big brother is watching you

[Gyon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7433128.stm

I am sure there is nothing new in this article, but I just hate the fact that your life is not private. there is alway someone watching you, tracking your every move in every way possible. Although this article say it is all anonymus, I bet it is not. London is a fine example for being watched at all times considering how many cameras there are.....This is the time I wish I was on an unknown island

[Dust]

Yes, this has been a worrying trend all over europe or the rest of the developed world.

Here in switzerland, even trains are surveiled with cameras.

I am probably quite paranoid, I never leave the house without a hat, and try to stay low profile... definately paranoid :)

A even more worrying trend is the surveilance of the internet. Many countries are making laws that force providers to store communication meta data. There are a few technologies to surf without surveilance, but they aren't perfect, and it's sad we have to resort to such technologies.

[Gyon]

Here all buses and trains have cameras, even in the back of buses to see if a car is using the buslane. the other thing I dont like here is the way this world forces people to shop, spend money via cards. To track movements and spending again. In London particulary people spend their weekends shopping. buy something. no matter that they are your 100th pair of black shoes, it was cheap so bought it.... Christmas is the worse. They make you feel you have to buy a new set of everything in the house every year. And it is Sales all year round. just spend spend spend...
I remember in Hungary if you need something, you save up for it and you buy it for cash. It is changing however.
In England they use credit. I have seen many many 30 year olds wiht £30K+ in debt. out of control. mad world

[Dust]

Yes.

Cash is much better for anonymity.

There are rumors that there are RFID chips inside $ notes:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/022904rfidtagsexplode.html

(I think that's not the case, many notes, such as swiss francs, contain a metal strip, which would cause this. But in the future it would be possible.)

And as you said, the advantage of cash is that you can only spend it if you have it.

[Dust]

Oh, and some more paranoia tips:
- Turn your mobile phone off, since it can be tracked when it's on.
- Don't pay with identifiable cards, they can often be tracked in real time.
- Use TOR or a similar service to surf anonymously
- Use disposable e-mail addresses and fake addresses when signing up for "free" stuff: http://www.guerrillamail.com/ (not tested)
- Don't tell people your real name without need to do so

[MindyMcfly]

Nice tips Robert... I mean Dust

[Gyon]

good one:)
Once I nearly started working for a company doing cold calls.(left after first day) was told that there are specific companies selling people's details. name, address, phone number etc. They sell them for £250 for each!!! I can see a lot of people doing survey on the streets, even give u £3-5 for answering a few min survey about your buys habits etc, and ofc for your details. I believe all the freebies stuff work the same way. for the purpose of getting your personnal details. I think this is just another way to collect information then sell them on to companies doing cold calls.

[MindyMcfly]

Information is more valuable than gold.

The big stores, Tesco/Asda all have loyalty "point" cards. Whenever you shop the scan your card for these points but all it does is link your name and address to the items on your recipt. They then have a record over everything you buy at that store.

Imagine that but with everyone in your towns buying habits, thats some powerful tool to focus marketing and of course they can then sell that info onto third parties.

You only have to use sites like 192.com or Experian and you can find out lots of info. One of my work collegues is on there, it listed how much she paid for her house, what she owes on which credit cards and we got it FREE!

[Dust]

The two major retail chaings here in switzerland (Migros, Coop) have similar points cards. With every buy you can scan them to get the approximation of a 1% rebate.

Some people didn't like being tracked, so they just formed a group, and all use the same card. (It's a bar code, so you can copy it as you like). They still get some of the benefits as a group, but are only trackable as colective, which is useless.

[Jora]

The biggest German telephone provider, the Telekom, is currently involved in a scandal about using telephone connection information of people to find out who of their managers had contact to certain journalists who wrote about Telekom interna.
That shows how easy it is to abuse information and how low the inhibition threshold is.
The only chance to battle that is to forbid gathering of personal information that is not needed and to delete even the needed things as soon as possible. And not only forbid it, but also enforce that law (the current laws about personal information are rarely enforced).
But the ruling parties are far too interested in the power that comes with more information so they will rather gather and centralize more information about people.

[Gamberra]

terrorist excuss help for designing gathering information acts

11-S was the inflexion point on that, security or freedom

who tells you that seecurity is flawed so that you ask for more control of info?