50% of Americans Changed Their Behavior Due To NSA

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
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If you had any doubt about Americans being paranoid over the reality of the possibility of the government actually spying on their daily routines, have no doubt of it now. The revelations of Edward Snowden NSA exposures have opened the eyes of the majority of Americans, for the good or the bad.

They are now doing less banking online and less online shopping. This shift in behavior is not good news for companies that rely on sustained or increased use of the Internet for their business model.
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I gave up on holding out for a phone that respected my freedumbs and bought an Android phone.
 
This was based on a poll of what users said they are doing, not as a result of any hard data whatsoever.

While I'm sure many would "claim" they are doing less online shopping now... somehow I doubt it. It all comes down to the $, and fact is, shopping online is usually cheaper.
 
Yeah ever since that darn NSA business I've been havin to buy my grass seeds somewheres else.....
 
I stopped online shopping because I don't want the NSA to know that I am buying dog food from Amazon! :rolleyes:
 
Well, I admit that I've changed some of my online practices. Admittedly, not enough. Though I stay clear of iPhones and only go for Android products that I know I can replace the rom in it. Even my laptop now uses Linux instead of Windows.

But it's all for nothing. I use Gmail for my email. Nothing in my machines are encrypted. I certainly don't have any control over the data on my Android phone, even with a custom rom. My desktop PC still runs Windows for gaming.

I have nothing to hide, but I certainly don't want the NSA to know my business. If everyone got behind encryption and we made a bigger deal of using encryption, then we'd have a chance to thwart the NSA. And we certainly need to stop using email services like Gmail.
 
I always marveled at people who dismiss any suggestion of nefarious behavior by an unabashed data miner like Google and don't try to avoid or even embrace their services but are all uptight about the NSA.
 
jpm100 said:
I always marveled at people who dismiss any suggestion of nefarious behavior by an unabashed data miner like Google and don't try to avoid or even embrace their services but are all uptight about the NSA.
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I see your point, but I think the main issue is that one has constitutional obligations and the other does not.
 
I wasn't one of them. My life is so boring nobody would ever spy on me.
 
I don't see why people should care THAT much, especially normal citizens. You could be running a meth lab in your basement and the NSA wouldn't give a damn. There are other three letter organizations more interested in that.
 
I keep seeing lots of wharrgarbl about how it's a part of some vast governmental conspiracy to control its civilian population, but when it comes down to what it is that such a conspiracy is attempting to control, the answers are never satisfactory.
 
Criminals, pedos and maybe high profile individuals with extremist believes should be concerned. If you don't fall under those categories then I wouldn't lose hair over it.
 
NSA doesn't give a shit about what 99% of americans buy and how they spend their money.

When shit like this breaks the news, we see all sorts of dumb behavior.
 
canna said:
I see your point, but I think the main issue is that one has constitutional obligations and the other does not.
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That may say something about the people doing it. But it doesn't explain why a person should react differently to it being done to them.
 
dr.kevin said:
NSA doesn't give a shit about what 99% of americans buy and how they spend their money.

When shit like this breaks the news, we see all sorts of dumb behavior.
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Should be more worried about shitty courts that take crap like google search data to derive intent.
 
web services leaving U.S. due to NSA

service based economy

what could go wrong?
 
BladeVenom said:
Exactly, and that's just what they got caught doing. Who knows how many other crimes the NSA and other government organizations have gotten away with.
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^^This.

While I'm not doing anything wrong, frankly it's none of their business what I read/post, etc. online.

Personally I VPN pretty much everything overseas now. Yeah, I'm not stupid, I fully expect foreign govts. to snoop, but I feel they are less of a risk than my own govt. I'm pretty liberal so the fact I feel that way really says a lot about how bad it is.

For anyone that wants to be anonymous from the the scumbag constitutional traitors at the NSA, et al, this is how:

Your Internet -> TOR -> VPN paid by bitcoin (mined so no "real" currency purchase link to) -> Internet.

Obviously you use never share usernames, etc.
 
canna said:
^^This.

While I'm not doing anything wrong, frankly it's none of their business what I read/post, etc. online.

Personally I VPN pretty much everything overseas now. Yeah, I'm not stupid, I fully expect foreign govts. to snoop, but I feel they are less of a risk than my own govt. I'm pretty liberal so the fact I feel that way really says a lot about how bad it is.

For anyone that wants to be anonymous from the the scumbag constitutional traitors at the NSA, et al, this is how:

Your Internet -> TOR -> VPN paid by bitcoin (mined so no "real" currency purchase link to) -> Internet.

