We talked about this before and since then, I have wiped out my Google share drives, secured my Outlook email client by moving some usernames out of certain email addresses, and I finally finished setting up my private email server. I use my own VPN whenever I take a laptop out of the house, and I also have that VPN set up on my phone. The VPN connects to a VPN server on my network.
I still have some work to do yet but I'm nearly there. I also resurrected (updated) a couple of Linux desktops OS's I had squirreled away on virtual hard drives. I don't use them much but I will be logging in more regularly to keep with the updates. They are handy for testing certain IT functions. Especially systems I don't want the government to know about.
I will never go completely off the world wide network but I can now hide certain aspects a lot better. Besides, I also managed to configure a workaround to bypass Verizon's public IP policy blocks regarding stuff they don't like, such as a private email server. It took me a few days and some assistance from some Ukrainians, but it's up and running.
The things we now have to do to protect ourselves that I would never have worried about even 8 months ago.
I offered once before and I didn't have any takers. I have also offered my PC repair skills to my senior citizen neighbors but I've only had one lady take me up on that in the 5 years I've lived here. She got mad at me a while back when I had trouble pairing her phone up to one of those new smart watches so I haven't heard anything from her since. No loss to me.
I use to be a technical instructor a couple of different times in the past. Once, in the military for nearly four years, then at a local Texas community college teaching HVAC until Covid shut down the classes in 2020.
“They want to run models predicting everything from whether you’ll shoot a CEO to how much you’ll pay for a banana.
They want to sell that.
It’s quite terrifying.”
They also want to sell *to* that: it’s great to sell the authoritarian government info about the next Luigi, but even better to sell Luigi vN that they need fancy new tools XYZ to extend & escalate the cat & mouse game further.
And also “surge” pricing for bananas 🤬🤬🤬
That’s the real holy grail for grocery stores and smart checkout carts: you pay 28¢ a banana because you have them on your shopping list, Susie pays 53¢ per because she’s got a potassium deficiency, and Joe pays only 19¢ as he’s being wooed to buy them on an impulse.
Yes, you can frustrate the data hogs for a while, but they will discover go-arounds. Then they will unleash the power of AI and quantum computing - and there is nothing the individual can do against that. Sooner or later they will monitor ever second of your existence, birth to death.
Ah, but once quantum computing breaks the non-quantum encryption algorithms, global financial & economic systems effectively break — and there’s no way that cat gets kept in the bag as long as it’s to even *one* state actor’s benefit to wield it.
It's one scenario. But the most likely is that humans will use AI+QC to hoard information on other humans in order to control them. That is more important than money.
A timely article. I hope more people take your advice, especially re: Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Linux is a great start, and i am setting up a Linux laptop again now. Also Proton has a good reputation for email.
I don't use my phone for much beyond voice and texts, but you certainly don't want to carry your phone when traveling or at protests.
You can expect pretty much anything like financial and medical records, browser history, or pictures of your kids stored online to be used against you.
Remember Ai is for scammming and crypto is for money laundering . Not much else.
Thank you for this. It's a good companion piece for the one Nate wrote a couple of weeks ago. I will likely start taking these steps, but tend to believe ultimately there is no protection. Words I wrote years ago are in cyberspace forever, and writing truths about climate change genocide or calling out the surveillance state will put us on a list if we're not already on one. As always, I appreciate your direct, brave writing.
Jess, you’ve described so well the unease of living under constant watch, it’s not just about data, it’s about dignity. Taking even small steps to protect our privacy feels like a way of reclaiming a bit of control in a world that thrives on intrusion.
Security, including these steps, is all about creating friction. It's like your home. Will locking the doors and windows keep out anyone who really, really wants in? No, but it'll keep out the 98% of opportunists. Will using dedicated devices and an open source OS stop "them" from discoving things about you if they really, really want to? No, but it'll make it harder. If some cheapy, easy systems on their end don't give them info about you, they'll have to make a decision about whether you're worth trying more expensive systems and maybe expending expensive labor hours to employ their better security experts. The more expensive you make it in time, effort, and money, the less likely they'll try. Unless you're a really high value target to them. And I'm pretty sure I'm not.
I am. Doomer on this issue (as well as many others). Older readers will remember Admiral Poindexter's Total Information Awareness initiative of the Bush II era. It was an effort for the government to have near total access to all phone and internet traffic. Cut to the present and we have the new administrations attempt at total information control where they are actually releasing to the public only that information they want us to have and are even altering and redacting past historical records.
Now cut to the present article. I suspect we are heading for an epistemic breakdown of historic proportions where privacy concerns will be made secondary to knowing who or what you are communicating with is uncertain as well as whether data received is reliable and not fabricated. Best advice. Get off the net completely and go snail mail for all communications.
We talked about this before and since then, I have wiped out my Google share drives, secured my Outlook email client by moving some usernames out of certain email addresses, and I finally finished setting up my private email server. I use my own VPN whenever I take a laptop out of the house, and I also have that VPN set up on my phone. The VPN connects to a VPN server on my network.
I still have some work to do yet but I'm nearly there. I also resurrected (updated) a couple of Linux desktops OS's I had squirreled away on virtual hard drives. I don't use them much but I will be logging in more regularly to keep with the updates. They are handy for testing certain IT functions. Especially systems I don't want the government to know about.
