Google in Bed with NSA

I personally don't care for Google's tracking activity, I loath Facebook, Microsoft has time and again shown that they are not above breaking the law and underhanded business dealings. Thank goodness that Intel was prevented (or were they?) from embedding unique identifiers into CPU's so that online activity could be traced right back to a specific machine, let alone an IP address, you guys remember that?
Along the same lines are sites such as this:
http://www.spokeo.com
For a couple of bucks they will dredge up all kinds of information about you. I already requested that my wife and I's names be removed their database, but there are still a couple dozen more out there like them.
Online or offline, it would appear privacy is a thing of the past.

But you know what is kind of disturbing me today is this;

Skip you do realize that such statements, no matter how correct you may be, will turn some people against your ideas, or at the very least divert attention from the topic to the inflammatory remarks. Not saying you are wrong, but such statements really are counter-productive to getting heard and considered seriously.

I will also admit that I've also been troubled by your remarks here and in a couple of other posts in which it appears you are threatening members with banishment for disagreeing with your viewpoint, and expressing such disagreement with the same fervor that you adopt.
That would seem to fly in the face of the philosophy upon which you founded the web site and one of the main draws of HF, free speech.
It really leaves me rather .

p.s. I hope I don't get banned for my post, but it really has bothered me today.

 

I think you missed what I was saying skip.

I wasn't saying they could go to the ISP's and get this info. I was saying that they ARE the ISP's or at least a part of any of the major ones and they already have this info. Every once and a while they make a show of trying to fight red tape to get that info for local cops and such to throw everyone off.

If you were an organization that wanted to know everything about everyone, why would you set up a system where people had to voluntarily go to gather it (facebook and such). Unless you are getting the info at the source (isp's), and then using companies (whether fronts or dupes) like facebook and google to draw people into using them.

The only people they can't track easily and automatically, are those who aren't on the internet. Until something like facebook gets people inviting everyone from their 112 year old granny to there 5 year old nephew...

 

And just to add fuel to this warm cozy fire.
Sarkozy has been lobbying hard to get the Internet declared a public utility. Yup, just like gas, water and electricity. Because doing so would negate the need for warrants through government oversight.

And you know how things work in this brave new world. When one politician succeeds in doing it, the rest won't be far behind.

It's been done on the software level.
When you register your copy of windows. You will note that there is now 2 unlock keys. The first one comes with the install disks and the 2nd your supposed to do via the Internet or phone within 30 days after installation.

Each set of install disks comes with unique product code identifier. During the installation, not only does it probe your computer's hardware configuration, but it gets both the manufacture make and production dates of both the processor and the bios. (if you note, your processor and bios are seldom made in the same factory)

When the manufacture make and production dates of both the bios and the processor are added to the product code of the operating system, the end result is a unique identifier.

You know what I'm taking offense to?

A bunch of cry babies that can do nothing but whine that freedom of speech only exists if your saying nice things to each other. Therefore, contre productive my sweet fucking black ass. These things need to be discussed and there isn't always going to be a nice way of saying them. Especially when a bunch of ADHD morons are busy polluting the gene pool with their idiotic comments.

The Internet is not only sterile as a medium of communication, it completely lacks any redeeming moral or social value, unless there is information exchanged and serious conversations that lead to actions.

So let me tell you what Freedom of speech is.

I, you and everyone else can say anything possible. We can be rude or polite and intelligent or idiots. We have just as much right to insult and call names as we do to compliment each other.

But freedom of speech stops when 1) we start to threaten each other with physical harm. 2) Resort to racial hate. 3) Solicit sex from children.

As you can see,
Freedom of speech can be just a ugly as it can be beautiful. But that's what freedom is about isn't it? Learning to be tough enough to accept the good with the bad and ugly with the beautiful.

So if you want to be in a place where freedom of speech is embraced. You can either suck it up and stop being a cry baby. Or leave.

Just like I have to tolerate the prattle of the brain dead. They're going to have to learn to tolerate me calling them stupid. So like the old saying goes, "if you can't stand the heat.. Get the fuck out of the kitchen."

