March 28, 2017 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized
Holy damn crap.
House Republicans voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to repeal a set of landmark privacy protections for Web users, issuing a sweeping rebuke of Internet policies enacted under the Obama administration. It also marks a sharp, partisan pivot toward letting Internet providers collect and sell their customers’ Web browsing history, location information, health data and other personal details.
Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
How on earth can they sell this as any sort of benefit for consumers? oh, yeah, I forgot. They don’t give a flip about us.
1It’s all about the money to these a-holes. I think they lose sleep trying to think of the best ways to screw over Americans repeatedly and get richer at the same time. I can’t wait until one of these idiots finds out that their data was legitimately sold to some hacking group overseas and something bad happens.
2There’s a connection between this maneuver and the machinations of billionaire Trump donor/Bannon crony/data-analytics wingnut Robert Mercer, who helped finance and fuel Breitbart and its trolls during the election. Here’s the address of a Guardian article that explains how data collected by tracking users was employed:
3https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage
If I were a millionaire, I would put down the money to buy the browsing history of everyone who voted for this and publish it. It would be worth it to see even one of them have to explain on the record why they Googled “sexy preteen goats”
4privacy
noun, the state of being free from unwanted or undue intrusion or disturbance in one’s private life or affairs; freedom to be let alone
Only Republicans could think our privacy is something that can be sold.
Of course, they haven’t started any new wars yet, so probably couldn’t help themselves and had to at least invade our privacy, just to get warmed up.
5I predict this will last until some civic-minded ISP makes one of these legislator’s browsing history public.
Apparently legislators who can’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it cough @Bork@ cough.
6How does it look for this to pass in the Senate? Is there a chance Dems can get some moderate Rethugs to join in opposing this travesty.
7Sorry, maryelle– it already passed the Senate. It’s heading for Donnie, who will happily sign it.
8Hey, he’s the job creator!!
More jobs datamining the records and more jobs at VPNs as people work to mask their online activities.
9Why on earth do Dems let the Repubs get away with calling themselves pro-freedom?
The freedom for the investor class to make a quick profit off anything and everything.
10R– the freedom to do whatever the hell you want.
D– the freedom not to get creamed by people doing whatever the hell they want.
11I can’t wait for pictures of Melania and trumpspawn to show up all over the World. And I’m not speaking of the Christmas card variety. Lady Karma &a Queen Nemesis never lose. And the retribution is endless.
12They never think that this will bite them in their plutocratic behinds and when it does, oh the weeping and wailing and we must do something immediately if not sooner to stop all of this. And all they will hear from their victims side of the fence is the sound of crickets to drown out their sounds of agony. Or does that sound too much like Cronan the Barbarian? By the way, what is he doing these days?
13All you can do is fight back.
One of the simplest, easiest ways is to use a web browser that actually helps protect you, the Opera browser; get it at Opera.com.
Not using a browser like Chrome, MS Edge/IE, etc., that actively helps “them” spy on you.
Opera has one-click, built-in ad blocking (and lots of other bad stuff), has an ‘anonymizer/caching IP speedup (one click) feature called “Turbo”.
And best of all, Opera has a built-in, FREE, one-click, VPN (Virtual Private Network) feature that will completely encrypt and protect your surfing at almost any websites.
VPN’s have been around a long time, mostly used by companies (and individuals) to facilitate secure, private internet communications.
VPN’s have been complicated, and expensive, to set up and use in the past. Opera does it all, simply and free.
Here’s a website also trying to help you retain your privacy that I found in a DailyKos comment:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1648050/65970003#comment_65970003
I was just a little surprised that it’s first and major method described to get some online PRIVACY was to have you use: OPERA! That website:
https://medium.freecodecamp.com/how-to-set-up-a-vpn-in-5-minutes-for-free-and-why-you-urgently-need-one-d5cdba361907
So don’t just take my word for it, many other knowledgeable tech types advocate for using the Opera browser too.
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Opera has been around since the mid-1990’s (when I began using it), and has always been at the forefront of browser tech, having pioneered many of the modern browser features you like and use today.
14I’ve been advocating that people use the Opera browser for decades now. Try it, you’ll luv it; it has so many other useful options and features that I can’t possibly describe them all.
I go back in “tech” to the 1960’s, I’m very tech-picky, I swear and throw things (not really, generally shoot them) when ‘computer thingys’ go wrong or are just a POS. Opera has always been first rate.
How many of you are aware that much of what this does is already legal?
Your cell phone provider can – and almost certainly does – sell information on your location? Turning off your GPS won’t do it either; they can triangulate based on cell towers.
