V.T. Eric Layton Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 ... and most everything else on the Internet. EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security: Media Monitoring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Hurrah 1984 has arrived Burn the books burn the books the state is god bless the state :worthy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Why is this a problem? Why shouldn't the government look at *public* information and try to understand the general feelings of the public? Nothing here suggests that they are digging into information that you make private. Besides, aren't your tweets owned by Twitter? It's their servers after all...... Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Twitter has none of my tweets. And as far as it being wrong... do you mean legally, morally, or what? Personally, I just find this type of behavior by BIG BRO to be... well, disturbing. Sure, people will counter with that same old response, "Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." Uh-huh. My garbage is public domain once I put it out by the curb, but I would be seriously disturbed to see men-in-black out there every day sifting through it. Anywho... this surveillance of the common people with intrusive technology and other methods in the name of nat'l security, crime prevention, illegal alien search, illegal drug tracking, etc. is all getting to be just a bit much. I guess the simple world of my childhood, where people were trusted to be basically good, is gone forever. Now BIG BRO knows everything that's best for us and watches over each of us day and night to make sure that we live safe and secure lives as fat, ignorant, and harmless sheeple. /rant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Twitter has none of my tweets. Exactly. That way, the DHS can't get their hands on them...... And I think that this is really the crucial point in this whole debate. We are using services (well, not all of us, right, Eric?) that are free. The services are owned and operated by companies that may or may not have our best interests at heart. Almost all of the time, the services exist to get you to look at ads targeted at you. After all, if you follow the money, you know what kind of business these guys are running. Tweets are just like many posts on any social media site. I want to be very broad here, because blog posts are also social media, as are forum posts. This is now public information, accessible by all. Why would anyone be surprised that the DHS might want to scrape it to look at trends? Why would anyone be surprised that Google wants to crawl the site looking for information to put into their massive database? Again, this information is public! I trust no one online. I assume that anything I post will turn out to be public information. Leo Laporte says it best... "If you don't want the thing you are posting to show up on the fron page of the New York Times, then *don't* post it at all." This is very simple advice and easy to understand. Just search my user name online. you will find all kinds of info about me. However, it is information I *chose* to be public. None of it is anything I am embarrassed to have online. Can you probably figure out lots of interesting bits about me? Sure! However, I do not expect anything I post to be truly private. It is not like I am writing in my diary and stashing it under my mattress! That info I epect to remain private! End rant. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Yup. All you say is true. I remember reading on some USENET newsgroup years ago that anything you post, upload, or whatever to the Internet is there FOREVER. Somewhere, on some inactive server drive, on some node in Bangladesh, items I posted on that old newsgroup are still in existence... a dozen years later. You can find out a heckuva lot about V. T. Eric Layton, Nocturnal Slacker, or vtel57 just by searching on any decent search engine. I couldn't care less. The Internet has made us all minor rock stars. Heh! I'm not very interesting. I doubt anyone is trolling my data. Besides, I haven't seen an ad online in ten years or more. And you're right about following the money. The capitalists have taken over the Internet. It wasn't meant to be this way in the beginning. Ah well, blame it on the porn sites. They were the first ones to actually make money online; bless their greedy little hearts. Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon since. Google has mastered the art of making money on raw data. Whoda' thunk it ten years ago? I need to get in on some of this Internet money-making going on. I WANT MY PIECE OF THE PIE! /rant rebuttal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Why is this a problem? Why shouldn't the government look at *public* information and try to understand the general feelings of the public? Adam The program would be executed, in part, by individuals who established fictitious usernames and passwords to create covert social media profiles to spy on other users. That is why it is disturbing. If they had nothing to hide by gathering the information why are they no tdoing it in the open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Oh, I missed that line. Hmm.... I have a bunch of folks following me on twitter, and I think many of them are spam accounts. I could be wrong, but I don't think Jemima Bottoms is a real person. Certainly, the DHS could have one of those accounts, but my tweets are all public and mostly boring. Now Facebook is another matter. Unless I approve you as a friend you are not going to see my info. I know some people blindly friend people they don't know, but I am not one of those people. Even then, I don't expect my information and posts to be private forever. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Oh, I missed that line. Hmm.... I have a bunch of folks following me on twitter, and I think many of them are spam accounts. I could be wrong, but I don't think Jemima Bottoms is a real person. Certainly, the DHS could have one of those accounts, but my tweets are all public and mostly boring. Now Facebook is another matter. Unless I approve you as a friend you are not going to see my info. I know some people blindly friend people they don't know, but I am not one of those people. Even then, I don't expect my information and posts to be private forever. Adam Well anyone can read your posts on Facebook as well: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/latest-gadge...thout-friending You can use the Subscribe button to see public updates from people with whom you aren't friends but are interested in, like musicians, artists, actors and political figures. This works similarly to following someone on Twitter or being in someone's circle on Google+. If you see the Subscribe button on someone's profile page you can just click the button to receive their updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 (edited) Oh, I missed that line. Hmm.... I have a bunch of folks following me on twitter, and I think many of them are spam accounts. I could be wrong, but I don't think Jemima Bottoms is a real person. Certainly, the DHS could have one of those accounts, but