# Lifestyles & Discussion > Privacy & Data Security >  Edward Snowden sets privacy time bomb ticking

## tangent4ronpaul

http://www.usatoday.com/story/cybert...cking/2964925/

Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., asked the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday to formally investigate how online data brokers and marketers track consumers across their computing devices.

This latest development spinning out of the Edward Snowden affair suggests a privacy time bomb may be close to detonating.

Markey reacted to a story in last Saturday's New York Times examining how the online advertising industry is now able to track consumers across the various platforms and devices they use, often without the user's knowledge or consent.

That Times' scoop followed an Oct. 2 report about how the National Security Agency conducted a secret pilot program in 2010 and 2011 to test the collection of bulk data about the location of Americans' cell phones. That pilot program was never carried out.

Even so, Markey said in a statement issued late Thursday to reporters that he is "concerned about the increasing practice of marketers scooping up digital traces from our phones, tablets and computers that are then stitched together into detailed dossiers without consumers' knowledge or permission."

In a separate -- but very much related development on Thursday -- data management firm Identity Finder disclosed how the caching mechanism in Google's popular Chrome browser stores unencrypted personal data in a way that makes it trivial for hackers to steal.

If privacy is the gunpowder in these developments, consumer trust is the fuse. For most of the past dozen years, U.S.consumers have extended Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, AOL, Verizon and AT&T a high level of trust as the tech giants went about devising infrastructure to collect vast amounts of data on how we use phone and Internet services.

Led by Google and Facebook, the online advertising industry should hit a record $40 billion in revenue this year by intensively data mining information culled from our Internet searches and web surfing. Contacts, interests and preferences we disclose in our web browsers and on our smartphone apps routinely gets co-mingled with personal disclosures made on popular social networks.



All of this tracking and profiling is in the service of delivering what the ad industry asserts is more relevant ads. By and large this is done without asking permission. All of this was just fine with the majority of U.S. consumers -- until Edward Snowden came along.

Snowden's disclosures of the NSA's PRISM surveillance program revealed the extent to which the tech giants turn over some of this sensitive consumer data over to government snoops. Snowden's whistleblowing -- and the surge of investigative reporting that has followed -- has given Americans an impetus to question online tracking, more along the lines of what Europeans have been doing for years.

The realization that the federal government has been tapping into the advertising industry's tracking data -- arguably with good reason: to track and deter terrorists -- has prompted consumers in both the U.S. and Europe to consider how to exert more individual control over what ought to stay private.

Make no mistake, the richest players in the online advertising industry desire no changes in the rules of how the game is played.Online ad sales rose 18% in the first six months of this year to $20.1 billion, and should easily top $40 billion by the time we get through Christmas sales, according to Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Over the past two years, Google and Facebook have poured millions into lobbying efforts to derail proposed federal Do Not Track regulations. And last month, the ad industry quietly stifled an earnest effort by the respected World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to establish voluntary Do Not Track standards, something the W3C had optimistically hoped to get done by the summer of 2013.

Sen. Markey has long championed the concerns of privacy advocates. In his letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Markey writes: "Such tracking envelopes users in a digital environment where marketers know their preferences and personal information no matter which device they use while consumers are kept largely in the dark. I request that the Commission investigate this emerging tracking trend."

-t

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## tangent4ronpaul

Web tracking has become a privacy time bomb
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/...-privacy_n.htm

The coolest free stuff on the Internet actually comes at a notable price: your privacy.

For more than a decade, tracking systems have been taking note of where you go and what you search for on the Web — without your permission. And today many of the personal details you voluntarily divulge on popular websites and social networks are being similarly tracked and analyzed.

The purpose for all of this online snooping is singular: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook and others are intent on delivering more relevant online ads to each and every one of us — and bagging that advertising money.

Trouble is, the tracking data culled from your Internet searches and surfing can get commingled with the information you disclose at websites for shopping, travel, health or jobs. And it's now possible to toss into this mix many of the personal disclosures you make on popular social networks, along with the preferences you may express via all those nifty Web applications that trigger cool services on your mobile devices.

As digital shadowing escalates, so too have concerns about the erosion of traditional notions of privacy. Privacy advocates have long fretted that health companies, insurers, lenders, employers, lawyers, regulators and law enforcement could begin to acquire detailed profiles derived from tracking data to use unfairly against people. Indeed, new research shows that as tracking technologies advance, and as more participants join the burgeoning tracking industry, the opportunities for privacy invasion are rising.

