Anonymous Takes on Pedophiles

One of the beautiful things about life is that while you can never find someone you agree on one hundred percent of things, you also cannot find someone you will disagree on everything.

Those rogue hackers called Anonymous have done a great service to the world recently. There is a shadowy covert world on the Internet where all sorts of malignant activities are carried out with the absolute worst being the creation and dissemination of child pornography. So when they hacked and tracked the members of a large ring involved in this kind of evil, I have to salute them.

I may not agree with them on many things, but this is the kind of vigilante justice I can back.

I remember looking at TOR at one point while pondering whether or not there was a necessity for more privacy in communications between friends and talking about sensitive issues. The cons outweighed the pros, but the idea that this kind of software could be used for truly vile stuff always stuck with me.

Privacy is needed on the Net, but there are lines that have been crossed and pedophiles are so far over the line it isn’t worth arguing about.

So well done, Anonymous, well done.

The Internet Becomes a Small Town

Having grown up for part of my childhood in a small town, I became aware at a young age of the fact that there are few, if any, secrets that manage to stay secret. Privacy is an illusion as gossip and snooping are a way of life. Of course the facts are secondary to a good story and are among the first casualties.

The Internet is getting to be the same way, but with a goal of selling information rather than running other people down. Or is it?

One of the first things to catch my eye this morning was a report about how the Fed is planning to scour the Net for people opining on their policies. Are they soliciting viewpoints to incorporate into their decision making? No, they are looking to find who is shaping opinion and run a counter espionage style operation to control the public’s perception of them.

The fact that they have put out a request looking for a technology vendor to implement this is disturbing. Unlike a lot of people on the political right, I have no beef with the Federal Reserve. Well, until now. For this act alone, I think they should be disbanded. It smacks of being a government unto themselves and an Orwellian one at that.

Meanwhile, Facebook has been tracking every webpage that their members browse for at least a year. Not even logging out will stop this. As an immediate counter to this I have moved to using Internet Explorer solely for Facebook and will not be using my main browser, Firefox, for it anymore.

Combine that with the new “Timeline” interface and you have the world’s biggest snoop into people’s private lives. This is worse than knowing the old lady across the street is watching your windows, folks. Some websites will automatically update your status with your browsing their page under the new system. Since I was already winding down my Facebook usage to just gaming, I plan to take it all the way to that step pronto.

With those “features” in place, privacy settings are a moot point. It is clear there is no privacy where Facebook is involved and it creeps me out greatly. It is amazing how many people want your information. As much as tailoring advertising is supposed to increase sales, this has become ridiculous!

Time to roll down the shades, close the curtains, and maybe invest in virtual black out tape.