Mr. Snowden, but the fact of the matter is, our elected officials have known about these programs for a fair amount of time. I mean, even if you just read Wired magazine, when you see a story about the NSA building a new, very large facility out West, what would you conclude?

So, we can complain about these programs and the result will be nothing. The NSA will continue these programs, just as all government programs, when started, are practically impossible to stop. I’m not saying we should not try to have these programs scaled back to their original scope, I’m just saying we shouldn’t count on it. So what to do?

Protect your personal data yourself, not only from the NSA, but from all the corporations that are collecting even more personal information about you than the government is collecting!

Here are some steps you can take to protect yourself from the government and corporations.

• Stop using ‘preferred customer’ cards. I know this will be a hard one for most, but if you are serious about saving money, take the time and use coupons. 
• Turn off the WIFI feature on your phone. Set your phone to manually search for WIFI so if you want to connect, you will have to do it manually, but your phone won’t constantly be sending out pings to find a network to connect to. This will keep you from being traced and will save battery life.
• Get an encryption app for your phone. Depending on your phones OS, you can find a few apps that will encrypt your calls, texts and emails. 
• Use a proxy server for internet browsing. It will most likely slow your browser down a bit, especially on older computers, but this will ensure that your web traffic is less traceable, and in a lot of cases, untraceable. 
•  Stop using free email programs like Gmail, Hotmail, etc. and start using one that has native encryption, or start using PGP encryption. In a lot of cases this is a hassle (thus why more of us don’t use it), but if you want to ensure your emails are not being read, etc, then this is the way to go.

I know this sounds like a lot of cumbersome and sometimes high-tech stuff, but if you do your research, it’s really not that bad, but it does take effort and vigilance. So while you’re raising your concerns about 4^th amendment violations on Twitter, Facebook, etc, just keep in mind that you have some responsibility to make sure your data is secure. No one else is going to do this for you, this is your responsibility, and it’s no different than having the tools to protect your personal property. You have locks on your doors, maybe an alarm system and perhaps some firearms to defend your home, so why not protect your personal data in the same persistent manner?

“You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth – nothing more.” - Morpheus

Dot Matrix: Dots, dots and more dots…

Since the breaking of the NSA’s PRISM program, there has been a lot of talk about ‘dots’, or data points to be more precise, but what are these dots and what do they mean to you?

In my last few articles I discussed how giving your personal information away for a little bit of gain is a bad idea. But, it seems that these same stores that we willingly hand over our personal data, could be involved in the exact same practices as the NSA and this program is not an opt-in system.

Let me explain.

Some of the same companies that ask you to give them your personal information in exchange for a ‘reward’ could be tapping into your cell phone the minute (or before) you walk in their store. You see, most modern cell phones constantly search for a Wi-Fi access point to connect to as you are moving around through your daily life. Your smart phone sends out a ping every so often waiting for a reply from a Wi-Fi hotspot. This ping contains the mac address of your phone, thereby, using available technology, they are able to locate your position in their store so they can track what aisle you’re on, how long you are at a particular position, pretty much tracing every move you make throughout your entire trip through their store.

This practice is very close to the metadata that the NSA is collecting on practically everyone in the country, except that these are private corporations collecting this data without your permission. Those pesky little dots… This information is collected in real time and normally sent to a cloud server to be processed and analyzed. The developers that sell these services advertise ease of installation, accurate data collection and reporting, just what corporations are looking for to gain a competitive edge in today’s tightening economy. Anything to gain an edge, and you don’t even have to sign up for it, it comes free of charge just for shopping in their store.

Now the companies that are collecting this data are not collecting personal information from you, as, from what I understand, obtaining you mac address does not give them any more information other than you location in their store, so no number, no name, nothing really. But, make no mistake, you are being tracked and it’s just a matter of time before someone will figure out how to delve deeper into this data to make it even more meaningful.

Just as a thought, consider this; if they can track you by your mac address, then they could possibly extrapolate what you might be purchasing, they could also possibly know when you are in the checkout line and, if they know that (as long as the positing system is accurate), they could possibly time stamp your location versus the person checking out, thereby, connecting the dots. Now this is just my conjecture, but there are a lot of smart, savvy people out there and where there is opportunity, there is ingenuity. So even if these corporations can claim that they are not collecting personal data during this tracking process, it is theoretically possible to combine the two different systems into one, more intrusive, meaningful dataset. 

As I have said in my last few articles on this subject, it is our responsibility to take control of our personal data to make sure the only people that have access to this data, are the people we specifically grant permission. Security is just not some good locks and a gun, none of those things will protect you from corporations and people that are targeting your personal information, for whatever use they wish.  Take interest in defending yourself in the cyber-world, just as you would the ‘real’ world, which is just as important.

Here is just one of the many companies that provide this service and how they do it:

http://euclidanalytics.com/product/technology/

A really technical, but great analysis of what phones can do:

http://www.beneaththewaves.net/Projects/Motorola_Is_Listening.html

And here is a more in depth story concerning your (our) security:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/29/tomorrows-surveillance/

The 237th of July: or the first fourth, revisited.