Besides,
99% of these sucks whining about "things being counter productive" are never going to get off their asses anyway. so why worry about making them feel comfortable.

 

You are correct about the hardware config being used to create a unique ID for Winblows. I had to call once to get re-authorized because I disabled my NIC and changed video cards.

Speaking of which it is actually your Network Interface Card that provides tracking capabilities, not the cpu. NIC's already each have a unique identifier, the MAC address and it is the MAC address that it tied to your IP #, not any cpu identifier or hardware configuration.
Want your Windows authentication to go bye-bye, switch out your network card and there's a good chance that alone will kill it. I've seen it happen on my and client's systems. It is the single piece of hardware that has a unique identifier.

As far as the rest of your response goes, I'm not offended, was just confused and I'm done with it now as Skip has stated his position on my inquiry in no uncertain terms.

:2thumbsup:

 

The NICs are old tech. The method I just described allows them track a computer even if it's not connected to the net. IE. If you lost it in an airport or if the police wanted to search your computer files, etc

 

old tech, if you are connected to a network, it is via a Network Interface device of some type which has a MAC address as a unique identifier. Check your router's user tables and you will see a MAC address tied to each IP that has been assigned. The MAC address is how it finds a specific machine, not the IP#. IP's can be manually assigned by the user, a MAC address can not, therefore it is a stable form of machine identification. Tracking users online and the possible abuse of such information is the topic of the thread is it not?
The only way I know of to find a lost laptop is via the Lojac type devices, which still have to have access to a network in order to work. May be completely transparent to the user, but none the less it is being traced through a network. Often those type of systems only function when the machine is connected to the internet, otherwise how do you propose they are locating the lost or stolen laptop?

But all in all such details are irrelevant to the topic at hand.

Yes Google and other such services do have the capacity to have their use diverted to other purposes, tracking users activities being the most blatant diversion and infringement upon personal privacy.
At least that is my opinion.

Skip, I hope you don't think I was trying to "best the webmaster", I was just asking an honest question.

 

Ugh ... SKYNET ...

HTML:

 

No it's not a stable forum of machine identification because MAC addresses can be easily changed.

I hate having to spell everything out.
OK here goes,

Airport security finds your computer sitting on a chair all by itself. So they decide to take a look at it and find that there are thousands of downloaded films, mp3s, cracked programs, etc. But surprise surprise there is nothing to say who the owner is.

But wait a minute! There is a way! They log into the Microsoft back door interface for law enforcement and then they hook up your computer and discover that it was registered by you. So now they go and log into their account with Google and suddenly they find out that your computer "regularly used IP" was.

And now they have the computer with stolen content, confirmed who the probable owner of the computer is and they got your probable IP address. Everything they need to get a judge to sign off on writ to demand your ISP release all the information they have on you.

What I've detailed has been used to catch everything from pedos to terrorists. And I personally found out about this because of a divorce. //nuff said

 

I read this to mean "Google in bed with no strings attached" and I was like "wtf?"

 

Well, thats is quite the different scenario than what you originally posted. What you originally posted was "like you lose your laptop in the airport" with no mention about searching out incriminating files or some shit.

I think what you actually meant to say was "they can track your activity", but that isn't what you typed. Also the ISP still would have to trace the "regularly used IP#" they assigned to you to the physical MAC address of the laptop or router for a certain identification/match. IP#'s are dynamic, unless you pay the extra$$ for a static IP, even then it is still tied to the physical MAC address of the Network Interface device it was assigned to, whether that be a computer or router.

"Although physical MAC (Media Access Control) addresses are permanent by design, several mechanisms allow modification, or "spoofing", of the MAC address that is reported by the operating system. This can be useful for privacy reasons, for instance when connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot, or to ensure interoperability. Some internet service providers bind their service to a specific MAC address; if the user then changes their network card or intends to install a router, the service won't work anymore. Changing the MAC address of the new interface will solve the problem. Similarly, some software licenses are bound to a specific MAC address. Changing the MAC address in this way is not permanent: after a reboot, it will revert to the MAC address physically stored in the card. A MAC address is 48 bits in length"

http://whatismyipaddress.com/change-mac

So even though you can alter through software the reported MAC address, it's not permanent, you can't physically change it in the actual hardware device. So they are a stable form of machine identification.

