Posted by Kent [KENT] on November 10, 1999 at 07:20:21 {AAJB0ph6mYOJikFWJ7tMBSwZlMEBKg}:
In Reply to: **Lessons from the Stasi posted by Bibleman on November 10, 1999 at 06:14:24:
Interesting topic. But the INTERNET probably by far will be the greatest invasion of privacy yet since it records not just your activity on-line but your THOUGHTS!
That is why I can't understand why the Jehovah's Witnesses are so paranoid being online. They don't have any thoughts to be recorded :))
Personally, I believe it is possible to be hunted - even if you are paranoid. But I don't care much if anyone should be interested in collecting what I'm saying. In fact - if the authorities did - I would be happy.
And, I know that posts are being intercepted. All mails to and from Germany, US and Norway are so called scanned and checked for certain words. And probably from most other countries as well. If one person is especcially "interesting" - all mails to and from that person will be checked far better.
A mail online isn't really a mail. It's more like an electronic postcard. Anyone along the route can, in principle, read that card- if sendt without encryption.
And your activities on the internet can be monitored and a new psychological profile of who you are come into place like never before. And it is done electronically and silently. That is one reason why using various screen names and not keeping everything you do on the internet under one E-mail address, etc. sort of short-changes the casual lurkers from learning who you are and what you think by your preferences on the internet.
Is that so? Do you think these people are complete morons? Let me give you a few facts to prove what you just did say is plain wrong:
1.) For the net to be able to communicate with you, you need an IP address. If you use some kind of old system that do not (apparently) send that address, you are really fooled. Because the internet needs to communicate with your PC to check that paccages sendt and received is OK.
2.) If you managed to get rid of the IP - the net wouldn't communicate with you.
3.) That IP address is logged all over the place. Try a trace route on a mail you get - and you will be extremely surprised what the net will tell you about your actions, where you are from and everything - without saying your name.
4.) Your ISP do have the logs that do tell what actual account were used. They can't say YOU used the account - but that YOUR account was the one used, and you called the internett from phone number xxxxx. These are standard informations.
An IP search (trace route) will tell you things like this:
Analysis: IP packets are being lost past network "Sprint" at hop 16. There is insufficient cached information to determine the next network at hop 17. Connections to -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP port 80 are being rejected. Node 144.228.157.78 at hop 16 in network "Sprint" reports "The destination network is unreachable".
| Hop | Err | IP Address | Node Name | Location | ms | Graph | Network |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | | 192.168.0.6 | NIT06 | ... | | | (private use) |
| 1 | | 195.204.226.250 | t4o212.telia.com | ?(Norway) | 24 | x- | Telia Nett Norge |
| 2 | | 195.204.226.254 | no-ris-d2-feth0-0-0-dist.risor.telia.net | Risor, Norway | 25 | x- | Telia Nett Norge |
| 3 | | 195.204.245.20 | - | ?(Norway) | 25 | x-- | Telia Nett Norge |
| 4 | | 194.19.1.237 | no-oso-c1.telia.net | - | 39 | -x | Telia/Unisource Business Networks |
| 5 | | 194.19.1.197 | no-oso-i1.telia.net | - | 40 | -x- | Telia/Unisource Business Networks |
| 6 | | 194.19.1.146 | - | ?(Norway) | 59 | x- | Telia/Unisource Business Networks |
| 7 | | 194.17.1.109 | sto-b1-atm3-0-5.telia.net | - | 63 | x--- | Telianet links |
| 8 | | 194.17.1.89 | sto-b2-pos4-0.telia.net | - | 50 | x- | Telianet links |
| 9 | | 194.17.0.250 | ny-b1-pos0-3.usa.telia.net | - | 167 | -x | Telianet links |
| 10 | | 209.95.128.166 | ny-i8-atm2-0-208.int.usa.telia.net | - | 165 | -x | Telia Network Services |
| 11 | | 144.232.171.109 | sl-gw5-nyc-6-0-0.sprintlink.net | New York, NY, USA | 173 | -x--- | Sprint/United Information Service |
| 12 | | 144.232.7.53 | sl-bb10-nyc-2-2.sprintlink.net | New York, NY, USA | 170 | -x | Sprint/United Information Service |
| 13 | | 144.232.7.2 | sl-bb11-nyc-9-0.sprintlink.net | New York, NY, USA | 215 | -x-- | Sprint/United Information Service |
| 14 | | 144.232.9.150 | sl-bb10-chi-6-0.sprintlink.net | Chicago, IL, USA | 226 | --x-- | Sprint/United Information Service |
| 15 | | 144.232.0.186 | sl-gw12-chi-8-0-0.sprintlink.net | Chicago, IL, USA | 198 | -x- | Sprint/United Information Service |
| 16 | 10 | 144.228.157.78 | sl-junoo-1-0-0-3000k.sprintlink.net | - | 194 | -x | Sprint |
| ... | | | | | | | |
| ? | | 205.231.100.198 | m3.boston.juno.com | ?New York, NY 10036 | | | D. E. Shaw & Co. |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scary, isn't it? And CIA, and every police world wide can get information on WHO is hiding behind the IP address. In the example abowe, just look at how many servers have collected info on the sender for this one mail!
