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My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

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Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What isn't understandable?

Being able to read the words doesn't mean the comment makes sense. Reading it over and over again, yeah sure I can understand it, but I don't see any "point" or relation to the original comment. Some people just seem to feel "smart" by wording things as convoluted as possible, using fancy words and references. The truth is, it is much harder to express thoughts clearly with simple, yet elegant words. Mostly because t…

What does this have to do with the comment you responded to?

I reread it. One fancy word: Linnaean. Considering this is HN, that should be OK.

I get the feeling you're reacting to the fact that I didn't state a position or a conclusion in my short HN comment. So basically, you don't like that my HN comment isn't a tweet.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to read the words doesn't mean the comment makes sense. Reading it over and over again, yeah sure I can understand it, but I don't see any "point" or relation to the original comment. Some people just seem to feel "smart" by wording things as convoluted as possible, using fancy words and references. The truth is, it is much harder to express thoughts clearly with simple, yet elegant words. Mostly because t…

Is that post too fancy though? Sure, "Linnaean classification" could/should be replaced with "taxonomy" or something similar for readability, but none of the rest of the post has and uncommon references or words. The point also seems obvious, and the relevance to the post self explanatory. This rant on obscurantism seems unwarranted with reference to a post written at a pretty standard reading level.

If I have to guess (and it's fun, so why not), I think what triggered the rant was exactly what the comment was describing. I'd call it recursive, but I don't want to sound fancy.

My comment wasn't categorical. IE, I didn't get on either the "T&Cs are evil bullshit" or "contracts are the basis of civilization" side. If you're reading for category, everything else is flowery nonsense. Just tell me which side you're on and why.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case you are serious here: a random anecdote on a forum discussion doesn't count for anything, definitely not for a "leak". That parent message had a wild claim which of course requires serious proof. Edit: since you're asking, proof could be multiple testimonials from ex-engineers working on the project or a peer-reviewed article in a serious journal. Until that this is in the same bin with healing crystals…

Right. Testimonials in violation of their NDAs. Whistleblowers never prosper, at least in the US. Too many examples, take Stingray for a less controversial one. What was the result? Crickets. Exactly what would be the incentive for those engineers? Myself, I'm a Bayesian and I grew up in a communist country, which means I start from "of course everyone is spying on me, all the time" and require strong evidence to cha…

I don't need to change your mind, so I won't try. I'll just say that it must be very tiring to believe every conspiracy theory by default. To me it seems like a sad way to live.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#164
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Usually there is a few lines at the end stating that wherever this is illegal, these parts are not binding Personally, this is what I detest the most. There's always a bit in the boilerplate that's akin to "you agree to everything here, even the unenforceable bits. If we're ever challenged on the unenforceable parts after the fact, you still agree to be bound by everything else here." IA[very_much]NAL, but to me th…

severability is actually a really important and broad legal concept (IANAL). I can where you get to [the view you espouse above] but if you think a bit about it you'll realize that contract law would become pretty unworkable without it. If every clause and statement has to be perfect or the whole thing evaporates, it would be hard to get anything done. And even if it were ok today, legislative changes tomorrow could…

> legislative changes tomorrow could inadvertently nuke a bunch of contracts

That sounds like a good thing? Why should abusive illegal contracts be allowed to continue after the law has found them to be unacceptable?

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this definitely _does_ happen, and most people, even non-tech people are aware of it. There's just some people who refuse to believe it.

If you mean the conspiracy theory, then some proof would be in order. That happening, and most people believing that to happen, are both outlandish claims. Spoiler: it actually does not happen. As the other person commented, snooping like this in scale would leak.

[deleted]

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#166
post #164
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

severability is actually a really important and broad legal concept (IANAL). I can where you get to [the view you espouse above] but if you think a bit about it you'll realize that contract law would become pretty unworkable without it. If every clause and statement has to be perfect or the whole thing evaporates, it would be hard to get anything done. And even if it were ok today, legislative changes tomorrow could…

> legislative changes tomorrow could inadvertently nuke a bunch of contracts That sounds like a good thing? Why should abusive illegal contracts be allowed to continue after the law has found them to be unacceptable?

