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posted by janrinok on Saturday March 02 2019, @12:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the always-somebody-worse-off dept.

Limiting Your Digital Footprints in a Surveillance State:

To protect himself and his sources from prying eyes in China, Paul Mozur, a technology reporter in Shanghai, leaves just an "innocent trace" of digital exhaust.

[...] In China, evading the watchful eyes of the government sometimes feels like an exercise in futility. The place is wired with about 200 million surveillance cameras, Beijing controls the telecom companies, and every internet company has to hand over data when the police want it. They also know where journalists live because we register our address with police. In Shanghai, the police regularly come to my apartment; once they demanded to come inside.

That said, China is big, and the government less than competent. Sometimes the police who come to my door have no idea I'm a journalist. Usually the higher-ups who deal with my visa don't know about the house visits. The lack of coordination means one of the best things to do is to try to slip through the cracks. Basically, protect yourself but also leave an innocent trace.

I use an iPhone because Apple tends to be more secure than Android. That's especially true in China, where the blocks against Google mean there are a huge number of third-party Android stores peddling all kinds of sketchy apps.

It's also important to realize that because Beijing controls the telecoms, your domestic phone number can be a liability. For secure apps like Signal, I toggle the registration lock so that if they try to mirror my phone, my account still has a layer of protection.

The author goes on to describe how he avoids the Great Firewall, deals with the police demanding to check his cell phone, guardedly uses WeChat, and addresses facial recognition sunglasses. Further, he notes that there is so much government surveillance going on:

Amusingly, even the government doesn't trust the government. In reporting on data sharing between different ministries, I've found that it's not uncommon for one part of the government to distrust another to the point it won't share data. At other times, a government branch might not even trust itself to handle data.

[...] Then again, when it comes to poor privacy protection, the United States seems to be doing its best to take on China.

That last statement is, in my opinion, quite telling. I know my online hygiene is not perfect, but I do try to limit the amount of personal information I post online. Though nearly 5 years old, now, Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere is just as applicable -- if not more so -- today. I wonder what George Orwell would have to say about surveillance in today's society?


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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday March 02 2019, @04:58PM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday March 02 2019, @04:58PM (#809180) Journal
    You clearly need to go read 1985 and then re-read my comment.
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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday March 03 2019, @12:56AM

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday March 03 2019, @12:56AM (#809297) Journal

    Fine, tell me which one...

    And besides, what does that have to do with the price of rice? 1984 is still not fiction, as we are living it, like many generations before us. Let's cut to the chase, ok?

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @11:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @11:05AM (#809379)

    From wikipedia:

    1985 (Anthony Burgess novel)
    1985 (György Dalos novel)
    ----------
    1985 is a novel by English writer Anthony Burgess. Originally published in 1978, it was inspired by, and was intended as a tribute to, George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
    1985 is in two parts. The first is a series of essays and interviews (Burgess is the voice of the interviewer and the interviewee) discussing aspects of Orwell's book. The second is a novella set in 1985, seven years in the future at the time of the novel's writing.
    ----------
    1985 is a sequel to George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
    Written by Hungarian author György Dalos, originally published in 1983, this novel begins with the death of Big Brother and reflects an intermediate period between 1984 and a more optimistic future characterized with a decline in orthodoxy of the totalitarian system, struggles of the ensuing powers and the near destruction of the Oceania air force by Eurasia.

    The AB book is a tribute, and if you read further on wikipedia, it is not set in the same world but in AB's imagining of 1985 from the point of view of 1978.

    The GD book is wrong from the outset, in that it assumes big brother can die. 1984 made it quite clear that he would last as long as the party:
    Winston "Does Big Brother exist?"
    O'Brien "Of course he exists. The Party exists. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party."
    Winston "Does he exist in the same way as I exist?"
    O'Brien "You do not exist."
    Winston "Will Big Brother ever die?"
    O'Brien "Of course not. How could he die? Next question."