Cookie abuse

It makes me wonder if anyone has taken the time to complain about this.
Actually, who the hell do we complain to?

Everyone is doing it. Every country. Every continent. Every website.
We used to be able to turn off cookies in Internet Explorer, but I have yet to find this option in Google Chrome. 

And I'm not about to go back to Internet Explorer just to be able to have that option again.

But even if you do turn it off, website hosts have found the ultimate way to cram them down our throats; either you accept the cookies and view the website normally, or you don't accept the cookies and have problems viewing the website. 

 

That's like a Jehova's witness sticking their foot in your door and saying "Look, you can either hear me out, or I'm going to paint your house pink while you sleep. And you'll never notice until I'm all done." 

 

And now there are even websites that don't even give you the option. They blatantly inform you that "this website uses cookies", and then you get to click the OK button so the website understands that you saw the warning message.

Just what good does that warning message do us at that point?

"I'm going to stab you with this knife. I told you that in advance just so you know it was me who stabbed you."

I don't care who stabbed me! I just got fuckin stabbed!

Cookies keep track of which websites you visit and all things connected to websurfing, and anyone who knows how to retrieve this information can (and will if the courts deem it necessary) use it against you.

 Of course even without reasonable doubt, a law enforcement agency can easily hack your computer and download any cookie they want, and then keep it hidden as circumstantial evidence until they need it.

No I'm not being paranoid. Why do you think you get all those spam mails?

   

Why else are there cookies, if not to keep track of what we do?

We used to think that keeping the cookie made the website load quicker upon the next visit, but we know today that's not the case.

So it has never been the case.

  

We've been lied to, square in the face, and it's time everyone realizes this.

But like I said ... who do we complain to about these things if everyone (but me) is forcing them on us?

Cookie free surfing, brought to you by Global Facts.

 

<start gratuitous applause here>

  

Next to the absurdity of "cookies", there's also such a silly thing as online region restriction.
Let's say, like me, you want to watch a classic tv show online, but then you get the message that this clip you want to watch so

badly isn't available outside the United States!

What's that all about? Why is there an area restriction when watching something online? I'm not in China!
 

I could fathom the dvd region thing, and before that that NTSC/PAL video issues ... but an online region restriction? 

That's just really stupid. Who thought of that one? And why??

 

I mean, it's not like we all live in a communist country where the government tells you what you can and can't do. Right?  

 

<start more gratuitous applause here>

 

 

Drones

Radio Controlled (RC) helicopters and airplanes used to be restricted to certain airspaces to maintain public air saftey.

Drones are, in my opinion, RC helicopters and should be treated as such.

They should also be limited to a certain altitude and their owners should respect this.

This drone fad is getting ridiculously out of hand.

They deserve an equally ridiculous price tag.

"Noooo I don't fly those RC helicopters. They're for nerds. No way, I have a drone! It's like way more cool, man!"

Until one brings down a 767 on approach, killing all 225 souls on board. THEN the laws will change.

 

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Security

“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.” – Eric Schmidt

 

 

I’d like to talk to you about information.

 

Remember how, in the mid 1990’s, the internet was referred to as “The Information Super Highway”?

In that same era most people were completely oblivious to the dangers of that information being so available.

But computer geeks, like myself, knew damn well what was out there and how to get to it.

 

In the 1950’s an information network was set up between military bases in the United States.

This network was called Arpanet. Today it’s called Darpa.

Arpanet basically transmitted design secrets, intelligence, and codes between bases of the various military branches, as well as to and from the Department of Defense.

Access from outside this network was virtually impossible. And that’s because civilians didn’t have access to computers.

Computers back in those days were huge and took up an entire room, not to mention the expense of owning one.

Besides that, civilians had no use for computers. No one knew how they worked, or what they were for.

Everyone was still getting used to an invention called ‘television’.

 

In the late 1970’s, when the first home game computers were being sold, a couple of very smart geeks built their first actual home computers. The evolution of these computers started out very slow, but by the mid 1980’s only people like me had one.

And we were quickly called ‘nerds’.

But we struck back by creating a whole network of our own computers, and programming them to send packets of data to each other. Back and forth. Over and over.

This network was called Bulletin Board System. BBS for short.

Ladies and gentleman, this is how the internet, as we know it today, was actually born.

We hosted our own message boards, and allowed messages from our users to be sent from one BBS to another, which then distributed the messages to its own users. This is the basics of e-mail traffic.

Of course now that happens much faster, but back then a single message needed at least an hour to reach its destination.

A packet of messages needed to travel via nodes (the technical term for user), and then through the host (the techincal term for the BBS) that node was connected to.

The BBS was online 24/7, and this was basically the birth of the first servers, because these were normal computers with only one purpose: to serve as a data storage unit.

This was also back in the day of dial-up modems; these worked off a direct phoneline, so that line was always busy.

