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Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

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Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#11

Post by sliverstorm »

Moral of the story: to really disappear, you're going to need to go live in a forest somewhere or move to the high plains of Tibet.

Potentially useful information, if there's mobsters after you.

The RFID tags in tires is a perfect illustration of why it's going to be practically impossible to live in the modern world and cover all your tracks. I certainly didn't know there are tags in tires (which, BTW, is a nifty idea), and there are doubtless hundreds of other tracks I leave. Who could possibly cover them all? It would be like trying to make a sieve water-tight, except you don't even know where half the holes are!

Now, if we're talking about the NSA and not mobsters, and you are less concerned with being un-findable than you are with hiding your activities- there are different games you can play, and I'd bet you could be more successful. Behave in an ordinary fashion 99.9% of the time. Just look at the intelligence operations sixty years ago. Spies didn't hide in holes so no-one could find them, they blended in.

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#12

Post by moens »

rfnslyr wrote: post #4
angersock wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bully for you that you don't perceive an issue here. The fact is beyond dispute that the social services in widest use actively turn your friends into informants on you. If that doesn't bother you, fine--but don't mock the people for whom that is an uncomfortable reality.

Bit off topic, but I actually just disabled all my social media, and you know what? I don't miss a single soul and I feel really good again, more energetic and enthusiastic even. I just realized I really only do have about 5 people I should keep in contact with. Everyone else was a relationship that was kept up just from virtue of existing, relationships that would never make it into real life. I feel free. For the f…

Beautiful, +1

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#13

Post by NovemberWest »

I worked for a big company where security was a big thing. I had to have an ID badge to enter the building. My boss once admitted to requesting the logs to determine if people on the team were really showing up on time to work. So I was aware the information could be used in let's say a predatory fashion for things not immediately obvious.

However, I once had an ugly run in with another employee I did not know while in the parking lot. I went to security to look at film and try to ID them. We were not able to ID the employee. We checked film from the stairwell I exited through and caught a glimpse of the person, but you only had to swipe your ID to get in, not to leave. So, no, there was no timed ID badge record to match the picture against.

I was surprised by the outcome. Given the ID badges and security cameras, etc, I had expected a Star Trek style set up. No, not remotely.

I am well aware info can be used against people. That mostly scares me in cases of hostile intent. And where you have hostile intent, it almost does not matter what info they have. They can spin it as something bad anyway.

At this point, I think being innocent is mostly not a defense either. I hope things change. Currently, there is a lot of assumption of guilt and, to me, that is the real problem.

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#14

Post by pessimizer »

theboss wrote: post #6

A horrible article. Offline? The lady has a tech-startup in SanFrancisco. Untracked? Still possible to track her. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. If you want to buy a house, you're going to need credit, if you want credit then you're going to be tracked. That's just the way it works in developed nations. It is one thing to be mindful of security. Protecting your data, understanding the limits of cryptograp…

A horrible comment.

These are people who are minimizing their profiles, not magical fairy creatures. Of course if you buy a house under your own name, you will be easy to find - but with a little creativity, you may be able to get around that.

Just because these people are guarded about their activities and their images does not mean that they are handing out tips about how to run for Congress anonymously, so there's really no need to argue against that straw man.

>The moment you are born and issued a birth certificate, your digital footprint has started.

Not everywhere, and not until very recently.

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#15

Post by pessimizer »

rfnslyr wrote: post #4
angersock wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bully for you that you don't perceive an issue here. The fact is beyond dispute that the social services in widest use actively turn your friends into informants on you. If that doesn't bother you, fine--but don't mock the people for whom that is an uncomfortable reality.

Bit off topic, but I actually just disabled all my social media, and you know what? I don't miss a single soul and I feel really good again, more energetic and enthusiastic even. I just realized I really only do have about 5 people I should keep in contact with. Everyone else was a relationship that was kept up just from virtue of existing, relationships that would never make it into real life. I feel free. For the f…

Social media creates a ton of new needs that it then proceeds to only partially, and unpredictably, fill.

You're just realizing again that you don't really give a shit what your mom had for breakfast, unless you're talking about it with her to pass the time over dinner:)

There's absolutely nothing that anybody has to say to me that can't wait a day (except "the site's down!")

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#16

Post by diminoten »

Dirlewanger wrote: post #8

Ritter, for instance, recently met an insurance executive who always pays for meals with cash because he believes some day that data will be linked to his coverage. “I’m not saying this is a definite thing that happens,” Ritter says. “but I don’t see any definite reason why it couldn’t." Don't let it stop there. Buying a six pack for the weekend? Watch your healthcare premium go up by like 0.001% or something like th…

Are they wrong? Did you not just increase their liability by 0.001%?

I guess I'm still having a hard time squaring personal responsibility with this idea of complete anonymity. It's not that we shouldn't be able to hide anything, but like the article said, it's just not possible (or even reasonable to expect) to hide everything. Existing in society leaves a footprint, especially in cases like license plates - they're designed to aid in tracking, what's the surprise that they're being used to do exactly that?

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#17

Post by toufka »

junto wrote: post #10

One interviewee had a credit card in a fake name. How legal is that exactly?

It is illegal to defraud and impersonate. There's nothing illegal about using multiple names (again, so long as there is no intent to defraud or impersonate).

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#18

Post by Amadou »

sliverstorm wrote: post #11

Moral of the story: to really disappear, you're going to need to go live in a forest somewhere or move to the high plains of Tibet. Potentially useful information, if there's mobsters after you. The RFID tags in tires is a perfect illustration of why it's going to be practically impossible to live in the modern world and cover all your tracks. I certainly didn't know there are tags in tires (which, BTW, is a nifty id…

I certainly didn't know there are tags in tires

That's the first I've heard of it myself, although it seems inevitable since one of the biggest selling points of RFID tags is for inventory management. We are likely to see RFID tags everywhere we currently see barcodes.

http://www.securityinfowatch.com/press_release/10492011/why-...

But... to get back to the RFID in tires thing there is more to it than just that. Current vehicle safety codes require in-cabin monitoring of tire pressure. One way to do it is for the car to pay attention to changes in wheel rotation speeds (lower pressure means smaller effective radius). Another is to put a pressure guage in each wheel that talks to the car's computer wirelessly and gives more exact numbers so is more common. So even without RFID in the tires, most cars still transmit a unique ID number everywhere they go.

http://news.rutgers.edu/news-releases/2010/08/wireless-tire-...

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#19

Post by pearjuice »

I find it very odd how they do not include "proprietary software" in that list. Because that is where true freedom ends. Anything offline can actually be online. And you wouldn't know. Because it are proprietary closed circuit systems which you do not know the intent of.

Re: Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Here's What It Takes

#20

Post by rfnslyr »

pessimizer wrote: post #15
rfnslyr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bit off topic, but I actually just disabled all my social media, and you know what? I don't miss a single soul and I feel really good again, more energetic and enthusiastic even. I just realized I really only do have about 5 people I should keep in contact with. Everyone else was a relationship that was kept up just from virtue of existing, relationships that would never make it into real life. I feel free. For the f…

Social media creates a ton of new needs that it then proceeds to only partially, and unpredictably, fill. You're just realizing again that you don't really give a shit what your mom had for breakfast, unless you're talking about it with her to pass the time over dinner:) There's absolutely nothing that anybody has to say to me that can't wait a day (except "the site's down!")

I'm going to get a t-shirt saying "Don't talk to me unless the site is down" haha. Yeah, trying to fill that void with social media is like trying to put out fire with napalm.
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