Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

We've all probably assumed this at some point, but now it's a reality. The government literally does know everything about your online movements.

FACT OF THE DAY: The new National Security Agency (NSA) Utah Data Center can reportedly store up to five zettabytes of data. To put that in perspective, one zettabyte is the equivalent of about 62.5 billion iPhones. Stack those iPhones on top of each other, and they would reach past the moon.

The data center could theoretically store every email, cell phone call, Google search, and surveillance camera video in America for a very long time! Watch the report from FNC's Catherine Herridge:
http://tinyurl.com/k8mkqze


http://www.washingtonpost.com/investiga ... ory_1.html

http://www.glennbeck.com/2013/06/07/pri ... eady-here/

http://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267


How much is a Zettabyte?
Zettabyte (1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 bytes)

Perspective?
+ According to International Data Corporation, the total amount of global data is expected to grow to 2.7 zettabytes during 2012. This is 48% up from 2011.[11]
+ Mark Liberman calculated the storage requirements for all human speech ever spoken at 42 zettabytes if digitized as 16 kHz 16-bit audio. This was done in response to a popular expression that states "all words ever spoken by human beings" could be stored in approximately 5 exabytes of data (see exabyte for details). Liberman did "freely confess that maybe the authors [of the exabyte estimate] were thinking about text."[12]
+ Research from the University of Southern California reports that in 2007, humankind successfully sent 1.9 zettabytes of information through broadcast technology such as televisions and GPS.[13]
(reference: http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/9/ ... abyte.html)

Simply put:



Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB - GO PENS!

I almost made the title of this thread "All your data are belong to us" then changed my mind. Good reference there.

Yeah....I figure it was, but it makes me angry o no end tht they feel they can come out of the shadows now and say "yep we are spying on you...all of you". They are so confident that nothing willl happen to them, and no one will stop them..

This is what the USSR did. How shameful.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

They must be shocked by all the porn I look at then!

I know a guy, that knows a guy, that lives next door to a guy, that told me about this. I can't reveal my true source of information in fear of him being punished by our comrades, even though our conversation was recorded by our remotely activated iphones.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

Try googling "Echelon" program... You think PRISM is scary? Yeah...

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency should make you more nervous. All the stuff you're talking about is electronic.

The NGIA has a satellite that looks down upon us, and clicks REALLY good pictures, like a guy on a step ladder with a good Pentax pictures. Which makes me wonder what else they have in space.

Reverenddel wrote:Try googling "Echelon" program... You think PRISM is scary? Yeah...

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency should make you more nervous. All the stuff you're talking about is electronic.

The NGIA has a satellite that looks down upon us, and clicks REALLY good pictures, like a guy on a step ladder with a good Pentax pictures. Which makes me wonder what else they have in space.

Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB - GO PENS!

Anyone know who has oversight of those agencies and what they can and can't do?

Don't you get it? There is no oversight.

I suggest using tor to mask your web browsers. www.torproject.org they even have a version for Android. while not perfect its a way to keep the government out of your business.

zykur wrote:I suggest using tor to mask your web browsers. http://www.torproject.org they even have a version for Android. while not perfect its a way to keep the government out of your business.

Tor has some serious holes when the snooper can see much, if not all of the network, and many of the entry/exit points. Tor is 'bad' because users suddenly believe they are safe from traffic interception when in reality they are just about as monitor-able as they were before. This leads to lapses in good judgment, and less-safe behaviors because they believe tor is protecting them. Also there have been several bad members who setup exit points just to be able to intercept traffic exiting the network.

When you are trying to evade an advisory with nation-state level resources you have significant challenges. It would be trivial for a nation to setup tor entry/exits around the world that could be a significant percentage of all the exits in the whole system. Then they can match traffic entering/exiting and then its easy to put the traffic flows together.

So there's nothing we can do except to live our lives KNOWING that anything we say, write, buy, or even look at is a secret.

Great.



Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB

The only way around it is to "go dark" in ways such as:

- Stop using the internet except anonymously at libraries if absolutely necessary
- Get rid of all credit/debit cards and transact in cash only
- Get rid of your cell phone and/or home phone


I'm sure there are a lot of other good ideas on this, though how many people want to give up the convenience that all of these things provide in order to hide their lives from the government?

allingeneral wrote:The only way around it is to "go dark" in ways such as:

- Stop using the internet except anonymously at libraries if absolutely necessary
- Get rid of all credit/debit cards and transact in cash only
- Get rid of your cell phone and/or home phone


I'm sure there are a lot of other good ideas on this, though how many people want to give up the convenience that all of these things provide in order to hide their lives from the government?

Don't forget about disabling RFID tags in passports, ID cards, clothes, things you buy...

It does appear that you have to escape to the Yukon and live in the wilderness to get away from the eye of Big Brother nowadays...

Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB

Or, use pre-paid cell phones and don't attach your your name to it, use public internet, and don't register your brand new computer in your name.

Not completely fail-safe, but it makes 'em work a little harder to find you.

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Sometimes you read the news and it's a little depressing but other times, like learning about PRISM, it's just downright scary. Makes you think how far from the founders intentions we've come.

The other side of the argument for "going dark" is that if you do nothing wrong and stay "in the light" then the gov't will tend not to look too closely at you. I understand that one slip can bring scrutiny, but if you go dark, isn't that inviting further scrutiny? It is quite a conundrum. I know they are watching me and knowing allows me the opportunity to exercise more control over my actions by thinking more seriously about what I post on the net and what I say in conversations. Personally, I don't believe they have the capability, or the inclination, to read every email and listen to every conversation. I think they are likely running this information through filters looking for specific things that will trigger the next level of investigation. Is it unconstitutional? Hell yes! Can we stop them? Likely not. We have to be as adaptable as they are and adjust our actions to deal with the threat, perceived or real, that we know about.

Yeah. I mean... this didn't stop the Boston bombings, and they were UNDER SCRUTINY. Shows "they" really can't stop anything but tea party groups getting their 501(c)(3) status.

I'm pissed, of course but practically not worried about myself too much. Even if my rights are violated, we still have the courts if it gets bad enough.



Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB

DiscipleofJMB wrote:Yeah. I mean... this didn't stop the Boston bombings

Why would they want to stop the Boston bombings? That's their justification for "keeping us safe".

Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were all allowed to happen for a reason...you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.