If privacy is what you want, what are you doing on the Internet?
Seriously. Whether you are a blogger who thinks a pseudonym will keep you off the radar, you are deluded. Even if your merely shopping for a bargain in an online store, privacy has already vanished for you. Even if you never use the Internet or social media, if you use a credit or debit card, or one of those discount cards every store seems to expect you to carry? Forget privacy. They are tracking you and they will never stop.
This might be privacy. But then again, maybe not.
Do you have a telephone? Landline? Mobile? Computer? Tablet? Do you use WiFi with your camera? Post pictures on Flickr? SnapChat? Facebook? Twitter? Your dogs are licensed? Get electricity from the local power company? You’re on the radar. Your government has you in their sights. Rumors to the contrary notwithstanding, you can run, but you cannot (successfully) hide.
There are cameras everywhere, watching all of us. They track us by our tax returns, our credit cards, our hospital IDs, our driver’s licenses. Our GPS has a two-way signal. Somewhere, they have your fingerprints, your DNA, your high school and college records. Your military service documents. Every traffic ticket and misdemeanor. Every letter you sent to a newspaper and every petition you signed online.
Privacy? You’re kidding, right?
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Categories: Government, Humor
IT’S THE SAME OLD SAD STORY 
SWITCHING REALITIES -TOM CURLEY 
WHAT’S YOUR SOURCE? 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
My new method for checking prospective tenants started about 7 years ago, I look for them on facebook, linkedin, tweeter, government sites and make my determination. What is funny I had found that they had looked up some info on me too! Ha!
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That’s probably as good as any other method. I hated being a landlord. I always got it wrong. Pretty much every time.
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I wrote a few blog posts about my issues as a landlord. In fact my blog is called
https://landlorddrama.com/
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What do privacy fanatics want me to do? Crawl in a hole?
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No. They don’t care about you, just themselves. Besides, I think if “they” want to find you, it would have to be a very very deep hole in a really distant and sparsely populated place. Like, maybe Antarctica.
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Who would have thought George Orwell would turn out to be right?
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I’m sure George Orwell would be horrified. I don’t think he wanted to be right.
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I want to be there when they go through my dossier, but I might be shot on sight….
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When I was young and frisky, I worried about what they might discover. Now? There isn’t anything to discover. Time has done what the law could not. Of course now, we are under a new regime, so who knows? Maybe blogging will be illegal too.
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I actually flew under the radar for a long time. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t always legal… but I had my reasons. Then I met my husband, and, well, getting married puts one back on the radar pretty quickly. >_< The things we do for love.
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I flew under the radar by leaving the country for nine years. But then, I came back. And we got married. And Garry was a very public person. I mean you could see him on television every night. Kind of hard to hide. People still recognize him. We aren’t doing anything illegal or even very interesting, so there really isnt any reason to worry about it. When I was younger, there was always something to hide. Now? If anyone is spying on us, they must have trouble staying awake.
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I know. Why worry about the nsa when Google knows what you like.
I’ve been turning my phone off before I go to bed and don’t turn it back on until I’ve been at work for a while.
It’s probably crazy but I feel it cuts off one data stream.
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I leave my cell phone off most of the time. I’ve got a landline and more computers than I can count. I’m thoroughly connected 🙂
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When I worked HR, I always marveled at the employees who would drive in on their day off to pick up a check. One day, a lady told me about the dangerous drive she’d had to get there in really bad winter weather, and I asked her why she didn’t use direct deposit. She looked at me sincerely and said she didn’t want Big Brother knowing how much she earned. I sure had to work hard to keep from laughing even though there wasn’t anything funny about it. In NH, sometimes when you talk to someone who doesn’t use Easy Pass and ask them why not, they will reply they don’t want a record of where they’re going. I wonder if they worry about that smart phone in their pocket?
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There are an amazing number of people who just can’t seem to connect the dots. They don’t get that if you GET a check, the government already knows and if you file taxes, even if you are paid in cash, they know. The traffic cams are everywhere, including in the middle of nowhere. I sometimes see them lurking along the river, literally in the middle of nowhere. Unless they are counting swans and geese, I expect they are just keeping an eye on us.
And the kids who put their whole life on Facebook or Twitter and then think if they use a pseudonym, no one can find them. It’s like the old ostrich, head in the sand thing. If they don’t see it, it ain’t there.
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The only place privacy got serious was on the WordPress “Search Terms”, long gone are the days where tou could see how pervs found tour blog. It was funny.
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I remember. Some of them left you wondering what was going through the minds of those people.
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And how on earth those terms were related to your blog.
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Sometimes, it was hard to figure out how the terms were related to each other. Genuinely bizarre.
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And do not forget, when you eventually breathe your last breath, they still know where to find you – it is all registered somewhere.
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Yes, I know. They will follow me beyond the grave, probably pointing out that i haven’t paid my cable bill.
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Which brings up a re-occurring thought. What happens when I suddenly die and haven’t cancelled all my internet contacts including email accounts, Netflix, LinkedIn, Amazon, Paypal, eBay and the like???
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If you were married or had a living relative they could track down, they would drive them crazy, refusing to cancel your accounts because only YOU can cancel them and refusing to understand that you weren’t alive to do it. That’s what happened to Tom when his dad passed. It’s bizarre.
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OH CRAP! Well at least I have a book where I record all my user IDs and passwords. Thank God paper is not obsolete yet
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They probably have a camera over your desk.
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Stop it! I can’ take any more….
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Every letter I sent to the news paper too! Good I hope they know how P— off I can get. If I can take on the phone company I’m not stopping there. I’ll take on the government too.
Leslie
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I have taken them ALL on at one time or another. I’m a little low energy these days. One day like yesterday leaves me ready for my cruise. Except there is none, but I can dream. A long, long cruise. Maybe the Greek islands and Sicily. Sigh.
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I think I’d be afraid to cruise the Greek Islands at the moment, but I hear you.
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