Identity Theft is Big Business. Here's how you are exposed.
Compendium of links to give you a survey of the State of the Internet - January 2024
Below is a contribution from a friend of mine who started a privacy-protecting company here in Ottawa called ZenFoil.ca. If you are interested in learning where we are all going in terms of data that is being siphoned from every digital communication that you make, you'll find this article quite revealing.
More information: https://www.zenfoil.ca, https://get.zenfoil.ca
Email: privacy@zenfoil.ca
You can also contact me, should you be interested in arranging a meeting with this friend of mine.
In close relationship to the matters discussed here, I’ve also recently learnt - from another subscriber of my newsletter - about another Canadian initiative called the Digital Freedom Canada. Check it out: https://digitalfreedomcanada.ca/.
Note, I have no affiliation or interest in either of these companies / initiatives. As ZenFoil friend put it “Consider this distribution to be a public service announcement to create general awareness of the issues.” That’s what I’m doing here.
Contribution by ZenFoil.ca
The complexity of our technology now has become a bizarre evil ... literally everything digital has become a trap. A combination of brazen disclosure of data capture and ownership and clever "you didn't ask the right question" approach is confounding to see thru.
Example:
Signal App is "court certified" to basically be neutral and an anonymous purveyor of your messages. Signal App from from the foundation is dependent on Google GPS. So essentially they have a high value database of high value individuals, politicians, it's inflammatory to say, criminals, but it is for anyone. The database is keyed by public
phone number. Nice valuable database you got there Signal. They deny it.
However, if in fact they are being truthful, then we still know with certainty that Google does have your GPS information, and Signal Foundation MAKES their open source software dependent on Google Services... FOR NO REASON. Doesn't make sense. So one of those things is false.
Do you see the game?
Skip down to links to start the fun or read about the benevolence of how Google brought encryption to the web browser.
Many years ago, Google decided to give away valid SSL Certificates for
free. Us system operators now can all serve up SSL encrypted websites
with the cost removed. Yay! Right? Well. Think about this.
Everyone is using Lets Encrypt (the free google certificates). I've seen
free LE certificates at <redacted> newspaper websites..
Let's just say people who can afford the cost of a commercial
certificate are now using the Google free SSL certificates. Must cost a
Google a fortune to give away that many certificates. Google is so kind
to us software people isn't it? When you register, It's only an email,
but they now have the email addresses of the key technical decision
makers ... arguably across the planet. So, cross reference that with the
rest of the Google data trove. I think having a database of the top,
say, 1 million system operators in the world could be quite valuable to
Google. It's clever enough. I never talked to another sysop who
understood the broader picture.. I'm saying everyone participated...
EAGERLY.
Think the subtlety of those two scenarios will result in two responses.
Clarity for some and complete confusion in others. Signal IS the most
private app (arguably) AND Signal gathers the GPS location of hundreds
of millions of high interest individuals. BOTH things are happening. You
see what you want to see, and magically don't see how the other part is so sooo sooo valuable...
You don't get it do you? it's too abstract.
The product completely delivers what you think they give you, while they
also completely gather extremely high value (private) information at the
same time. That's yin and yang. It's truthful and diguised at the same
time. It's very hard to see thru, because you in return ARE getting a
valuable product. You think you're getting a pretty good deal... and so
does Signal and Google... and alllll the rest of your service providers.
Look at how profitable the information *you paid them to take from you* is!!
tl;dr
All your assumptions about the internet and the world are hopelessly outdated due to mis/dis information and surveillance-as-a-business-model. It's not 2005 or even 2010.... The speed of change is accelerating and you don't know what is happening.
These are three takeaway trends I'm giving you without specific references. Read all the links below and maybe you'll begin to see these things too.
1. Surveillance is a multi billion dollar industry. Digital surveillance
is a highly profitable business model which ALL tech companies use now.
2. Energy Consumption is surging. Generative AI is flooding the internet
with copied and inaccurate information.. making accurate/valuable
searching much harder, expensive, and ENERGY INTENSIVE to find.
Microsoft reports that AI searches consume about 10 times the energy of
a regular search.
3. Quick! look at your iPhone, while Apple software picks your pocket.
This is not a joke. That is called Digital Colonialism. Read The Age of
Surveillance Capitalism, Zuboff.
