Protecting Yourself from Tracking, Russian Meddling, etc.

[TahoeJ]

If you're really this paranoid about it... I have some bad news for you. You're going to need to throw your cell phone in the trash. ISP's have been tracking all of this shit the whole time, and continue to do so, more or less. Why it doesn't get the proper attention I can't say for sure, but fairly certain it's because they're so tied in with both the government (Comcast spends the second most on lobbying of any company in the country) as well as just about every media company.

Meh, I could care less if my data profile shows where I've been. Nothing to hide - whatever. If I ever need to help a friend bury a body, I'll make sure to leave my phone at home. ;-)

[fmac]

Why do you ask what alternative do I recommend when I gave you an alternative- did you not read? SRWare Iron IS one alternative.... or just use the UnChrome...

Or get off of Windows and read this: https://curiouspost.com/iridium-brow...e-alternative/

Sorry - I did not mention that I looked up SRWare and found a lot of criticism about the effectiveness. Brave, Vivaldi and FF are the most commonly recommended right now. I try to use Tor for general browsing and will switch to FF for anything using sign-ins.

[fmac]

If you're really this paranoid about it... I have some bad news for you. You're going to need to throw your cell phone in the trash. ISP's have been tracking all of this shit the whole time, and continue to do so, more or less. Why it doesn't get the proper attention I can't say for sure, but fairly certain it's because they're so tied in with both the government (Comcast spends the second most on lobbying of any company in the country) as well as just about every media company.

Meh, I could care less if my data profile shows where I've been. Nothing to hide - whatever. If I ever need to help a friend bury a body, I'll make sure to leave my phone at home. ;-)

I think the majority of tech-literate people share that 'nothing to hide' mentality.

What tipped the scales for me is learning about how those 'data profiles' are being used to subversively coax people into thinking certain ways. You might be smart, but AI built on profiling you and finding the most effective way to sway your opinion is smarter. This is especially scary when taking into consideration the 'offline to online' connection -- ads being shown when you walk by certain businesses, Google Maps taking you the route that goes by a business/billboard, a stranger at a bar wearing specific shoes or sharing specific opinions. This is the type of advertising services that are being sold now.

Paranoid? Sure. I think it's worth taking the time to protect oneself as best as possible from this sort of thing.

[RShea]

Sorry - I did not mention that I looked up SRWare and found a lot of criticism about the effectiveness. Brave, Vivaldi and FF are the most commonly recommended right now. I try to use Tor for general browsing and will switch to FF for anything using sign-ins.

Effectiveness of what- it's browser functions, security or hiding from the things you want to try and keep private? I use it regularly if it matters at all, and it is an effective alternative to Google Chrome. So if you have particular discussion on what it is not effectively good at, I'd be happy to find out what those are....

[PNWbrit]

You might be smart, but AI built on profiling you and finding the most effective way to sway your opinion is smarter.

Maybe the AI just wants you to think that?

[TahoeJ]

I’m in Ad Tech. Trust me, it’s not nearly as advanced as everyone seems to believe. Some overly specific manipulation technique would be way too time consuming for a lack of scale and therefore not provide adequate return on investment.

[Supermoon]

I think you’re underselling how easy people are to manipulate when they are in an environment that people are told to trust.

I’m in an ad fraud rabbit hole right now for a talk I’m giving and the amount of manipulation, bad faith and outright fraud is mind boggling. $22 billion in mobile ad fraud alone.

[TahoeJ]

I think you’re underselling how easy people are to manipulate when they are in an environment that people are told to trust.

I’m in an ad fraud rabbit hole right now for a talk I’m giving and the amount of manipulation, bad faith and outright fraud is mind boggling. $22 billion in mobile ad fraud alone.

No, I just mean that the hyper specific stuff that really scares people is actually way too specific to be used in any broad / realistic sense. I don't disagree with what you're saying. We should get a beer some time if ever in the same neck of the woods... mobile redirects (ugh) are a huge fucking headache for me these days. So many of these platforms are either complicit or incredibly oblivious.

[Supermoon]

Oh. Yeah. That’s true. It’s also probably overkill. It’s easy enough to set up a fake news website, buy a bunch of impressions, and game the trending algorithms which only uses the baked in targeting of the ad tech platforms.

I mostly try to remove any monetary support of the whole system by blocking ads and staying off of the social networks as much as is possible. As with everything, if the money dries up the rest of it will die off.

Definitely down for a beer and commiseration about this shit. lol.

[TahoeJ]

It’s easy enough to set up a fake news website, buy a bunch of impressions, and game the trending algorithms which only uses the baked in targeting of the ad tech platforms.

One encouraging thing I've seen in this regard is that a lot of major DSP's are just outright blocking sites with political content now as an across the board policy, unless it's an established newspaper or something like that.

