I'll be damned !!

My friend is looking for apartment. This morning one from the search he liked.

He went to their website. Click APPLY. He started entering his info and he got Name and how many bedroom he wants and price and his email address, the rest was blank rectangles he haven't filled like his social security and date of birth and current and past address and his job history.

Time ran short. He needed to be somewhere. He did not click on NEXT to go to next page and he close the browsewr tab, decided he will do it later. 1 hour ago the apartment email him.

The title -Your lease application is not complete. Send it now and move in your new home tomorrow.

That be like me typing this new thread and I close it without hitting post new thread and then admin emails me: Were you starting a new thread? Finish post so everyone can enjoy reading it.

How they do that? You no longer have to click send/submit/next, etc They can suck the info from the screen.

Dam, that's creepy.

On the one hand, I'm obviously not very paranoid, considering the personal stuff I put on this board (including full name and precise location, although this is the only place I post...anything).

On the other hand, my primary computer (main desktop on which I do anything I feel is important) will NEVER have online capability. Only my 'toy' laptop gets connected.

Soon there will be a computer when you turn it on, the screen will suck everything out of your brain without you knowing

I'll also never accept an active microphone in my home, so no Alexa for me.

No listening devices for me either.

Some people are putting those things in their cars too. I'll never understand how those things got so popular. I can lock my own #%&*$# door and turn
my own #%&*$# lights on and off, thank you.

My computer have no mike and no webcam. We don't have door bell cameras, remote thermostats, Alexa, Echo. My iPhone bluetooth is off and my car has a normal radio and no navigation.

The things that people think is ok just boggles my mind.

Alexa...Siri... Mary Ann muffin masher. The first guy with some kind of sexbot with Alexa's voice is rich...oh wait that will just make Bezos richer. None of the above EVER here.

Web cam. I have had teachers DEMAND I have a webcam, after enrolling and paying for the class. I cited privacy issues, they hemmed and hawed. I mentioned my proximity to graduation, they have all so far backed off.

We really need to start a class action against ALL the big tech guys. Why? For STEALING our information, profiting many BILLIONS off it, and not giving us a nickel for it.

My favorite recent one is how google et al is asking you to give them more info on you so they can personalize your ad experience!

and the sheep keep flocking.

Well excuse me, I have to go check insta-scam and have some complete phony whacko tell me what to do next!

Our smartphones are listening to us, whether we like it or not.

Think I'll wrap myself in aluminum foil.

It certainly isn't anything new. I had it happen to me almost 20 years ago when I started to fill out an online loan application. Although
I didn't submit it the bank still called me about it the next day. The guy admitted they get the info whether you submit it or not.

I think on some of those sites closing out a window is the same as hitting save. IDK, maybe it's some obscure Widows setting.

That should be criminal.

During the Cold War, a technical branch of the British intelligence services (MI6, I think), found a way to make an old-fashioned land-line phone into a listening device. So, no need for smart phones to eavesdrop.

The modern automobile has a data recorder, just like a commercial airplane's black box. Law enforcement, lawyers and government can petition the courts for access. If the car is WiFi capable, then hackers and the government can access the data at any time. It simply boils down to if 'they' think you are worth the man hours. This goes for any WiFi capable device. If it can talk 'communicate', or you can talk to it, someone can turn it on remotely and harvest the data.

The lack of a mic and/or camera on a device only limits the data that can be mined. It is simply a low priory fish.

If it is a computer that accesses the web, no cam or mic is only useful for making law enforcement prove there accusations the "old school" way. The best hackers can still access your HDD. Like a recent commercial for home security uses "every window is a potential doorway".


Tin foil only works against analog. Your only defense against digital is to abstain or assimilate. Anything between is hoping your a bottom feeder, not worth there effort.

(evil)

Excellent post Brit44.

I'm always amused by people who make flippant comments about "privacy" but yet have social media accounts, do all of their shopping online and use their smartphone on a constant daily basis.


Just wait until national governments get rid of physical currency and then ALL financial transactions will have a digital footprint. Oh, it's coming. It's just a matter of when.

And older, "non smart" cell phones could and would be used as listening devices. That spying stuff is old and goes way back.

There's also unintentional ease-dropping (all happened within last 5 years or so).

Gotta call from my brother one afternoon...

"Hello. HELLO!" He was talking to a grocery store cashier while checking out. I stay on the line as he's driving home, no more than 10 min., listening to what I believe was college radio. He gets home and starts talking to his wife. I give it one more shot as loudly as I could, still no response (and no, I wasn't tempted to keep listening...would have been so not cool). I hung up and called him back.

His wife also butt called me once, heard a few seconds of their conversation about what's for dinner and I disconnected.

My wife butt called me once from work while talking to some dude in her office...strictly accounting mumbo-jumbo.

That was when I had a land line, since having been rerouted to my parent's apartment. I have only a flip phone now which is seldom turned on.

I always figured that if the feds wanted you, they had the means to get your information and listen to anything you say. With todays technology, I can imagine how different it is from the days of just "wire tapping". As far as litigation, I'm sure a a good lawyer can get just about anything on you from many sources.

The scary thing today is the marriage of big tech and the government and the slippery slope of what is considered a "crime" big enough for them to want you. I'm sure there were some people who were just watching from good distance on January 6th in D.C., but because of cell phone technology are now being looked at as the worst kind of criminal to the feds. Well, other than the little guy who may have tried to be a tax cheat. They hate them the most.

Help my friend move to his new apartment. We started at 5 am. Just done. He picked the top floor, the 4th floor. Thank God there are 2 big elevators. I am so tired. Just now going up the stairs to my place I could barely walk and was grabbing the rail to pull myself forward. There are folks who take money to move strangers every week? The money better be very goo. I don't think I can do it every day-week and in the summer or winter..

But it saves having to pay out for gym membership, said the chap who moved our chattels constantly loading and unloading in pouring rain (this is England!) for 8 hours solid when we moved.

It's his name Clark Kent?

x2. The only true way to be sure your are not being tracked is the loose all internet devices and move way out into the bush with on a horse with a stack of cash and no electronics.