Internet cold turkey .... do you ever ...

[Spreadie]

I'm fairly misanthropic at times, so I could probably manage just fine if I took a month off and cut all ties; yet I spend an inordinate amount of time online at work and at home. Not that it will happen - having kids changes things a bit. They've grown up with the internet as an ever-present entity that is taken for granted just as readily as running water or television. Switching off the router would be taken as punishment for an unknown transgression.

[santa claus]

I know what you mean about intrusiveness. These days I will only do searches for porn, terrorism, facism, how to make a dirty bomb, how to hack Government computer systems, how to commit online identity fraud and how to undertake covert surveillance in women's toilets.

I don't want the Government to really know what I'm interested in and you just never know who's watching .

[Saracen]

I know what you mean about intrusiveness. These days I will only do searches for porn, terrorism, facism, how to make a dirty bomb, how to hack Government computer systems, how to commit online identity fraud and how to undertake covert surveillance in women's toilets.

I don't want the Government to really know what I'm interested in and you just never know who's watching .

Satire aside, that's partly my concern. There are legitimate reasons why I might search for many, or all, of those .... though the last might stretch it a bit. The question is, what can correctly be inferred from those searches?

As someone regularly debating issues, like ID theft or terrorism, I might be looking for material to inform me on an issue, or to back up an argument or point of view. As a journalist, I might be researching an article. As a writer, I could be building background reseatch for a book. Suppose I'm writing a Clancy/Ludlum type thriller? How to steal an identity, or build a dirty bomb (or any sort of bomb for that matter) could be necessary to provide credibility to the story. For that matter, my bad guy might be doing research on the net, so I have to do research on the net to get a feel for what is really there, so as to portray my bad guy's experiences reasonably credibly. I don't need to build a bomb, or even to have all necessary information to do so, but I do have to know enough to make it sound like my bad guy's actions are credible. Yet doing so could well raise red flags.

What you don't necessarily know, though, is what effects those flags might have?

For instance, someone (you, IIRC) recently suggested (a TAD tongue in cheek, I assume) I be Prime Minister. Well, a little less ambitiously, suppose I decided to stand for Parliament, or even sought candidacy from a party. What's to say that a "quiet word" might not be had by someone from the intelligence services about some vague and unspecified, but "concerning" activity in my internet activity, because I was researching for a book?

Or, having searched for information on child porn for an article, my attempts to get a teaching job run into similar roadblocks? Or, if my job requires vetting, who's to say what shows up then?

Yet, take it as a certainty that if I was browsing the web for plans to actually build a bomb, I damn well wouldn't do it on any internet connection that could be traced to me. My book's bad guy would take a drive some miles from home with an anonymous PC, and a net connection sniffer, looking for either an unsecured wifi connection (of which there are still, astonishingly, plenty out there(*)) or for a simple WEP connection that, with a little knowledge and equipment, is trivial to hack. The first the owner of that net connection will know about it is when anti-terror police kick his door in.

So, that kind of snooping by government first risks unfairly targetting the merely curious, and secondly, will only catch terminally stupid terrorists .... or paedophiles, etc.

Finally, as I said, I'm more annoyed by (rather than worried about) snooping by corporates than governments.

But either way, we the public have NO way to know what data is being collected/collated about us, by either government or big business, let alone what inferences they draw from it or what they do with those inferences, even if it's only to decline to offer you health insurance or to increase you car insurance premiums. Or to reject your job application.

Fanciful? Think so?

(*) That one, I actually did research for an article. A simple, free Android app will detectcand identify wifi links, and the encryption. Hacking WEP is not quite that easy, though far from difficult, and yes, I have the necessary tools, just to prove I can get them.

[Apex]

Yet, I'm feeling increasingly jaded about it. I'm not sure why, though.

This is how i feel towards it. I am not sure if it is because i am getting older but, i can not put my finger on it fully.

I have seen massive changes since 1996 (i was online before this date but thats been lost to history) and i am starting to feel uneasy about what the future holds.

The general feeling that there is giant troll sat in the room is making me feel very uncomfortable.

[santa claus]

Fanciful? Think so?

Oh no I absolutely agree. All these databases are linking together all over the place. I don't think we're all actively monitored yet but the data is there for when it may be needed. You'll remember my concern about Phorm....it was the thin end of the wedge and that kind of data collection won't go away.

A worrying thing is that decent, ordinary and harmless people like us might get labelled simply because of our curiosity about anything and everything.

You'll need to sort this out with GCHQ when you're PM.

[Saracen]

.... You'll remember my concern about Phorm....it was the thin end of the wedge and that kind of data collection won't go away.

....

Indeed, and I share those views about Phorm.

..... I don't think we're all actively monitored yet but the data is there for when it may be needed....

I don't think we are either. I don't know that we aren't, but I don't think so.

....

A worrying thing is that decent, ordinary and harmless people like us might get labelled simply because of our curiosity about anything and everything.

....

Indeed. The internet does have dangers, some obvious, some less so. Facing the consequences of injudicious statements on Facebook, etc, is pretty obvious, but what's done with data we don't even know is being collected is not. For instance, all those apps that require permission to access parts of your data they don't need for the app are doing so for a reason, but ..... what?

.... You'll need to sort this out with GCHQ when you're PM.

Hell no. Think of the power that access to that database will give me.

[santa claus]

Hell no. Think of the power that access to that database will give me.

Hahaaaaar good one . Now I know you're going to be keeping an eye on me I will have to pad out my searches with loads of stuff that doesn't interest me and only read the stuff that does when I'm offline. Not perfect but it'll keep you guessing

[Saracen]

Oh, curses. Foiled again.