If you're not doing anything wrong, or even suspicious.........................what does it matter if THEY know all about your doin's???
A few weeks back this thing showed up right at the intersection with the main road to town, or heading the other way to the Big Towns, from our area. I recently had coffee with a neighbor and some of his friends, most of whom are members of the sheriff's posse, and was told it was a license plate reader. I asked if it was approved by the county and they all said "Yes". And that the Sheriff assured the county it was only for reading plates to catch stolen vehicles and other criminals trying to escape.
My reply was, given our present Sheriff that is likely true..................but who knows about future administrations? Was told there were 7 in the county now, and I have a sneaky suspicion they are located where they can tell where anyone leaving our 'hood is headed. I will be keeping my eye out for them.
With Old Glory waving in the breeze in the background even
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
VPN's make you THINK you are communicating over a secure "private" connection. Two points to consider:
First, Bitcoin is based on block chain, supposedly one of the most secure connections available. If Bitcoin is so secure, how did the Federal government recover two thirds of the Bitcoin ransom to the Pipeline hack back in 2021?
Second, anyone remember Phillip Zimmerman? Inventor of PGP Pretty Good Privacy? Federal Gov was on him like white on rice for a number of years because he would not give them a back door to break PGP security. And then suddenly, one day, they weren't. What changed?
VPN or no, anyone who thinks that their online digital communication cannot be tracked is a fool...
VPN's make you THINK you are communicating over a secure "private" connection. Two points to consider:
First, Bitcoin is based on block chain, supposedly one of the most secure connections available. If Bitcoin is so secure, how did the Federal government recover two thirds of the Bitcoin ransom to the Pipeline hack back in 2021?
Second, anyone remember Phillip Zimmerman? Inventor of PGP Pretty Good Privacy? Federal Gov was on him like white on rice for a number of years because he would not give them a back door to break PGP security. And then suddenly, one day, they weren't. What changed?
VPN or no, anyone who thinks that their online digital communication cannot be tracked is a fool...
To the Colonial Pipeline ransom issue - the FBI was able to recover the blockchain because it was sitting in a hot wallet (blockchain wallet) that was connected to the Internet (that's stupid). They hacked the wallet, not the blockchain. Today, both hot and cold wallets are far more secure and it's anyone's guess if the FBI hacking tools can successfully crack a hot wallet. I wouldn't want to find out.
At the end of the day, it is impossible to crack a cold wallet unless you have physical access to it. Pretty easy to hide a cold wallet from unauthorized access. The Earth is a pretty big place. Hell, just ask any Bigfoot.
First, Bitcoin is based on block chain, supposedly one of the most secure connections available. If Bitcoin is so secure, how did the Federal government recover two thirds of the Bitcoin ransom to the Pipeline hack back in 2021?
The people who received the ransom left 2/3s of it in a wallet that their exchange held the encryption keys to.
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Second, anyone remember Phillip Zimmerman? Inventor of PGP Pretty Good Privacy? Federal Gov was on him like white on rice for a number of years because he would not give them a back door to break PGP security. And then suddenly, one day, they weren't. What changed?
Mostly there were easier implementations for securing electronic communications, so PGP's user base dwindled to nothing. It still lives as an open source application. The Feds went after Apple for back doors as well, and keys, but Apple has so far not given them up and the Feds have found other ways to get in.
Once all the counties in a State share their license plate reader info, in real time, and then each State shares with other states, they will know where and when you are traveling.
Going to have to get me one of those James Bond rotating license plate holder goodies for my Tacoma.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
The idea of internet security and anonymity in today's world is fictitious.
I believe every word of THAT....
Not using a VPN because you believe it does not protect you from the NSA is like not carrying a gun because the government can drone you from 10,000 feet.
To believe that a VPN magically protects your data and identity relies on one issue - Do you trust the VPN? Your VPN provider knows all about you, your credit card and/or banking details. Most say they do not keep logs, but how can you verify that? Who says the VPN hasn't been compromised as well or is cooperating with the government or governments?
VPN's make you THINK you are communicating over a secure "private" connection. Two points to consider:
First, Bitcoin is based on block chain, supposedly one of the most secure connections available. If Bitcoin is so secure, how did the Federal government recover two thirds of the Bitcoin ransom to the Pipeline hack back in 2021?
Second, anyone remember Phillip Zimmerman? Inventor of PGP Pretty Good Privacy? Federal Gov was on him like white on rice for a number of years because he would not give them a back door to break PGP security. And then suddenly, one day, they weren't. What changed?
VPN or no, anyone who thinks that their online digital communication cannot be tracked is a fool...
The Bitcoin is not private, the block chain ledger is public. MOST people can't make heads or tails of it, but those with unlimited resources, like the government can figure it out.
It's common knowledge PGP's been broken, and indication are it wasn't via a backdoor.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
A VPN will tell you they don't keep logs of your usage. I believe that about as much as the government not keeping gun purchase records.