"It is a mistake to consider (online) tracking benign," cautions Sagi Leizerov, executive director of Ernst & Young's privacy services. "It's both an opportunity for amazing connections of data, as well as a time bomb of revealing personal information you assume will be kept private."

These developments are acting like kerosene on the already contentious national debates in Congress over how privacy ought to be recast to fit the Internet age. Much is at stake. The corporations involved are vying for the juiciest claims on a golden vein. Research firm eMarketer projects global spending for online ads to climb to $132 billion by 2015, up from $80.2 billion this year.

The technology, retail and media giants shaping this brave new world of online advertising insist that they respect — and can be trusted to preserve — individuals' privacy, even as they compete to dissect each person's likes and dislikes.

Tracking mobile apps

However, startling findings, to be released on Thursday here at the Black Hat security conference, indicate otherwise. Website security company Dasient recently found examples of PC-based tracking techniques getting extended in a troublesome way to Internet-connected mobile devices.

Dasient analyzed 10,000 free mobile apps that enable gaming, financial services, entertainment and other services on Google Android smartphones. Researchers found more than 8%, or 842, of the Android apps took the unusual step of asking users' permission to access the handset's International Mobile Equipment Identity number, the unique code assigned to each cellphone. The IMEI was then employed as the user ID for the given app. In a number of instances, the app subsequently forwarded the user's IMEI on to an online advertising network, says Neil Daswani, Dasient's chief technology officer.

"The fact that an ad network is getting your IMEI means they can know how long you've used your phone and which mobile apps you use most often," Daswani says. "The full implications of this aren't clear, but with privacy you've got to be careful."

Should IMEIs emerge as the preferred way for mobile app companies to track consumers' access to free services, the advertising industry would suddenly have a powerful new way to snoop on how you use your smartphone or tablet PC, Daswani says.

The pervasive embedding of cool location-tracking technology in mobile devices only heightens such concerns. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., earlier this summer introduced a bill that would restrict location tracking, partly to protect children.

Anup Ghosh, chief executive of Web browser security firm Invincea, says Dasient's findings underscore how application developers tend to grab for as much tracking data as they can without thinking through the privacy consequences.

Invincea has begun working on technology that will enable consumers to automatically disable mobile apps that try to tap into IMEI or take other invasive actions. "The reality is, users can't be bothered to tweak privacy settings," Ghosh says.

Privacy leaks

Meanwhile, in other research, Balachander Krishnamurthy at AT&T Labs Research and Craig E. Wills of Worcester Polytechnic Institute recently discovered hard evidence of what many privacy advocates feared: Tracking data about what pages you click to are increasingly getting commingled with personal information you disclose on popular websites and on the premier social networks in alarming ways.

In one case, the researchers documented how the supplier of a Facebook music-sharing application automatically forwarded Facebook members' profile information onto a tracking data aggregator.

Facebook spokesman Brandon McCormick says the company strives to prevent such privacy leakages. Facebook requires users to grant explicit permission for any Web app company to access any Facebook profiles. And he says the company strictly forbids app companies from dispersing any Facebook profile information.

"If we find app developers commingling that data or sharing it with other parties, we will kick them off of our platform," McCormick says.

However, policing the teeming world of Web app development is a gargantuan task, says Michael Fertik, CEO of privacy services firm Reputation.com.

Tens of thousands of new Web apps get integrated into the top social networks as well as the most visited media, entertainment and shopping websites every day.

Many of the new Web app features, such as 'like' buttons and instant polls, are designed expressly to extend tracking systems and feed ever more data about users' online behaviors to the ad networks and tracking data aggregators. Data routinely get "daisy-chained" together to create individual behavioral profiles, Fertik says.

"These profiles are bought and sold to data brokers, marketers and others and are used to make decisions and judgments about you, without your knowledge, without your consent and without a way to fix inevitable errors." Fertik says. "That's what's scary."

Responding to such concerns, the Federal Trade Commission late last year called for a "Do Not Track" mechanism that would enable consumers to opt out of being tailed around the Web. The technology is simple and can be quickly added to any Web browser. Users would then be able to check a box configuring their browser to automatically notify every webpage they visit not to track them. The catch: The online advertising industry would have to universally honor Do Not Track requests.