Most of us had a second line installed just for the computer.

Everytime a packet of data needed to be sent or received, the computer, or host, would automatically dial out to the first BBS on its list and send a packet of data.

It would then also receive a packet of data, which could contain files and messages for its nodes.

The further away the message of file needed to be sent (for instance from London to Shanghai), the more BBS’s it would need to pass through. And this took time. But this was a safe way to send information.

 

Until we found a way to access public computer systems.

All one needed was the phone number for that computer, and the entry password (if access happened to be locked behind a password).

Have you ever seen the movie Wargames with Matthew Broderick?

If not, you should watch that. Because that is exactly how we used to do it.

It was all fun and games until certain things went online that should have never been accessable.

Like utilities, air traffic control, banks, etc.

Things became serious now, and no one was prepared for the consequences.

 

In the late 1980’s the first pieces of delicate information were stored on central servers of intelligence agencies and some of my fellow geeks knew how to get to it.

This information became a hot commodity, which only grew hotter as time went by.

It doesn’t sell on the open market, but the right (or wrong) buyer can do a lot of damage with it.

The one who controls the information, controls the world. This has never been more true than it is today, and it’s getting worse with each year. We’re at the point where any school kid can extort a fellow classmate by the touch of a button.

 

Secretly the CIA, the NSA, the DoD, and many other agencies, have been trading secrets (covertly of course) with agencies across the globe. One day the FBI was tipped that someone had hacked the Federal Government servers and was digging through Top Secret files.

This led to a sniffer program called Omnivore being put to use in the Clinton era.

It was never really detected by anyone and, according to sources, it really didn’t work that good.

However its predecessor, Carnivore, did work. And it worked well!

Carnivore managed to not only track the hacker, but it was ultimately used to do random searches in civil e-mails.

And that was the start of something ugly.

At this time most civilians were unaware of the e-mail sniffing that Carnivore did.

It did random searches for certain keywords (bomb, president, assassinate, overthrow, murder etc.) and any hits meant both the sender and the receiver would be expecting

a visit from the FBI in the very near future.

In the late 1990’s the use of this program was publicized by one of the world’s first whistleblowers, and this forced the US Government to admit to its existence.

But they sugar-coated its use by saying it was done in the public’s best interest so that another WTC or Oklahoma City bombing could be averted. This seemed to satisfy most people.

As long as there is one person saying “I don’t mind giving up a little freedom if it means we’re kept safe from terrorists”, the Federal Government will keep using such sniffers.

And it has, because most people show their stupidty when they say “I don’t have anything to hide”. Because everyone does.

Think of it this way: wouldn’t you be absolutely appalled if an FBI agent came to your house every day, opened up your mailbox, and then began to read all your private letters?

 

So these sniffers never went away.

Enter Edward Snowden.

The thoughts on him are a bit 50/50; some say he’s a traitor to his country, others feel he’s a hero for trying to do his part in stopping this crime. Because that’s essentially what it is: a crime.

However the Federal Governments of the world disagree with that assessment.

Some governments manage to hide behind a constituntional clause they set for themselves.

The United States has such a constitutional clause. It’s called the Freedom of Information Act.

And this Act basically gives them the right to do whatever they feel is necessary in the interest of National Securtiy.

And you, the people, have okayed it.

 

But keep this in mind: Barrack Obama isn’t the mastermind of this act, nor was he the main man behind the hunt on Snowden.

As a public figure he was faced with the task of telling the American people that very sensitive information had been leaked by Snowden.

However, it was Obama’s National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon, and the Joint Chiefs, who pushed Obama in front of that camera to inform the people what a bad man Snowden really was.

I think deep down Obama was on Snowden’s side the whole time.

I feel what Snowden did was necessary, and incredibly brave.

He may have agreed that National Security needed to be upheld, and that searches for keywords in online transmissions between individuals was much needed, but the NSA took things much too far. And when the public was made aware of this, they were shocked.

But most failed to truly believe just how dangerously over the edge the NSA had gone.

This had nothing to do with upholding the Freedom of Information Act, and everything to do with total invasion of privacy.

And this is a crime.

 

Ladies and gentleman … you ARE being watched!

Taping up a laptop cam isn’t even enough anymore, because no one does that on their smartphones or tablets.

It’s difficult to escape this invasion if you’re not prepared to believe it’s actually happening.

For example: my computer webcam is unplugged until I really want to use it, my smartphone is inside a case (which also holds my atm card and my driver’s license) and the rear camera is always facing away from me or on a desk, my laptop doesn’t have a built-in webcam, and I don’t own a tablet.

That doesn’t mean I can’t be tracked. But I haven’t made it easy for everyone to have a look into what I’m doing.

And that’s what Edward Snowden wants to protect us from.

Please take his advice: protect yourselves. Even if you think you have nothing to hide.

You have a right to your privacy.

Protect that privacy.

 

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