I think you missed "inadvertently".

It's one thing if the legislation is specifically targeting those contracts, quite another if the unintended consequence is much broader than you intend. It's easy enough to imagine legislators unintentionally invalidating basically all of a states employment contracts this way, for example.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? What are the best ways to fight back?

I don't have a smartphone. That alone will prevent browsing habits being picked up by parasitic apps etc on a phone. What I browse at home I have more control over with blocklists etc and disabling js. I rarely carry my dumphone around, if someone needs me they can leave a message. That takes care of tracking by cell station. There are times I'd like to have a dumphone on me, eg. when meeting people, so at some point…

GPS chip in the car? License plate readers all around you? Face recognition cameras? Chip in the credit card that you are not using? Friends with a iphone that have your number? ID cards that swipe you into places?

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a smartphone. That alone will prevent browsing habits being picked up by parasitic apps etc on a phone. What I browse at home I have more control over with blocklists etc and disabling js. I rarely carry my dumphone around, if someone needs me they can leave a message. That takes care of tracking by cell station. There are times I'd like to have a dumphone on me, eg. when meeting people, so at some point…

GPS chip in the car? License plate readers all around you? Face recognition cameras? Chip in the credit card that you are not using? Friends with a iphone that have your number? ID cards that swipe you into places?

I'll try and answer your questions but please answer me this, what is the psychology of people like you who see failure not as an option but as a destination?

You seem absolutely determined to be both resentful of society and completely powerless against it, and not willing to actually do anything to change anything?

Well, I was talking about smartphones so you seem to have moved the goalposts with your questions so that my answers don't apply -- deliberately, to emphasise helplessness?

But okay, let's try

> GPS chip in car

I don't know anything about this so, don't buy such a car. If you do, is the chip enabled without drivers control? I'd be surprised at that.

> License plate readers?

To some extent I guess these are necessary, but they are a usable so you have to deal with this at the level of government rather than directly.

> Face recognition cameras

This has to be tackled at the legal level, and yes, it does concern me. Fortunately in a democracy you have some say. Unfortunately I don't think you will make the effort.

> Chip in the credit card...

Oh for heaven's sake, it's not broadcasting your location it's RFID, and if you want to disable it you can find instructions online. You basically make a small cut into the side of the card which breaks the antenna loop (or whatever it's called). I literally have done that and it took me a few minutes.

> Friends with my phone that have your number

Is this a serious objection? They can't track you via somebody else's phone -- did you even think about this before writing it?

> ID cards that swept into places

This really is scraping the bottom of the barrel. I've had worked cards like this, they simply let you in and out little more than an old-fashioned metal key, with a record being made. You can't be tracked by them other than when swiped.

You seem to have embraced failure while resenting it but it's clearly what you want.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPS chip in the car? License plate readers all around you? Face recognition cameras? Chip in the credit card that you are not using? Friends with a iphone that have your number? ID cards that swipe you into places?

I'll try and answer your questions but please answer me this, what is the psychology of people like you who see failure not as an option but as a destination? You seem absolutely determined to be both resentful of society and completely powerless against it, and not willing to actually do anything to change anything? Well, I was talking about smartphones so you seem to have moved the goalposts with your questions so…

I typically give the following link to such people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-in-depth and say that perfection is not achievable, but it does not mean you should give up absolutely everything.

Re: My Phone Was Spying on Me, So I Tracked Down the Surveillants

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll try and answer your questions but please answer me this, what is the psychology of people like you who see failure not as an option but as a destination? You seem absolutely determined to be both resentful of society and completely powerless against it, and not willing to actually do anything to change anything? Well, I was talking about smartphones so you seem to have moved the goalposts with your questions so…

I typically give the following link to such people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security-in-depth and say that perfection is not achievable, but it does not mean you should give up absolutely everything.

Thanks for that.

The problem isn't DID or anything like that but a strange attitude that they want nice things but will put in zero effort to achieve that even if shown basic steps, and have a mindset that they're totally fucked, everything's against them, they can't win. It's a kind of learned helplessness.

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