Someone asked me the other day why I don’t identify myself on this blog. I want to answer that question here and talk a little about privacy.
I don’t use my name and remain vague about my identity and location, and even about details about my family. I do this because I am a little paranoid. I’ve worked for the United States government my entire adult life and I know how intrusive they can be. I’ve also participated in activities in my youth and military days that were not really things our government should be doing. I’m not a mysterious operator or CIA field agent, but the things I was involved in were in support of activities that in hindsight I know were not kosher. So because of these experiences I tend to guard my privacy. That is a driving force behind my trying to remain somewhat anonymous. I’m also not naïve enough to believe that if someone wanted to find out who I was they could. I know that I am not anonymous here on the internet, and neither are you.
There are things you can do to lessen your identity. Let me give you an example of what kind of information can be gleaned from “mining” the internet.
We have some great friends who live in another city. We stay in touch mainly through texting and Facebook. Last year I saw a picture of the Grandson of our friends. It was the beginning of school, and beyond my understanding (maybe I’m getting old), our friend’s daughter felt she had to show off her son on his first day. Did I mention I’m paranoid? I think the first day of school picture post is pretty stupid, but I digress. I looked at this picture and noticed the boy’s first name, and in the background, the number on their house. All pretty innocent right? I just mentioned to my friend there was a lot of information in that picture. She mentioned it to her daughter and her daughter gave a typical “eye rolling” because Mom couldn’t possibly be right about this innocent picture. My friend told me her daughter’s reply. So I said to my daughter who is not friends on Facebook with our friend or her daughter, “I want you to find out what school this kid goes to. We’ll show his Mom that her “innocent” picture has the potential to be dangerous.” Within less than 30 minutes my daughter had the following information: The boy’s full name, and complete address, and a phone number. His parents full names. His father’s place of employment. The boy’s school along with the address and hours of the school. The boy’s room number at school, class schedule, and his teacher’s name. Even a picture of the teacher.
I don’t know about you but I don’t think our friend’s daughter intended for the information my daughter found to be out there. Between Facebook pages and the schools website all that info was there. She found there were only two pre-K schools in the town the boy lived in. Because of the pictures on the schools website my daughter was able to confirm which school the boy went to. If anyone was stalking this family, they would have had some pretty good information from these sources. Always look in the background of the pictures you post. I’ve decided to post very few, indistinguishable pictures on my Facebook page. I also have no information on my profile. Facebook has to guess about things with me. When you get those “reminders” of information to post in your profile Facebook tries to get me to expose where I work and where I live all the time.
Limiting what you put on the internet is always a good idea. My son, who lives in another state, has asked us to not post pictures of his daughter, our Grand-daughter, without asking him first. They send us a lot of pictures in texts. Now I know that is not secure, but it is much less exposed to the internet.
Cookies are a way of tracking you. Most of the time cookies are used to store information about a website so it’s easier to get into. Pretty innocent right? Cookies can track what websites you frequent, and what you buy online without your knowledge. Legitimate websites inform you that they use cookies. Less reputable sites won’t tell you. There are ways of turning them off and clearing them but that is for another post. A quick Google search will get you that simple information.
If you need privacy try the TOR browser. It can hide what you do on the internet. It was developed in the 90’s by the U.S. Navy.
While connected to the Tor network, activity will never be traceable back to your IP address. Similarly, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) won’t be able to view information about the contents of your traffic, including which website you’re visiting.
It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to become truly anonymous online, but Tor can certainly help you be less visible. All of your traffic arriving at its destination will appear to come from a Tor exit node, so will have the IP address of that node assigned to it. Because the traffic has passed through several additional nodes while encrypted, it can’t be traced back to you.
However, one of the issues lies in trusting the operator of the exit node. If you’re visiting an unencrypted (non-HTTPS) website, it’s possible the node operator can track your activity and view your information. They could collect data such as which webpages you’re viewing, your login information, the content of your messages or posts, and the searches you perform. Although, there’s no way to trace that information back to you or even back to the entry node.
It’s worth noting that using the Tor browser only protects traffic going through that connection and won’t anonymize other apps on your computer.
Would you be interested in what the FBI has in their file on you? You’re wondering why you would have an FBI file aren’t you. Well you may not have one but there is one way to find out. Request it. Here’s how to do it.
Requesting Your FBI File
Records about you can be obtained under the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a. Your personal records may only be released to you, unless you give a proper express waiver to release records to another person. To file a successful request, your request should include:
• Complete name and current address are required.
• Citizenship or US resident status is required. Privacy Act requests may only be processed for US citizens or lawfully admitted permanent US residents. Non-conforming requests will be processed under the Freedom of Information Act.
• Include any identifying data that could help the government identify records related to you, such as date and place of birth. Other optional information may could include former addresses, social security number, aliases or previous names.
• You may also describe any particular incidents or events in which you were involved that you think may have come under FBI surveillance.
• Describe yourself as either:
o “an individual seeking information for personal, noncommercial use,” or
o “affiliated with an educational or noncommercial institution, and this request is made for scholarly purposes” or
o “a representative of the news media and this request is made as part of a news gathering and not for commercial use.”
• Scholarly and media requestors may be entitled to a waiver of fees. If you fit that description, state “I am entitled to a waiver of fees” along with the name of your media or institution. . For other non-commercial requestors, such as individuals, the FBI cannot charge fees for the first two hours of search, or first 100 pages of document production.
• State the maximum dollar amount you are willing to pay for copying fees. By submitting a request, you are considered to agree to pay copying fees up to $25 unless you specify a different amount, lesser or greater.
• Certify that you are who you say you are. Sign your request. Then, you have two options. You may either:
o Have your request Notarized, or
o You may state “Under penalty of perjury, I hereby declare that I am the person named above and I understand that any falsification of this statement is punishable under the provisions of Title 18, United States Code (U.S.C.), Section 1001 by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment of not more than five years, or both; and that requesting or obtaining any record(s) under false pretenses is punishable under the provisions of Title 5, U. S. C., Section 552a(i)(3) as a misdemeanor and by a fine of not more than $5,000.”
• If you wish to authorize the release of personal records about yourself to another person, you may state “Further, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. Section 552a(b), I authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to release any and all information relating to me to:” and list all persons to whom you would like to grant access to your files.
You may also request your FBI file by filling out US Department of Justice Certification of Identity Form DOJ-361 [http://www.fbi.gov/foia/u.s.-department-of-justice-form-361-certification-of-identity] and attaching any additional information.
Requests should be addressed and mailed to the FBI main office in Washington, D.C., and any regional field offices that you believe may have records concerning you
The FBI is required to make a reasonable effort to search for records. Adding optional details and descriptions may make it easier for the FBI to locate records, and make it harder for them to claim they could not reasonably find information. But keep in mind that any information or details that you volunteer in this letter are being sent to the FBI and may be used by them as they see fit.
Privacy is the last frontier. With the breakthrough in technology of the last 30 years your privacy will be at stake with every turn. Being aware of what information you give out and who is watching you, you can go into this technology with some security. Be vigilant.
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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