In May, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced Do Not Track legislation that has gained the backing of privacy groups. Rockefeller's proposal would help consumers "decide for themselves whether or not they want to share personal information, including their various Internet and mobile Web activities," says Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

The online advertising industry prefers self-regulation. Attorney Christopher Wolf, a privacy expert at law firm Hogan Lovells, counters that a Do Not Track law "may lead to the Internet economy — one of the few economic bright spots — being shackled."

'Trust us'

As this debate intensifies, fresh findings of privacy leaks continue to turn up. Krishnamurthy and Wills recently discovered that when they used the search function on popular health websites to look up information on pancreatic cancer, nine of 10 health sites forwarded their query onto a data aggregator.

Similarly, when they filled out job applications on big-name employment sites, eight of 10 jobs sites zipped that information over to a data aggregator, including the user's name and e-mail address. In some instances, sensitive health-related search queries and personal information gleaned from job applications were forwarded to the same aggregator.

Wills says it would have been trivial for the data aggregator to correlate the cancer query and the job application data as having certainly come from the same browser, very likely from the same person.

"It is undeniable that data aggregators are getting this sensitive personal information about me," Wills says. "We have hard evidence in our research that shows they are receiving this information. What they are doing with it, that we don't know."

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Adobe, AOL, Coremetrics and Quantserve are among the largest data aggregators. They each operate sprawling networks of tracking systems that encompass dozens more smaller, independent ad networks, data analytics firms and tracking services.

Google, reportedly the largest data aggregator, has long taken the public position that its tracking systems use an alphanumeric code to identify and keep track of individual Web browsers, and that it simply does not correlate any personal information to these anonymous browser identifiers.

After reviewing copies of Krishnamurthy and Wills' research, Google spokesman Rob Shilkin issued a statement: "We've never attempted or wanted to use any personal or sensitive information in any URLs provided by a third party, and in fact this very issue is addressed by the comprehensive self-regulatory schemes that we comply with."

Google has been widely known to scan the contents of Gmail messages to deliver targeted text ads. While some don't mind, others believe scanning e-mail to deliver more relevant ads is an invasion of privacy. John Simpson, spokesman for the non-profit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, isn't convinced the search giant will necessarily stop there.

"Part of the problem is that Google collects and stores tremendous amounts of data about its users," Simpson says. "The only assurance we have about what Google's intentions are boils down to 'Trust us.'"

-t

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## surf

are you guys trying to tell me that each and everyone of you here does not have an ad for the Bangkok Marriott at the bottom of this page?

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## DamianTV

Nobody will believe a Bomb is dangerous until it Explodes.

When the Privacy Time Bomb goes off, people will lose their lives to anyone with access to that information collected about them.  Some individuals will go after other individuals because of a mutlitude of differences: Religion and Sexual Orientation probably being the most notable differences.  Corporations will seek to use the information to control individuals.  They will know if you are overweight and will attempt to impose "Fines" and "Penalties" on you for not completely being obedient to said Corporations policies.  Hell, I'd say they actually want you to become a Deviant just so they can charge you more money.  Then you get the Govts of the world.  Would anyone put it past China to execute its own citizens if they utter anything opposing the Chinese Govt?  Then why does anyone think that they are safe from the US Govt?

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## phill4paul

Who's to say that information won't simply be generated?

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## HOLLYWOOD

get rid if all the shared $#@! on social media... definitely remove all the metadata from your computers.

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## Brian4Liberty

> are you guys trying to tell me that each and everyone of you here does not have an ad for the Bangkok Marriott at the bottom of this page?


No, it's "get a Master's Degree in Internet Marketing".

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## DamianTV

> Who's to say that information won't simply be generated?


Information is always generated.  Without the power of written language, that Information is forgotten.  With the power of computers, which are based on the abilities provided by Written Language, some of that information can be retained.  As computing power progresses, more and more of that information can be retained.

The problem isnt that information is generated or retained, but how that information is obtained and its intended uses.  People are not asked to have information collected about them.  The people are not advised when information is collected about them.  The people are unable to become aware as to how that information is used, who it is distributed to, or the intention of how that information is to be used.  There again is information.  Information about how and when are kept from the individual.  But information on the individual seems to have zero restrictions.

