Asklemmy

Entire world, how do you feel about being stored in a database by US government agencies like the NSA?

Feels bad, man.

Better buckle up Buttercup, because "being in a database" is a reality. Thanks to data breaches such as Equifax, pretty much every US citizen and all their important details are available in numerous databases.

We willingly purchase devices that listen and watch our every move... to be added to private, corporate databases that get sold around like cheap prostitutes. At least with government databases, voting gives at least a teeny, tiny modicum of control.

And even better, while I cant name specific breaches in relation to global populations, it's a safe bet most everyone else is compromised as well.

On the bright side, at least it makes random identity theft occurring to any one particular individual akin to winning the PowerBall.

I just wish they could fucking do it for my goddamned healthcare data. Switching states, practices, getting your full history of vaccines from a dusty file cabinet 24 years ago at a pediatric clinic....not a goddamned SQL table in sight. Wait days, fax everything, someone in the chain never makes the transfer, and you have to get it to your doctor and possibly multiple medical insurance agencies multiple times.

Oh, and literally everything running on different DBs at hospitals, when they use them. Even if it's the same company running DBs for different hospital networks.

Same thing for moving states/addresses/voting/mail/licenses. No DBs. The only consolation is that apparently Canada is similarly fucked up and also doesn't have a country-wide health DB, haha. So painful.

Our government has completely lost its way. The Founders would be both appalled and ashamed.

Every search you make, email you send, text message, voice chat, location, and most likely the conversations you have in your own home are monitored and stored in a database for whoever knows how long (probably forever).

This is most likely incidental.

As in, to successfully show text messages to people, somewhere at the ISP, someone has to have a database that shows what messages were sent off from which tower and need to be routed where. Maybe they're retained for a while for re-send reasons, too. Yeah.

But the point is, that's not the same reason why your home address is retained at the motor license department.

We humans love to see patterns in things, but we do so even when none exist, as our brains want to desperately simplify information to save space, essentially. But we should not let that fool us into thinking the world is simpler than it actually is: We have a host of reasons to retain data, and this existed long, long, loooong before digital databases. And for good reason. After all, if it cannot be verified that you are you in context X, the state can hardly offer you service Y or protection Z (such as those are in the US in particular, granted).

Your city has to know who you are and where you live. Your motor dep needs to know which license belongs to whom and is attached to which vehicle. Amazon needs to know where to send your parcels. Your phone provider needs to know which phone belongs to which number in their network and where it is right now. Etc, etc, etc. They all do so for individual reasons.

We love it!!! Ahhhh

My feeling about that is that I should assume anyone who could monitor my traffic should be assumed to do so and I therefore should apply reasonable defenses regardless. Even if the government doesn't do it, hackers around the world will. That means the moment it leaves my router, it's assumed compromised.

Same for smart Internet connected devices. The government might be listening, but I certainly don't trust the manufacturer to not be listening for the purpose of advertising either.

How many stories broke out recently of ISP router having been compromised by foreign hackers for years? Yeah. The Internet is the wild west.

Not American, but I think most other people will be in their database as well. Honestly, it frustrated me greatly, but ultimately I try not to worry too much about it since I can't control it. Privacy is one of my main "pillars" when voting (here in the Netherlands we have way more than 2 choices). A party's stance on privacy and encryption is a requirement for gaining my vote, and it's lead me to not vote for someone in multiple occasions. It's the most influence I can have.

Not a big fan.

Frankly though I think Snowden gets way too much credit. Anyone with any sense that looked at the Patriot Act knew what was going to happen, and people were raising alarm from the beginning. He just confirmed what already should have been very obvious.

If you're not an American, you're in their servers too.

I feel about the same as every European citizen should, since their governments are obviously doing the same but without the public fanfare.

I honestly think it's everyone's responsibility to make their job as hard as possible. Use providers that prioritize privacy and that are located outside the US. Don't ever use telephony or sms always use end to end encrypted services for conversations, leave your phone at home or turn it off, use a rom without Google play services. Really drive them nuts and use cash for most purchases. This by no means stops everything but it makes it harder. You can't stop all data collection but you can reduce it and every reduction helps.

Poison the data as often as possible. I'm getting kicked off more and more services because my data doesn't match their fingerprinting. I don't verify any identity. Even the private databases with addresses, cars, employers, etc are all filled with random junk data making them useless. I can't "pass verification" because the source is stupid. I take that as a small win.

Biggest part was getting tf out of that shithole country. Life is much better now.

I do not like it, uncle-sam-I-am.

It's not like my opinion will make any actual difference, so I've made my piece with it.

Not a fan of government or corporate surveillance.

My concern is mostly about whoever holds the keys in the long run. They collect it all today, hold it forever, who knows what regime comes to power in the next decades and uses that information for targeting.

I don't worry about it, currently.

I know any country I'd want to live, they are doing the same thing. Just perhaps not as effectively.

That's no excuse, it sucks. But it doesn't disturb me outright that the US gov is doing it.

The only real option worthwhile is to get nerdy and play the same game. Change up how and what you connect online as well as running security and privacy based open source firmware + software on your devices. Aside from that, protesting would be another option with some teeth too!

How do you feel about being stored in the NSA database? Personally, I'm not a fan.

I feel about it the way I feel about the weather. I don’t think it’s realistic to live under a government that has the ability to exert some form of power, then have that government not exert that form of power.

Mostly I’m just hoping to be reincarnated during the next major outward expansion. During the current phase of history the individual is just a unit to be used by this or that collective.

It sucks, but so does being allergic to milk. Don’t have much choice about either one.