My view of the world

In a radical departure from earlier statements, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said that requiring Internet service providers to save records of their customers’ online activities is necessary in the fight against terrorism. This is from cnet.
Gonzales’ earlier position had only emphasized how mandatory data retention would help thwart child exploitation.

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, turned over millions of call detail records to the NSA, without any form of court order.

If you think you’re safe, Lexus /Nexus just sent me an ad wanting to sell me their service for locating hard to find, meaning unlisted and cell, phone numbers.

There are online services that will tell someone if you’ve ever had a bankruptcy, and where you’ve lived in recent years, this will also tell if someone else is using your social security number or if you’re using someone else’s.

If you use Windows, it issues a guid, that can be used to keep track of everything you do on a site, including where you came from, and if you think you’re safe without windows, your nic has a mac address that’s critical to network communications and is therefore unique, this too, can be aquired.

A couple of years back, a friend showed me that even if you use a proxy, often times it’s possible to find out your original IP.

Advice: Don’t write it down, this includes email, and don’t use the telephone for anything you don’t want big brother to hear.

PGP is our friend.

I also recommend a voice changer for your phone, and a scrambler for those people you talk to regularly.
I doubt that these will save you from the powers that be, in fact they will probably attract even more attention, but these two devices will just, flat, bug the shit out of the Feds, should they happen to be listening.

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.” Daniel Webster