This is when the information becomes selectively useful.  It isnt useful to the person whose information was gathered.  But the information about how that collected information is never fully given to the individual who generated that information.  The way the information is being used can only lead us into one direction:

Total Control.

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## phill4paul

> Information is always generated.  Without the power of written language, that Information is forgotten.  With the power of computers, which are based on the abilities provided by Written Language, some of that information can be retained.  As computing power progresses, more and more of that information can be retained.
> 
> The problem isnt that information is generated or retained, but how that information is obtained and its intended uses.  People are not asked to have information collected about them.  The people are not advised when information is collected about them.  The people are unable to become aware as to how that information is used, who it is distributed to, or the intention of how that information is to be used.  There again is information.  Information about how and when are kept from the individual.  But information on the individual seems to have zero restrictions.
> 
> This is when the information becomes selectively useful.  It isnt useful to the person whose information was gathered.  But the information about how that collected information is never fully given to the individual who generated that information.  The way the information is being used can only lead us into one direction:
> 
> Total Control.


  Thanks for additional clarification for a Luddite.

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## LibForestPaul

Does anyone ponder what it would had been if McCarthy or Hoover had this type of power?
Does anyone wonder if there is a Hoover behind the scenes currently?

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## silverhandorder

That is just technology. The real threat is that collectively people are stuck in dark age mentality. The peasants allowed their lord so much control because the lord had the weapons and could use them. The citizens allow so much power to the elected officials because the elected officials have soldiers and weapons. Trying to wake the peasants and citizens up is not going to get you anywhere. Just censor your self online and treat site visits as if you are being tracked. 

What you all are bitching about is that you now understand that internet is not as safe as you want it to be. Now you have to watch what you say and what web pages you visit. You should be thanking that you are finding this out because ad companies can do this rather then when secret police is at your door.

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## Petar

Once again government is out to conflate the abuse of its own power with private individuals doing business in a private manner. FTC can suck it.

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## DamianTV

> That is just technology. The real threat is that collectively people are stuck in dark age mentality. The peasants allowed their lord so much control because the lord had the weapons and could use them. The citizens allow so much power to the elected officials because the elected officials have soldiers and weapons. Trying to wake the peasants and citizens up is not going to get you anywhere. Just censor your self online and treat site visits as if you are being tracked. 
> 
> What you all are bitching about is that you now understand that internet is not as safe as you want it to be. Now you have to watch what you say and what web pages you visit. You should be thanking that you are finding this out because ad companies can do this rather then when secret police is at your door.


Not the Internet, the Government, Banks, and Corporations are no where as "safe" as those institutions would have you believe.  Fire would have you believe that it is perfectly "safe" if Fire had any sense of self preservation.

Self Censorship is the result of a monitored population, and is no solution.  The Solution is the Proper Limitation of Government, Banks and Corporations.  It is these very entities that would have you believe that if you do nothing wrong that you have nothing to hide.  Thats been debunked by me and countless others numerous times.  It is these very entites that would have you believe that you will be "safe" if they know you are a Christian in a Muslim Country or a Citizen with Anti Chinese Government beliefs residing in China.  Or Russia.  Or Nazi Germany.  Or Post 9/11 USA.  Take your pick.

The Real Threat to the Safety of All People is the Corrupt Governments, Banks, and Corporations who use ALL information about you as a means to Control you.  And Self Censorship is exactly what they desire because then you wont complain about their Illegal, Unconstitutional, Immoral, or Corrupted behaviors and awaken others.  The Real Goal of the collection of this Information is to use it against you.

Revolution has Three Phases.  First is the active sharing of information about what is wrong.  This is when the thinkers realize that something is wrong and make efforts to fix the problems.  The second stage of Revolution is Passive Resistance.  This comes after the Govt, Banks and Corporations have usurped powers that enable them to abuse the Common Man.  And they WILL abuse you.  They will shoot your children for Loitering.  They will taze you for not being completely obedient.  The third phase is Violet Resistance.  It is the phase that every individual strives to avoid at all possible costs.  This is a Revolutionary War and it will cost the lives of many.  WHen oppressed far enough, it may be the only possible recourse to prevent the further loss of human life at the hands of Corruption whose only goal is to maintain their power.  Violent Revolutions do not always succeed, especially if not enough people were active in the first two stages of Revolution, where a peaceful resoltion can be achieved.