Google, Yahoo, etc. track and ssell information on your searches and search histories. Use Gmail? Google can root through that too.
15Thanks, Sandridge, for the info about Opera. I have downloaded it and turned on the VPN but can’t find the http setting. Any hints?
16Used Opera for long time. It’s an adequate browser.
Only you can assess what you need to do to protect your privacy and anonymity. For example, …
Use Tor. But don’t run Tor on the same machine on which you run the rest of your life. You’ll need two PCs.
You might need a burner phone. Or two.
Look at Qubes OS or TAILS. If you must stay Windows, get the version of 10 that runs off a thumb drive. (NSA was able to configure Windows OS to be relatively un-hackable but I don’t know what they did to it.)
Don’t use browser add-ins cause most of them access your C drive and phone home with what they find.
Don’t get too excited about VPN. It only secures the connection from your PC to the host. If the host isn’t secure or puts your connection on the Web, then that part of your transaction is exposed.
17Take a look on the web at Richard Matthew Stallman. He is an elder in the IT community and deliciously paranoid about his privacy. He has published that he doesn’t use prox cards or a mobile phone and he doesn’t purchase anything from websites.
In order to use the internet we have surrendered a good deal of anonymity in the exchange for greater convenience and lower prices.
One can mitigate this to an extent. I have tried to do so and yet have a huge internet fingerprint. And some things in the fingerprint I won’t stop doing: banking is way better on the web than it is in brick and mortar banks. Some purchasing is way better. For example, I hate everything about Wal-mart, except their prices on things I buy. Using their website spares me from the rude, malodorous people I find there. And some of the other customers are far worse.
18;}
maryelle,
Not sure what you mean by “can’t find the http setting”.
You basically just turn on or off the various Opera features, not a lot to do, it does most of the work. The Opera website has lots of useful descriptions and info.
Have you gone to the “Settings” menu area (they’ve ‘hidden’ the menu like most new stuff now, you go to the Opera/O in the upper left corner to open the ‘file/tool’ menu, which used to be a ‘bar’ type always visible).
On the Settings menu, check the “Advanced” button, then carefully go through all the settings and set it up/customize it, for your needs. On many items, Opera suggests a “recommended” choice, YMMV.
Opera has an excellent “Help” area (on/from that menu, but read from the Opera site).
Try this (and other pages):
http://help.opera.com/opera/Windows/2393/en/private.html#vpn
Opera also has several versions for Apples, and smartphones, Android and iPhones/iPads, etc.
Just the adblocking feature alone has saved me a whole lot of aggro and actual data usage, since my only feasible way to get reasonably ‘fast’ internet is from a data-CAPPED mobile/cellular ‘hotspot’ (from my smartphone or “Homebase”. Blocking ads seems to save me 25% or more of data usage, that’s a lot of ‘stolen’ bytes.
19Micr,
(Opera) is just “It’s an adequate browser.”? WTF? Name a better one.
I’ve used Tor for ages, but Tor is not simple nor easy. It’s better than before, but still not for ‘the average internet surfer’.
I have two or three ‘burner’ phones, and multiple ISP plans.
I’ve clubbed Windows 10 (and also 7,8, XP) into submission. I think… And run Linux on one Mini-ITX AMD box.
Been as wholly internet based as I can get for two decades+, haven’t been hacked yet (I hope).
Agree on WalMart, I’ve been buying online from them for years without a problem. Great deals, even on big stuff like appliances, free, quick FedEx shipping too, out here in the boonies even.
Last Friday, 0’darkthirty (~2AM) I ordered some items* from Wally (price dropped $6 on a $54 item before I loaded the cart, OooK). Thought I’d get them the following week (now), but the ‘checkout’ said “delivery on Saturday”. Sure enough, arrived about 1130AM Saturday, just 34 hours after ordering, PFFast, eh? Same $54->$48 item was $60 in the store, not too shabby.
*Brand new multiple problem uncontrolled/unrestrained dogs just moved in nearby, running as a pack, around here such are nuisance ‘fair game’ according to the Sheriff, last time I asked. My Daisy Powerline crapped out (first ‘teaching aid’ of choice, before using a full-on firearm, which is of course ‘permanent’ since I never miss). Got two nice Crosmans+ now, heheh. Several disciplinary lessons administered so far, slow learners will get shotgunned :[ .
But I buy almost everything online now, from various other places, NewEgg being #1 choice.
20@Sandridge
I use Opera as I said. It has its irritations, but not enough to use Chrome or Firefox.