Skip; sorry for diverting your thread topic. I'm done with this line of discourse now.

 

i'm less worried about the national security administration then i am about the national chamber of commerce. that seems to think symbolic value is more important then the survival of the human species. of course all ideological prejudice is detrimental to that too.

i would also point out, that gathering bigger haystacks makes the needles in them even harder to find. if i'm not entirely mistaken, somebody may have actually figured that one out.

to watch all of the people all of the time, would take all of the people more then all of the time to do so. of course that won't stop there from always being those who would like to.

hell, i'm as curious as anyone myself.

its only when ideologically and otherwise biased interests start DOING things with miss assembled jigsaw puzzles of information that things get something to worry about.

when they have better sense things work out better.

 

you know im in 100% agreement with skip on this one and you know what our flag stands for is vanishing even back in the 70s it wasnt as bad as it is now i dont know about where others live but in this town and others theres cameras on top of buildings they are called weather cams witch the news does use but i call them spy cams they can look down nearly every street

 

is there a mac (as in Apple Mac) equivalent?

 

The "haystack" issue is really a non-issue. Unless you are extremely secure about your online activities, it is ridiculously easy to target computers and users by which websites they access, which search terms they have entered, and (if they contact the ISP directly) exactly how much information is being downloaded. For instance, if big bad Uncle Sam (or even Google) wanted to compile a database on people who have searched for "tax laws and evasion" - you better bet they can run that database against various others and come down with a pretty accurate list of people who are harboring back taxes and actively trying to get away with it. This is theoretical, and I'm sure they do not actually do this, but as simple as it is to build a "search" function, I'm sure the entire process could be automated and easy-peasy.

 

I'll avoid a long depth conversation about the 7 layers of OSI model and just say that the Media Access Control Address is the lowest. This layer is the physical layer. Ie: This is the actual interface device that connects to the twisted pair. So you want to change your MAC. You change your interface adapter. IE. Pull out the card and slap in a new one. Problem solved.


Now if you're running windows 7 you can do this which is just as effective.

1) Open Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center

2) Click on Change adapter settings.

3) Right click on your network connection (Local Area LAN or Wireless WAN) and click Properties

4) On the properties window click Configure

5) On the advance tab, click Network Address and Enter a value (HEX 0-9,A-F) on the right side textbox

6) To verfy your changes go to a command prompt and type ipconfig/all

 

Sure is.

For mac OS X 10.2 or later. Edit the /private/etc/hosts file. For more information on how to use the hosts file, open Terminal and type: man hosts Editing this file requires root privileges.

1) Open /Applications/Utilities/NetInfo Manager.

2) To allow editing the NetInfo database, click the padlock in the lower left corner of the window.

3) Enter your Admin password and click OK.

4) In the second column of the browser view, select the node named "machines." You will see entries for -DHCP-, broadcasthost, and localhost in the third column.

5) The quickest way to create a new entry is to duplicate an existing one. So select the "localhost" item in the third column.

6) Choose Duplicate from the Edit menu. A confirmation alert appears.

7) Click Duplicate. A new entry called "localhost copy" appears, and its properties are shown below the browser view.

8) Double-click the value of the ip_address property and enter the IP address of the other computer.

9) Double-click the value of the name property and enter the hostname you want for the other computer.

10) Click the serves property and choose Delete from the Edit menu.

11) Choose Save from the File menu. A confirmation alert appears.

12) Click Update this copy.

13) Repeat steps 6 through 12 for each additional host entry you wish to add.

14) Choose Quit from the NetInfo Manager menu. You do not need to restart the computer.

If you have a number of hosts that you wish to add, you can use the niload command to add them. The file needs to be a standard UNIX hosts file. For instance, if you have a hosts file named "hosts.txt" you can enter the following command in Terminal to load the hosts into your local NetInfo database:

sudo niload hosts . < hosts.txt