Two hundred thirty seven years from the first fourth; where would you say we are today? If we look at the Declaration of Independence, we can see victories and defeats, places where we have held firm and places where we have fallen short from the documents that saved us from tyranny.

From the Preamble: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed”

At the time those words were written our colonies were suffering from many grievances. However, times change and so do the grievances, but this time it’s different, this time it’s not a Crown we’re suffering from, but from our own freely elected officials. We have free elections, we have representation, we have a lot of the devices that our founding fathers didn’t have, but now we are faced with the same problems they faced, a separation from those who make the laws and the people that have to live under these laws.

 It is apparent that the circumstances today aren’t the same as in 1776 and times before, but ‘government creep’ is, in my opinion, much worse.  So how do we handle this similar situation in today’s political climate, before draconian measures are necessary? Obviously we cannot, should not stage a military coup, as just happened in Egypt, but actions need to be taken before it’s too late, but what kind of actions?

Part of what happened on the first Fourth of July, by the blood of men and women who loved liberty, was to give us, We the People, the right to choose our own destiny. Voting is just one way to choose our path and whatever your political leanings, not voting is a slap in the face to the men and woman that gave their lives, not only back then, but every time we have waged war. So just remember, when you are sitting around enjoying the day off, that the ‘reason’ behind that day, this day, was to empower us, We the People, to be in control of our own destiny.

So my question is; are you doing all that you can do to ensure that in the next two hundred thirty seven years we will have the same liberties as we have now, or the same liberties that we earned two hundred thirty seven years ago?

ObamaDataCare: Or, how can you be screwing yourself!

Keeping with the theme about how much data we willingly give away to corporations, let’s connect more dots and see what kind of picture this could potentially paint. I’m going to stick with the grocery store theme, as this will be the crux of my argument.

If you have read my other article, then you know that if you have a customer rewards card, then the store already has a database full of information about you, which updates every time you visit their store. Not only does it keep track of frequency of visits, average amount spent per trip, but also much, much more. For instance, they track the type of cola you purchase, the type of meat you prefer, if you drink alcohol and the amount you drink, if you smoke and how many packs you smoke, and with a little smart programming, they can even map out your personal life, i.e. if you have kids, if you’re single, if you have a dog or cat, pretty much they can make an ‘educated guess’ at what kind of life you lead, based off your purchases.

At this point and time these stores are collecting this data to ‘customize’ your shopping experience, which sounds like a noble goal for a company that is based on retaining you as a customer. But, is it possible that the data the store has compiled could actually be used against you in the near future?

Alright, everyone don your tinfoil hats… Ready?

Now let’s take this to next level. While reading this, please keep in mind that the NSA along with some of the most prominent cellular and internet service providers are already doing something similar to this. No telling how they are doing this legally, it could be a broad interpretation of Title II of the USA Patriot Act (the story being pushed thus far), could be a FISA court ruling, could be just a convenient relationship, or it could be it’s just more economical for these companies to just let the NSA have all this data versus having a legal team to defend every court ruling requesting data. Whatever the case, it’s happening now and, if history has any lesson for us, it will most likely continue until a whole lot of us make a big stink about it.

Now, take that model and switch the ‘players’ around, substitute the Obamacare apparatus for the NSA and the food stores for the cell/internet service providers. If you haven’t already made the connection of how this would work, let’s delve into it a little more.

We already know that your local food store (if you have one of their cards) knows what you’re eating, what you’re drinking, if you’re smoking and much more, so what if the Obamacare apparatus gets some kind of secret court ruling, or, for that matter, a regulatory ruling that they can mine this data to help Obamacare provide you the best healthcare ‘experience’. There are already tens of thousands of medical codes for every aliment under the sun, if you couple that with a citizen’s personal habits, then you’d have a good start at attempting to make people as healthy as they should be.

Just think, if this ‘new’ healthcare system discovered that you were eating a pound of bacon per week and that you have high cholesterol, they could ‘advise’ you, or maybe put you on a ‘program’ to help you start making better decisions in your eating habits. Same thing for smoking, drinking, whatever the system deems might be beneficial to your health.

OK, tinfoil hats off.

I’m not exactly sure what the founding fathers meant when they penned the line ‘promote the general welfare’, but I’m pretty sure this was not what they had in mind!  I believe that a lot of politicians have purposefully tried to substitute, through their rhetoric and the press, the word ‘provide’ in lieu of ‘promote’ which has major implications considering you only changed three letters!

Now of course this seems farfetched, but if you look back in time a little, you’ll find that some of the programs that are ongoing today would have been considered impossible and more especially, improbable years ago. One thing to always keep in mind, especially with progressivism and socialism, is that the people that adhere to these tenants tend to believe that the government is the best way to solve problems and some of these people will do anything to make sure that the greater good comes before the good of the individual.

As always, it will be up to us, We the People to make sure that programs like this never come to fruition. One of the ways we can do this is to start being responsible for our own personal data, which means only sharing this when we absolutely have to. It will make shopping and other online activities slightly more inconvenient, but think about the potential price that all this free data could ultimately cost us.

And here is a more in depth story concerning your (our) security:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/29/tomorrows-surveillance/