Things you SHOULD be aware of when posting/chatting or texting anywhere on the Internet - YOU HAVE NO PRIVACY

We do not have any privacy.
That's a fact. Right now, even as we are sitting here reading this, the governments of the world are hoovering up all of our phonecalls, chats, texts, emails, downloading information etc... and storing it at massive facilities that have been constructed to allow them these billions of terrabytes of collected data. Some people say "if you have done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to fear" -- But the fact is, this kind of information can later be used against you if you ever decide to be "problematic" to a tyrannical regime. And the big problem is, we have no idea where the future is heading and just how tyrannical the governments of the world are going to get. Of course, by law Governments do not have the authority (in most western nations) to spy upon it's own citizens like this... but the fact is, they easily circumvent such laws by swapping with other nation states in the "5 eyes" system.

It was almost 2 decades ago that a friend of mine who was a charter member of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, asked me as an activist if there was anything in my past that I would not like to see broadcast to the world... like any phoncall I had made, or text I had sent, or discussion I had been involved in on this old messaging system called USENET. At that time he was involved in the setting up a CO--LO datahaven on the principality of Sealand off the coast of Great Britain on an oil platform. At that time this project was featured on the Front Page of Wired Magazine. It was kind of a big deal. Anyways -- he told me that this kind of spying was in fact going on, especially for any people who were effective activists. I had not had a whole lot of time to think about his question, but when I said "truthfully - no... there's nothing I would be ashamed or embarrassed by" -- I was only thinking of sex or sexting or talking over the phone about sex. Call me an old fashioned prude but I don't disscus sexual things with anybody except the person I am sexually involve with. Nonetheless, my friend cautioned me about having even political discussions online.

It was also right around this time that the movie "Enemy of the State" came out. I highly recommend anybody watching that film, because it documented just how sophisticated the Nation States were about snooping on people. I had been a driver for the actor Michael Moriarty for 4 months that summer and he told me this based on his own knowledge about hollywood... That what they portray on TV and in FILM is about a decade behind their actual capabillities. And so, I decided to stop spending a whole lot of my time talking about private things online in any fashion

Then came Sept 11. I can't tell you just how many good and decent people I know who simply stopped communicating online at all after Sept 11. The media had whipped people up into such a frenzy about this "Global War on Terror" -- that for a good 2 years anybody even questioning the narrative (or asking questions about the Saudi Arabia connection) was asking for serious spying and attention from law enforcement.

It was also this time that the Carnivore program was being implemented. If you don't know what Carnivore is (or the system it got upgraded to) I suggest you head on over to google it on wikipedia.

The fact of the matter is -- EVERYTHING we do online is transparent to some people if they really want to know what you are doing, what you are saying and even what you are seeing when you are at your computer and looking at your screen.

I thought that everybody understood this after Rand Paul was asked the question about domestic spying by Intelligence and law enforcement and so as to not break any laws he said "gazillions of people" were being surveilled by the State and all of this kind of information data that had been collected and stored could be trolled through by organs/apparatus of the State to look for incriminating or embarrasing info.

It was also around this time that a friend of mine was threatned with extortion/blackmail by the RCMP. He was friends with David Basi and Bobby Virk who were involved in some big scandal involving the sale of BC Rail to a private company. My friend (despite my warning him about this) liked to have "dirty talk" conversations with women who were not his wife. Because he was friends with Basi and Virk, his information was picked up and they were able to listen in on his conversations with various people. They threatened to expose these conversations to his wife... and they showed him transcripts of his phonecalls with these women.

A few years ago I witnessed a man beating on a woman here in Victoria. I ran home when I saw this and called 911 to get police assistance. My husband went running up to see if he could stop the violent behavior towards that woman herself. When I spoke to the police they asked me if my husband had a cell phone. When I said "yes he does -- but the cell phone is never turned on" they said that's fine. They just needed to know the number. I kept protesting that the call would not work, because the cellphone was never on. They just kept insisting that they needed the number. So I gave it to them. Their weird response to my questions about why a turned off cellphone would be helpful for them if they were going to assist...really made me wonder about why. When I learned that ALL cellphones could be used by the police to listen in on conversations, even if they were turned off... and in some cases, even when the battery was out of them, suddenly it made sense.

I do not write about these things to alarm anybody. It's just something prudent to think about. This is one reason why I don't like having what seem to be "private chats" or "direct messages" on the internet. People tend to say things that they believe are private and can never be heard or retrieved. I just don't believe that's true... especially for anybody who is into crypto-currencies or is an effective activist for human rights in tyrannical countries... Or who may have aroused suspicion about anything for simply showing up out of even curiosity at a protest or an event that is political in nature.

I see people assuming all the time that they have privacy... and It's hard to explain all of this without sounding a bit like a nut. But that's exactly what people are being conditioned to believe. Edward Snowden worked for the NSA for years. He knew exactly the powers of surveillance that existed for members of the NSA to spy and listen in on people. When he was on the run, even when he was in remote places, he kept silent because he knew that with the sophisticated voice recognition software that the NSA has, that he could be tracked down, just for speaking out loud.

Yes... they have THAT capacity... to listen in.
In addition to that, the major tech companies of the world are installing software that is being used to figure out which user was using the computer at the time that a message or text or email was being sent. They are developing software that is capable of discerning who is using the device you are on to access the internet by matching the digital fingerprint of the way you, as a user manipulate your mouse, and keyboard. There are also sophisticated algorythms that allow them to match your writing to you if you send out enough text to be analyzed.

So what's to be done?

1. Try to find a way to live without a smartphone iphone or address
2. Be prepared that anything you say online can and may be used against you in the future.
3. NEVER NEVER NEVER say anything to anybody online that could be used to extort or blackmail you with by unscrupulous hackers or government agents.
4. Do not ever get lulled into a false sense of security. There is no privacy security on line.

That is all -- I hope that this message has been helpful.