DescentBB

The reason for creating this theme was an interesting observation.
After I wrote this message, which contains the tags (or words) "FBI" and "NSA", the number of visitors to the forum increased significantly within 10 minutes.

You want to say that it did the FBI or NSA? Well, it's nice to know that the staff of the security services play in Descent and visit this forum

Note: message from Sigma, Thu Dec 11, 2014 10:24 AM

And now a screenshot:

In total there are 159 users online :: 2 registered, 1 hidden and 156 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 210 on Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:29 am


You have no reason to think?

There isn't a doubt in my mind that the some security agency in the U.S. is combing absolutely everything on the net. In my estimation it would be difficult for a person not on the cutting edge of information technology to even fully conceive of the kind of operation our government is running.

Well, I have repeatedly seen spying on my messages here from the Russian special services (and these are not empty words or paranoia, it really is possible to confirm the facts). Most likely, it makes the "Department "K ". This is a very serious and dangerous organization. I have an idea how to work the Russian special services. They are like cats, will quietly and patiently wait before attacking (In contrast to the US intelligence services, which are too brazen and noticeable). If I still have not been arrested, so I did not say that one should not speak to foreigners

Why would you be arrested? You've stood up for Russia here every time you've posted. They should be blessing you with praise.

God grant that your words may come true!

I'm starting to wonder if I myself might face scrutiny from my own government. I tend to be a little disparaging of American capitalism and militarism. I'm not even a socialist. Who knows what it takes to set some goon squad on a citizen, even in America. They're listening to and reading everything we say in our own country now.

You'd have to do more than post opinions on the DBB, TC. Any "goon squad" has to prioritize their efforts... The things you talk about are more efficiently addressed with targeted or widespread dissimulation.

Sergeant Thorne wrote:You'd have to do more than post opinions on the DBB, TC. Any "goon squad" has to prioritize their efforts... The things you talk about are more efficiently addressed with targeted or widespread dissimulation.

I agree TC. You're probably in along with 95% of the US citizens - Unhappy with some things, but generally loyal to the country and doing your part (small or no) to make it better.

It's the ones who bang out some big rant about killing everyone and then turn around and start googling "How to illegally buy a bazooka" that they tag to keep an extra eye on.

It's still scary that the government is even sniffing around at what we say and do in our everyday lives. It's a slippery slope that trends toward abuse and the erosion of our freedoms, even here.

Our freedoms are already gone, TC. It's just a matter of time. The groundwork for the loss of our liberties has been pretty well laid at this point.

Benjamin Franklin wrote:Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Sadly, these days Americans are too quick to cower in fear and let security take precedence over their lives. But having security means giving up control over our own lives. Once gone, it's impossible to get back without a revolution.

well put, TC

Playing devils advocate, just what liberties have you lost. Are you no longer able to freely travel? Can you not communicate freely with people you know? Just exactly what can you not do today that you could do 30 years ago?

I don't know about liberties and freedom, but I consider privacy a basic human right.

Spidey wrote:I don't know about liberties and freedom, but I consider privacy a basic human right.

Maybe... I consider it more of a myth. Haven't neighbors snooped in on your doings since forever? I think the idea of "privacy" is an Americanism that has only lasted as long as it has because of all of the open space that we have. Try talking to a European about privacy and you will hear a different perspective. My bottom line on privacy: it matters to you most when you have the most to hide.

No, privacy is a right that must be afforded to you by others. It is a situation where your privacy is always in the hands of others, but anyone with half a brain can see that privacy is something that someone should always provide.

Just because you can spy on someone, doesn’t give you the right to do it.

It’s not a myth, it’s a courtesy.

"My bottom line on privacy: it matters to you most when you have the most to hide."

You bet, especially things like your credit card info.

woodchip wrote:Playing devils advocate, just what liberties have you lost. Are you no longer able to freely travel? Can you not communicate freely with people you know? Just exactly what can you not do today that you could do 30 years ago?

Spidey said the first one, privacy from government, or the police, or even your neighbor's eyes and ears. Talking on the phone, or any other communication device nowadays is pretty much the same as talking on a government party line (if anyone can remember what that is). You never know when the authorities will take something innocuous, or even anti-government that I've said on the phone or on the internet and turn it into some trumped up reason to spy on me for more scrutiny. My grandfather was on a party line at one time and all the neighbors listened in on like little bored gossipy women tend do. I rarely talked to him on the phone because of that reason. I was eternally glad when he got a private line.

Another is the ability to fly on an airliner without essentially having to be body cavity searched beforehand, or wait in an eternally long security line, or have my name checked against some agency list to make sure that I'm not on some government terror watch list. Even the police run your name through a database that was generated by who knows who if you're stopped for a traffic infraction. You may not think that we have lost much liberty yet, but power and control is one of those slippery slope things people or governments like to abuse. The more a government takes, the harder it is to get back too. The same goes for corporate spying on everything we do and buy. People don't worry about that either, but that's an even more pervasive problem than what the government's doing right now. I think the bastards are learning from each other on how to mine data for uses we no nothing about, but should.

Once I was going to make some offhand joke about bombs or something here on the DBB, but I changed my mind because I was flying out of the country a couple days from then. That is a real and significant permanent loss of liberty. Just because saying something isn't illegal, doesn't mean there isn't a chilling effect anyway.

tunnelcat wrote:Talking on the phone, or any other communication device .

If your government is watching you, it's not so dangerous (if you're not a hacker or an extremist, of course) as espionage in online games. I was a few years the admin game servers in different games, and I can say that to view the contents the computer administrator of any game server no problem for any player. Ban any player through Voice over IP is also no problem. About Hamachi, I'm not even going to talk - it's just an open book for spying.

Krom wrote:Once I was going to make some offhand joke about bombs or something here on the DBB, but I changed my mind because I was flying out of the country a couple days from then. That is a real and significant permanent loss of liberty. Just because saying something isn't illegal, doesn't mean there isn't a chilling effect anyway.

Precisely. Spidey is right: privacy is one of our constitutionally recognized liberties. And you're right: government surveillance undermines free speech.