Posted On: Tuesday - August 27th 2019 6:20PM MST
In Topics:   Preppers and Prepping  iEspionage
This iEspionage form of modern stupidity is something Peak Stupidity has not concentrated on as much as we would like to. On the other hand, it is more of a topic for a prepper site. We do feel that a SHTF situation will arrive sometime in the not-too-distant future (nice weasel-wording there!). It'd really be best now to learn more about how to not be kept track of as much as the next guy.
When "the Man" is out for you in the current-era, you could only wish the technology of the era when the black folk really had something to be afraid of from him. Right now, The Man is named Uncle Sam, and he can find out so much about you without* leaving his swivel chair.
Computer software is not a major one of Peak Stupidity's core competencies, as the corporate pukes like to call it. Stupidity would be the molten lava at our core. I would like to have been saving more of this information, such as the quick advice from unz.com (mostly iSteve) commenter "Almost Missouri", but this is a start, at least, regarding anonymity in the use of web browser programs:
With a VPN, you are entrusting even more personal information to someone you don’t know.It's not like Peak Stupidity will give anything to Uncle Sam, The Man, but the hosting company is not one I have any confidence it as far as confidence goes. At least in our comments section, you could be anybody. That, and the fact that we are peanuts, as of yet, with not even the $LPC listing us as hateful, (thanks a lot!) as of yet. Keep on reading, and keep on writing, but that kind of advice above is always good to keep in mind for the future. I'll try to post more of this sort of thing, with the iEspionage Topic Key.
Under normal circumstances, your browsing can be read by your ISP (internet service provider). A VPN cuts the ISP out of the loop but cuts the VPN in, and now with more personal information (your credit card number, which to be fair, the ISP may also have) and opaque, proprietary software installed on your computer. ISPs also often try to get you to install such software on your computer too so they can better spy on you, but you can just skip it. With a VPN, you need that software for the VPN to work.
If you are using the Chrome browser (aka Google spyware), Google’s already spying on you at the source, and a VPN won’t shield anything from them. Indeed, since Google knows the source and destination of your browsing, it effectively invalidates the VPN, as far as Google is concerned. The same goes for other social apps, e.g., Facebook. (Note I said “app”, not just browsing a Google or Facebook page in a secure browser. They will still try to vacuum up all the data they can from your browser visit, but without source-side software, they are much more constrained.)
Also note that pretty much any computer made since 2008 has at least two additional operating systems you probably don’t know about (Management Engine and UEFI) which start before and stop after the operating system you think you are using. Most NSA-tier hacks probably happen here and VPNs will do nothing against it.
All that said, a VPN with a good reputation may still be worthwhile. Anyone with a subpoena (only slightly harder to get than a ham sandwich) can go to your ISP and get your full browsing history. With a VPN, the ISP will have nothing but the VPN’s URL to hand over. This will of course tell the subpoena holder that he needs to serve it on the VPN instead, which he will then do. The VPN will comply and hand over all of your browsing history they have, which at a good VPN should be no more than the last few seconds worth, at most.
So yeah, if you anticipate ever being in a lawsuit, you should probably get a VPN. If you think doxxers are after you, you should probably get a VPN and quit Chrome. If you think the NSA is after, you should quit the internet and the airwaves, retire to a villa in Abbottabad.
* Although it IS the US Gov't, after all, and its competency level is highly overrated, as we discussed in "Apprehending Jason Bourne, we're the government and we're all on it." (Part 2 and Part 3).
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