Saturday, April 22, 2017

S is for Snowden--Big Brother is Real

Image: Laura Poitras / Praxis Films [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Edward Joseph Snowden, former CIA and NSA computer analyst, leaked classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013, revealing global surveillance programs watching cell phone records and cell phone location, keyscore analysis of things people did on the internet including their email, Google, and Yahoo. Gamers using Second LifeXbox Live and World of Warcraft were monitored as they "attempted to recruit would-be informants from the sites". "The NSA was shown to be tracking the online sexual activity of people they termed "radicalizers" in order to discredit them." They even spied on their own "love interests", businesses like major oil companies, and charities like UNICEF. There was a special budget to pay U.S. technical companies for secret access to their communication networks. And that's just scratching the surface.


After releasing thousands of documents to three journalists in Hong Kong, Snowden went into hiding, eventually ending up in Russia where he was granted asylum through 2020. (Wikipedia)

Do you think about surveillance when you surf the web or while talking on your phone? Do you cover up your electronic devices's camera in case someone's watching? If you haven't seen the film, Snowden, I highly recommend it (once you adjust to Joseph Gordon-Levitt assuming a deep accent, that is.)


10 comments:

  1. No, not really. If I thought I was being spied on I wouldn't ever go on line! I was far more worried when our wonderful government decided to have this year's census on line - the system crashed, of course, but still - and then told us they were going to hang on to our records till the next census, even though they didn't need them for the purposes of the census.

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  2. I sometimes think whether at all I should cover up the camera of my laptop like FB's Zuckerberg. There are somethings we need to take care in this digital world.
    Lot of information & thieves here :)
    Have a great weekend!
    'Simplicity' #AtoZChallenge

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  3. I keep my cameras covered and, with our government willing to let our internet providers sell our data, have gone to using a VPN. Am I paranoid? Maybe. But this was the recommendation of my computer tech guy at work.

    http://sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com/2017/04/s-is-for-summer-constellations-scorpius.html

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  4. I knew about Snowden, but hadn't followed all of the details in the news. This was quite informative. Thanks.

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  5. Amen.
    BigBrudda is watching you.
    But, yet, you know what I say?
    WHO #@!!☆ CARES???
    Wont they croak, too?
    Arent they mortal, too?
    No sentient, human beings
    are above Almighty God.
    So that gives me peace
    they're sinfull mortals
    just like this wee soul...
    but, yet, I know where Im
    going at TheEnd: straight
    to Seventh-Heaven, toots.
    Follow us...

    Would U please help a plethora of King Size, wildchild, rawkuss poetry/wordz which are lookin 4 a home in thy novelty?? Thx. Whew. They're pretty insane. They're bereft of reason. Oi! Blimey! They're bloody PINK spiders!!

    Gotta lotta gobba shrewd, surreal, supersonic, sardonic satires, sassy N savvy elixers N electronic elegance ( ...and palpable nuance) on our YOUTHwitheTRUTH blogs. Wannum? Have'm. N'joym. Gettm outta my hair!!!

    How mucha wanna betcha our sugar-high-mojo, antioxident, hot-shot, full-throttle, pleasure-beyond-measure, fuse-blowin-exploits R a copious madhouse of one lavish bookay D.O.A.? Our proFUSE NRGod who leads U.S. to explosive fairy-tales in the 'one-stop-shop' symphony Upstairs? God's the BigDude, the Owner of ElysianFields, the Grand Prize, the Austere Overdrive, NoPurchaseNecessary: our bombastic tenaCITY on a Hill which'll plant the Seeds 4u2 grow-up to new N greater heights!! Mama mia! Thatsa good pasta!!

    CAUTION: our 22ish, avant-guard, accurately-atrocious, offa-the-reservation-like-Jimmy-Hoffa, metal breadcrumms R sooo out-of-order, toots, they're an intimate wealth of bottomless sophistication. And dats da lethal fak, Jak. Go ahead. Sue me. Yawn. But, yet, here's the perennial KOO D'TAH: who else has actually SEEN the Great Beyond in spirit & lived to tella youse bout the bionic, bloated, brevity-like-earth we're living on?? Yes, earthling, I had an NDE, almost salivating4salvation. So gain altitude, never attitude: death has no intrinsick favorites.

    If Mr. abSUREditty's an ultra-great-reward, and not everyone enters, Q: why is it an excruciating deluge of epic-.357-caliber where the quality's a limitless bulldozer plowin, pushin-your-power-cord with eternal goodies? A: the Prize-A+-TheEnd just gives U.S. moe-curley-graphix 2 VitSee: an explosion-of-extravagance which few R asking 4 anymore! Grrr. They're too concerned withe grotesque sanity of ambivilant piss-ants which swiftly crawl like lemmings to their scorecard, effusive destruction. C'est la guerre.

    THANK GAWWWD!!! the Don has the ebullient BAWLS!!! to do the Manifest Destiny!!! To lead U.S. forward to the White House Upstairs with his SQUARES!!!

    So, break-free, earthling; be like a contraversial outgrowth of incredibly-intoxicating-effusiveness in your zeitgeist to give the ultimate stunning, avant-guard, bareknuckle potency: Wiseabove. Wanna join this useFULL idiot Upstairs 4 the most zany, kooky, X-acto-knife antidotes? Extremely exquisite, explicit endorphins in abundance? Puh-lenty of pulverizingly-tantalizing psychopathic psychosomatics with eXtras? i2i-kick-velocity's-ass-ultra-maximum-rocket-fuel-party-hardy at my pad ya ever encountered without d'New Joisey accent 4 an eternal slew of precarious, magnanimous & primeval absurdities indelibly etched in the granite corridors of eternity with a total-barrage-of-melt-in-thy-mouth 'depth-of-undenial'???

    Make Your Choice  -SAW
    ...cuzz nobody gitts outta here alive, earthling.

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  6. HawrHawr
    If my chilluns git
    abducted by aliens ...?
    What?
    You mean space aliens?
    Dear, all aliens come
    from the Abyss o'Misery.
    All. Of. Them.
    Saint Mike defeated Lucifer,
    thus, he sent Satan down to
    Hell... thus, no other 'being'
    has a RITE to claim U.S.
    without our express consent.

    trustNjesus.
    ALWAYS.
    God bless your indelible souls.
    Meet me Upstairs for a Big-Ol
    beer and we'll tok bout RITEn
    nonillions O novelties in the
    Great Beyond for the length and
    breadth of endless eternity.
    Wanna?
    Cya soon...

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  7. Yes, I have tape over the camera on my laptop. I thought I was crazy, and then I saw my brother had done the same thing...

    I assume everything I do online is monitored. Sad state of affairs, but there you are.

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  8. I'm not too worried about my online activity. But monitoring my camera could be a scary experience. I mean, I scowl, don't brush my hair, get up in the middle of the night and check my email when I can't sleep. That could be some rough video warning young people about something I am sure.
    Meanwhile, who are people kidding? Google has a record of everything since they started. You know there are records. More importantly, is there anyone on the other end monitoring everything to actually help anyone? I doubt it.

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I will do everything in my power to visit commenter's blogs unless I've been abducted by aliens or my children get sick. (If my children get abducted by aliens, I will be very busy, of course, catching up on my sleep.)