Ok, im going to reccomend, out of sheer, oh crew it
LOCKDOWN!

they cant do this, well, they can... but THEY CANT! this cant be allowed! this is infringing on one's privacy!
Sure, i reccomended the use of a ARPPR program in order to monitor suspicious traffic on my school's lan, hel, id even keep a sniffer running on this damn thing if i thought it would do any good, but you cant just go and install keyloggers on people's PERSONAL computers, that THEY PAID FOR, and that THEY ARE THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS OF!

Power Corrupts, and Absolute Power corrups absolutely. Although there are eceptions to that rule, i know a few firsthand, but it is my experience that politicians abuse anything that is given to them, and i mean ANYTHING

the dedicated and passionate could always start tinkering with the police database after all, if you know how, it shouldn't take more than tinkering a bit with your registry to get rid of their things. either that or a full format. not like *all* criminals use the comp.

We have much worse here in the US, it's the "Patriot Act" which was quickly drafted and voted in just after 9/11. Without going into details, it set civil liberties back about 100 years, and feds and local authorities can simply tap phones, computers, get work related documents, bank records, and have search and seizure of your house without warrants. There was hope for amending this breach of the constitution, but with the current congress and president, that won't happen. It's scary, to say the least.

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The Next Thing I Say To You Will Be True
The Last Thing I Said Was False

Well, I guess in a situation like this (which, I believe,is only going to get worse), one should always keep a low profile, be as insignificant as possible (including avoidance of any promotions, raises, etc.), and, naturally, develop a strong sense of paranoia
Seriously, we're moving towards total control. I said "we" since such tendencies will eventually spread everywhere, mark my words - it's too strong a temptation for the powerful to resist (I wouldn't be able to).
Also, consider the number of posts about different spyware, tracking devices, etc.

Life is only given once ... and most often by accident

@esquilax, i reckon most of australia is probably glad you don't live there too.

seriously though, that is the kind of thing that stops me from even visiting sites like this. no insult i love this forum because views can be expressed in an open an fair manner and the rules for the most part are obeyed, making it civil as well as open

most folks even allow a little humour --- no offence esqui

but the world around me seems to be turning into a fascist state, where opinions are allowed only where they don't question the regiem, and anything you say will be taken down ( without your knowledge ), twisted, and used against you. it is getting to the point that when people like me press the "reply to topic button" with a response like this, they had best turn the lights off and pretend to be out when the door bell rings. scary monsters

"My sig is in the post but the man in the shop promised I will find it witty and topical when it arrives."

Esq well have to get another way to plan the world take over...emails simply wont do wont do anymore. Btw did you remember to send that special gingerbeer?


Being serious though, what qualifies as suspicious activity? And what will they do if you're system are so advanced that they can't install the stuff?

sw --- they will probably have to resort to more traditional methods of socially acceptable, upstanding law enforcement, i.e. drag ya 'round the back 'n kick the livvin hell out o'' ya. then they can install it with your express permition

i hope chips 'aint readin' this. or his ( his ? ) hope for humanity is goin' to go right down the tubes.

Every time I read one of these "Big Brother is invading our privacy" things, I have to chuckle. I wrote out a very long, involved explanation, but I'm just going to keep it short. Yes, this is the short version

1. You have very little privacy left, even now, unless you live far away from a city, transact all of your business in cash, and are extremely careful about making sure that no public records are kept about who you are and what you're doing. Even then... there will be traces. It's not that you can't run into the countryside and hide from the authorities... that still works surprisingly well, as Mr. Bin Laden can attest. But it's very, very difficult to actually DO much, unless you can go through people who're willing to serve as blinds, like Mr. Bin Laden's "helpers".

2. This kind of legislation is pure feel-good nonsense. Smart criminals, like the Mafia and terrorist organizations... already are quite aware of modern forensic tools, and will be taking precautions. I won't be very surprised if in the future, Mafia trials will boil down to whether the DA can get some low-ranking thug to turn over an encryption key, allowing the FBI to scrutinize the low-ranking thug's emails to learn something that they can use as a lever to get a higher-ranking thug to turn, etc. In fact, that's what's already happening. The good news, for those of us who aren't really hip on crime... is that very few criminals are that smart or organized, and even the smart ones make mistakes.

3. If you're worried about key-loggers... there are lots of security tools out there that can feed them crap or remove them. More problematic are hacking tools that take advantage of things like XP's "Remote Assistance" features... I dunno about y'all, but that was one of the first things I removed from XP's Services, although that's a bit beyond most people's skills with an OS. And network spies like sniffers are only effective if you're sending information with really low-level encryption... so go get high-level encryption tools, and teach everybody you send email to use it, and what your key is. If you work for a company in an IT capacity... switch everybody to an email client that makes use of high-encryption features, and route all internal email (which is usually the sensitive stuff) through a seperate server, which requires authentication and high-level encryption.

4. Don't. Ever. Trust. OS manufacturers. Even Linux builds have flaws, although they're quite a bit better than Windows. But don't trust M$'s security, period- they have built their OS for flexibility and reliability (and, imho, XP is very nice on those fronts) but secure? Nope. Use 3rd-party software. I personally recommend Panda Antivirus, which contains a software firewall (that's more flexible than XP's), anti-spyware/ad-ware and hacking-tools detectors. It's cheaper than Norton's equivalent product by quite a bit, and I've had flawless performance using it for the last 3 years... and it just keeps getting better and better.

Well said Argh

I gave up on privacy when the Patriot Act passed WITHOUT CONGRESS EVEN READING IT! Nobody believed me, they all trusted the government then, but now they believe me. It really creeped me out when I called Dell, gave them the service tag, and without me even saying a thing about my problem they told me how to fix it.

Edit (because I didn't want to repost): Its true that we haven't had privacy for thousands of years, even in ancient Greece the gods were always watching you. Mostly now it's used by the people in power to keep them in power, but If you know any Greek myths you know how well that works. Famous Myth Plotline: King learns he will have a son who will take power from him, so he takes preventive measures to keep from having a son/keep his son from power, but ultimately the son takes over. There's no preventing it, Big Brother (If you're watching), so let people live their lives. Karma's your enemy, not your friend.

Edited by - Eh_Steve on 12/14/2004 1:57:37 PM

The "Big Brother" aditude has been around for 1000's of years. Back when it was just spies, you have been watched more than you know. police have scanners that can pick up current cell phones, even know. Privacy has been out the windows a loooong time. True privacy does not exist, not even on your own private Island. Satilites make sure of that.

@Argh: wow, after reading your post, I checked my OS and was more than surprised at what I discovered: you have the option to uncheck the "allow this computer to be controlled remotely" box! Being a lamer (or whatever you call a layman) in computers, I perhaps took it too seriously, but still... what the heck is that stuff for? Stories about friends helping you solve your problems via direct access to your PC don't sound too credible to me.

Life is only given once ... and most often by accident

Its prolly to help MS hac...help you

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Well, I guess in a situation like this (which, I believe,is only going to get worse), one should always keep a low profile, be as insignificant as possible (including avoidance of any promotions, raises, etc.), and, naturally, develop a strong sense of paranoia

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too late
actually 9/11 just about made that common practice world wide

arton out,

The worst part is that I actually thought that this was something that wouldn't happen here in Aus.; I thought that we were more sensible than that *shakes head sadly*.

sw - I did indeed send "the package". They should be receving it soon . As for when the Federal Police would use the spyware, I guess that it's at their discretion.

Argh - Although I agree with you, it doesn't mean that I should complain about it and lament the gradual loss of our few remaining liberties .

*Thwacks Druid* Damn Tawakalna clones, they're everywhere!