Not An Endorsement! / The Spy Split

[cdnmatt]

Surely no one really believes a vpn will hide you from a government do they.

Many people do. They believe you can just anonymously buy a VPN subscription using say a pre-paid credit card or some bitcoin, fire open Tor browser, plus things like XMPP and OTR encryption, and they believe they're some super-sneaky intelligent hacker or some shit. Little do they know, they're no where near as anonymous as they believe they are.

So the rule boys & girls is... don't be an asshole, not even on the internet, because even if you believe you're really intelligent, you can and will be tracked.

[scottish-guy]

.. Whatever you think (say for example, the UK government) is capable of doing electronically they're actually capable of doing a whole lot more. The technology available to them is years ahead of that available to ordinary consumers. Ever heard of Bletchley Park?

Yet (and this may well make some of our American/European members piss themselves laughing) for over 50 years the TV Licensing authorities in the UK have been driving around in essentially empty white vans with a primitive aerial spinning round on the roof - lying that they can detect not only your unlicensed TV set but which floor of a high-rise building you're on and which TV channel you're watching!

It's all a pile of shite - the reality being that this Govt agency actually works from a database of unlicensed or lapse-licenced addresses plus information from retailers who are required to provide the address of every TV purchaser, cross-referenced to other data such as the electoral registers. The "Detector Vans" themselves are useful only as a visible scare tactic to make you think that Big Brother "knows" what you're up to - and for 50 years the nation's curtains have been twitching as a useless "TV Detector Van" drives along a street.

My point being, I'm not technically minded so I have no idea what internet screening can or can't be done or what can or can't be done to evade it - but I do know that very often the extent of what "the authorities" claim to know or to be able to do, bears little resemblence to the truth.

Governments are far more interested in perceptions than in truth - to paraphrase (Christian's mate) Josef Goebbels "the bigger the lie the more it will be believed"

Finally, at a time of global terrorism conducted largely (we're told) over the internet, I'd be rather surprised if anybody is devoting serious resources into the ramblings published on this board (including my own). If it were any different then I rather suspect that (assuming their reports are accurate) several of our esteemed members would be getting turned back at the Thai immigration counters!!

... but if you believe you're evading law enforcement for whatever reason (eg. Thai pornography laws), then you're sadly mistaken.

Do try not to attribute whatever motives you may have to other people - it shows a complete lack of imagination. After all, just because your method of accumulating wealth is the one preferred by child pornographers, drug dealers, kidnappers and other low lifes doesn't make you (or Bruce) fall into one of those categories

My point being, I'm not technically minded so I have no idea what internet screening can or can't be done or what can or can't be done to evade it - but I do know that very often the extent of what "the authorities" claim to know or to be able to do, bears little resemblence to the truth.

Or, as in this case, what Surfcrest claims he can do

[Smiles]

FAIR WARNING: Reading anything written by Kommentariat these days is NOT an endorsement.
AYOR . . . as they say in Spartacus.

[Surfcrest]

Or, as in this case, what Surfcrest claims he can do

I don't claim to do anything. I think through our small battle with the Bitchboard a few years back and the banning or preventing of these individuals from even visiting this site as a guest is all the proof I need to be the first administrator to permanently ban you from this site. This is what I have planned for you, once you've "irked" me to the point that it's finally time to press the button and send you off like Zebedee, Ron and timmberty...so, like them, that we never see you back here again. :ymdevil:

Oh...have a nice day eh!

Surfcrest

[arsenal]

Scottish: Mrs Caladonia watching Eastenders without a television licence is hardly the same as some one who wants to gun down some people celebrating new years eve. And you're wrong, they almost certainly ARE looking at message boards like this one as well as many others. Why? Because when Mr Khalif and Mr Ahmed suddenly join and start conversing with each other it's something the government is interested in and if they're not, they bloody well should be.

GCHQ is pretty fucking big, They're doing something there and I doubt it's The Sun crossword.

[cdnmatt]

GCHQ is pretty fucking big, They're doing something there and I doubt it's The Sun crossword.

Yeah, GCHQ along with folks like the NSA, CIA and US Navy just went ahead and tapped the submarine cables. Pretty ballsy move, but what's anyone going to do about it? It's not like anyone is going to invade the US anytime soon.

So instead of just targeting specific companies / individuals, they opted to capture all the internet traffic instead. Probably 95% of what you're sending goes through those submarine cables, hence filters at places like GCHQ, NSA, etc. If anything you say or do hits one of their filters, you're going to get red flagged and looked at more closely. In that case, things like a VPN don't help you -- only smug idiots like Kommie believe that.

[arsenal]

CDMatt: Exactly. That is their job. It's what they do. And I for one am glad they do it but then I'm not planning to blow people up while they're out shopping.

[cdnmatt]

Yeah, my biggest concern is what things are going to look like in 10 or 20 years. Right now, as far as I can tell, those powers are only used for military based or high-level FBI investigations, etc.

I really hope access to that data doesn't get opened up to local law enforcement throughout the world though, as that would be a bad thing. Your average street cop generally has an IQ of 80, so they don't need access to all that data.

[scottish-guy]

..Mrs Caladonia watching Eastenders without a television licence is hardly the same as some one who wants to gun down some people celebrating new years eve..

What that really means is you don't/can't actually dispute what I said.
Therefore in an attempt to discredit it, you conflate it with something I didn't say or point to.
Please point to where I said TV licensing is the same as gunning people down in the street.

What I actually said is the UK Govt lies every minute of every day about its capabilities (I would expect nothing less)!
Therefore we all should be careful in "supposing" anything, because in doing so you're just playing their game and talking out a hole in your head - which brings me to your next statement.

...And you're wrong, they almost certainly ARE looking at message boards like this one as well as many others...

"Almost certainly" means you actually have no idea whether I'm wrong or not - your first 3 words are redundant.
Do you seriously believe that some little nerd is sitting in GCHQ specifically following Arsenal's every post on SGT?
Matt has told you how it works - it's filters and keywords, so unless the keywords and phrases include "short-time", "cock", "suck", "fuck", or "1500B" then frankly nobody is interested in what you/we/I have to say.

"...When Mr Khalif and Mr Ahmed suddenly join and start conversing with each other it's something the government is interested in and if they're not, they bloody well should be..

Racism much?

...GCHQ is pretty fucking big, They're doing something there and I doubt it's The Sun crossword.

Again, Matt has told you exactly what they're doing when it comes to screening - global, interactive spying based on keywords and triggers. Decades ago it was decided that the UK would spy on USA citizens and vice-versa. For our half of the bargain that means a lot of UK security employees you know, and a big building.

The point of my post was that we actually know next to nothing about what capabilities Governments have or don't have. This just in: THEY LIE. I know they lie, and let's be honest, YOU know they lie!

It seems to me you've swallowed the Govt propaganda hook, line, and sinker - to the extent that you're scanning the streets (with your tinfoil helmet on), looking furtively at brown-skinned people with long beards called Khalif and Ahmed.

The reality is that if anybody is going to gun you down or blow you up, it's more likely to be an outwardly "respectable" British national who lives in your own town, works in a local call-centre, and of whom the security services are blissfully unaware. So much for "security"