The Goal of Information about you is to kill the very first stage of Revolution, and definitely gives them the upper hand in the latter two stages.  If you want to Self Censor, be my guest, but youre inviting in Tyranny by not making an active stand during the first two stages of Revolution where peaceful change is still possible.

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## thoughtomator

If any of you saw just how many protections I have laden my computer with to stop various forms of tracking, you'd laugh. Script blockers, cookie destroyers, ad blockers, and so on - a lot of times if I let someone use the computer they get confused as to how to make a lot of web sites behave normally under those conditions.

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## MRK

As to the article and the alarm bells being sounded by this Democratic Senator: Snowden had nothing to do with this. He's being used to push an agenda here for more government control as it always is. Snowden was concerned about the government spying on Americans through extralegal procedures. 

If it wasn't obvious that computers keep logs of your activity, then I don't know what to tell you. They aren't doing it for free, believe it or not, it costs a lot of money to maintain and run websites. It may be free to you, but it's not free to a whole chain of people involved in the process. Many make money by connecting you with an advertiser and a retailer.

This is no different than a salesman sizing you up to see what kind of information he can get from you so he can customize a particular sale for you. It helps you because he doesn't talk about things you don't care about and he finds exactly what your needs are and caters to them. Ask any real estate or automobile salesperson about this and they will tell you all about it with examples from each of their customers of how they constantly analyze their characteristics, desires and needs. The only difference is now computers automate it - just like everything else.

Mass automation is here to stay and is never going away. Government is not going to 'solve' this, if anything it's just going to knock out the little guy like always.

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## Tinnuhana

> are you guys trying to tell me that each and everyone of you here does not have an ad for the Bangkok Marriott at the bottom of this page?


No, mine says something to the effect of "Peter Schiff anytime, anywhere"

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## Henry Rogue

> No, mine says something to the effect of "Peter Schiff anytime, anywhere"


I don't have anything. I have Adblock and NoScript.

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## Tod

> are you guys trying to tell me that each and everyone of you here does not have an ad for the Bangkok Marriott at the bottom of this page?


My ad is currently for a greenhouse company.  Previously it was for Association of Mature American Citizens.


edit:  now it is Fleetistics.

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## tangent4ronpaul

> If any of you saw just how many protections I have laden my computer with to stop various forms of tracking, you'd laugh. Script blockers, cookie destroyers, ad blockers, and so on - a lot of times if I let someone use the computer they get confused as to how to make a lot of web sites behave normally under those conditions.





> I don't have anything. I have Adblock and NoScript.


ditto

-t

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## Bern

Google and Facebook set up us the bomb.

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## paulbot24

> Google and Facebook set up us the bomb.


Or maybe it's due to just plain vanity. If people choose to join a site dedicated to helping you show off your face and life so you can find similar people (and collect them in a neat little list that you also like to show off as well) so you can thumbs up, empower, and poke each other, well, maybe you deserve to be trolled by corporations as narcissistic as you are.

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## jmdrake

> That Times' scoop followed an Oct. 2 report about how the National Security Agency conducted a secret pilot program in 2010 and 2011 to test the collection of bulk data about the location of Americans' cell phones. That pilot program was never carried out.


So is this the reason Google keeps trying to bully me into tying my cell phone number into my email account?

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## tangent4ronpaul

> So is this the reason Google keeps trying to bully me into tying my cell phone number into my email account?


That's primarily for password recovery.  e-mail, FB, twitter, etc. get hacked and taken over a lot.

-t

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## paulbot24

This seems odd because you cannot have a cellular phone turned on without it constantly transmitiing its location to the nearest towers every second. Your phone smartphone or not, never stops pinging the towers to find the best call conditions. This has nothing to do with whether you turn on the "course" or "fine" satellite features on a smartphone or use the GPS, theft apps, or any of that. It is simply the way they work. One of the first things police do when it comes to missing persons (after sitting and waiting of course) is do a check to see if the person's phone is on. How many people stray very far from their smart-leashes anymore?

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## jmdrake

> That's primarily for password recovery.  e-mail, FB, twitter, etc. get hacked and taken over a lot.
> 
> -t


Sure.   If you believe that.    Sorry but I don't.  Google already gives you the option of having a password recovery email account.  I've used it quite a bit.  There's no way in hell I'm giving Google my cell number.