*THE LINKS*
Large scale mis-information:
China is using the world’s largest known online disinformation operation to harass Americans, a CNN review finds
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/13/us/china-online-disinformation-invs/index.html
This is quite old now, but is what Snowden leaked
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
A Basic iPhone Feature Helps Criminals Steal Your Entire Digital Life
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-iphone-security-theft-passcode-data-privacya-basic-iphone-feature-helps-criminals-steal-your-digital-life-cbf14b1a
Hackers can force iOS and macOS browsers to divulge passwords and much
more
https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/10/hackers-can-force-ios-and-macos-browsers-to-divulge-passwords-and-a-whole-lot-more/
*Scammers are now using AI to sound like family members. It’s working. -
The Washington Post*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/05/ai-voice-scam/
*Tencent Cloud announces Deepfakes as a Service for $145*
https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/28/tencent_digital_humans/
Why it matters where your data is stored:
"The American authorities have the right to go in and see any data that
is stored in an American cloud, even if the data centre is in Europe,"
Mr Åström says
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66310714
Stop iPhones from spying on kids with this new app
Do Not Track Kids, made by an ex-National Security Agency
researcher, works behind the scenes to block connections to data
brokers and ad companies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/20/protect-kids-privacy/
Gomez said misinformation – the spread of misleading or incorrect
information online – was his key concern. “Misinformation is one that is
top of mind for me,” he said. “These [AI] models can create media that
is extremely convincing, very compelling, virtually indistinguishable
from human-created text or images or media.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/29/ai-doomsday-warnings-a-distraction-from-the-danger-it-already-poses-warns-expert
AI risk must be treated as seriously as climate crisis, says Google
DeepMind chief
Demis Hassabis calls for greater regulation to quell existential fears
over tech with above-human levels of intelligence
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/24/ai-risk-climate-crisis-google-deepmind-chief-demis-hassabis-regulation
*automated progaganda from china/ ctv news*
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-poilievre-among-dozens-of-mps-targeted-by-china-linked-spamouflage-campaign-1.6612872
Tech execs fear future with AI: ‘I don’t know where optimism would
spring from’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/26/ai-tech-executives/
*Police love Google’s surveillance data - The Washington Post*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/24/google-privacy-police-geofence/
*What Snowdon said, *
*here is how Law Enforcement gets data instantly from the top 178
American Tech Companies*
https://www.404media.co/hackers-target-kodex-accounts-edrs/
Canadian Content
'All it takes is one click': Chief cyberspy warns Canadians to protect
themselves from online crime
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/all-it-takes-is-one-click-chief-cyberspy-warns-canadians-to-protect-themselves-from-online-crime/ar-AA1cY4oN?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=33f163ae1aa3416893d005b166cb8861&ei=58
*digital-economy-killed-capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis*
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/30/the-big-idea-has-the-digital-economy-killed-capitalism
*ICE, CBP, Secret Service All Illegally Used Smartphone Location Data*
https://www.404media.co/ice-cbp-secret-service-all-broke-law-with-smartphone-location-data/
*How Israel’s Percepto fought Russian disinformation in French-speaking
Africa - The Washington Post*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/21/percepto-africa-france-russia-disinformation/
*23andMe scraping incident leaked data on 1.3 million users of Ashkenazi
and Chinese descent*
https://therecord.media/scraping-incident-genetic-testing-site
*Researchers Tested AI Watermarks—and Broke All of Them | WIRED*
https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-watermarking-issues/
*Apple to weaken iPhone privacy protections*
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/01/apple-encryption-iphone-heat-initiative/
*From sex life to politics: car driver data grab presents ‘privacy
nightmare’, says study | Nissan | The Guardian*
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/06/cars-collect-extensive-personal-data-on-drivers-study-warns
*Millions of Americans’ health data stolen after MOVEit hackers targeted
IBM | TechCrunch*
https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/14/millions-americans-health-data-moveit-hackers-clop-ibm/
Why it matters where your data is stored
"The American authorities have the right to go in and see any data that
is stored in an American cloud, even if the data centre is in Europe,"
Mr Åström says
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66310714
Pegasus vs. Predator Dissident’s Doubly-Infected iPhone Reveals Cytrox
Mercenary Spyware
https://citizenlab.ca/2021/12/pegasus-vs-predator-dissidents-doubly-infected-iphone-reveals-cytrox-mercenary-spyware/
White slaves for sale on eBay?
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/absurd-paid-search-ads-show-that-nobody-pays-attention
Please people don't use QR Codes:
*QR Code Menus Are the Restaurant Industry’s Worst Idea - The Atlantic*
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/qr-code-menus-restaurants-pandemic/671888/
I'm not even going to ask. This happens all the time, pretty much on
every website....
https://media.guim.co.uk/18fbbfd6b2a012f4340cb3570410b79fbccc6b54/0_0_4476_1205/2000.jpg