Like I said the tools to mitigate an individual’s loss of privacy exist, they each just have to learn how to use them. If your need for anonymity is great enough learning to use Tor isn’t an insurmountable problem.
One issue we have is that the internet evolved for collaboration. Security was not the first order of business. Maybe it should have been but the gee-whiz was greater in that time than anything else. I used to have a print of the first hello world email I shared with a friend outside work. Yeah it was big then. It’s inconsequential now. But that also means that a lot of things I said in say 1995 could still be echoing around in 2017. Some of that stuff I wish I hadn’t said in email. Oh well.
My sainted father bought a used Sears shotgun for about a dollar to use on feralish dogs. He reloaded shotgun shells with rock salt and a bit of grit or small gravel. Adjusted the attitudes of the packs of near feral dogs that roamed near the house in which I grew up.
21Count your blessings – this is how it looked last time.
http://mashable.com/2017/03/28/trump-first-pitch/#BXhbqtse5iqZ
22Oops – that last post was meant for the next thread!
23I still use Safari on my Mac. It’s probably outdated, but it does have this feature: when I open a window, I can choose to make it a Private window. “Private browsing enabled. Safari will keep your browsing history private for all tabs in this window. After you close this window, Safari won’t remember the pages you visited, your search history, or your Autofill information.”
Of course I wouldn’t use that when I come here, because I’m proud to be a regular at the WMDBS!
24I use Chrome and I like it, plus it’s compatible with everything else. Is Opera? If not, I will continue to use Chrome for work items and Opera for stuff that’s only my business.
Sandridge, micr and everyone else. Thanks very much for the privacy info. I was mostly clueless about it.
25Rhea and Debbo, Opera has had a Private window/browsing feature for years, they may have invented it; the other browsers also have it too, FF, IE, Edge, Comodo, etc.
Most importantly, a ‘private’ session dumps any and all “cookies” from it’s webpages visited (it should not affect your normal browsing history/cookies sets, which are quite useful in most cases).
But Opera, with it’s built-in, very effective, ad-blocking, Turbo, and VPN, plus much else, just rolls almost all good features into one browser. It even once had a most excellent email client built-in (I still run that version, v.14, too; the current version is v.43+ ;} ).
Not sure what you mean by “compatible with everything else”, Debbo, a browser is a browser, it renders/displays webpages. No browser is fully compatible with all HTML Standards, as are very few websites; so there are always going to be a few glitches somewhere.
I have an ancient Safari version running, the last one compatible with Windows (v.7 or something, even works on Win10), I like it, but it doesn’t do a lot any more.
Chrome browser I wouldn’t touch with a *****. When it first came out it had a very curious installation process: It would not allow you to download and install it when and where you wanted to (I usually install programs/apps on a separate drive, not the “C”/system drive), nor make any other choices; it used a totally ‘secret’ automatic process, like a virus. I said ‘F this’ Googboy, and never, ever installed or used it since (it came pre-installed on some computers, smartphones, I remove it like a virus).
I use almost nothing from the GooglBorg, it continually spies on you. When the Google search engine page first came out I was an early advocate, I totally stopped using it years ago, using Bing and Duck, et al, ever since.
Opera, and some other browsers, will, upon selecting a ‘start up’ option, restore your complete “last session” after a computer reboot.
It restores all your windows and tabs just as they where before (even keeping your page histories- Fwd-Back), so you have a very extensive, preserved browsing ‘database’; it kind of supersedes your ‘bookmarks/favorites’ function. I try keep each ‘window’ associated with one topic. EG: One window has politics tabs, another has Newegg, another for Walmart/Lowes/HD, and numerous others for Wikipedia tabs, some for boat stuff, weather, etc. All instantly, semi-permanently, available at a click.
Micr,
26The early networks/internet did use some basic password level security, but yeah, the whole thing has gotten a bit shaky. I put much of the blame on Microsoft, who for generations of OS’s almost ignored security as an inherent component of the system.
This roaming pack of dogs (3) are a new, building house, neighbor’s unrestrained ‘pets’, lead by a nasty, aggressive, little yapper (Even came after me, while firing the bbgun. IMO, they’re in rather neglected condition). They’ve terrorized my barncats, on MY property, and I think killed one or more, now MIA.
I used to use 9mm/.45 birdshot cartridges on varmits (effective ‘shot’/dust range is only ~8-10 feet, but the noise! and blast is/was effective on pests). Now there are several new homes nearby, some with LEO’s, so I’m phasing out my home firearms yard usage…