Pandemic And Privacy

It has been a helluva month and year so far.

While the sedition runs wild in this country there is still a pandemic killing Americans.

We all have been effected by the raging pandemic that just seems to get bigger and bolder as it rips through the nation. Some have been inconvenienced by social distancing or masking or food shortages, prices or TP shortages……but as this year, 2020, ends a thought popped into my head…..how has our privacy been compromised by all this pandemic stuff?

Fortunately for me someone else had the same thought and it saved me lots of endless reading….

I try to avoid sites and services that invade my privacy, collect my data, and track my actions. Then the pandemic came, and I threw most of that out the window. You probably did, too.

I gave away tons of personal data to get the things I needed. Food came from grocery and restaurant delivery services. Everything else — clothes, kitchen tools, a vanity ring light for Zoom calls, office furniture — came from online shopping platforms. I took an Uber instead of public transportation. Zoom became my primary means of communication with most of my coworkers, friends, and family. I attended virtual birthdays and funerals. Therapy was conducted over FaceTime. I downloaded my state’s digital contact tracing tool as soon as it was offered. I put a camera inside my apartment to keep an eye on things when I fled the city for several weeks.

Millions of Americans have had a similar pandemic experience. School went remote, work was done from home, happy hours went virtual. In just a few short months, people shifted their entire lives online, accelerating a trend that would have otherwise taken years and will endure after the pandemic ends — all while exposing more and more personal information to the barely regulated internet ecosystem. At the same time, attempts to enact federal legislation to protect digital privacy were derailed, first by the pandemic and then by increasing politicization over how the internet should be regulated.

https://www.vox.com/recode/22189727/2020-pandemic-ruined-digital-privacy

Please be careful when using the internet….these days it is a more dangerous place.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Price Privacy?

Sunday in the park…….not unless it is air conditioned…..(yes I knows we all spoiled)…..enough with the dilly dally….on ward.

I recall about 5 or 6 years ago when the nation learned that the NSA was listening to your phone calls and the people went batcrap crazy at the invasion of their cherished privacy.

Can you remember back that far?

Something I read made me think about those days in our past….with a bit of nostalgia…..

Amazon has admitted that it doesn’t always delete the stored data that it obtains through voice interactions with the company’s Alexa and Echo devices — even after a user chooses to wipe the audio files from their account. The revelations, outlined explicitly by Amazon in a letter to Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), which was published today and dated June 28th, sheds even more light on the company’s privacy practices with regard to its digital voice assistant.

The answers are a follow-up to a request from Coons dating to last month when Coons questioned how long the company holds on to voice recordings and transcripts from Echo interactions. In this week’s letter, Amazon confirmed some of the allegations. “We retain customers’ voice recordings and transcripts until the customer chooses to delete them,” the letter reads.

Following a CNET investigation published in May, there was also a question about whether Amazon held on to text transcripts of voice interactions with Alexa, even after a user has chosen to delete the audio equivalent. Amazon says some of those transcripts or information gleaned from the transcripts are indeed not removed, both because the company has to scrub the data from various parts of its global data storage systems and because, in some cases, Amazon chooses to hold on to the data without telling the user.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/3/20681423/amazon-alexa-echo-chris-coons-data-transcripts-recording-privacy

Seriously?

Americans will give up their privacy so that they do not have to start their car or change TV station or the music or dim the lights…..Really?

I have NO problem believing that the American people elected Trump for they are morons.

Closing Thought–29Jun17

Protect my ‘Net!

For a couple of years now there has been a debate about net neutrality and why it is important.

We also have had those that say who cares.

We all should care about our internet access……and here is why….

Next month, Amazon, Netflix, and dozens of other companies and organizations will host a “day of action” aimed at saving net neutrality as we know it. The Federal Communications Commission, meanwhile, is on the verge of revoking its own authority to enforce net neutrality rules, and the country’s biggest telecommunications companies are cheering along. The future of the internet is on the line here, but it’s easy to be cynical about the conflict: What does it matter which set of giant corporations controls the internet?