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## tangent4ronpaul

Accounts are often tied together for recovery purposes.  That means if you get one, you can probably take over several.  ppl also re-use passwords.  A reset via a cell phone makes perfect sense.  You have to have physical access to it to do the reset.

-t

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## Bern

> Or maybe it's due to just plain vanity. If people choose to join a site dedicated to helping you show off your face and life so you can find similar people (and collect them in a neat little list that you also like to show off as well) so you can thumbs up, empower, and poke each other, well, maybe you deserve to be trolled by corporations as narcissistic as you are.


For Facebook, I agree for the most part.  Even if you never participate on their site, it's possible for folks who do to post pictures that include you and Facebook's facial recognition and tagging system will identify you in their database.

For Google, it's really hard to avoid their reach.  Many websites you visit are using Google's Analytics and/or Webmaster Tools if they aren't also showing ads from their AdSense network.  They can track your IP if nothing else.  If you also have an account with them (gmail, etc.) and stay logged in, they can identify you as you surf the web.

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## LibForestPaul

> This seems odd because you cannot have a cellular phone turned on without it constantly transmitiing its location to the nearest towers every second. Your phone smartphone or not, never stops pinging the towers to find the best call conditions. This has nothing to do with whether you turn on the "course" or "fine" satellite features on a smartphone or use the GPS, theft apps, or any of that. It is simply the way they work. One of the first things police do when it comes to missing persons (after sitting and waiting of course) is do a check to see if the person's phone is on. How many people stray very far from their smart-leashes anymore?


True. But you leave out many other facts.
Why can a cell manufacture not sell a phone without GPS?
Why can a cell service provider not purge its data after an hour?
Why can a phone manufacturer not provide a phone with a dip switch to shut off pinging, or GPS?

Coercion and violence.

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## youngbuck

Browser add-ons that can help improve privacy (use them!):  

TrackMeNotBetterPrivacyHTTPS EverwhereAdblock PlusGhostery(anybody else have suggestions?  List 'em!)

Limit account usage with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, AOL, Verizon and AT&T.  If you do use them, be mindful of all information that may flow through their servers.  Enable as many privacy settings as possible with your accounts.  Falsify information.  Use VPNs, proxies, Tor, etc.  Switch to Linux.  Use antivirus and a firewall.  Encrypt your hard-drive with TruCrypt.

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## DamianTV

> Browser add-ons that can help improve privacy (use them!):  
> 
> TrackMeNotBetterPrivacyHTTPS EverwhereAdblock PlusGhostery(anybody else have suggestions?  List 'em!)
> 
> Limit account usage with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, AOL, Verizon and AT&T.  If you do use them, be mindful of all information that may flow through their servers.  Enable as many privacy settings as possible with your accounts.  Falsify information.  Use VPNs, proxies, Tor, etc.  Switch to Linux.  Use antivirus and a firewall.  Encrypt your hard-drive with TruCrypt.


Secret Agent for Firefox
https://www.dephormation.org.uk/index.php?page=81

Google No Tracking Plugin for Firefox
http://matagus.github.com/remove-goo...directs-addon/

Request Policy - Firefox (VERY Powerful!)
http://www.requestpolicy.com/

No Script Firefox
http://noscript.net/

Collusion Firefox (Informational)
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/collusion/

Dephormation Firefox (Prevents Phrom Deep Packet Inspection)
https://www.dephormation.org.uk/

---

Misc:

Ad Barricade
http://www.adbarricade.com

MVPS Hosts File
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Firewalls:
Any firewall that monitors OUTGOING Traffic - You'd be suprised that searching for Files on your OWN COMPUTER gets sent right back to Microsoft, and not just for Updates...

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## Bern

> Browser add-ons that can help improve privacy (use them!):  
> 
> ... anybody else have suggestions?  List 'em!
> ...





> ...
> No Script Firefox
> http://noscript.net/
> ...


No Script kicks ass.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Not only can it block Google Analytics & AdSense from tracking you, it gives you 100% control over what javascript gets executed as you surf the web (preventing potentially malicious activity anywhere you go).

It also can block all those Twitter and Facebook "Likes/Tweet/Follow" buttons on websites from tracking you.

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