Them!
by wjw on March 30, 2017
They know too much about me. (You’ve heard of Them, right?)
I was looking at Amazon today, and they offered me the Easy Acid Reflux Cookbook. How do They know I have acid reflux? Is the pharmacy sending Them insufficiently anonymized data? Or have They been monitoring my doctor’s electronic files?
I was browsing Costanza’s LiveJournal page the other day, and up popped an ad for Implied Spaces. I’d just put Implied Spaces on sale. (At least They didn’t know I’d actually written the book and didn’t need a new electronic copy of it.)
And here’s the most amazing one. I’d just started watching Season 3 of “Death in Paradise,” an entertaining example of the sort of British whodunit in which a revolving cast of established English character actors take turns murdering each other every week. Because Season 3 features some casting changes, I picked up my iPad and went on the International Movie Database to look at the new actors.
When you look up a program on IMDB, the screen will show stills from the program at the top of the screen. When I looked up “Death in Paradise,” all of the stills were from Season 3. None of them featured cast members from earlier in the series. Apparently They knew that I’d started watching Season 3 on Netflix no more than ten minutes earlier.
Now of course Congress and President .45 are revoking earlier rulings about internet privacy, so your ISP can now sell information about you, including your credit card numbers, social security numbers, browsing history, and so on— so now you can get adverts targeted to your interest in vibrators, adult diapers, fringe politics, pornography, and/or cannabis. (Or if you possess a certain type of personality, all of the above.) And while you’re looking at the goodies on offer, Russian hackers will be maxing your credit cards and emptying your bank account (and viewing any work documents or contracts you may have sent or received).
Of course the government— lots of governments— are keeping tabs on you as well. But at least they aren’t inundating you with spam.
Isn’t a world ruled by Them going to be wonderful?
One of the most ingenious devices on its way to you is a new cable box which will be able to tell whether the two people watching TV on the couch are, um, “spooning.” And if they’re spooning, they’ll get ads for hot tubs, sex aids, birth control, and romantic getaway vacations.
(And if They know you’re cheating on your spouse, you’ll get ads for Adult Friend Finder. Plus the odd blackmail demand.)
They know when you are sleeping/They know when you’re awake/ They know if you’ve been spooning/ And if the Earth does quake.
So does anyone know a good (meaning trustworthy) VPN? Or should I just go all Tor on their asses?
They know too much about me. (You’ve heard of Them, right?)
I just saw that boingboing is flogging a service called TigerVPN in their online store.
https://store.boingboing.net/sales/tigervpn-lifetime-subscription-3?utm_source=boingboing.net&utm_medium=dealfeed&utm_content=Right-Sidebar&utm_campaign=tigervpn-lifetime-subscription-3
I poked around for reviews, and found a few threads on reddit. Nothing really damning.
Probably best to use Tor and a VPN.
I suggest you start by reading Brian Krebs here https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/post-fcc-privacy-rules-should-you-vpn/.
If you still want a VPN, you can click through a link he gives to That One Privacy Site which rates them by several criteria.
Color me disappoint.
Since returned from Cooba I have been googling the Merovingy-winjys, their abbots and bishops, language, o language, attempting to establish when French became French instead of high or vulgar latin, and when the goth languages went away. (The merovingy-winjys names for themselves are always goth, but the place names are already always ‘french.’)
So far I’ve received no, not a single one, advert for Merovingy-winjy info, languages, abbots or biships. Not even for counts and kings, not to mention those queens!
I did receive an add from Library of America due to looking up the date of a Henry Adams publication though.
Clearly the Merovingians are not hip to modern technology. You’d think you’d at least get spam offering to hook you up with single Merovingian women.
Phil, thanks for the link! I will check that out.
Happened to by inevitability of divine intervention stumbled upon friendly face somewhere in lower stratosphere. Cowboy says hi.
“Tell Him to jack in very very most remote public booth.Tell Him to expose himself to military grade very very mischievous security related activities.If content with decrease in privacy exposure tell Him to build impenetrable fortress around said booth,graphene walls,kevlar insulation.Tell him to write faster.”
Or something financially more beneficial https://tails.boum.org/.
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