There is absolutely nothing wrong with using caution, and more is always better than less. VPN’s will protect you from things like advertisers and other things worth protecting, but even the companies that promise that they keep no logs off your activity, have been caught doing just that. My point is that VPN’s are definitely worth using, but are far from absolute anonymity. Bitcoin is traceable, so again it is safer than other things, but it far from 100% perfect. The supposedly only true and secure crypto is called Monero. I think they probably cracked it, but keep it quiet. If they had absolutely no way to monitor it, they would have banned it. Obviously, nobody is wasting their time on petty things, but I don’t think it is completely secure. If there was a way that people with bad intentions could move around money, completely under the radar, there is only a few possibilities. They cracked it, and just keep it quiet, they are on the verge of cracking it, and have already done so, to som extent. I truly believe that they would just abolish it, if it really evades their scrutiny.
The next controversial thing I will say is I truly doubt the dark web is completely secure. The alphabet agencies have the smartest people in the world, and recruit from Stanford, MIT, and all the Ivies. Before anyone thinks I am just paranoid, there are national security reasons that they could not have been trying to reverse engineer TOR, and the rest of the dark net, the moment they realized the risks involved.. If they haven’t cracked it, they will, and if it hasn’t happened yet, they are working on it 24/7. As much as I don’t like government overreach, as much, or more as the next person, and this is a very slippery slope, but if they have to watch this stuff to keep people safe, that is their mandate.
So with all of the above, I think we are a just a nuisance, and while they would never openly condone what we talk about here, I don’t think they care. They have much bigger fish to fry. While we are all subject to high tech surveillance, if it is for target marketing, I find that offensive, but since neither political party is going to really crack down on Silicon Valley, there are a few brave members of both parties that are trying their best. Of course as long as our gov runs on lobbying, and the tech titans will spend whatever it takes, it is, and will stay a completely uphill battle.
When it comes to keeping us safe, again with my point that we have no say in it anyway, I would rather have them keeping us safe, and let them surveil away, but the real question is does that happen without abuse and overreach?
If you aren’t aware, there is not one international email, or text, that is not observed. That is openly admitted to. The problem arises when they suck up all domestic metadata, which was originally denied, but later confirmed. Clearly a violation of the 4th Amendment, but that seems to not matter. They do it, and there is not much we are going to do to stop it. Only Congress could truly stop it, but they either don’t want to, most likely because they have been convinced that the end justifies the means.
I will end with this pearl of wisdom. Should they be accumulating every single email and text we ever make, and storing them in massive server farms? If they are going to do it anyway, and something like our Constitution is not going to get in their way, the best we can do is accept it, and hope that they don’t abuse it.
By the way, I am not saying I agree with any of this, but it’s not like we have any say in it, so acceptance, and the hope that they only use it for the reasons they use to justify it, are the best we can hope for. I already have broached the slippery slope aspects, but I think we all would trade away our privacy, to prevent another 9/11. I understand the irony in that comment. That event forever changed our privacy rights forever. That was what made them pivot to mass surveillance. Now that the irony is gone, and they are going to use surveillance on everyone, I guess I can live with that, if it will prevent our enemies from getting away with another attack on our country, and by default, all of our members, from our allies, are all in the same boat. I am not suggesting that we should celebrate mass surveillance, I am only suggesting that as long as they are going to do it, we can hope that it actually accomplishes its intended purpose.
so yeah…. I know some people say darkweb is easier but not in my experience. I just had to jump over way more hurdles to get scammed. Wondering what other people’s reasons are for not using the darkweb?