Under the current net neutrality rules, broadband providers like Comcast and Charter, and wireless providers like AT&T and Verizon, can’t block or slow down your access to lawful content, nor can they create so-called “fast lanes” for content providers who are willing to pay extra. In other words, your internet provider can’t slow your Amazon Prime Video stream to a crawl so you’ll keep your Comcast cable plan, and your mobile carrier can’t stop you from using Microsoft’s Skype instead of your own Verizon cell phone minutes.

Source: Why Net Neutrality Matters | WIRED

Me? I am old and probably does not matter much…but my granddaughter will be effected if these toads have their way.

TTFN–time for me to have a nap after all I’m old and we need our rest, right?

See ya tomorrow…chuq

Closing Thought–24Mar17

A Little Something For Your Mind To Consider

Remember a couple of years ago all the hoopla about our internet privacy….we all joined one defense site or another…..once that slid from the headlines we found other crap to rant about….

Then there are all those Obama haters that have blamed him for everything short of World War One….but he did try to protect us on the internet….then we elected this dude named Trump and some thought that sanity would return to government….Hahahaha…..how foolish can we be?

It looks like the Trump government has decided to say f*ck all those internet users………

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 50 to 48 to repeal regulations requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google or Facebook Inc .

Under the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in October under then-President Barack Obama, internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children’s information and web browsing history for advertising and internal marketing.

The vote is a victory for internet providers such as AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc that had strongly opposed the rules.

(Raw Story)

Maybe all you mental midgets that worship this Trump dude should take a good long look at the things his government is doing…..but that is out of the question for that would mean they have to be honest with themselves…..beyond their capabilities.

That be it for the week….I begin my weekend and my relaxation….hope you guys enjoy yours also….chuq

Elections: This Is Plain Bullsh*t!

We talk about what is happening to our election process…..there is much that is wrong.

We also talk about out loss of privacy…well that depends on who you talk to….but there is one place that your privacy is paramount…the voting booth…

Now news has come out that this one sacred right has been pushed aside….

Officials from two more states have reported their election systems experienced unauthorized Department of Homeland Security cyberscans in the run-up to the presidential election, or in the days immediately after.

The State of Indiana’s Information Sharing and Analysis Center reported that over 10,000 individual hits on its systems originated from a handful of DHS IP addresses. According to a January IN-ISAC report provided to FCW by the Indiana Secretary of State’s office on Feb. 23, those same IP addresses were associated with a similar unauthorized scan of the State of Georgia’s election systems in the fall of 2016 and early 2017.

Source: More states say DHS scanned election systems without permission — FCW

Does anyone else see a problem with this invasion of privacy?

How long before the voter is not wanted?

I mean the American voter is not needed that is what the Electoral College is for…..to circumvent the will of the people.

How long?

A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone

First of all I would like to thank my readers for their understanding on the small amount of posts…..after 15 years it is a bit of a stretch for me to get a course outline and lesson plan together….thanx one and all for your patience….

I know everyone is running around demanding this and that to protect us from any further domestic attacks….and while we are afraid we are allowing our privacy to be invaded in the name of national security….

Do you have a cell phone? Or maybe a Smartphone?

With the newest authorization for surveillance….there is a whole catalog of devices for getting into your phone and your privacy….

Concerned about the militarization of law enforcement, a source within the intelligence community has provided The Intercept with a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices used by the military and intelligence agencies.

Source: A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone

Congress Drops All Pretense: CISA

Remember a couple of years ago when everyone and I do mean everyone was up in arms about the NSA spying thing……all political sides were on the same side….and then a couple of terrorist attacks and now……the topic is barely a hiccup on the blogosphere…..it amazes me what Americans will tolerate when the are put in a constant state of panic or fear.

