John McAfee reveals details on gadget to thwart NSA

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

John McAfee lived up to his reputation Saturday as tech's most popular wild child, electrifying an audience with new details of his plan to thwart the NSA's surveillance of ordinary Americans with an inexpensive, pocket-size gadget.

Dubbed "Decentral," the as-yet-unbuilt device will cost less than $100, McAfee promised the enthusiastic crowd of about 300 engineers, musicians and artists at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

"There will be no way (for the government) to tell who you are or where you are," he said in an onstage interview with moderator Dan Holden at the inaugural C2SV Technology Conference + Music Festival.

And if the U.S. government bans its sale, "I'll sell it in England, Japan, the Third World. This is coming and cannot be stopped."

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24198989/john-mcafee-reveals-details-gadget-thwart-nsa

[defacto7]

1. Sounds interesting

but till we can protect ourselves from NSA eavesdropping, I have just added the following signature to all my outgoing email:

Hello NSA! How's business? 'The wife and kids doing well?
Hope aunt Kate is feeling better. You have a nice day now!

Just letting them know that we know they're there. And they are there. I run a couple of email servers and the logs don't lie to me.

[Fearless]

2. Wasn't he the one arrested for attempted murder or something?

[joshcryer]

3. Heh, your location can't be tracked but it will be able to alert crimes.

So, how are the police going to get to where the crime is being alerted without ... knowing a location?

Seems trivially circumvented.

[JDPriestly]

5. The device will probably allow the user to turn it off in an emergency.

I really don't have anything to hide other than my political opinions maybe. (Maybe not. They aren't that interesting.)

But I just think it is wrong for the government to collect information about the citizens. We are supposed to have a government that is of and by and for the people. It's not supposed to be the government over the people but the people over and in charge of the government. The power is supposed to be on the side of the people. The police powers are exercised in support of, on behalf of and to protect the people.

This surveillance thing -- well just look at the word -- "sur" means over "veillance" means to be watching. This watching over - surveillance - business is utterly out of keeping with what our nation was set up to be.

We need to have the people keeping watch over the government, not the government keeping watch over the people. The government can specifically watch criminals and terrorists, but not ordinary people going about their ordinary business. That is a perversion of the Constitution.

[joshcryer]

7. If the feature exists NSA can circumvent it.

Look at how Tor was hacked with malware.

[JDPriestly]

8. We didn't have that tracking capacity before

the advent of the cell phone. We managed without it.

That is the question that citizens must ask themselves. How much insecurity is my privacy worth? To me my privacy is worth a lot.

I grew up without cell phones, internet, etc. I don't need to make myself watchable at all times.

[Hekate]

4. I sleep soundly at night ever since I wrapped my entire computer in

Well, I do hope he's found something that works for him.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. ?!

?!

[randome]

9. "And for a limited time only, we'll throw in a second device for free!'

[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[trumad]

10. Unbuilt...

Ok John---whatever you say.