And apparently persons are able to even go into your webpages and copy things on your computer when you're online.
That's no problem at all. I can even (I don't - but it's possible!) place small programs, like Active-X controls - on the webpage, and these programs will send information to me when YOU are online :)))
Tecnologi is a two edged sword, my friend. Microsofts software has lots of security holes - and it IS possible to use them. Visual Basic can be used as well.
But - people USING these tecniques, will be recorded too - and it's highly illigal! I wouldn't advice anyone getting caught doing this - because jail isn't nice anywhere in the world, except in Norway - where they are Hotels :))
So besides just the government wanting to do this, the voyeuristic hacker can do this too. So now the individual can become the "Big Brother".
True. And the fact that the Watchtower uses the Mormons to run their internet stuff is not by chanse. The Mormon guys worked at CIA, and they changed the rules, because about half of the people involved in top-secret network security and computer technology were Mormons. After a few years, they were allowed to start up their own companies - with far more knowledge than lots of their competitors.
The fact that The Watchtower itselfs owns and run companies selling security equipment, should tell anyone that these guys have the means to check out pretty much - if they want to. And they do :)) They never cared much for "secular law" anyway:))
There was a program long ago about this on the episode of "The Twilight Zone" which I'm sure all of us old enough have seen 100 times. Where there was some hidden camera in every room and people got addicted to looking into people's private lives and learning everybody's secrets.
In a short while these possibilities is in your standard monitor.
Another danger, of course, is the number of young persons on the internet who upload and discuss their private lives, their families, etc. Certainly the internet is an ideal tool now for spy agencies who can pry into a persons private life, observe their preferences and eavesdrop on their E-mail conversations.
If I were a blackmailer, I would "live" online, yes.
Reasonable counter-measures can be taken I suppose, like not discussing anything too personal over the net, but essentially the internet is the biggest excuse for invasion of privacy there is in the modern world.
It's like telephone and fax. Nobody with their heads screwed on the right way would ever discuss sensible information on unscrambled lines. And nobody would send an uncoded mail. PGP, I'm sure, can be broken as well - but then we are talking about "the big guys" - and they do what they want anyway....
But that is a good thing too. After all, secret cults like the WTS who control the environment of their members by keeping them busy with 4 new magazines per week, a 10-hour a week field service schedule and 5 meetings per week with little time for anything else, have created a de-facto private and insulated organization. But the internet changes all that since it is in every home and readily available and all the SECRETS they would never tell their members are instantly provided by XJW webpages. This apparently has been so devastating, they are now running from the internet and trying to fight back by yet another webpage.
The Watchtower do, in principle, have the same problem I have. If I wanted to hack into a server, there will be traces. And if you get caught - the results could be bad. The Watchtower is stinking rich - and just dream of the fines!
So I think, for some, the internet takes the Stasi-syndrome to all new heights.
Yup. And therefore they do have their "agents" all over the place, pretending to be everything from "apostates" to god knows what. Trying to find out who is doing what. For me, I even dare give my address and telephone numbers online, as I'm sure you have seen.
Thanks for the info, Rick, Kent.
You're welcome. Just don't even THINK that you are anonymous online. Even if you use anonymizer, the anonymizer has recorded your IP address!
Kent