Phones Tapped? - should we care?
Tony Hillier | 03.04.2003 08:30
Some say that as Chair of the Swindon Stop the War Coalition, my phone is tapped. (presumably e mail/web use and mobile phone too. Is yours? Can we ever know? Should we care? Let's flush it out anyway.
Is it worth using energy to have this debate and find a way to flush out the tapers if they exist?
I guess we can't stop "them" if they are.
In my view, the minimum is that the general public should know if it is happening so we better understand the nature of our "Big Sibling" society.
Thoughts or information?
I guess we can't stop "them" if they are.
In my view, the minimum is that the general public should know if it is happening so we better understand the nature of our "Big Sibling" society.
Thoughts or information?
Tony Hillier
e-mail:
yony.hillier@ntlworld.com
Comments
Hide the following 16 comments
Eschelon will get you anyway
03.04.2003 09:08
sue denim
Just be careful what you say on the phone
03.04.2003 09:09
A few rules for when people are discussing things which you don't want the state to know:
Assume that you are being bugged - do not discuss anything "dodgy" on the phone or via email.
Phones can pick up conversations even if it is not being used, ie. if the receiver is on the hook. So if you want to be really careful never talk about "dodgy" stuff near a phone - unplug the socket and turn off your mobile.
Try not to get too paranoid though...
Miss Point
Undercover Agent
03.04.2003 09:11
ps i've heard Skegness anti war coalition is attempting a coo soon, think their phones are tapped too..
Old Bill
U R probably bugged
03.04.2003 09:16
Also have heard from a 'semi-reliable' source that keywords are searched for on internet by CIA....but have no way of confirming that for myself, so consider that rumour....
thing is, when bills are going through parliament that relax the laws on bugging etc to the government's benefit, who says a word? We live in a politically lethargic society....
shhhhh!
more info
03.04.2003 09:19
gnome
Bugging
03.04.2003 10:01
Dan
problem? what problem?
03.04.2003 10:43
Although the bugging might be high technology, the people who work the system are pretty stupid if they think they are doing anything effective. The 911 hijackers took precautions that worked.
Until we have a police state which gives them the right to detain people indefinitely without charge, bugging is only a threat to business and powerful interests whose sensitive information can be passed on to corrupt agents. (This has been pretty common practice.)
As a consequence, it's surprising that there is so little fuss from honest business organizations. (The dishonest ones profit from it.) Either they are stupid as well, or they feel they can take precautions (encryption, etc).
One consequence of the system is that it makes working in secret futile and potentially dangerous. If you reorder yourself to conduct all your business and political life in public, then snooping becomes irrelevant. That means, liberating all secrets, salary, personal food preferences, and so on.
For governments and big business, this is almost impossible. So the existence of hi-tech snooping systems may become more of a liability for them than for us. Particularly if it gets too bloated, big, and starts to leak all over the place like a broken refridgerator.
goatchurch
freedom of information
03.04.2003 10:55
Whilst they should be working protecting our arses from international terrorism, they are happily suppressing internal dissent?
If they want to tap everyones phone, then each keyword will invlove more tax payers money, and more processing both human and automated. Thus leading to a non realtime analysis and further data collection to be processed.
The amount of money that intelligence agencys waste is the real problem, the CIA had files on scargill, the UK had files on him, it seems everyone who worked alongside scargill was a spy and spying on each other, what a fuckin joke! even worse the CIA thought of scargill as a credible threat to the UK parlimentry democracy keeping him under 24hr surveilance.
I can see no way that the government will want to tap your phone, yes you will have a file, and yes the police might search your property one day, as you might have information on the level of dissent / and / or the people who are dissenting in your area. I suggest that if you use the internet for more sensitive information, use freenet, For email hushmail is reasonable, keep inportant files zipped, with at least a 8 charecter password with at least 2 numeric characters in the middle of the password. Share most information with everyone, as the intel agencys will have no reason to tap your phone. Be open about your activities, lead by example, others will only follow, underground is not the way to work and will only make you look dodgy..
state tv
Emails delayed
03.04.2003 11:19
Is there interception of emails going on?
Stuey
e-mail:
stuey@surfanytime.co.uk
Homepage:
users.surfanytime.co.uk/stuey
echelon
03.04.2003 11:53
Keith Parkins
Comment and question
03.04.2003 14:01
In few of the above call me naïve I know, but i am new to indymedia and have noticed that very few people put their address or phone numbers or even email addresses on their postings…while I have…
Is there any reason why I should be more careful about putting my name and address etc on…I enjoy people feedback and WANT to make it easy for them to get in touch with me…
I would really value your comments
P.S. a really funny ‘fault’ happened at the time of this posting…nothing typed on my keyboard would type on to the posting sheet to add comments to this debate…I eventually managed to by copying and pasting…(keyboard working on all other applications) how bizarre is that……wooooooooo!
Newbe
comment and question
03.04.2003 14:12
In few of the above call me naïve I know, but i am new to indymedia and have noticed that very few people put their address or phone numbers or even email addresses on their postings…while I have…
Is there any reason why I should be more careful about putting my name and address etc on…I enjoy people feedback and WANT to make it easy for them to get in touch with me…
I would really value your comments
P.S. a really funny ‘fault’ happened at the time of this posting…nothing typed on my keyboard would type on to the posting sheet to add comments to this debate…I eventually managed to by copying and pasting…(keyboard working on all other applications) how bizarre is that……wooooooooo!
newbe
reply to comment and question
03.04.2003 15:15
but it is nice to get emails from people and to have discussions about certain topics....so feel free to email me...but please don't pass this email address onto spammers!
well....
e-mail:
anythingtohere@yahoo.com
re names emails and addresses
03.04.2003 16:22
i don't put my pnone number coa i don't want the world to know my tel no
not because i'm paranoid, just what is the point?
(of course it depends what you post)
it makes sense if you want people to be able to contact you - in which case the best is an email address
better to use an email which is not your main one - lots of automated search engines cruise the net looking for people's email addresses and then they are used to send spam - you can write an email differently though, so a human would understand it but a machine would not eg:
if my my email was
I could write andy96 at hotmail.com
or maybe
on the subject of phone taps here's some other good links below - seem to remember that the numbers of warrents signed for taps etc had gone through the roof under lab gov but couldn't find the reference:
AN APPRAISAL OF THE TECHNOLOGIES OF POLITICAL CONTROL 1998
out of date but a good basic intro to stuff
The EU-FBI telecommunications surveillance system
- hardcore info from the ace Statewatch (they have massive relevant resources on all sorts of areas)
Also check out the dudes at FIPR
foundation for information policy research
specifics:
plus the old full on page about RIP Act at:
Nice 11 page intro PDF from APC / GreenNet Civil Society Internet Rights Project (CSIR)
Privacy and Surveillance:
"How and when organisations and the state can monitor your actions"
site at
And don't worry, assume all your stuff is monitored in one way or another, and don't let it get ya down!
Power to the people! We are many! :-)
your name here
e-mail:
nospamplease@nospam.blah
bug the buggers
03.04.2003 22:34
racist friend
re ireland
05.04.2003 11:31
J K