WG appointments, privacy, and avoiding exposure
Just curious: who's using Telegram, or Signal? And why is this important?
Why, when absolutely everyone has F***book/WeChat/WhatsApp? Why don't we take a look at these communication services?
F***book is an ongoing privacy invasion. They didn't become one of the world's bigger corporations by offering "free" services. Tringulation of your identity (buying habits, etc) is how they sell targeted ads. That's how they became massive, and abuse of users' privacy is why that skeevy fucko Zuck gets hauled before investigative committees, fined by the EU and by EU countries, and damn good incentive for the GDPR. As for the GDPR, you should know what that is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation
And while you mongers should read that whole thing, let me summarize briefly: it's the most comprehensive data privacy regulation anyone has ever passed. The most significant thing is this: "a fine up to €20 million or up to 4% of the annual worldwide turnover of the preceding financial year in case of an enterprise."
FOUR PERCENT. This is because if you fine F***book, say, €20 million, that's Zuck's lunch money. They don't care. Make it a percentage and now you've got their attention. The legislation's not even a year old, so we'll see how it works out. BTW I have never had a F***book account and never will.
As for Google, I've de-GOOGized as much as possible. The same with WeChat, and of course you know who's listening in on WC, so expect more filtering and accounts-not-working and other shite. I guess you've already figured out that I don't use Alipay or WC Pay or anything associated with a certain gov't. They have a philosophy. So do I. Makes sense?
If you've read this far you're probably experiencing some degree of discomfort. Everyone who uses modern communication channels wonders how much they're monitored. The bad news: to some extent. As you've guessed, I'm a privacy advocate and have strategies to keep leakage to a minimum. But I don't live in a cave. I know some hardcore privacy guys who use serious tools, but they're too cumbersome for me. I communicate with my smartphone. I set up appointments with WGs using WhatsApp--I was using it long before FB bought it, so they got my phonebook (along with yours, and everyone's) years ago. You can't expect WGs to comm using an encrypted email service based in Switzerland--and yes, that's what I use for secure comms.
We all have an "attack surface" and I say: make it as small as possible. Remember that there's a trade-off between security and convenience. Get rid of the worst offenders and your attack surface shrinks. If there's interest, I'll write some tips on what you should/should-not use and what extensions to install on which browsers.
Remember this: we're not organizing church picnics here. We're making P4P appointments. Some bros-with-SOs use a "burner phone" for this purpose, which isn't a bad idea. Again, consider your attack surface on your burner. If you're using it ONLY for P4P, do you need all those stupid apps? Flash the phone, re-install the OS, install only the apps you need. Does your burner phone need your real name and birthdate? Think about this stuff.
Privacy-oriented measures begin with awareness. And I'm becoming aware that some WGs/agents are starting to use the Telegram messaging service. Here's some info on that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)
An alternative is the Signal messaging service:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)
I've gone on long enough, but I've known members of this forum who've been busted by stuff on their phones. I hate to see that, my brothers. If we are gentlemen, the WGs of the world appreciate us. We all use our phones to make appointments--it's the standard now. So let's take steps to reduce our attack surfaces, protect our privacy as much as possible, and continue to monger.
How does that sound?
JtB
[ Last edited by JackTheBat at 21-4-2019 11:17 ] | |
