Quit Google, Facebook' suggests tech expert as surveillance scandal deepens

[damnedifIknow]

"A best-selling author and technology expert has said that web users should boycott internet giants like Google and Facebook if it is confirmed they were involved in a US surveillance programme referred to as Prism.

In an interview with Wired.co.uk, Professor Tim Wu of Columbia Law School suggested that consumers had a responsibility to leave social networks found out to be collaborating secretly with intelligence services such as the US National Security Agency:

"Quit Facebook and use another search engine. It's simple." He added, "It's nice to keep in touch with your friends. But I think if you find out if it's true that these companies are involved in these surveillance programs you should just quit."

Wu cautioned that he felt many facts were not yet verified but admitted he was not surprised to hear of the existence of Prism. News of the programme was, he said, "shocking and dispiriting".

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/10/tim-wu-google-boycott

[datasuspect]

1. i made a decision to only use a computer/internet

during "traditional" business hours. and that's it - i can be online between 5 am and 3pm M - F (those are my business hours). i'm not necessarily glued to a computer 10 hours per day, but i allow myself to use digital/electronic/internet technologies within that time period.

time off periods? i still use technology like electricity to power lights and stuff, but i started reading actual books again. taking walks, preparing a meal, looking up the sky - very simple things.

i feel like my mind has been freed up a little. computers are a like a tether that in the long run can make you as stupid as teevee does unless you are very disciplined in using them (VERY SPECIFIC business purposes).

[railsback]

2. How would you know who's 'involved'?

The government can subpoena ANY social network. Avoiding Google and Facebook is nonsensical unless you completely give up social networking altogether.

[pipi_k]

3. Yep...including

DU.

It occurred to me the other day after posting some information on my dad that anyone who is actively following me could get some pertinent info.

A person could look here on DU to see what groups I post on. Medical issues? Politics? Other interests?

Using my dad's name and dates of birth/death, someone could bring up his obit which could still include info on his survivors. What my name is. The specific city/town where I live, etc.

People could track my purchases through Amazon by looking for my product reviews (which I leave using my first name and last initial.

People who think their banking information is secure because they don't do online banking...think again. More than once in my area some dufus in a bank has thrown financial records into an on-site dumpster for anyone to find.

Some physicians/medical centers are posting patient test results/meds/diagnoses online, where I imagine they could be hacked.

The only way to escape any type of information gathering at all is to go live in a cave, off the grid in the middle of nowhere.

[railsback]

8. True, privacy nowadays is in an off the grid cave in the middle of nowhere

I find the whole argument nonsensical. I even get emails now from people I know, but aren't the people I know, just using their names in the headers. Who knows what other people have dug up in my online presence.

[Orrex]

6. Not only that, but if you're already online, then you might as well stay

Your online history alreadly likely contains enough incriminating info to get you in hot water, so even if you drop off the grid now, you might have left one or two or five or ten or twenty years of data to be mined.

[LondonReign2]

4. I suspect that advice is analogous to

"To save the planet from global warming, turn off your bathroom light when not in use." Yes, it's a nice gesture, but wholly inadequate to deal with the problem.

[Orrex]

9. Carl Sagan called that "brick-in-the-toilet thinking"

That is, it's a minor and ultimately futile gesture that simply lets the person feel like they're making a difference.

[NightWatcher]

5. Quit everything, go off the grid, live in a shack on a hill and only go to town for supplies

Or continue to function normally, knowing that what you say over the phone or post online is not secure or private. If you don't care that people may read your Facebook (why would you post there if you didn't want people to read...the same for DU), you'll be ok as long as you don't do anything crazy online.

[randome]

10. That's not enough!

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[HappyMe]

12. !!

That may help!



The 'quit FB and google!!1' ship has already sailed - people bank, pay bills, post on DU, buy stuff online.

[damnedifIknow]

13. If I didn't pay all my bills online

I'd throw my computer in the woods since I actually did quit FB and haven't been using Google. I realize quitting FB and Google won't cure the disease but at least it's a step.

[HappyMe]

14. I don't bank or pay bills online.

I won't quit FB because I have family in other states, and the things I google aren't that interesting.

[Catherina]

7. Mark Zukerberg swears he doesn't

The guy who made a fortune swiping someone's program and then selling our personal data to third parties wants us to trust his word?

He makes an appearance here

[Warpy]

11. DuckDuckGo is a search engine that claims not to track

I have been trying Ghostery for a few days now and can vouch for its ability to turn up and allow you to block tracking sites.

It managed to rid me of a really annoying ad popup that even AdAware and Malwarebytes failed to kill.

Both are free.

[Lex]

15. Should I throw away my cell phone too?

[HappyMe]

16. Yes, you should.

We should go back to smoke signals.

[Lex]

17. That'll work

for my job just fine I'm sure.

[HappyMe]

18. Just tryin' to help.

[Nay]

19. Of course, this is nonsensical advice. Back in the 70's, if the govt was found to be opening up

everybody's letters, would the advice be to "stop sending all those letters! It's your own goddamn fault for using the technology!" No, of course not. The fault would lie directly with the govt for fucking over the Constitution. But today, it's all our fault, individually.

Notice how it would NEVER be our fault for sending a letter, but it's our fault for using the pervasive technology pushed on us? Even here on DU we see that attitude! That libertarian asshole attitude that it is NEVER anyone else's fault but our own! It's our fault for eating bad food, even if we can't get GMO crap labeled so we could avoid it! It's all our fault that Obama does all this Repub shit because we don't MAKE him do....whatever! Even if the polls tell him exactly what we want, we have to somehow get hold of his feet and put them in some fire somewhere!

It's maddening. I refuse to accept the blame for all these assholes acting like Nazis and the STASI. I can't even vote for someone who's not bought and paid for before their name gets printed on the fucking ballot.

[Quantess]

20. You are so right.

Why should I have to quit facebook? I like it, and I don't feel like being bullied away.
Why should I have to think twice about what I say over the phone or in an email? Screw that. It's just blaming the victim.

[marions ghost]

21. ++++++++++++++++360 million

EXACTLY

[Starry Messenger]

22. That's pretty absurd.

Why punish us for something we didn't do, or ask to have done to us? If the NSA were opening all of our mail, would be be told to never send anything by post?