Editorial Article by Jim Lantern, Independent voter, Norman Oklahoma, 1:30pm CT Tuesday 11 June 2013
Note: Spychotic = spy + psychotic.
Classify this one under “Progress” in The Twilight Zone.
Born in March 1956, I remember when we had landline telephones. For some of you reading this, that translates to being way back in the stone age when people lived in caves and trees. No, not the touchtone phones. I mean the original telephones we had to use a finger to turn a dial to enter the phone number. Like the phones you might see in Turner Classic Movies. Those phones belonged to the phone company. Customers could not buy them. Customers made a low monthly payment for the service. I picked up my first phone from the phone company in 1974 when I turned age 18 and moved into my first apartment. No deposit. No advance payment. I was billed an even $6.00 every month.
Then the designer touchtone phones came out. The phone company owed the working guts of the new phones, and sold the fancy designer plastic shells. What a scam! A day came when a phone company employee came to my door, took back the working guts owned by the phone company, and left me with an empty shell. Then they started selling newer phones to include the working guts with the purchase of the shell. No longer a shell game. The new phones were to reduce the cost of the phones and monthly service. Instead, the cost increased by about 300% and the monthly service increased by about 200%. Then the US Government broke up the massive phone company, and further separated local calling from long distance calling to establish the long distance phone service companies. The price of service was increased by another 200% and then all kinds of taxes were added to the service. That’s what happens when Big Brother’s Big Government gets involved. Prices increase with taxes and more taxes.
Along the way, before the first small hand-held cellphones were sold, Caller ID was invented as an additional service the customers could pay for. A customer would have to buy a separate Caller ID box that would display the phone number and personal or business name of the caller. Then, like arms dealers selling weapons to both sides of a conflict, they began to sell Block Caller ID, so that the person you are calling, who has Caller ID, will not be able to see your name and number on their Caller ID box. What a scam! So, you have one customer paying to get it, and the other paying to block it. Brilliant! It gets better! Then they began selling Unblock Blocked Caller ID, so if a person is using Block Caller ID to prevent you from seeing their name and number, you could buy Unblock Blocked Caller ID, so that way you get charged twice to get it! All of that bit the dust when the wireless phones came out and customers began dumping the landline phones.
Today, it’s not just Big Brother of Big Government spying on wireless phone users. Really, the NSA hasn’t got the best spyware on the planet. Google does. Facebook too. That will change when the NSA begins using its new multi-billion dollar data collection and storage complex in Utah. Even so, Big Business has different goals and priorities for violating your privacy than does our psychotic, or spychotic Big Brother in Big Government. Yes, I’ve just invented a new word for the NSA and others like them. Spychotic. Means psychotic spies suffering from paranoid delusions. No, you are not paranoid because you believe they are watching you. They really are watching you, and they are paranoid. They are worse then voyeurs, peeping Toms, and other similar perverts.
Keep in mind, Google invented the new spyware used for ad tailoring, which I consider to be the greatest violation of privacy in the history of the Internet. There’s nothing innocent about it, such as just to get information about you to use for ad tailoring. They don’t need to spy on you to find out what your interests are. They only need to ask you, such as to have you complete a checklist that can be used for ad tailoring, but they don’t. That same spyware can be used by the NSA to spy on you. Keep in mind, Google bought the famous Keyhole Satellite from the CIA, which it used for part of the creation of Google Earth. Then the CIA put in orbit a much more advanced satellite, which can count the hairs on your head. Keep in mind, Google helped Barack Obama get elected President in Election 2008, then reelected in 2012. Obama promised in 2007, during one of his campaign speeches, to put an end to the government spying on US citizens. Now he enthusiastically embraces it, as does US Congress having approved billions of dollars to go to the NSA for its new complex in Utah.
Here’s my prediction for the near future. Big Brother will use all kinds of spyware to spy on Americans, as well as other people around the world. Think of it as being like Big Government getting something similar Caller ID for phones. Big Business will see it as an opportunity to make money by selling to Americans, and others, Block Big Brother, as a kind of service to protect you from being spied on by the NSA, CIA, FBI, and any others, including Google, Facebook and those businesses using ad tailoring spyware. Getting a normal firewall for your computer, as well as services to find and remove adware, malware, and spyware, will not be good enough. And what can you also get to protect your privacy while using your cellphone? I can imagine it now. A commercial on TV. “Buy Block Big Brother now only $9.95. Call now and get two for the price of one!”
Humor aside, I believe privacy is security, rather than a conflict of interest with each other. If they take away our privacy, then they take away our security.
Even if we stop Big Brother, Google, Facebook, and others from violating our privacy, doing so will not stop what is coming in the near future. The basic meaning of privacy will change when an interface and relating software is created, manufactured, and sold for a low price so everyone can get it . . . to connect communications and the Internet directly to the human brain. Further, education will change, because it will become possible to download knowledge directly into the brain. Perhaps that will give birth to the “hive mind” like that of the “Borg” in Star Trek the Next Generation TV series. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated! A very bizarre future is on its way. With its massive computers and artificial intelligence, the NSA is nearly there. So perhaps Edward Snowden is right, that they are so powerful already, it’s just a matter of time before they get you. Maybe the NSA slogan will become “We are the Borg!”
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UPDATE 13 JUNE 2013: How to keep your info private, even from the NSA ~ MSN Money. Excellent article includes names and links to some of the services providing protection.
Lantern Timeglass Journal 