Well, while you were concerned about the babbling of political candidates it seems that Congress has done what it does best….work in secret….maybe we should be paying attention……

Americans have the attention span of an oversexed rabbit……they only get aroused when it is too late and the damage is done…..take CISA for instance…………

Source: Congress Drops All Pretense: Quietly Turns CISA Into A Full On Surveillance Bill | Techdirt

A shame that Americans care so little about their privacy….by the way that is one of those things that is in the Constitution…..you see there is more to the document than some 2nd amendment thing…..

So whatcha think?

What Happens When Idiots Are Elected?

Since his election to the US Senate from the state of Arkansas I have been anything but supportive of this moron…..I am speaking of Tom Cotton…..

This babbling buffoon came of the public eye because he took it upon himself to write a letter on the Iran nuke deal….and he even got more of his GOP butt buddies to go along with his break of esprit de corps……

All GOP d/bags love to use the Constitution as a political prop and then spend every waking hour trying to find ways to violate the document……Cotton is NO different!

Sen. Cotton has stolen Jeb’s thunder with his bill…….

“I will fight to restore the Patriot Act’s metadata program to ensure we have the ability to connect the dots between known foreign terrorists and potential operatives here in the United States,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), another White House contender, said in a speech at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday.

Jeb will have to find a new tagline to show his chops.

Do you like your privacy? Kiss it good-bye if this mental midget gets his way….

The freshman senator runs roughshod over the Constitution after a horrific terror attack. Sound familiar?

Source: Tom Cotton’s repugnant Paris fear-mongering: Why his new surveillance legislation should have you outraged – Salon.com

It will be interesting to see how many on the Right that were upset at past attempts to infringe on our privacy will support his idiots lame attempt to look relevant…….

Stop Ya Belly Achin’!

Thinking back a couple of years I recall that the web was batcrap crazy over a person’s on-line privacy….that was a couple of crises ago and now it does not seem to be that damn important….we just move on to the next crisis that the media has for us……

I know how most of the people that I follow feel about the threat we are facing from ISIS…..some are all for sending in the troops and make short work of them…..and others are less aggressive, shall we say……

For those that are of the aggressive mind let me ask you…..how do you feel about your privacy?

Should we jump and allow the government all access to our stuff or shall we be more cautious?

The Director of the CIA has opened up about your privacy issue…….

Civil liberty advocates are worried that a spate of ISIS attacks will bring a renewed push for more-intense government surveillance, and comments by CIA chief John Brennan won’t make them feel any better. Following the downing of Flight 9268, last week’s suicide bombings in Beirut, and Friday’s Paris massacre, Brennan slammed the “hand-wringing” over government spying, the New York Times reports. “I would anticipate that [Paris was] not the only operation ISIL has in the pipeline,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, per Foreign Policy. And it’s not only just those in the US who want to reinvigorate the NSA-style prying blasted by Edward Snowden: Per the Times, British PM David Cameron is pushing for more aggressive surveillance, while French President Francois Hollande is trying to expand surveillance powers there.

“I do hope that this is going to be a wake-up call, particularly in areas of Europe, where there has been a misrepresentation of what the intelligence and security services are doing, by some quarters that are designed to undercut those capabilities,” said Brennan. The debate has renewed tensions in the Muslim community, where allegations of discrimination are once more bubbling up. “I think all Americans want to be kept safe from violence of any kind,” the director of Muslim Advocates tells the Times. “But we know that blanket surveillance of people based on religion and race doesn’t work.” GOP Rep. Peter King doesn’t think we have a choice when it comes to profiling. “We have to put political correctness aside” and snoop on Muslim communities because “that’s where the threat is coming from.”

“Hand wringing”? Is that what it is called to be concerned over my right to privacy?

Does this incident warrant the giving up of your right to privacy?

The problem with giving up rights to privacy for the sake of national security is noble but the problem is that government seldom returns a persons right to privacy back to their control once they have had access to it…..even if the threat is abated…..

There has to be a balancing act between the needs of the government and the individual’s right to privacy…..so far I have seen nothing that shows me the government can be trusted…..on any level.

Please sound off…..

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: Privacy