my tweets are all public and mostly boring. Now Facebook is another matter. Unless I approve you as a friend you are not going to see my info. I know some people blindly friend people they don't know, but I am not one of those people. Even then, I don't expect my information and posts to be private forever. Adam I'm with you, Adam. Having the govt see and research what I post online doesn't bother me at all. What does bother me is the govt using taxpayer money to brain wash the public via this "social media". Read this article. As to Google giving my browsing preferences to Ad co.s, I'd rather see ads relating to things I might be interested in than just be spammed in general. And to think that you don't see ads on a regular basis, no matter what filters you use, is naive. Every time you visit this forum, there are ads at the top of the page. I've never purchased a product from one of those ads, but they're there. In fact, look at Eric's posts. He advertises Slack and Arch in every one of them. Edited March 2, 2012 by lewmur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Every time you visit this forum, there are ads at the top of the page. I've never purchased a product from one of those ads, but they're there. I do not see any ads at the top of this forum, of course I use adblockplus on both Iron and Firefox. Yes, they are there but if you choose, you do not have to see them. I have not seen an ad here for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 In fact, look at Eric's posts. He advertises Slack and Arch in every one of them. Yeah, but what I advertise is free... as in beer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Yup. All you say is true. I remember reading on some USENET newsgroup years ago that anything you post, upload, or whatever to the Internet is there FOREVER. Somewhere, on some inactive server drive, on some node in Bangladesh, items I posted on that old newsgroup are still in existence... a dozen years later. You can find out a heckuva lot about V. T. Eric Layton, Nocturnal Slacker, or vtel57 just by searching on any decent search engine. I couldn't care less. The Internet has made us all minor rock stars. Heh! I'm not very interesting. I doubt anyone is trolling my data. Besides, I haven't seen an ad online in ten years or more. And you're right about following the money. The capitalists have taken over the Internet. It wasn't meant to be this way in the beginning. Ah well, blame it on the porn sites. They were the first ones to actually make money online; bless their greedy little hearts. Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon since. Google has mastered the art of making money on raw data. Whoda' thunk it ten years ago? I need to get in on some of this Internet money-making going on. I WANT MY PIECE OF THE PIE! /rant rebuttal /rebuttal You might have no concern about your name showing up in posts from the last century but I do. My real name was used in several in a very not nice manner by someone not me. And the official keeper of the Usenet posts , Google, won't fix the situation. The first people to use the Usenet to make money were not porn business related, they were our old dear friends the mass marketers. Despite claims by various people, companies and sites - accurately and inaccurately quoted - the Internet was not invented. A confluence of protocols, communication needs and bored people got mishmashed together resulting in this tangle presently called 'Internet'. rebuttal/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Who ever said that V. T. Eric Layton was my real name? *wink-wink* Shhhhh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Yeah, but what I advertise is free... as in beer. I do some ad blocking, but I find if I batten the hatches too tight, I miss a lot of stuff I want to see. What bothers me a whole lot more than ads is all of the stinking video clips on news sites. I see something I think I'll find interest but instead of something I can read in a few seconds, I get a video clip, with an ad you have to watch first, that takes several minutes. And even ad block + doesn't block those ads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil P Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Well anyone can read your posts on Facebook as well: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/latest-gadge...thout-friending No, because 1)allowing subscribers is opt-in and 2)even if you allow them they still only see posts you make public, which all of your posts should be friends only. I actually don't know if they default to public or friends only, but it's easy to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 No, because 1)allowing subscribers is opt-in and 2)even if you allow them they still only see posts you make public, which all of your posts should be friends only. I actually don't know if they default to public or friends only, but it's easy to change. It's not like it matters as they sell your info to 3rd parties anyway. Of course you can opt out of that as well, to a certain extent anyway. http://www.journalism.org/print/28272 http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrate...attack-our-data Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Well anyone can read your posts on Facebook as well: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/latest-gadge...thout-friending That is if I make my posts public. My facebook account is pretty locked down, and you won't see a thing unless I specifically allow it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross549 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 It's not like it matters as they sell your info to 3rd parties anyway. Of course you can opt out of that as well, to a certain extent anyway. http://www.journalism.org/print/28272 http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstrate...attack-our-data The key to that is to not use facebook apps. Only the core facebook functionality. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I do some ad blocking, but I find if I batten the hatches too tight, I miss a lot of stuff I want to see. What bothers me a whole lot more than ads is all of the stinking video clips on news sites. I see something I think I'll find interest but instead of something I can read in a few seconds, I get a video clip, with an ad you have to watch first, that takes several minutes. And even ad block + doesn't block those ads. Just one thing to say here. BBC NEWS :hysterical: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Just one thing to say here. BBC NEWS :hysterical: Hmmm!! Think you can get the BBC to cover the news in Hometown, USA?? I kind of doubt it/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Hmmm!! Think you can get the BBC to cover the news in Hometown, USA?? I kind of doubt it/ Yup the beeb cover news everywhere.. BBC live in Hometown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Yup the beeb cover news everywhere.. BBC live in Hometown That link led to a page that was last updated in January 2005. I like my news a little more current than that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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