Danger, Will Robinson… DANGER! Big Brother IS Watching -and- Listening!

Feeling paranoid?

Not to worry.

You just think you are.

But it’s true.

YOU’RE BEING WATCHED.

-and-

Did you know?

Even the direction-finding app Waze is owned by Google.

The G will eat your babies.

The G has already eaten your lunch.

And G, you didn’t even know it.

The G is Google.

So, here’s the deal: You THINK you’re searching for something and the search will return UNBIASED results… right?

WRONG!

From Forbes, Mar 5, 2012, 12:34pm: “Google will track what you search for in its search engine facility and then use that intelligence to its advantage.”

But we can go back even further to see where “You’re not the customer; you’re the product.”

In 1973 the artists Richard Serra and Carlota Fay Schoolman broadcast a short video titled “Television Delivers People.” An anodyne soundtrack played while sentences in white text on a blue background slowly scrolled upward. The messages displayed thematically matched the saying under exploration. Emphases were added to the excerpt by Quote Investigator: ¹”

Commercial television delivers 20 million people a minute.
In commercial broadcasting
the viewer pays for the privilege of having himself sold.
It is the consumer who is consumed.
You are the product of t.v.
You are delivered to the advertiser who is the customer.
He consumes you.
The viewer is not responsible for programming——
You are the end product.

If you think that anything has changed, you’re WRONG AGAIN.

This time, it’s Google.

And not only is there online Google, there’s now the danger of Amazon’s Alexa listening device, which increasingly is being found to be not only INSECURE, but invasive.

Truly…

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING!

Look, I’m not now, nor have I ever been one to be conspiracy-minded, nor any kind of fear-monger. But THIS is not surreptitious, this is BLATANT! Echo/Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google’s Home Assistant are ALL privacy invaders! Those so-called “smart speakers” are ALWAYS LISTENING! They’re snoops! Blatant eavesdroppers! And the tragic irony is, folks freely give up their privacy to have that “shiny new thing.”

Okay, perhaps you don’t have that “shiny new thing,” and if you don’t, GOOD FOR YOU! But here’s some food for thought: You’re STILL being tracked by Google, and other Internet-connected products. One of the most ubiquitous is the computer you’re using.

In a recent simple test performed by 76 different people at different locations throughout the United States, they all searched at the same time for the terms “gun control.” Then, they logged out of their computers, logged back in, and used the “private browsing mode” (which is really not private at all), and 62 of them got different search results.

What does that mean?

An unbiased search engine would return the same results time, and time again, whereas a biased search engine would return results based upon numerous interfering factors – which is what Google does.

Now consider also this: For some, this gets “nerdy,” and they quickly become lost, or lose interest. But would you lose interest if you knew someone was going to pick your pocket?

Essentially, that’s what’s happening, because YOU have become a product to be bought and sold.

The research, which is available here – https://spreadprivacy.com/google-filter-bubble-study/ – found some very disconcerting findings.

Finding #1: Most people saw results unique to them, even when logged out and in private browsing mode.

Finding #2: Google included links for some participants that it did not include for others.

Finding #3: We saw significant variation within the News and Videos infoboxes.

Finding #4: Private browsing mode and being logged out of Google offered almost zero filter bubble protection.

“… variation in private browsing mode (also known as incognito mode) and logged out of Google as about the same as in normal mode. Most people expect both being logged out and going “incognito” to provide some anonymity. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception as websites use IP addresses and browser fingerprinting to identify people that are logged out or in private browsing mode.”

The EU (European Union) had earlier enacted legislation which ensured online privacy which became effective recently, which gave strict guidelines for the protection of privacy of their residents. Not so in the USA.

Essentially, online giants and technology companies have been given free reign by Congress to do whatever they like. It’s part and parcel of their “hands-off” laissez-faire, ivory tower, allegedly free-market notion. And, they have done it. Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others are all increasingly being scrutinized because of how they’ve been manipulated by our national enemies, the Russians, and others, to sow chaos and wreak havoc in our nation, especially and particularly during elections, such as in the 2016 General Election, and most recently in the 2018 Mid-term Election.

It’s not a joke. On Jul 31, 2017, 12:37pm, Forbes published an article by Jay McGregor which stated in part that, “Facebook ‘dark ads’ (a political advert tailored to a specific personality type that only that individual can see) have the power to swing political opinions.”

The industry which thrives on the free availability of your deeply personal data, whether in Facebook, or those companies that collect and sell your information, is not going away. It’s called “psychographic profiling,” though it ought to be called “spychographic,” since it’s being used against you. Essentially, you and millions of others are so much data to be bought, and sold… because the companies purchasing your information want to sell you something. Regardless whether anonymized, or not, people are freely giving away their birthright – freedom and privacy – for a cheap bowl of porridge. And the companies don’t care, because the payoff is much too large, and the risk is exceedingly small.

Bottom line?

You don’t know how your “anonymized” information is being used against you.

Known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it established “rules relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and rules relating to the free movement of personal data,” and “protects fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular their right to the protection of personal data,” and furthermore establishes that “the free movement of personal data within the Union shall be neither restricted nor prohibited for reasons connected with the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.”

In other words, our neighbors “across the pond” have more online privacy than do you, or I.

Yeah.

How about THEM apples, eh?

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can protect yourself, here are few good sites which can guide your actions.

https://www.OnlinePrivacyFoundation.org/

Electronic Frontier Foundation – https://www.eff.org/

Use the search engine DuckDuckGo.com – the search engine that does NOT track you. Learn more about it here: https://duckduckgo.com/spread

Use the EFF’s browser add-on called Privacy Badger. – https://www.eff.org/privacybadger

Use the Firefox Quantum browser INSTEAD OF Google Chrome, Chromimum, Internet Explorer, or Safari. – https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Alternatively, you can use the Opera browser, which incorporates a free VPN, and is available for mobile devices. – https://www.opera.com/

If you prefer, and must have the Chrome style browser, instead, use the Epic browser, which is a private and secure web browser, with a free built-in VPN that blocks ads, trackers, fingerprinting, cryptomining, ultrasound signaling and more. –  https://www.epicbrowser.com/

Use the browser add-on HTTPS Everywhere by the EFF. – https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

Use Signal, instead of any other instant text messaging app, including WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook). – https://www.signal.org/

Start learning about online security from this easy-to-understand EFF page. – https://ssd.eff.org/en/taxonomy/term/362/

Learn more about secure browsers here. – https://www.techworld.com/security/best-8-secure-browsers-3246550/

Today, Thursday, January 3, 2019, we’ll have a bright, new, and shiny Congress, the 116th, with 102 female U.S. House members — about a 25% of all members — 34.3% of them for the first time, and in the Senate, 25 women, 20% of whom are new, will be sworn in, beating the previous record of 23 female Senators.

We’re ALL expecting GREAT things from these new faces!

So… what will our new Congress do to PROTECT US from intrusive data giants?

Stay tuned.

Until then…

Danger, Will Robinson… DANGER!