Privacy!

[viking60]

Get ready to be spooked:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/busin ... .html?_r=4

Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts.

The results were astounding. In a six-month period — from Aug 31, 2009, to Feb. 28, 2010, Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times. It traced him from a train on the way to Erlangen at the start through to that last night, when he was home in Berlin.

[R_Head]

They do not do that in the USA... only overseas, people like Deutsche Telekom.... yeah right!

What get me is, in Germany and France they had a cow about Google taking pics of the public streets and god's know what they collect on the data they had. And here is, a company from their own land placing a tag on someone.

[viking60]

Germany is one of the countries that have rejected the Data retention regulation of the EU. They had it for a while and now it is ruled as conflicting with the constitution and the Human rights.
So they are fighting it and are probably the only ones who know what this is about. Thanks to people like this guy.
(You can literary follow his life for 6 months).
These data are collected in the US and everywhere. The smartphone would not work otherwise - it constantly has to connect to the nearest tower. The problem occurs when the data are saved for a long time for the police or the government to trace your whereabouts.
That is what the EU data retention is. The saving of our electronic lives - and lets face it: Life is electronic, from the moment you turn on your phone or sit down in your car (GPS).

But I think you are right: The Americans tend to take their freedom issues somewhat more serious than (stupid) Europeans.

That is why I was so negatively surprised by the whole wikileaks issue, where the government clearly went for censorship and retaliation - towards a press institution.

This data retention is extremely dangerous and scary stuff.

[dedanna1029]

That is why I was so negatively surprised by the whole wikileaks issue, where the government clearly went for censorship and retaliation - towards a press institution.

The retaliation by Joseph Biden went further than anything I could find. He literally called for Julian Assange's murder by the CIA. He called him a terrorist as well (as did so many other guberment officials here). IMHO that is really f*ed up. This, by a *supposed* Democrat.

[viking60]

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Data storage could be as dangerous as the atom bomb. It starts with a load of crap about having it, does not mean that they will ever use it etc bla bla bla. And only to fight serious crime.
Short memories and an F in History there, for our dear politicians.
I always say if I fill up my freezer with cookies it is not because I will not eat them. If I want to keep a diet it is best to not have the cookies there.
Most people - except politicians - will easily understand this.
If they understand it - it is even worse, because then they are lying to us. Having a place and spot to yourself that cannot be controlled and seen by others is a human right!

[dedanna1029]

[R_Head]

Data storage could be as dangerous as the atom bomb.

Ja !

[viking60]

Over the last 16 months, as I've debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, "I don't really worry about invasions of privacy because I don't have anything to hide." I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, "Here's my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you're doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide." Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.

Glenn Greenwald in Why privacy matters - TED Talk

[R_Head]

The Unabomber wrote a manifesto, called "Industrial Society and its future"; very interesting read, about 42 pages long. He predicted a lot of the problems/events we see today including security and social media.

[dedanna1029]

Anarchy needs to reign.

[gnuuser]

the solution is simple
unplug, go caveman, and avoid anyone else.
quietest idea ever.

the shameful thing is that as long as someone in governments think its a matter of security there will be no privacy unless we the people force the issue,
and even then we cannot be assured of our privacy.
to become secure in your privacy you would have to aggressively watchdog the governing agencies, but the crux of the matter is that you will become just as guilty as they are of invading privacy

[viking60]

Well yes going caveman would be a solution. I hear that various agencies in various countries have stopped using computers for their top secret stuff and have started using typewriters.

Controlling the internet is the new powergame and the new war arena.

The open exchange of Ideas and findings between universities has been polluted by governments and trolls.

The governments need the trolls to justify their "necessary control" over the Internet.

Terrorists and pedophiles will do just fine too.....

We all want to get them so we cannot be against more control over the internet - right?