The Hacktivists and Hackers Are Coming and So We Have to Watch Everyone Online Now - They Say

You are being watched online. Okay so, no surprise there, and maybe just that fear might stop some people from doing bad things, you know humans often do bad things, that is to say you can't always trust them (understatement). Still, in our country, we do have a Constitution, and bill of rights with passages regarding search and seizure laws and for good reason too. Of course, the government lawyers might say yes, but if you are using the Internet or WiFi you are communicating through the airwaves, phone lines, and/or outside your home and therefore, the FCC has jurisdiction and thus, it's free game, well, maybe it might be legal from their perspective, but is it right?

Is there no such thing as privacy anymore? It appears there isn't. Each month we learn more and more about our personal information and privacy is invaded. There was an unfortunate article recently on the McClatchy News Service on March 21, 2012 which stated; "3 Online Date Sites Agree to Screen for Predators," meaning that Match (dot) com, eHarmony, and Spark Networks will allow authorities to sift through all of their data, past, present, and future to try and find sexual predators, identity thieves, and financial scammers.

It seems that when someone signs up for such a dating service, that the information is personal and private, and yet, now Big Brother will be watching and all that data collected and put into a huge data base. Amazing the challenges to privacy these days isn't it?

The same day there was a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled; "Worry About the Hackers You Don't See," and it discussed how the FBI was using analytical tools to go through all the data on all of the social networks to try to match profiles against the information they had on various hacker groups like "Anonymous" and thus, they get to go through and profile you as well, you know just in case, for your protection of course? Yeah, sure but of course; okay so, why would I care?

Well, I don't participate on inane social networks, but if the authorities are doing this on social networks, they are doing it everywhere. What will happen is we will have far too many "false positives" and due to the reality that we do have stupid humans in the loop, this cannot be good for anyone. Our real worlds are now so utterly entwined with the online virtual world that you have no privacy, and if the government is looking at your data, as they have access and our government computers are not even safe, then all the hackers now have all of your data too.

This means we are less safe from identity theft, financial scams, and hacking, not more safe. Not to mention the insider threat of dirty government employees. Oh you say that couldn't happen; really, what planet are you living on? Please consider all this and think on it.