Some do and some don't. There is no way to be certain they don't but you can be fairly confident by checking out forums where torrent enthusiasts post to see if customers of any VPN companies are getting DMCA notices from their ISPs. Hollywood, music companies, software licensing groups...are all still aggressive in going after people who torrent copyrighted content. People who do that don't have their internet services long their VPNs give them up.
You should also avoid any VPN companies owned by Jews or with Jews in leadership positions.
A lot of VPNs also supposedly open up their systems for third party auditors to look at, Deloitte for example, who back up the claim no logs are kept. I have no first hand experience with audits like that but I gotta wonder if the best and brightest are out there doing them.
Probably also look at a VPN that is based somewhere outside the US.
Also once you are using it, test for DNS leaks regularly. This is easy to do by searching "DNS leak test" and running the test on the first couple of web sites you hit. DNS is by far the easiest exposure point for someone trying to track what you do on the web.
I've worked with 3rd party auditors at several firms. Generally they are very good and know how to sus out "area's of interest".
For auditing firms reputation is everything. If they loose credibility they are out of business. Look what happened to Arthur Anderson during the Enron Crisis. Once the fraud was discovered Anderson was out of business before Enron. Auditing firms generally do not survive scandals.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
To believe that a VPN magically protects your data and identity relies on one issue - Do you trust the VPN? Your VPN provider knows all about you, your credit card and/or banking details. Most say they do not keep logs, but how can you verify that? Who says the VPN hasn't been compromised as well or is cooperating with the government or governments?
Data security is a fantasy.
Even if they're not it wouldn't take them long to map IP address to specific VPN providers and flows in and out of the VPN providers, especially if the ISP's are cooperating.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
VPN's Private vs Public video posted to YouTube on Jul 14, 2022
"Virtual Private Network (VPNs) are another name for tunneling. A VPN tunnel is an encrypted link between your computer and another network. In this video, we discuss Public VPNs, Private VPN's and even Site to Site VPNs."
Swiss legal protection, no matter where you are Proton VPN is based in Switzerland, giving you the protection of some of the world’s strongest privacy laws.
- Keep your browsing private with our no-logs policy - Protect your online activity with strict Swiss privacy laws - Use a VPN in a country with a long history of respecting privacy
* A Swiss-based VPN service When you connect to Proton VPN, you enjoy the same legal protections that ensure the privacy of all Swiss citizens. Proton VPN is built by the same group of scientists who met at CERN and founded Proton Mail, the largest encrypted email provider. We are based in Switzerland, allowing us to pass the benefits of Swiss data protection on to you.
* No-logs VPN The laws in Switzerland allow us to implement a strict no-logs policy, which means we do not monitor your IP address, your session lengths, your browsing history, or any other information that could identify you. Our no-logs policy has been verified by independent experts.
* Strong legal protections Under Swiss data protection regulations, we are not required to comply with requests that are not supported by a Swiss court order.
* Swiss neutrality Switzerland is well-known for its political neutrality. It is not part of the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, or 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing networks and is outside US and EU jurisdictions.
I doubt you really believe that. The question is always: securing your data against whom?
A motivated adversary with effectively unlimited resources will eventually win. But one just like that didn't catch Edward Snowden until it was too late and he was already gone. In fact it didn't catch him at all, he had to out himself.
If I want to keep my ISP from knowing what I do or where I go on the internet I am 100% confident I can. Same for local law enforcement. I am confident I can send an email that is secure from any MitM eavesdropping that isn't one of the above adversaries and I don't delude myself any of them care what I am writing about anyway. I can keep public wifi logs from knowing anything useful as well, or businesses with guest wifi. If someone who isn't an employee of a large government gets physical access to my computer I am confident they will not be able to access anything on it in clear text.
If you genuinely think data security is a fantasy, post your name, address, date of birth, social security number, banking information and credit card numbers in this thread. The Feds probably already have it anyway.
Some of the biggest data breaches have come from inside players. Folks who have easy access to sensitive data and decide to share, sell, or extort. You may be doing everything you can to protect your most deepest darkest secrets and some GenZ nose picker is busy selling your data on the Dark Web or to other actors intent on using the data to their benefit.
Personally, the only thing I protect are business documents. I send all that via Sync.com arguably the safest data encryption cloud storage/file sharing service available. The rest are transported on a Kingston Ironkey encrypted thumb drive. Good luck with all that.
At the end of the day, I don't have anything that would ruin me if I were hacked or monitored. No one can access my banking, investments, or credit without going through a bunch of hoops and verifications. Credit cards are protected and monitored. I am not paranoid someone is watching, but if they were, I am sure they are bored to death. Not planning to overthrow any governments or launch nuclear missiles. There are 5.35 billion other folks who access the internet; it's a numbers game.
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If you genuinely think data security is a fantasy, post your name, address, date of birth, social security number, banking information and credit card numbers in this thread. The Feds probably already have it anyway.
As a taxpayer since forever, the Feds most certainly do have all my data.
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