US authorities can see more than ever, with Big Tech as their eyes

I was watching this old British show called connections where they try to connect random things in the world together and they talk about your online persona and how the world will change because of the internet and World Wide Web. What I found interesting is that they present it all as if there will be an online version of you that you should treat, essentially, as a separate entity. It is not you, it is your representative to the digital space. That you should think of it as some agent that does things for you in that space even though in reality it’s simply a collection of data about you. But I liked that idea because it helps create a delineation between you the person and your online presence. I think what people don’t realize these days is that it is rather difficult to be anonymous online in the same way it is rather difficult to be anonymous in a room full of people you know. This is because your online profile is essentially known to any online actor who wants to know as you and the article point out. But tbh I think most people, including myself, spend too much time engaging in doing things connected to online. You don’t need slack and zoom to talk to colleagues it is possible to have in person interactions. You don’t need strava to go for a run. You don’t need your phone to go to the coffee shop and read a book.

The basic rule of thumb is, if a company knows something about you, then the government does too.

Which means they know everything you have posted, everywhere you've gone, everywhere you've worked, what you think politically, and almost certainly have AI profilers trying to "precog" you.

To say nothing of camera surveillance, gait analysis, facial recognition, license plate tracking, cell phone signal interceptors.

All it takes is for one authoritarian to walk in and turn the key and POOF we have perfect.

Are we in danger of that? Oh right, no politics on HN. Don't worry, be happy folks.

For a couple of years now I've been using [my area code] - 555 - [a unique 4-digit pin] for dealing with otherwise "walk-in" business that look at you like you have three heads if you decline to say a phone number out loud. In the US at least, the 555 block is defacto "fictional" and typically isn't assigned out, so it lets me create a valid looking number that won't accidentally ring some random real person if they try to call it.

Its like expecting farm animals to keep track of how the farm works, as the farm gets more and more sophisticated in animal domestication and exploitation. The individual action argument was weak 10 years ago and its worthless today.

The is a Systemic problem. Doesn't matter what the individuals do.

> And the good news is, it's fairly easy to opt out of quite a lot of that.

The problem is that we really need something like herd immunity. If you opt out, but the rest of the people in your life do not, then it's possible to discover most of your data most of the time. You might have location services off, but your friends and family don't, so much of the time there's a good guess where you are at. Or you might not share your phone #, but it can be collected by those that you text or call and shared that way. Creating "shadow accounts" is very advanced these days.

Not to mention, "opt out" has to be actually true and not just a facade.

Just don't bring your phone with you. With low power states and opaque software and hardware, you really can't risk it. You can never be sure it's truly off, unless it's in a Faraday bag. But is it worth it?

It is impossible to avoid, and if you try to avoid it, you stick out. The correct maneuver is to appear normal, but selectively shutdown the system. Turn your phone on airplane and pay with cash with the moment is right. We live in a panopticon afterall.

In a country with the rule of law like the USA, the government can know you committed a crime, you know you committed a crime, society may suspect you of committing a crime, but criminal law requires a jury to convict beyond reasonable doubt. With a good lawyer this is a very tough bar, it's how organized crime gets away with so much (and despite the mafia being out of the news, they operate extremely well to this day).

So selectively you choose when to be anonymous. You pick your battles.

As a practical matter that may help the average HN normie, if you have a family you likely have life insurance. Never, ever, buy alcohol, marijuana, or cigarette / vapes / nicotine products with a credit card. Always pay cash. If you die the insurance company will go through everything to try and deny.

In the reverse case, the modern day can help you. If you drive, get a dashcam. You don't have to reveal video if you are at fault. But if not at fault, the video is gold. Put cameras around your house.

If you have rental property attached to your primary domicile, never have the internet under your own primary internet, lest you give reason for a wayward tenant to cause a search of your own home.

You aren't protecting yourself for the 99.99% time, you are prepared for the 0.01% case

My personal favorite is 281-330-8004.

He wrote about Snowden as late as last year: https://proton.me/blog/us-warrantless-surveillance and corporate role in surveillance state before that https://proton.me/blog/privacy-user-data-requests

Many people I know are switching away from them because of their alleged support of fascism.

It’s not even that they have to “break in.” The government allows big tech companies to basically do whatever they want as long as big tech provides the government with an easy way to move forward with the parallel construction needed to bring case against literally anyone should officials be motivated to see that person imprisoned. Everything you’ve ever done can and will be used against you to maximum effect.

It's the NSA's job to do that domestically, it's just supposed to be firewalled by some hidden kangaroo court that absolutely doesn't do its job: FBI agents have been busted stalking women/exs several times.

Has been since 9/11. Remember, there's the omnipresent neverending war on terror.

Whatever legal requirements might be at play, the fundamental difference is that a US company will comply, whereas a non-cooperative external party would still need to be broken, which is very much non-trivial in the age of strong cryptography, even if you're NSA.

Proton has Proton Pass, even supports passkeys if you're into that.

but it's the truth. where is the lie?

Is it a lie?

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Not quite, I still cared and I’ve personally written to congress about it. Surprisingly, I got a response. Unsurprisingly, the response I got was basically a diplomatic “We know better than you do, we don’t care what you think, we’re going to do it anyway”

The government colluded with Facebook and Twitter during the Biden administration

There's people that think this only happened during the Biden Administration?

Not Obama? Not Trump? Not Bush? Just Biden?

The gullibility of Americans in aggregate is stunning at times. If you're one of those still out preaching the quasi-religions of "left" or "right", you're honestly a large part of the problem at this point. And you're probably too submerged in the holy waters of your quasi-religion's divine scriptures to even begin to understand why.

HN has been full of privacy and critical-of-government-surveillance articles regardless of the presidency for over a decade.

Most obviously, who was President when Snowden leaked things?

Methinks you are overly sensitive on behalf of your chosen boss.

OR you are trying to deflect from the surveillance by making it a partisan thing.

Twitter published a big of gov interference. I distinctly remember most reactions were just nothing-burger. Just partisan politics.

I do care about privacy but only one party wants me dead for being transgender

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