Surveillance technologies now available - including the monitoring of virtually all digital information - have advanced to the point where much of the essential apparatus of a police state is already in place.
- Al Gore -
You're being watched and tracked and almost everything about your life is documented and retained in...well, I'm not quite sure exactly where...but I know it's happening. It's happening to you and I and virtually everyone one the planet; it's pretty much unavoidable, even if one does not maintain much of an online digital presence; someone is always watching.
I recently had a meeting with a company operating in the surveillance space, aerial surveillance, tracking, modelling and mapping specifically, and the meeting (which I'll not talk about here) made me think about it from a personal perspective...being watched and tracked.
If you have a mobile phone you can be tracked and listened to and if you send or store data digitally it can be compromised, taken, altered, disseminated and stored...or all of the above; I think we all know that, but I think few know (or maybe care) about just how intrusive surveillance and tracking of individuals can be. Most probably cover the camera on their laptop computers (or should) and we mostly don't disseminate personal details like credit cards, passwords, date of birth and so on (or shouldn't) and we maintain basic security over our personal lives but is it enough? I don't think so...surveillance capabilities go far beyond such simplistic measures.
I'm bemused by people who scatter their personal details all over social media (for whatever gain they feel they get) which is like throwing fuel on an already burning fire; It'll not go well at some stage, one only needs to investigate how many people are compromised around the world, and to what degree, to know that.
Recently there was an attack on an Australian business by Russian hackers and many thousands of customers' details were stolen; I was one of them and still get hit by scammers on a daily basis because of it. Most of those attacks are rather sophisticated and it takes constant vigilance to ensure I mitigate the risks. This, from a person who is reasonably aware in this regard, I can only imagine what it might be like for people who are not as savvy. And yet, that risk notwithstanding, people are willing to push their information outwards seemingly without care or thought for the possible implications.
The reality is that people are either not aware, overwhelmed by risk mitigation techniques or uncaring...they feel safe behind a thin veil of security but at the same time send their data far and wide.
Take people on Hive for instance, hiding behind a little username...it's laughable really, a façade of security and anonymity because, in truth, they have none because their lives are tracked, gathered and retained literally every day; nothing is secure or secret to those who know how to get what they want...your government, hackers, criminal networks...they know who you are and your information is not secure. But that username makes people feel safe and secure...even though they simply are not.
It was interesting to see how invasive and thorough surveillance is and I'm sure I was privy to only a small part of it in that meeting. There's no getting away from it and a person's mobile phone/tracking device and the internet are the most useful tools those gathering information have...and probably the two areas people are most careless with.
We all have methods of maintaining security over our information (or should have). I don't think many of you would use some of the techniques other highly-security-conscious people might but hopefully you have a plan which you stick to and apply some caution.
It could be as simple as using a secure messaging service like Threema and an encrypted email like ProtonMail like I do. I also don't have Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and for some of my communications use a burner phone which was activated using a prepaid SIM (which was then discarded) and is now only used over public WIFI with an encrypted messaging service and left off at all other times...that helps it to be less trackable. Extreme measures? Nope.
There's other things like password protocols, misinformation and misdirection, VPN's and many more...but I wonder what you think and do when it comes to your personal information-security.
Are you one who tends not to give it much thought or care? Do you think a Hive username is enough to give you anonymity (it isn't, by the way), do you use VPN's and encrypted message and email services like Threema, Signal and ProtonMail also? Are you free with your information or do you work towards guarding it? Are you one of those people who think no one would bother tracking your life...you'd be wrong if you think that. What's your deal and how do you lock yourself up from a cyber and personal-security-risk perspective?
Feel free to comment below as I'm keen to hear about it and if you have any cool systems that help you maintain your security please feel free to share them.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Any images in this post are my own.
