Freedom of Speech; forget it, big search engines (NOT big government) have already taken it from you! •
Google Earth can now watch you at street level. Without your consent. Goodbye privacy.
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Google stores all your emails and searches. Goodbye confidentiality.
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Governments filter your access to many/various websites. Goodbye your freedom of speech.
Nicholas Carr says the internet will “ destroy privacy, promote oppression and maybe subjugate the human race to artificial intelligence” (Nature 452 20 March 2008 p 287)
Your fathers so recently shed their blood on the battle fields of Europe, Africa and the Pacific to protect your freedom and now you just gave it away to a search engine for a few alms. In 1993 and 1996, at the dawn of the (widespread use) of the Internet, the internet pioneer, John Gilmore said “the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”. How wrong he was. John Barlow, a cyber libertarian, said “you have no moral right to rule o us, nor do you possess any methods of enforcement that we have true reason to fear: (Nature 452 13 March 2008 p 155). Sounds so naïve. Such people truly believed that the Internet would emancipate humanity, little could they see it only has enslaved us. How could they not realize that government and the corporate sectors would not
quickly see the potential here to usurp all our freedoms, control us and to force us to buy their products? Internet censorship (filtering) is rife in 26 countries (China, Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific). Corporations routinely monitor employees’ emails, including in the US (whatever happened to the idealism of the US Constitution in regards to freedom of speech). Political
Surveilannace
Read this article in the NYT (7/11/07: Yahoo Executives defend company in China Case). “Human rights and freespeech advocates have lambasted U.S. companies including Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) for helping the Chinese government stifle the flow of ideas in exchange for greater access to the country’s rapidly growing Internet market. But the convictions of Shi and another Chinese journalist Yahoo provided information about have focused
the most strident criticism on Yahoo” Lenin said that a capitalist will sell you the rope which you use to hang him. This is what is happening with the big search engines. We have signed/searched away all our freedoms. The Internet is the biggest blunder in modern human history. It is the ultimate control of the masses, not even George Orwell/Eric Blair could have foretold this in his book 1984; that we would all run so willingly to sign away all our freedoms. What a disaster for mankind. It is the ultimate dream of any totalitarian state. Before it’s too late, turn off the net, cancel your email, do NOT do net banking, and return to postal letter (the most secure and private of communication). The net is only for frivolous communication which does not count. Remember it is a permanent record of you held by someone with huge commercial interests in selling on this information.
2007 New Nobel laureate for literature, Doris Lessing, in her acceptance condemned the internet and said it “seduced a whole generation into its inanities and created a world where people know nothing”.
(SMH 10 Dec., 07). Even Elton John wants it shut down (claiming it kills creativity) The Internet is a bounty hunter which can track you down. Google earth can be used to track people around the globe and Keep a watch on the front door of your house. Happy with this? Try it; I could keep an eye on the wife emerging from the front door of an apartment in down town Australia. Health
Surveillance
Now a major net company want to put your health records online. Of course, there will be lots of guarantees about your safety and confidentiality. In Nov 2007, the British government lost information on half its population (The personal and bank details of 25 million people almost every child in the country as well as their parents and carers have been lost by HM Revenue & Customs, the Government admitted today. Names, addresses, dates of birth, employment and bank details all went missing when two CDs containing the information were mislaid. Times online 20/11/07) because some junior in government posted a CD in ordinary post rather than registered post. But remember, that Governments (? now read Big Corporations) only use information against you and never to benefit you. Don’t hand over your: Health care info/DNA profile/Tax or work info to any of these people. And don’t come at the response that they already know they only know in sketchy terms, do not help them to nail you down further. Too many young men have fallen in the wars of the 20th Century
defending freedoms to just give it away now. The Chinese government has over 30,000 IT people checking/ screening the emails of its citizens for ‘subversive’ activities. Workplace
Surveillance
Microsoft with patent to “monitor you” ;( Microsoft seeks patent for office ‘spy’ software; 16/1/08;
www.technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3193480.ece) This monster is growing by the day. The internet is taking away all our freedoms and handing them to the corporate sector. Quote: “Microsoft is developing Big Brotherstyle software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.” The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help”: