Spy Devices

Warning: somewhat political, somewhat scary.

We know that our devices spy on us. Your phone has a GPS and potentially knows your location at all times. Your car may have GPS as well. With OnStar it can receive satellite signals and shut down, unlock doors, and who knows what else? Would it drive off of the road if commanded from above? I have no idea. Could it be hacked to do that? Certainly.

So, perhaps we are fighting terrorism in a stupid way. I suspect every terrorist has a cell phone. And if not, maybe we could sell them one? If they have a little bit of money, what would they buy? A car? A television? A storage keyfob? A better phone? A tracker keyfob for their car/motorcycle/moped/wallet/rocketlauncher?

Our devices are so handy and so smart, these days. It’s really tempting to use them. I think terrorists, being human, will find this to be true also. So ask yourself this: If I make a list of all devices that a person, even a poor person, would use… what might that be? And are any of these capable of giving out location, activities, associates, etc? Are any of them capable of using Bluetooth or Near Field to reach out and send someone this data, when you walk past the right antenna?

Imagine someone gathering, lets say “car GPS info”. When 2 cars park within 100 feet of each other, you call that a potential ‘association’. Do the same for phones, fobs, mopeds, rental bikes, etc.

A thoughtful planner could build Bluetooth/NearField/etc into cheap keyfobs and other devices. They could give out fancy ball point pens that say ‘Death to America’, but have Bluetooth Narc-ware in them. More associations could be made. If 2 people associate, and one is a terrorist, then perhaps the other is also. You could diagram a network from this. If you think about all of the little things that we possess, and now imagine them all having cheap Bluetooth and Narcware in them. This could be a good anti-terrorist idea.

Here is the bad news. If you can do that for terrorists, what stops a totalitarian society from doing it to their citizens? Not much. Education perhaps.

Change

So tech-savy people already worry about how much privacy they are giving up, using these devices, but how much choice do you really have? (I’ll get back to this in a minute). Perhaps I just gave you more to worry about. And you may be asking what you can do about this?

What can I do?

Chaffing. If you have other people drive your care, or swap phones with them, it will be tracking the wrong person. In the data world, this is called chaffing. You throw out a lot of Wrong data. Another example, would be to tell Facebook your ‘internet birthday’ instead of the real one. If you don’t want friends to wish you Happy Birthday on the wrong day of the year, just use a different birth year. This is a good example of chaffing the data mavens like Facebook, Google, etc.

Dumb down/Off the grid. You could drive a bike to work, or rent a Byrd scooter. You could stick with dumb flip phones, or dumb gadgets, but that is a personal choice. I’m not going to do it.

Fake Name. You could also make up a fake person, and buy gear under this fake name. In Hollywood, people routinely change their names to something more memorable. It’s not fraud, unless done to escape bills, or for some fraudulent purpose. And it does not have to be done officially in court, as some believe. You can just start using the new name.

Tin Foil. I read about someone wrapping a cell phone in tin foil to prevent it transmitting. I tried this and it did work. So as crazy as this sounds, you can indeed build a Faraday Cage around devices. This is the concept that your wallet wrappers for credit card protection use. Water and dirt have similar uses, although it is damaging if your package leaks.

Paper Trip. In the 70s there was a book called “The Paper Trip” and while many of the specifics are outdated, the concepts remain true, and useful for avoiding Big Brother. Or in this case the data mavens of the world.

Do Not. I do not recommend using wrong information for official sources. You don’t want to mess up your Social Security, Drivers license, Medical records, etc. And the government doesn’t really seem to be the problem so much these days, as the big corporations. But Facebook does not need your really dob. Nor do many others who are asking you for it.

Don’t forget about foreign governments. I think some of them would like to be your Big Brother as well. And they might buy Facebook/Google/X and other advertising to build profiles of ‘vulnerable/usable/blackmailable’ people. Imagine this phone call someday, “So comrade, I’ll bet you wouldn’t want your wife/church/police to find out how much you spend on girlfriends/ hookers/ gambling/ terrorist fronts/ odd political PACs/ buying RU486/ buying biological and chemical supplies/ Video Games/ Coin Collecting/ porn/ prepping/ your boat/ your club/ alcohol/ drugs/ motorcycles/ Name your vice! Perhaps, we will tell them. Or maybe not.”

In summary, a lot of people want your data. There is a big market for this. I doubt that we really understand what all they can do and know about us, after compiling this data. And they are collecting it more and more.

Homework.

Do this mental exercise. Think of all of your devices, even the cheap ones. Even the rental devices (scooters, bikes, cement mixers, airport cars…). Make a big list. What if they had Bluetooth or Near Field capability baked in, and not really advertised too much? Beside each item in the list, write down these thoughts. What might that reveal about you? Can you live without it? Can you counter it? Should you?