[Meadow Skipper]

Heh. Do you ever use a credit or debit card?

I think I’m able to ignore/resist targeted advertising, and I really don’t have anything to hide...except that I spend a little too much time chatting and arguing with you fools here.

But that’s what the cabal wants me to think I guess.

[::: :::]

We got this message last night when a local 911 service went down because of hosting by Century Link that was failing nationally



Story here
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2018...heres-why.html

It seems like even if you don’t use internet driven stuff, your local emergency services do. And, they can be crippled via that shared service.

[Skidog]

We got this message last night when a local 911 service went down because of hosting by Century Link that was failing nationally



Story here
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2018...heres-why.html

It seems like even if you don’t use internet driven stuff, your local emergency services do. And, they can be crippled via that shared service.

Likely using VoIP phone system. Totally dependent on internet connectivity. For sure hacking the internet can bring down many services people depend on. Water delivery, electrical grid, food supply chain, so on are all very vulnerable.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

[RShea]

We got this message last night when a local 911 service went down because of hosting by Century Link that was failing nationally



Story here
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2018...heres-why.html

It seems like even if you don’t use internet driven stuff, your local emergency services do. And, they can be crippled via that shared service.

CenturyLink had major outages yesterday that caused all sorts of problems. Good news though was while they were down and not able to provide internet to businesses and individuals, none of those affected were being tracked, targetted with ads or had anything to worry about other than could they make a call to emergency services (or have to call the local police or fire department directly most likely)....

[MontuckyFried]

Ok. Whatever idiot in charge that awarded CenturyLink of all companies the account to handle something as vital as 911 needs to be fired, then tarred and feathered immediately. What a terrible, terrible company. Also crazy that anybody thought it would be acceptable to depend on VOIP for emergency services.

[Skidog]

Ok. Whatever idiot in charge that awarded CenturyLink of all companies the account to handle something as vital as 911 needs to be fired, then tarred and feathered immediately. What a terrible, terrible company. Also crazy that anybody thought it would be acceptable to depend on VOIP for emergency services.

Well normal telephone lines are going the way of the dodo bird and are prohibitively expensive compared to internet only. Having backups is key, however lots of companies share the "last mile" and if some construction guy on the street hits the wrong wire even the backup can be down.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

[Bunion 2020]

^^^ Seriously, I had the locates done, they were just off by a foot or ten.

[old goat]

I wonder how much hacking of individual computers and phones go on. Seems like it's a lot easier to hack a big company and get a few hundred million people's info.
I wonder how much good changing passwords does--seems like if hackers get passwords they will use them immediately--whether that password is 10 years or 10 minutes old wouldn't seem to matter.
As far as being fed fake news, it's pretty simple--stop getting news from social media. Getting political news from Facebook makes as much sense as relying on TGR for your medical and legal advice.

[grinch]

Might be prudent to put some extra locks on the valuables. I tend to agree with this
https://twitter.com/MingGao26/status...45794850250752

[FLS]

As far as being fed fake news, it's pretty simple--stop getting news from social media. Getting political news from Facebook makes as much sense as relying on TGR for your medical and legal advice.

Funny ain't it.

[RShea]

Well normal telephone lines are going the way of the dodo bird and are prohibitively expensive compared to internet only. Having backups is key, however lots of companies share the "last mile" and if some construction guy on the street hits the wrong wire even the backup can be down.

Does not even need to be construction- Landscapers mowing or running a weed wacker with those metal blades can even do it.

Turns out that Centurylink claims their large system wide outage was a network card in Denver. https://www.geekwire.com/2018/report...card-colorado/ so obviously I find that pretty suspect that even East Coast as well as most of the the Western states were without 911 because of a single network management card.

[wyeaster]

the cards are obviously made in china! or russia!

[RShea]

the cards are obviously made in china! or russia!

Most likely China, possibly Korea, Singapore, or other SE Asia (software, some app code or firmware maybe from Russia but hardly any circuit boards are imported from Russia), but a single card causing that big of an outage means they must have no redundancy at all in their network setup if their claim is in fact accurate.

[wyeaster]

Most likely China, possibly Korea, Singapore, or other SE Asia (software, some app code or firmware maybe from Russia but hardly any circuit boards are imported from Russia), but a single card causing that big of an outage means they must have no redundancy at all in their network setup if their claim is in fact accurate.

it was a joke but i agree

[Bobby Stainless]

Likely using VoIP phone system. Totally dependent on internet connectivity. For sure hacking the internet can bring down many services people depend on. Water delivery, electrical grid, food supply chain, so on are all very vulnerable.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using TGR Forums mobile app

That's reassuring.