Recent comments in /f/Privacy
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by RAMBLE1 in What anonymity networks or privacy projects are you most excited about this year? by Rambler
Aether is pretty neat but like most P2P sites, has it's drawbacks of having to host bits of content for the network locally and I personally have never been a fan of having to "update websites" so I can see what is most current like on ZeroNet.
RAMBLE1 wrote
Reply to What anonymity networks or privacy projects are you most excited about this year? by Rambler
anonymity network
Lokinet
Found this cool project Aether A P2P Reddit-like. Im testing to see what's up.
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by div1337 in An eye-opening look at law-enforcement surveillance (Paywall, disable javascript or read text in comment within this post) by Rambler
If you disable Javascript, you can see it. Sorry, I didn't realize it had a paywall with javascript enabled. Here is the text:
An eye-opening look at law-enforcement surveillance
Jon Fasman, The Economist’s US digital editor, argues that action must be taken now to restrain the growing surveillance state Books & arts Jan 26th 2021
We See It All: Liberty and Justice in an Age of Perpetual Surveillance. By Jon Fasman. PublicAffairs; 288 pages; $28. To be published in Britain in March by Scribe; £16.99
JON FASMAN’S new book, “We See It All”, is a brisk and informative overview of one of the more pressing issues in criminal justice: the rise of surveillance technology. The author, The Economist’s US digital editor, provides a comprehensive account of the ever-growing array of surveillance technology in America, often shrouded in secrecy and subjected to little or no public oversight or involvement: automatic licence-plate readers (ALPR); Ring home cameras (and Amazon’s contracts to share Ring videos with local police); police body cameras; cell-phone decryption and “Stingray” interception technology; facial-recognition software and predictive policing and sentencing algorithms.
But Mr Fasman does not just provide a tour of surveillance technology. The major theme that ties the various chapters of his book together is that the world of law-enforcement surveillance is mostly an unregulated Wild West, and that it is essential that America starts regulating it immediately. Mr Fasman repeatedly points out how law enforcement has adopted new technology with little oversight. There are few laws regulating how the data should be gathered or stored; the rules that do exist are almost always internal guidelines, voluntarily adopted by the police agencies themselves. There are few clear sanctions for violations and often no means to see if sanctions are being imposed for misuse.
It is tempting to compare new surveillance techniques with old in order to rely on existing legal and constitutional rules, but Mr Fasman argues convincingly that the analogies rarely hold. An ALPR mounted on a patrol car is not the same thing as a beat cop walking down the street writing down all the licence-plate numbers they see. After all, the opening scenes of “The Godfather” establish Don Corleone’s importance by showing detectives taking the time to write down the details of each car parked at Corleone’s daughter’s wedding—a task that an ALPR could safely perform in seconds.
The ALPR is far less visible and it gathers all sorts of data the cop never could, storing it indefinitely in an easily searchable format that can be linked to other databases. All this raises political and privacy issues that the shoe-leather analogue simply does not. Similarly, expectations of privacy built around large, loud, heavy, expensive, manned aeroplanes and helicopters may simply not be up to the task of regulating the use of light, cheap, nearly invisible remote-controlled drones.
But Mr Fasman’s overarching point is not just that the current regulatory approach is wanting—although it is—but that the time to act is right now. Using China as an example, he makes clear that it is already possible to create a dystopian surveillance state; the question is whether one is desirable or not. And, he correctly notes, it is far easier to regulate the building of such a surveillance system in the first place than to try to rein it in once it has been created. This is yet one more example of an asymmetry that plagues criminal-justice policy: scaling back invasive or punitive systems is always far riskier politically than blocking or altering those systems in the first place. Surveillance grows more expansive each day, as private firms develop increasingly powerful technologies and police departments continue to purchase them (a complicated public-private relationship that Mr Fasman draws attention to).
Furthermore, in one of the book’s more striking passages, Mr Fasman quickly dispatches those who would argue that a comparison with China is overwrought. Look, he says, at how America already restricts the lives of those convicted of felonies, and how the country increasingly relies on surveillance technology to do so. Contrary to what many might think, it is not that big a move from the current situation to China’s nationwide, restrictive, surveillance-based “social credit” system.
