Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
How much detail do you think is in the data that governments and tech companies are keeping about us?
Are they keeping a log of every website you visit?
Are they keeping a log of your phone's 24/7 location data?
Are they keeping transcripts of all of your phone calls?
Are they keeping transcripts of every word you say in the vicinity of a smart device?
etc.?
Depends on what you mean by "tech companies", technically unless you do fulltime VPN at least your ISP has the full list of all websites you visit. Given that we have confirmed report of dragnet surveillance installed at least at some major ISPs, you can assume NSA (and whatever TLAs they share with) has the full log of these (storage paid for with our tax money, thank you very much!) though they probably don't check it unless you become a focus of their attention somehow.
Google/Apple most definitely has these data, and likely they sell some of it, and give some of it on a search warrant. The government can request it, the legality of it is kinda debated but it's legal at least in some cases, so you can assume if the government wants it, it will have it. I don't think we have any info about Feds keeping independent logs, but they wouldn't need to.
Not likely, as it would be a direct violation of wiretapping laws AFAIK. Unless, of course, you got into trouble enough for The Law to be able to get a wiretapping warrant on you. Though really with all the rest of NSA shenanigans I wouldn't be totally surprised if they start doing it, but I haven't heard any indications of that happening yet.
Not likely, since the traffic to record it all would be large enough for people to notice and start talking about it. It is plausible that there could be "keyword triggers" that record specific conversations and clandestinely ship them back to the phone/OS company (where the previous items apply), but for full transcripts of every word it'd be hard to do without people noticing, and since we don't have AFAIK any good evidence of this right now, I'll tend to say no, at least in the form presented. They definitely could listen and update e.g. your advertisement profile - that'd be very hard to catch without having enough access, though the longer we go without somebody Snowden-ing it out, the lesser is the probability that it is actually happens. If NSA couldn't keep their secrets secret, why Google or Apple would be able to?
In general, it all depends on a) what is your threat model and b) how interested the government is in you. For most normal people, the government is not interested in them unless they become a target of the investigation - which means they did something to trigger it, or somebody else pointed at them as somebody to watch. If that happened, pretty much any contact with modern society means you're screwed. Bank account? Forget about it. Driving? You better wear a mask and steal a car from somebody that doesn't mind they car being stolen. Communication? Burner phones probably would get you somewhere but don't stay in the same place too long or use the same burner for too long. It's possible to live under the radar, but it's not convenient and usually people that do that have their own infrastructure (like drug traffickers) and if you're going into it alone, it will be tough for you. OTOH, if you're just a normie feeling icky about your data being stored at the vast data silos, you can use some tools - like VPNs, privacy OS phones, etc. - with relatively minor inconvenience, and avoid being data-harvested. But it wouldn't protect you if The Law becomes seriously interested in you.
I think with 4 and 5 it’s much more likely that they have various companies do that for them, and have arrangements to let them ask to see it. There’s a lot of ways that this could be happening, and since your isp/phone company/social media isn’t literally the government, it’s not really illegal. The arrangement would be something like what happens with pictures. Apple can search your photos (or at least tge ones on their cloud) for child porn. They are also obligated to report any such images they find. But I absolutely believe that if I said something that the government really really doesn’t like that it would be reported to the government fairly quickly. And it’s mostly down to liability laws — if I have a social media account where I talk about doing something illegal and I actually do it, my victims can absolutely go after those media outlets for knowing that I said that and not warning people to stop me.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link