Met a woman that grew up in Eastern Bloc pre and during WWII. She was incredibly sharp, and talked about how one day there was a program to give everyone free radios. One time her family was talking the wrong way and the KGB showed up. The "free" radios came with bugs that were being actively monitored. She then went on to laugh cynically and say that people today are so blind they can actually charge them for the ability to monitor them; and that's what has happened.
This was a couple years back. She was in her nineties (I think, that's what the math seems to say) and was smarter than probably 95% of the populace of all ages.
Pretty sure the closest thing she received to formal higher education was being put through Nazi labor programs when they occupied her area (following their defeat, she escaped to the west, but her family remained in Eastern Europe [she had already been separated by the Nazis]. She didn't talk to them again for like, 20 years, and even then, they had to be very careful about how they corresponded to avoid her family getting disappeared.)
How quickly people forget the lessons of the past.
There is a reason our politicians can't use Android or Apple phones for official business. They are designed to be hacked. Our government could never afford to install all the spy devices we freely buy and install for them. It's as brilliant as it is evil.
I had a counselor at the YMCA who grew up in East Berlin under the Stasi. She escaped with her family at the age of 9. She made sure to teach us kids a thing or two.
If I know Alexa is listening, then I can make sure the regime hears me saying things I want them to hear me say. They will think I am loyal in ways that they would not if I didn't give them that channel.
In the above radio example, I can watch what I say around the radio, and if my loyalist neighbor gets too nosy, I can start having conversations with family members about disturbing things I saw the neighbors do, and I wonder does it warrant reporting them, or would I be inconveniencing the authorities?
If I habitually leave my phone on the table and take it with me when I go outside, then my location tracking will show that pattern. If I leave the house without the phone deliberately, they will think I am home when I am not -- this is even more useful than them not knowing. If the phone is attached to my cat the illusion that I am at home becomes stronger. Especially when dumb phones are rare and become data points in and of themselves -- a way to be noticed.
If I want to disappear, and we have established that my phone is a good way to track me, then my phone becomes a very valuable tool indeed. I can attach it to some other object (such as inside the bumper of my neighbor's car, or jammed into a cushion on a city bus), and suddenly I am in two places at once.
ALL systems are a two way street. It's good to cultivate a mindset of looking at any rule-based or software based systems and trying to think of creative ways to screw with it. You get more ideas with practice, and it's fun! There is no such thing as "their tool" or "your tool" -- there are only tools, and they belong to whoever figures out how to make use of them.
Oh for sure, this is a reason why I still use a smart (android even) phone. The other thing to remember is that refusal marks you as a target, too.
Off topic a little more, this is a thing I've been thinking a lot about lately: if they can have their bad actors infiltrate every level of government and our party, pose as us, and take us down that way, why can't we do the same? If we infiltrated their party en-masse, really legitimately posing as lefties (we mock them for how predictable and stupid they are as it is, so it surely shouldn't be too hard?) when some big thing happened, we could all activate at once to disrupt them completely, just as they've done to us. We could take key positions from them without them even knowing it. On top of it all, they'd have some idea as to what is going on, which is good - "those with power are afraid to lose it" - their paranoia as to who is truly a loyalist would run rabidly out of control, which would cripple their own ability to operate entirely. They'd start firing (or if shit got bad enough, executing) people left and right (haha see what I did there?), not knowing who was truly a loyalist and who is a secret Trump supporter. We'd bring them to their knees using their own ambition.
And yet, I remember there being a big issue with Obama and his BlackBerry when he first was in office. And Trump’s tweets always came from an iPhone. I’m sure they have “special” phones but that never sat right with me. And, honestly, who’s going to deny the President access to his phone? Quite alarming when you think about it.
Met a woman that grew up in Eastern Bloc pre and during WWII. She was incredibly sharp, and talked about how one day there was a program to give everyone free radios. One time her family was talking the wrong way and the KGB showed up. The "free" radios came with bugs that were being actively monitored. She then went on to laugh cynically and say that people today are so blind they can actually charge them for the ability to monitor them; and that's what has happened.
This was a couple years back. She was in her nineties (I think, that's what the math seems to say) and was smarter than probably 95% of the populace of all ages.
Pretty sure the closest thing she received to formal higher education was being put through Nazi labor programs when they occupied her area (following their defeat, she escaped to the west, but her family remained in Eastern Europe [she had already been separated by the Nazis]. She didn't talk to them again for like, 20 years, and even then, they had to be very careful about how they corresponded to avoid her family getting disappeared.)
How quickly people forget the lessons of the past.
There is a reason our politicians can't use Android or Apple phones for official business. They are designed to be hacked. Our government could never afford to install all the spy devices we freely buy and install for them. It's as brilliant as it is evil.
I had a counselor at the YMCA who grew up in East Berlin under the Stasi. She escaped with her family at the age of 9. She made sure to teach us kids a thing or two.
These tools have intriguing possibilities though.
If I know Alexa is listening, then I can make sure the regime hears me saying things I want them to hear me say. They will think I am loyal in ways that they would not if I didn't give them that channel.
In the above radio example, I can watch what I say around the radio, and if my loyalist neighbor gets too nosy, I can start having conversations with family members about disturbing things I saw the neighbors do, and I wonder does it warrant reporting them, or would I be inconveniencing the authorities?
If I habitually leave my phone on the table and take it with me when I go outside, then my location tracking will show that pattern. If I leave the house without the phone deliberately, they will think I am home when I am not -- this is even more useful than them not knowing. If the phone is attached to my cat the illusion that I am at home becomes stronger. Especially when dumb phones are rare and become data points in and of themselves -- a way to be noticed.
If I want to disappear, and we have established that my phone is a good way to track me, then my phone becomes a very valuable tool indeed. I can attach it to some other object (such as inside the bumper of my neighbor's car, or jammed into a cushion on a city bus), and suddenly I am in two places at once.
ALL systems are a two way street. It's good to cultivate a mindset of looking at any rule-based or software based systems and trying to think of creative ways to screw with it. You get more ideas with practice, and it's fun! There is no such thing as "their tool" or "your tool" -- there are only tools, and they belong to whoever figures out how to make use of them.
Oh for sure, this is a reason why I still use a smart (android even) phone. The other thing to remember is that refusal marks you as a target, too.
Off topic a little more, this is a thing I've been thinking a lot about lately: if they can have their bad actors infiltrate every level of government and our party, pose as us, and take us down that way, why can't we do the same? If we infiltrated their party en-masse, really legitimately posing as lefties (we mock them for how predictable and stupid they are as it is, so it surely shouldn't be too hard?) when some big thing happened, we could all activate at once to disrupt them completely, just as they've done to us. We could take key positions from them without them even knowing it. On top of it all, they'd have some idea as to what is going on, which is good - "those with power are afraid to lose it" - their paranoia as to who is truly a loyalist would run rabidly out of control, which would cripple their own ability to operate entirely. They'd start firing (or if shit got bad enough, executing) people left and right (haha see what I did there?), not knowing who was truly a loyalist and who is a secret Trump supporter. We'd bring them to their knees using their own ambition.
And yet, I remember there being a big issue with Obama and his BlackBerry when he first was in office. And Trump’s tweets always came from an iPhone. I’m sure they have “special” phones but that never sat right with me. And, honestly, who’s going to deny the President access to his phone? Quite alarming when you think about it.