General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI have talked to random people that I "met" on the internet over the last several years
I belong to several "special interest" online groups with folks that have common interests to me and have frequently spoken on the phone with them regarding our shared interests.
When I first started playing on the internet in online gaming communities, chatting on the phone was pretty popular between the players.
Now...when you hear the criteria about what triggers some of the targeting, it kind of makes you nervous.
Do you REALLY know the people online that you have spoken with? Are they who they claimed to be? Are they involved in "subversive" activities and did you inadvertently put yourself on a "list" of people to monitor because you spoke to them?
And then did any of your friends or contacts get put on "the list" by talking to you?
It is easy to see that those that are comfortable because "they haven't done anything wrong"....are dead wrong because it looks to be very easy to get snagged into this and become someone who is watched simply because they spoke with someone on the phone who was being watched.
Scary stuff.
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RC
(25,592 posts)We are either all criminals or associate with one or more.
Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)and if we become fearful of what we do NOT know about our friends and family and neighbors...then we retreat into our own domain and don't venture out for fear we will become someone who is "watched"?
I think that was a book I read somewhere...
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Dissent, public voices, the people....crushed.
Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)who is bad and who is good (like Santa). But if the computer gets confused because you checked out the wrong book from the library, your life may be destroyed.
Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)that was flagged....
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)go to prison.
Horse with no Name
(33,956 posts)Everybody could just have their data entered and see if they were sentenced to jail for pre-crimes.
What was that movie?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)so that the profile will be screwed up.
Can we fool "the grid"???
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Meh, I had spoken and had email correspondence several times to a guy who was arrested and jailed for charges including funding Hamas and for exporting technology to Libya (the old Libya), in the course of negotiating a deal on something unrelated to any of that.
I've spoken to and emailed a guy who is wanted for arrest in this country for having handled financial arrangements for Kim Dotcom - again on an unrelated subject.
I've been to Morocco and Cairo on business, and, golly could have met all kinds of people in those places.
I've negotiated with an Iranian hacker over the return of stolen virtual assets.
I have a longstanding relationship with a person in another country who once harbored a fugitive from US law enforcement.
An ID thief once defaced the website of a federal agency and left on their server a screed about me, and included one of my credit card numbers and my home telephone number.
But still there is no drone buzzing over my house, or a black SUV or van parked on my street at all hours of the night.
I must be doing it wrong. I assume that my communications and financial transactions have been looked at or otherwise hit a profile more than once. And still, nobody has shown up in the middle of the night, thrown a pillow case over my head, and whisked me away to a FEMA camp.
Makes me feel like Charlie the Tuna.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)About the only time I tripped a yellow light was when I was holding escrowed funds of several million dollars and sending it overseas upon completion of the deal. I got a call from my bank manager saying the district VP wanted to know where the money came from.
I said, "It came from California, pursuant to a lawful transaction."
He asked me what kind of transaction and I had to stop at that point and remind him that this was an attorney trust account, and if he wanted to know anything beyond the general type of transaction, he'd need a subpoena and that, beyond generalities, I would be obligated to fight the subpoena on privilege. He called back a while later and said the wire was approved.
But I also knew that any foreign wire over $10,000 is subject to DHS inquiry, so if they had a problem, they didn't come knocking on my door about it.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)
I mean it, don't stop! 
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)But the crazy thing was - did you know that wire transfers can go missing for days?
I went four days with 11 million dollars of client funds nowhere in sight, and two banks pointing fingers at each other. Some bastid somewhere was playing the float on interest and currency fluctuations between the US and another country.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Years ago I'd walk downtown to my company credit union and ask for a cash withdrawal. They'd say the computer was down.
I just stood there the second time, reconsidering having my money there. The clerk gave me a 'come closer' look and told me how it went.
'They're making money with the funds on days like this. We're supposed to say the computer's down.'
I thanked her. Now that may have been their way of keeping customers from acting up or it may have been the truth. I've talked to bankers since and they do make money off those numbers.
But I moved most of my money to a bank, later, anyway. No hard feelings.
The money you were looking for making a bit of money somewhere, no doubt. Just not for you or your client. That had to be scary and aggravating. Glad it finally got there.
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)The spooks have spent years creating an online community pretending to be hyperventilating about things like black helicopters so that you think you're safe when, for example, you don't see a black helicopter.
Meanwhile, that pleasant Indian-sounding fellow attempting to offer you a six-month zero-interest credit card is actually sending very, very, very tiny microchips through your phone's receiver and remotely implanting them in your cerebral cortex.
Personally, I welcome the drones. It's the only way I know they haven't gotten to me.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)That'll do it.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Among other things I have done in the course of my business was to be the registered holder of the domain name weed.com for a couple of years. It was subject to a structured transaction and the parties needed a neutral party to hold the domain name until the transaction was completed.
So, yes, I was the registrant of the domain name for one of the most popular marijuana sites on the internet for three years and, still, no knocks on my door at night.
How many people have been arrested or convicted for marijuana offenses on the basis of information obtained via this program? Any estimate?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)....please tell me you aren't sixteen levels of nerd.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)And so what if I was? My "profile" includes a lot of foreign contacts, a lot of strange high-value international financial transactions, and, for years, registration of one of the most popular marijuana websites on the Internet. I pretty much expect that a computer algorithm may have said, "Take a closer look at this guy." Meh, so someone might have taken a closer look.
As to the other part, I guess it depends on what you mean by "nerd".
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)That answered it just fine.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)them. They themselves were not at the Mayday event in question, did not self identify as anarchists, but the government put them in jail for 4 months to try and get them to give over information about friends they have that may be anarchists.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Only in McCarthy's America.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)If the people are afraid of communicating about anything that the powers-that-be fear it keeps them quiet. As in, "If you have nothing to hide than you needn't be afraid."
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)Such vast and technical surveilance allows massive amounts of people to be tagged as suspicious with no knowledge by the individual.
ForeignandDomestic
(190 posts)Imagine a world where the government was accountable to the people; instead of the people and their private actions being accountable to government!