In the end, Mr Fasman’s book is a call to arms, arguing that it will take active, local, small-d democratic engagement to curb the worst aspects of the growing surveillance state. He concludes with a hopeful example from Oakland, where sustained police-community engagement led to some success in drawing up (seemingly) effective privacy guidelines. This reviewer fears Mr Fasman may be a bit too optimistic on this front—the politics of punishment are frustratingly fractured in ways that ensure that those who make the decisions about things such as surveillance generally bear the negative costs of those decisions the least. But by providing a solid overview of the myriad technological advances and governments’ failure to regulate them carefully, his book should encourage its readers to demand more transparency and accountability from law enforcement.
div1337 wrote
Reply to An eye-opening look at law-enforcement surveillance (Paywall, disable javascript or read text in comment within this post) by Rambler
It's paid content? :_(
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by nvuaooay in Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
That's not currently possible due to how the software that powers this site is coded. I had a previous account for anonymous users that they could share, (anonymous/anonymous) but of course someone took advantage of that and changed the password.
nvuaooay wrote
Reply to comment by Rambler in Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
Thanks. If you can let me hope more, I want an anonymous account to post without signup/login!
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by nvuaooay in Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
Try again. I disabled it temporarily because of a troll brigade. I'll keep it open while I'm around for now.
nvuaooay wrote
Reply to Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
I wanted to hide my history here as well as in other places even if I have "nothing to hide." So I tried to make a new account but couldn't. RAMBLE admin might make signup disabled for anti-spam. I guessed so but want to ask the admin: you want us to be the same account for posts and comments here? Is Changing accounts bad for this site?
Note: not serious question but I've wanted to ask you. :D
BasedHitler wrote
Reply to Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
Everyone who aint a complete faggot cuck has something to hide from the government.
burnerben wrote
Reply to Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
i do have stuff to hide but ill read it anyway
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to Why you should care about data privacy even if you have “nothing to hide” | Real News by Rambler
Temporarily pinning this because it's worth review.
burnerben wrote
so how much is apple music again?
Rambler OP wrote
What happened to the good ol' days of: "You liked this artist? You'll probably like this other artist too."
And it didn't require bugging your house to do it.
mr4channer wrote
Reply to by !deleted152
don't use addon vpns lol, use openvpn or wireguard or official client lol
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by !deleted152 in The case against Signal by Rambler
I enjoy Session, but it's not mature enough for daily use. Poor/no syncing between devices, weird line wrapping when typing, and desktop notifications aren't working (for me).
But, it's an option.
J0yI9YUX41Wx wrote
Good for them.
div1337 wrote
With all the data leaks from big tech and London as one of the most surveilled city in the world, this is the least of worries really?
mr4channer wrote
whole point of "smart" phone is to track you
mr_krabs wrote
If you have a Snapdragon chip (Qualcomm) then you're SOL regarding custom ROMs. You can try Pinephone or some other GNU/Linux-based phone if you're doing a flat-out device switch. If you don't want to be a guinea pig for a Linux phone though (mobile Linux now = desktop Linux in the early 2000s).
div1337 wrote
"Rather than go full nuclear on the tracking, Google came up with a compromise solution to the cookie debacle. The company plans on using the browser to group together internet users who have similar browsing patterns. In turn, businesses can serve relevant ads to these clusters of like-minded people, removing the need to track users individually."
No thanks. Use Brave instead
Rambler wrote
Reply to NSA ANT Catalog: Released to the public in 2013, the capabilities of the NSA were already insane by eeqrhty
Pretty good read.
The capabilities of today must be pretty far advanced. What do you think they can do?
J0yI9YUX41Wx wrote
Reply to comment by eeqrhty in EFF Transition Memo to Incoming Biden Administration by Rambler
Well, with option #2, they get to keep this magic eraser that they can use on pretty much whoever.
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by J0yI9YUX41Wx in EFF Transition Memo to Incoming Biden Administration by Rambler
Let's hope.
Rambler OP wrote
Reply to comment by div1337 in I spent 2020 replacing all the Google things in my life. Here's what I use now instead. by Rambler
I used to use Piwik in the past and really enjoyed it. Now I'm wanting to find something that does it all server side, and pulls data from access logs. I don't need all the fancy graphs and analytical data, but being able to chart out traffic/visits/popular pages and basic stuff like that would be nice.
redandblack wrote
Reply to comment by Rambler in What anonymity networks or privacy projects are you most excited about this year? by Rambler
Can you send me a link to that Aether Website? I haven't found a link to it yet