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In a series of articles at Gizmodo, Gizmodo Writer / editor Kashmir Hill blocks Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon for a week each, then she blocks all five simultaneously. The last article was just published on Feburary 8th.
This wasn't a casual experiment. She literally had an expert block every known IP address by said companies and banned technology from these different groups for that particular week. In the last week, she couldn't even use DuckDuckGo because it was run on AWS (found in the conclusion).
- Introduction
- Blocking Amazon
- Blocking Facebook
- Blocking Google
- Blocking Microsoft
- Blocking Apple
- Blocking All Five at Once, Conclusion
Selected paragraphs from the introduction:
The common retort to these concerns is that you should "just stop using their services." So I decided to try.
This is a story of how, over six weeks, I cut them out of my own life and tried to prevent them from knowing about me or monetizing me in any way—not just by putting my iPhone in a drawer for a week or only buying local, but by really, truly blocking these companies from accessing me and vice versa. I wanted to find out how hard it would be—or if I could even do it—given that these tech giants dominate the internet in so many invisible ways that it's hard to even know them all.
It's not just logging off of Facebook; it's logging off the countless websites that use Facebook to log in. It's not just using DuckDuckGo instead of Google search; it's abandoning my email, switching browsers, giving up a smartphone, and living life without mapping apps. It's not just refusing to buy toilet paper on Amazon.com; it's being blocked from reading giant swaths of the internet that are hosted on Amazon servers, giving up websites and apps that I didn't previously know were connected to the biggest internet giant of them all.
...
To keep my devices from talking to the big five's servers, and vice versa, Dhruv built a virtual private network, or VPN, for me, through which I sent all my internet traffic. He then used the VPN to block my devices from being able to use the IP addresses owned by Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and/or Apple, depending on the week.
On a normal day, as measured by the VPN, I tend to send two million data packets out onto the internet and more than half of them (60 percent) go to the tech giants. That meant that over half of my normal internet usage was going to grind to a halt—including virtually every way I communicate with my friends, family, and colleagues.
...
You have no idea how hard it is to find a phone that's not touched by Apple or Google.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 11 2019, @02:12PM (18 children)
She went to all the trouble of gimping her devices for a story when she could have had a paid, week long fishing trip somewhere with shit for signal.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday February 11 2019, @02:17PM (16 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 11 2019, @02:26PM (15 children)
She could still have gone fishing though. Some people...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Monday February 11 2019, @02:29PM (5 children)
I don't think the point of the story was, "Can you do without technology for a week" but "Can you use technology, but boycott a specific company, for a week"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 11 2019, @02:42PM
Or, more to the point: look at all the stuff that depends on company X that you wouldn't have thought did...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 11 2019, @02:48PM (3 children)
Right but my point was she could have cheated and enjoyed herself on the company dime instead of dealing with headaches.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @03:00PM (2 children)
She failed. Everything she owns or uses has some connection to those mentioned. The supermarket she buys her food from probably uses one of those services, the water utility that fills her toilet is probably connected to some Amazon server, the doctor she goes to, banking, ... on and on it goes. If you exist... Google earth has already snapped a photo of your house. And there's a database somewhere with your name on it.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday February 11 2019, @03:41PM (1 child)
This is true. This is so true. It's known as Cloud Digital. Or Cloud Cyber. And every time our C.I.A. drones somebody, Jeff Bozo makes a couple bucks. From the Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise, the I.C.I.T.E. Say that one out loud. But not where "Alexa" can hear you!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @07:53PM
This is the recommend way to handle such a cyber scenario: oblig XKCD [xkcd.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @04:35PM (8 children)
Fishing is boring
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 11 2019, @04:55PM (7 children)
Only when it's slow. Which is why you swap lies with the old men or set your catfish rods out and take a nap. Kids today, have to be provided outside entertainment the whole time they're awake. It's really pathetic.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 11 2019, @09:56PM (2 children)
You are a catfisher? This. Explains. So. Much.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:56AM (1 child)
Shit, catfish is delicious.
But you probably only eat hotdogs, right?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 12 2019, @05:47AM
Don't knock lips and assholes. They've got their place too.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 12 2019, @12:00AM (3 children)
The youngsters can't stand themselves, they need the others to stop them go out of their mind.
Bonus point if the old man you are swapping lies with is yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 12 2019, @05:46AM (2 children)
Yeah, people never talk about the good things dementia brings to the table.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday February 12 2019, @01:07PM (1 child)
Yeah...I hear that people never talk about the good things dementia brings to the table.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday February 12 2019, @02:45PM
Have you considered all the good things that dementia brings to the table though?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by arslan on Monday February 11 2019, @08:54PM
Maybe she did,
...as she was checking out her shopping cart with the fishing gear she realized it was an Amazon shopping cart...