I will never go completely off the world wide network but I can now hide certain aspects a lot better. Besides, I also managed to configure a workaround to bypass Verizon's public IP policy blocks regarding stuff they don't like, such as a private email server. It took me a few days and some assistance from some Ukrainians, but it's up and running.
The things we now have to do to protect ourselves that I would never have worried about even 8 months ago.
Sounds to me like you should be offering a course in online private security, or doing some consulting. Mad skills. :)
I offered once before and I didn't have any takers. I have also offered my PC repair skills to my senior citizen neighbors but I've only had one lady take me up on that in the 5 years I've lived here. She got mad at me a while back when I had trouble pairing her phone up to one of those new smart watches so I haven't heard anything from her since. No loss to me.
I use to be a technical instructor a couple of different times in the past. Once, in the military for nearly four years, then at a local Texas community college teaching HVAC until Covid shut down the classes in 2020.
If you need anything, just hit me up at my new secure email address at todonal@Terrysfixitservice.com.
Surveillance is empire’s new liturgy. It wants obedience without chains, shame without trial. Guarding our privacy isn’t paranoia, it’s prophecy.
“They want to run models predicting everything from whether you’ll shoot a CEO to how much you’ll pay for a banana.
They want to sell that.
It’s quite terrifying.”
They also want to sell *to* that: it’s great to sell the authoritarian government info about the next Luigi, but even better to sell Luigi vN that they need fancy new tools XYZ to extend & escalate the cat & mouse game further.
And also “surge” pricing for bananas 🤬🤬🤬
That’s the real holy grail for grocery stores and smart checkout carts: you pay 28¢ a banana because you have them on your shopping list, Susie pays 53¢ per because she’s got a potassium deficiency, and Joe pays only 19¢ as he’s being wooed to buy them on an impulse.
It's true. They create the need for privacy and protection, then they sell us the tools to protect our data.
Where it all leads... https://cribb.substack.com/p/the-end-of-freedom-798
Yes, you can frustrate the data hogs for a while, but they will discover go-arounds. Then they will unleash the power of AI and quantum computing - and there is nothing the individual can do against that. Sooner or later they will monitor ever second of your existence, birth to death.
As discussed in the article, I would rather protect as much of my data for as long as possible before throwing my hands up.
Ah, but once quantum computing breaks the non-quantum encryption algorithms, global financial & economic systems effectively break — and there’s no way that cat gets kept in the bag as long as it’s to even *one* state actor’s benefit to wield it.
It's one scenario. But the most likely is that humans will use AI+QC to hoard information on other humans in order to control them. That is more important than money.
Doesn’t scale … there’s a reason money exists.
Money is the means by which things of value become fungible at scale:
No money = very little of meaningful value, besides controlling labour by force 🤷♂️
A timely article. I hope more people take your advice, especially re: Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Linux is a great start, and i am setting up a Linux laptop again now. Also Proton has a good reputation for email.
I don't use my phone for much beyond voice and texts, but you certainly don't want to carry your phone when traveling or at protests.
You can expect pretty much anything like financial and medical records, browser history, or pictures of your kids stored online to be used against you.
Remember Ai is for scammming and crypto is for money laundering . Not much else.
Thank you for this. It's a good companion piece for the one Nate wrote a couple of weeks ago. I will likely start taking these steps, but tend to believe ultimately there is no protection. Words I wrote years ago are in cyberspace forever, and writing truths about climate change genocide or calling out the surveillance state will put us on a list if we're not already on one. As always, I appreciate your direct, brave writing.
Jess, you’ve described so well the unease of living under constant watch, it’s not just about data, it’s about dignity. Taking even small steps to protect our privacy feels like a way of reclaiming a bit of control in a world that thrives on intrusion.
Good advice Jessica, thanks. Most of it I actively do already and my Ubuntu box is increasingly the place I work. Next move is a second ‘phone.
Security, including these steps, is all about creating friction. It's like your home. Will locking the doors and windows keep out anyone who really, really wants in? No, but it'll keep out the 98% of opportunists. Will using dedicated devices and an open source OS stop "them" from discoving things about you if they really, really want to? No, but it'll make it harder. If some cheapy, easy systems on their end don't give them info about you, they'll have to make a decision about whether you're worth trying more expensive systems and maybe expending expensive labor hours to employ their better security experts. The more expensive you make it in time, effort, and money, the less likely they'll try. Unless you're a really high value target to them. And I'm pretty sure I'm not.
I am. Doomer on this issue (as well as many others). Older readers will remember Admiral Poindexter's Total Information Awareness initiative of the Bush II era. It was an effort for the government to have near total access to all phone and internet traffic. Cut to the present and we have the new administrations attempt at total information control where they are actually releasing to the public only that information they want us to have and are even altering and redacting past historical records.
Now cut to the present article. I suspect we are heading for an epistemic breakdown of historic proportions where privacy concerns will be made secondary to knowing who or what you are communicating with is uncertain as well as whether data received is reliable and not fabricated. Best advice. Get off the net completely and go snail mail for all communications.