Obviously you use never share usernames, etc.
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You showed your hand and lost 95% of us when you said bitcoin...
 
BladeVenom said:
Exactly, and that's just what they got caught doing. Who knows how many other crimes the NSA and other government organizations have gotten away with.
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Naive to believe other governments and non-government entities are any better.
 
canna said:
^^This.

While I'm not doing anything wrong, frankly it's none of their business what I read/post, etc. online.

Personally I VPN pretty much everything overseas now. Yeah, I'm not stupid, I fully expect foreign govts. to snoop, but I feel they are less of a risk than my own govt. I'm pretty liberal so the fact I feel that way really says a lot about how bad it is.

For anyone that wants to be anonymous from the the scumbag constitutional traitors at the NSA, et al, this is how:

Your Internet -> TOR -> VPN paid by bitcoin (mined so no "real" currency purchase link to) -> Internet.

Obviously you use never share usernames, etc.
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TOR has been proven multiple times to not be anonymous, as well as btc transactions. They just make you feel more comfy so you continue doing stupid stuff on the internet. This method really doesnt make it much more difficult for someone with interest and tools to track you.
 
I have not changed anything that I do online as I do not engage in any illegal activity online. And I will never stop savagely criticizing (and being very nasty about it) the ruling class, the rich elite and their horde of ballsucking sycophant shitbag buddies.
 
I'm totally OK with the FBI getting a warrant and spying on me. They'll figure out that I'm totally innocent (and super boring) and drop it, hopefully.

The NSA is a military branch of the government and has no jurisdiction in civilian life. It's martial law and they don't want to admit it. Because some "foreign combatants" use the internet, everyone on the internet is a suspect. BS. They need a reorganization and a MASSIVE budget cut.

Google and other data miners should also be crippled. I doubt it's possible for our government to pull that off with any success though. I can only imagine the crap that would come out of that effort.
 
canna said:
Your Internet -> TOR -> VPN paid by bitcoin (mined so no "real" currency purchase link to) -> Internet.
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It really surprises mw that someone on this forum would think that combination of stuff would actually slow someone down. TOR pretty much isn't secure. VPN encryption isn't strong enough to really hold up at all and it doesn't matter of bitcoins are involved since the origin of the data can easily be linked back to a specific location. May as well just save all the effort and not go through the trouble.
 
aardvark sandwich said:
web services leaving U.S. due to NSA

service based economy

what could go wrong?
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Careful now , you are crossing the border of dismissal and wavering into the land of acknowledgement.

We should all just give up our private data to the Government because "they don't care" even though they keep doing it against our wishes and disclosing the information to any relevant agencies when needed but then that in turn is "faked" into appearing as faulty data so no one in the Government has to acknowledge it officially.

Sure , no one cares about your data. Just every Corporation/Bank/Government in existence. Information is money in this age and money is power. Get some common sense deniers.
 
evilsofa said:
You think anonymity from the NSA is that easy?

http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-stay-anonymous-with-tor-1498876762
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IMO it's enough for them to bugger off. Like I said, it will give you a pretty damn high level of anonymity. I don't doubt that the NSA or some other 3-letter-agency has some way to figure it out. It's about time/benefit. I doubt someone visiting CNN.com, etc. is very interesting to them. Sure, they could waste tons of money and time tracking me down, but it wouldn't serve much of a purpose since I'm not doing anything wrong.

The thing is if it's easy to track what you do, they will just because it doesn't take much effort. As soon as it becomes an actual task, they won't waste their time unless they think it's worth it. It's a matter of principal. It doesn't matter if I'm looking at the drudge report, msnbc, or searching for the world's best apple pie recipe - the bottom line is it's none of their fucking business. If I can make it labor intensive enough that they don't bother looking into my boring life, well then I win.

CreepyUncleGoogle said:
It really surprises mw that someone on this forum would think that combination of stuff would actually slow someone down. TOR pretty much isn't secure. VPN encryption isn't strong enough to really hold up at all and it doesn't matter of bitcoins are involved since the origin of the data can easily be linked back to a specific location. May as well just save all the effort and not go through the trouble.
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ToR isn't secure, you're vulnerable at the Internet egress, which is why you connect to a VPN at that point instead of just going out onto the open internet - your traffic is encrypted by the VPN tunnel while traveling through ToR. Yes, there are techniques to find you if you use ToR in one spot for a long time, etc. That's not my goal, for that see the other part of this post.
 
Oh, for christ sake, this is a self-reported survey. I doubt even half that number really changed anything.
 
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