The NSA toolbox catalogue

[Dread Knot]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Exactly. So there are two choices you can make in life, you can live your life in fear and panic about being watched all the time, or you can accept it as something in life that you have no control over and you are unable to change and move on.

As children we had to deal with that notion for years. It was drummed into our heads every December that a jolly old elf was doing surveillance on us from an Arctic outpost...

He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.

I grew up assuming I was being watched. Of course knowing that the government is doing it is a little unnerving because they can haul you off to Gitmo, instead of sticking you with a lump of coal.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Catfish

When there are drones and cameras everywhere (like in London now) with face recognition software and RFID chips in your underpants, you can cut your cables and connections as you want, and it will mean exactly nothing. The whole system and thinking behind it is foul.

Have some fun. You could wear a disguise, fake beard, dress like a woman..etc. Take a different route every day. Live like a secret agent.

The whole system and thinking behind it is foul.

That is true.

Originally Posted by Oberon

Exactly. So there are two choices you can make in life, you can live your life in fear and panic about being watched all the time, or you can accept it as something in life that you have no control over and you are unable to change and move on.

Right. I choose the latter. What could possibly make people think that they are under suspicion? Suspicious activity? No one likes being watched but every place of business has had surveillance for quite some time. As far as being falsely suspected or accused of something, that happened long before the present technology existed. Sometimes you're the windshield....
Sometimes you're the bug.

[MH]

Originally Posted by Catfish

When there are drones and cameras everywhere (like in London now) with face recognition software and RFID chips in your underpants, you can cut your cables and connections as you want, and it will mean exactly nothing. The whole system and thinking behind it is foul.

As with many technologies we can always focus on negative aspect of the issue and talk about it all day while creating dark scenarios of possible future.
This is cool and should be taken into consideration yet it doesn't mean that the dark scenarios you are predicting will actually happen...
On principal level it is annoying that government can intercept phone calls but who really give a damn what catfish or MH is babbling about on the phone or on subsim.
Yes , on principal level it is violation of privacy but there are also positive aspects to surveillance.
I agree that if your attitude toward government is sort of "enemy number one villain" this may be a big issue.
I dont like my current government very much and don't trust it 100% but i'm pretty sure that there are a lot of people in surveillance territory that are not some devils that wait to take control over my life...like in hollywood movie but rather are doing their job.
Im sort of naive guy.

When it comes to states spying on each other ...well whats knew here.
All this outrage is just pure populism.
I supose every head of state knows better than talk about some stuff on the cell phone and so on....
It is this way for thousends of years only the tools change.
Maybe the world will be better place some day.?