Friday, October 19, 2012

Facebook, Google and everyone's loss of privacy

The world (appears) much safer than it was in the 1950s. World War II had just ended, 100 million people mostly civilians had died in horrible ways from it. In the 1950s the cold war had begun between the Allies and everyone behind the Iron Curtain. This cold war lasted until around 1990 when the Soviet Union Collapsed and everything changed a lot in the way things operated on earth at this point. People didn't really know where they stood really after that and people are still sort of feeling their way through all the changes still.

When the internet first began it was between government agencies and then spread out to universities and think tanks around the world and eventually the public got involved too. The only thing similar to this before was television. But the internet was 2 way and television was only one way. The interactive part of the internet was fascinating and hypnotic and still is in this way.

But, now it is obvious that using apps on your smartphone that are free or using Facebook or Google you are paying for what you get with your privacy. What is taken from everyone by all these devices would have in the 1950s been met with jail time here in the U.S. as well as most countries on earth.

I remember watching how people were being tracked on smartphones to work and to the bars and to home on a computerized map in San Francisco without their permission. A man said, "Look at all these green dots who go to bars after work. We know these people will die a lot sooner than the blue dots because the blue dots don't go to bars. So, here were people being tracked (without their permission) and then shown as blue and green dots on TV. Another example is: "How do you think GPS maps get which streets are moving and which are slower and which are stoppped?" Yes. That's right by watching and tracking the speed all cell phones go by towers on the streets and from satellites and from towers.

So, if you have even a non-smartphone it is sending a locator beacon out all the time it is on and some cellphones are set up to send out a beacon even when they are turned off as long as the battery is still in or other electrical storage in the phone.

So, literally if you have a cellphone you can be tracked if it is on and if you have it with you and it is charged.

In regard to Facebook and Google their fee for letting you use their services is that ANYTHING you put there is theirs. They own everything you write and any pictures you take that you put online and have the legal right to do ANYTHING with whatever you write or put there including pictures for 1000 years if they want to. They can sell anything you put there multiple times to many thousands or millions of people for the next 1000 years if they want to because it is in what you are agreeing to to use Google or Facebook and most other online services if you actually read what you are clicking on in order to use these services. And because everyone has been so fascinated by the Internet most people are willing to give away for free their rights to privacy.

And unfortunately, one of the things taken away worldwide through this lack of privacy is people's jobs and livelihoods. If  you take a moment to visualize how this could be done you will understand what I'm talking about.

You may see everyone on earth as good people. However, they may see you as a mark, a victim that they need to walk over to feed their own families. Because where they live on earth their families are starving. So, even though you know that most people in your country wouldn't do this, just remember there are people in other countries that would do this because they don't know you or even speak your language and have no loyalty to you at all, in any way, shape or form.

So, the loss of privacy through the internet worldwide is doing more harm than people realize all the time. It is one reason that I blog the way I do here and share the way I do. Because what I'm doing for me is an acceptable risk that I take in order to help as many people as possible. But, Facebook, for example, is not an acceptable risk to me to take. As adults we all have to make decisions and we have to reconsider our decisions sometimes on a daily or even momentary basis of what is worthwhile and what is not. That's why we are called adults. Hopefully, you feel more informed about how this all works and can make better decisions to protect yourselves and your families after reading this article.

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